hackable:1 - new release

[Marcus Bauer]

Hello Openmoko Community,

a new release of hackable:1 is available! We have been working hard on
ironing out bugs and making it a lot more usable and I am proud to
announce that we have come a long way. Several developers are now using
it as daily phone and internet device - so we are eating our own
dogfood.

hackable:1 now offers phone functionality and sms plus a full PIM suite
consisting of contacts, calendar and todo list manager, plus a
timesheet time tracker application.

For internet use we have added a new browser optimised for small
screens and speed. It is based on webkit and supports javascript and
allows for quick access of all major functions. The Feedreader has been
overhauled and comes with a set of predefined open source feeds to
which you can add more to your personal liking.

The default keyboard is "hackers" keyboard, i.e. for stylus use
with all special characters quickly accessible. This allows for both,
quickly typing an sms as well as using the command line effectively.

hackable:1 is based on Debian Lenny thus 25.000 packages are only an
apt-get far away. Many packages especially for development are
pre-installed - compiler, linker, build tools, dev-libraries are
already there for a quick start into development right on the phone,
just in minutes.


Changes since the last release (rev3)
=====================================

 * plenty of fixes to gsmd and phone-kit
 * finger scroll works well now, no longer unwanted application starts
 * plenty of fixes to the hackers keyboard - no more double key presses
 * fully Lenny based
 * added new browser "woosh"
 * updated feedreader
 * added calendar, todo, gallery
 * well working autorotate
 * and much, much more...


How to install it
=================
hackable:1 is running from SD card, thus you can easily check it out as
it wont touch your installation in flash of the phone. Simply untar it
onto a SD card, pop the SD card into the phone and boot from it.

The steps are:
- format a 1GB+ SD card with 8MB fat and the rest ext2
- untar the two tarballs
- boot from the SD card

The detailed steps for installation are here:
http://www.hackable1.org/wiki/Installation


Technology
==========
The hackable:1 apps are GTK+ and C for speed, however there is no
restriction. You like qt, e, f or g? You like python, perl or erlang?
Welcome on board, this is open source/free software and freedom is
about choice. Pick your poison! As of now the applications are a
mixture of finger-based and stylus based whichever seems to fit best.


What to expect
==============
There will still be bugs. Some apps are not fully optimized for
usability. But it is usable as phone, as PDA and as internet device.
It is a community project, you can easily join, voice your opinion and
add code and applications. The R&D department of Bearstech -the french
distributor of the Openmoko Freerunners- is sponsoring the development,
Bearstech is using it as base for various VAR projects and
subsequently Bearstech wants to give back and is commited to the free
software community.


What does it look like in action
================================
Go to youtube and see yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izww_4Z421g


Have fun!

  Marcus - on behalf of the hackable:1 team and community