GTA02 is now an expensive brick

Lucas Lacroix raijinsetsu at gmail.com
Thu Jan 8 01:12:01 CET 2009


> I'm just pissed off that I spent $400 on a device that was supposed to be
> my next phone, and 8 months later it's still sitting in a box because it's
> not usable as a normal daily phone.  And it doesn't help that people keep
> saying the FreeRunner was marketed as a development platform, when it
> clearly wasn't.
>
> I completely agree with you. I was also under the impression that the FR
unit was ready for general use, WHICH IT IS NOT! However, I don't believe
this thread belongs on the support forums.

Here's a tiny rant anyways, in case someone cares:
~~~~BEGIN RANT~~~~
I had been follow the OM initiative since the GTAv1 came out. I had even
attempted to get my hands on one, and I'm glad I failed.
When the GTAv2 came out, it most certainly was marketed as ready for the
masses; translation "The software is usable, but may have bugs (ie. beta
quality). However, the hardware is stable." Clearly, the initiative was to
sell as many "broken" phones(these ARE phones, remember????) as possible to
get the income to maybe, if "we" feel like it, make a final product.
Although nothing specifically says that the phone works, according to US
consumer rights laws, the phone is supposed to be marketed as
developmental/beta, which it is not.

Please note: NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, on the OpenMoko.com web-site says
ANYTHING about the phone not being useable for day to day use. In fact, they
suggest Qtopia software for day to day use, which is only slightly more
useable, but is still held back by the lack of standby.

Here's the product Q&A: http://www.openmoko.com/product-qa.html
Here's the technical specs: http://www.openmoko.com/product.html

OM was happy enough to offer to help me with my battery issue, but I am
still very disappointed in this product.
I'm actually thinking of scrapping the idea of using this phone because of
it's pure unusability. In the 6 months since I've owned my phone, I have
seen no improvement to the "phone" like qualities of the device. I'm
sometimes able to use it to make/receive calls, other times I'd be better
off with a tin can and string. Sometimes I can send/receive text messages,
other times I should invest in a stamp.

~~~~END RANT~~~~

I would like to see OM make a strong effort to (not in any order):
1) Fix APM so that the phone can go to standby, but still receive calls and
texts (currently, it's very unreliable)
2) Fix the Black/White screen when returning from suspend issue (makes the
phone unusable)
3) Patch the PMU so that it can charge from off under most circumstances; I
understand that after the backup battery drains, the registers return to
their defaults, however, I've also been told that it takes up to 2 days to
drain the backup, which should give most everyone a chance to plug in their
phone (I still do not understand why plugging in the device causes a power
on event...)
4) Make the phone power off when you reach some minimal power level (say <4%
of capacity)

In the past six months I have seen: boot times decrease (hooray, but I could
have lived otherwise) and the White screen issue turn into a Black screen
issue (improved?!?).

If you're reading this line, thanks for making it through the rant.

-Luke
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