Questions about the usability of GTA02

[arne anka]

> 1st) Battery Power
> ...
> So, since i'm not able to plug the phone to a power source at university,
> would i be able to run it the whole day, without getting out of battery
> power after 10 hours?


not with the scenario you describe -- but otoh: which phone does? your  
power consumption seems pretty impressive to me and with a phone more  
suited to doing that stuff (that said, i don't know what phone you are  
currently using, but assume something more traditional).

> And, will there be a (software) fix (soon) for the issue, that the  
> battery
> gets uncharged, even if plugged in, as soon as the battery is fully  
> charged?

afaik is the re no way be sw to fix that -- the gsm takes power from  
battery directly, so whatever your phone gets from usb, the battery would  
still be drained.
the consensus seems currently to be, to startcharging when battery falls  
below a certain leverl -- but that in turn might trigger a lot of  
load/unload cycles. don't know, though, how well li-io handles taht on the  
long run.
(maybe at least some little backup power would be nice, so that one could  
swas the battery when suspenden w/o the need to fully shutdown/reboot).

> (i got no problem charging the phone every night, but when it's fully
> charged at 2am, it would have been running 7 hours on battery power by my
> arrival at university, so the battery would be low sooner)

well, there's the emergency power supply by by batteries, several of those  
contraptions where linked to over time. you have basically a box with  
regular batteries or rechargeables with an usb pigtail to plug into the fr  
and charge it.
you know the saying: neo owner is man who carries wll charger all the time  
...


> 2) Calls
> ...
> on the other end (u know, my gf isn't that patient and insightfull with
> opensource software(issues) as i am, it took me weeks and shutting down  
> icq completely to convince her to use xmpp :) )

bad planning. you should never have allowed icq in the first place ;-)


> 3) Software
>
> I got no problem with rudimentary software. Most important thing is  
> Sending messages, Having a few Calls, Having GPS apps to improve  
> Openstreetmap and such and browsing the web. I know the software is  
> something being worked on, and apparently it improved a lot already.
> But: Do such basic features work already (like browsing phone book to  
> make a call) acceptably reliable? I'm patient in handling problems and  
> fiddling
> around a bit, wanting to have a succes in the end though.

so far i can't complain, but, of course, it will depend on the  
distribution chosen. i use debian/fso and so far my rather limited needs  
in terms of sms/phone calls are satisfied.
gps+tangogps/navit works.

> And: how sluggish is the software? i often read glamo slows the phone  
> down pretty much.

iirc only in terms of graphic performance, not in general.

> 4) GTA03?
>
> Or would u rather advise me to wait for GTA03? I really want to support

who knows? there's no realiable timeframe for when gta03 may be available,  
afair.
maybe, when you give some hints to your location, someone owning an fr  
already might make him/herself available to show the fr in the flesh and  
demonstrate your scenarios?