I had long given up hope on open platform for mobile phones until Trolltech's Greenphone. It offered a glimmer of hope that hacker friendly devices powered by GNU/Linux would be a reality in otherwise closed source mobile platforms.
However the party didn't last long, within one year of hitting the retail market Trolltech announced its decision to the end of Greenphone productions and but keep supporting the now popular Qtopia Greenphone community with yet another another device from OpenMoko project.
The Neo1973 produced by FIC can also run Qtopia.
The Neo 1973 boasts the following hardware specifications
- 2.8" VGA TFT color display
- Touchscreen, usable with stylus or fingers
- 266MHz Samsung System on a Chip (SOC)
- USB 1.1, switchable between Client and Host (unpowered)
- Integrated AGPS
- 2.5G GSM – quad band, voice, CSD, GPRS
- Bluetooth 2.0
- Micro SD slot
- High Quality audio codec
I reckon we have now come a long way from scrogging flea markets for used hardware and creating custom boards. Now you can buy a "Neo Hacker's Dream Box" off the shelf!! that is, if you have enough money to buy these devices.
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