My cents

Alexander Steinert sputnik at termo.net
Tue Nov 28 01:27:53 CET 2006


Hej all!

I had the uncertain feeling that I was not alone all these years. Seeing
all these talented people struggling over and over again to gather
undocumented specs of chips in Windows-PDAs and smartphones. Seeing
vapoware like the ImcoSys. Waiting desperatly. Trying Symbian. Etc.

The prospect of a kick-ass device supported by my favorite kernel/OS
right from the start makes me tune into the enthusiasm on this list.

I would like to contribute some thoughts like all the others here
throwing in their two cents (or $/EUR/.. Where do you come from, rob?
Looks like you waited you whole life for this "phone". BTW: We need a
wiki, don't we?)

1. Congratulation to Sean & Co. for bringing this baby onto the road!
   What striked me most was its price (in relation to the preliminary
   specs). How's that possible? Narrow/negative margin for the first
   model? Manufacturing in the factory with the least human dignity for
   the workers? How much is a Windoze licence per device?

2. I like the outer design very much. Especially the rounded ends.
   Hopefully it will be available with bare metal border, too. The red
   is also nice but you will see every scratch. As always its a matter
   of taste, but please do not provide an iWhite(tm) version. I like
   some of apple's designs but the white... of all things the white is
   copied by everyone now :-(

3. 18.5mm is way too thick. I like it thin. Look, the Moto Q is 11.5mm
   including keybord, isn't it? [Whine]

4. (Diametrically opposed to 3.) Rob has/expressed so many good ideas
   regarding hardware extension. It would be very nice for developers
   and consumers to have them as mini/nano PCBs pluggable into sockets
   so that I don't void the warranty by soldering my precioussss. Say,
   one USB socket and one I2C socket, OK?

5. (Also contray to 3.) Of course there are people saying "Go away with
   any shitty-lens mini camera". But beside photographing there are many
   other use cases. I wish for a camera that is internal-but-removable:
   A second back of neo has a hole.
   
   Industrial-Spionage-Nano-HOWTO: Enter the secret factory complex and
   show your neo. "Look, it's blind." Inside, on toilet, remove the
   non-hole back, drag the cam module out of your sock and mount it.
   Take the hole-back out of your shoe and mount it, too. iSpy. Cheese!

6. What are the temperature specs of the touchscreen / other parts? I
   want to use neo as a speedometer/navigator on my bicycles.

7. Last but everything but least: Jehovah, Jehovah![1]

Regarding Steve Salazar's "release early" request, I'm sure that Sean,
Harald et. al. are well aware of its benefits. But you should not
compare it directly to the bazaar-approach since the show-stopper
bugs will be low level - IMHO. You need target hardware to be part of
the bazaar. I am confident that anything will be released as soon as
possible. The hardware design of the first neo seems just about to be
finalized and needs proper testing before mass production. Getting a
constumer version out of the door in January is racy in the positive
sense. Also note that I read about developer neos planned to be shipped
in December. Confirmation, anyone?

Stony

[1] Bluetooth, Bluetooth!





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