Hi Sean,<br><br>Great to hear that things have got to the 'open' stage.<br><br>I'm sorry, I don't understand; can you confirm that the Neo1973 will or wont have BT and Wifi?<br><br>Thanks.<br><br>John<br><br>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 2/12/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Chuck Williams</b> <<a href="mailto:chuck@manawiz.com">chuck@manawiz.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Sean,<br><br>This is a great decision. I'm sure the community will be supportive and<br>the end product will benefit from the early openness. I'm looking<br>forward to getting early access to the hardware and software and hope to
<br>contribute something to the software effort.<br><br>Chuck<br><br><br>Sean Moss-Pultz wrote on 02/11/2007 11:18 PM:<br>> Dear Community,<br>><br>> We, the OpenMoko Team, have promised exciting news about our project
<br>> today. We have some information that we think you will like very much,<br>> but also have some news we like less. Let us first address the<br>> unpleasant part, before turning to the more cheerful part of this
<br>> announcement.<br>><br>> After we announced OpenMoko last November, we were flooded with emails.<br>> Most were absolutely encouraging, thanking us for undertaking this<br>> project. And out of the many thousands of emails, only two requests came
<br>> again and again: "Where's bluetooth?" And, "Why doesn't it have WiFi?"<br>><br>> (We really do read _everything_ you write.)<br>><br>> Originally, bluetooth was in our product spec, however, this was left
<br>> out of our schematics in an early stage. At the time we were really<br>> hurting for resources internally, so we did not push. Making changes to<br>> a product while in the R&D stages can be quite painful. But after all
<br>> the incredible demand, post-November, we felt it had to be done.<br>><br>> We had a string of bad luck that really hurt our productivity. Each<br>> hardware revision takes at least one month of time. Each month without
<br>> stable hardware means serious delays for software.<br>><br>> One time we received the wrong memory from our vendors and we failed to<br>> catch this before production. Another time some key components ran out
<br>> of supply. And as if all that wasn't bad enough, our baseband leader's<br>> mom died leaving a gaping wound in both his heart and our hardware<br>> team.<br>><br>> But we moved on. Little by little our hardware started to come together.
<br>> Around the middle of January we thought we finally found a stable<br>> revision. At this point, our software was seriously behind schedule, but<br>> as Alan Cox once said, "Free Software is always late."
<br>><br>> January's announcement bought us more time to fix some hardware issues<br>> still plaguing us. We also modified the position of the bluetooth module<br>> to make way for a JTAG port (we're trying our best to be hacker
<br>> friendly). This required our vendor to design a special FPC to connect<br>> the module to our board. Something on the order of 3 weeks would be<br>> required to complete this "simple" task.<br>>
<br>> One thousand little Murphy's seems to be what we have running around<br>> teasing this project. Less than a 7% yield rate is all that we got out<br>> of this new cable; not even enough to meet our Phase 0 demand. Needless
<br>> to say, it was an incredibly depressing day for all of us.<br>><br>> "Tormented" is really the only word that we can think of now to describe<br>> how we are feeling as a team, forced with making this decision: Do we
<br>> delay again, wait for the hardware and software to be ready, or do we<br>> just open up now as promised without reaching our key milestone?<br>><br>> Each of us, in different ways, have struggled with this decision for
<br>> the past five days. We're all extremely demanding of ourselves when it<br>> comes to the quality of our work. Nearly every minute of our waking<br>> lives have been spent on this project. So to be at this state, now, is
<br>> really hard on us.<br>><br>> Mickey Lauer, one of our core developers sent an email, only a few hours<br>> ago, that put things back into perspective for us. He said,<br>><br>> "A lot of people will be disappointed by the state of the
<br>> software, but -- I may be a dreamer -- I prefer rough and truly<br>> open solutions (where I have the chance to help shaping the<br>> future) over cool, but already finished and closed solutions<br>
> (where all I can do is take the platform as it is or NOT.)"<br>><br>> As planned, we are going to open this project up at this point. Within<br>> three days of this announcement you will all have access to our source
<br>> code, Wiki, and Bugzilla.<br>><br>> Hopefully you can understand why we're at this less-than-ideal state.<br>> But more importantly, we hope you understand that opening our code now,<br>> and letting you join us in making this dream of an open phone platform
<br>> come true, is more important for us than mere appearances.<br>><br>> Regarding our Neo1973 hardware, we will send out the first batch of<br>> phase 0 phones out around the end of this month. Sorry for not being
<br>> able to give an absolute date. Next week is Chinese New Year (we're in<br>> Asia remember) and _everyone_ stops working for a full week. Having our<br>> newly designed FPC built before is really wishful thinking.
<br>><br>> All interested developers can purchase Neos starting late March. Please<br>> understand that phase 0 is a system of "checks and balances," so it<br>> simply cannot be rushed. We want to get the framework right, the first
<br>> time around. Hopefully you all can live with the slight delays in our<br>> schedule. We're all super excited to be cranking again and eagerly await<br>> sending you hardware so you can join us in the party ;-)
<br>><br>> Finally, we will offer Neos to end users sometime in September of this<br>> year. People everywhere will finally begin to understand the real power<br>> of an open phone with a strong community behind it. Within this
<br>> relationship between humans and Neos, a new kind of device will emerge.<br>> "Freed Phones", will have the potential to forever change the way people<br>> think of technology. This is the challenge that drives us. And it awaits
<br>> each an every one of you, along with our full support.<br>><br>><br>> Now, "Free Your Phone."<br>><br>> Sincerely,<br>><br>> The OpenMoko Team<br>><br>><br>><br>><br>> _______________________________________________
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