[Gta04-owner] Status GTA04 GroupTour

Martin Jansa martin.jansa at gmail.com
Fri Dec 30 20:01:48 CET 2011


On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 12:18:05PM +0100, Neal H. Walfield wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> It seems to me that there are two problems.
> 
> First, if someone orders a GTA04, that person doesn't get all the
> hardware--that person needs to have a GTA01 or GTA02 and do some
> non-trivial assembly.  I realize that you have some cases that you are
> selling, which is the route that I went, but I think these are limited
> and independent of the group tour.  If this option hadn't been
> available, I would not have signed up for a GTA04.
> 
> Second, I think you are lacking publicity.  I haven't seen an article
> about this on the news sites that I follow, such as lwn.net (did I
> miss it?).
> 
> Given these two problems, I'd try to solve the first one before the
> second one (one only gets so many chances with the media...).
> 
> I suspect that people who are buying a GTA04 at this stage are not
> looking to use it as a phone immediately--they probably want to hack
> on it.  These people don't need a phone case.  But, they do need an
> LCD to get the experience.  My proposal would be to create a hackers
> package: a GTA04 board, LCD and a big bulky case that could be placed
> next to a workstation.  Even better would be if there is a commitment
> to provide a case once it is ready (do you have a time frame for
> this?).

I really like this idea. As someone who is using smartphone mostly only
to open terminal and connect to home computer I would really prefer
something with hw qwerty keyboard (like n900).

So for me the biggest disadvantage of GTA02 was it's bigger case with
high edge of display (harder to use touchscreen neer the edge) and
lack of keyboard.

Now I would have to sacrifice old GTA02 for GTA04 so I can get much better
hw but still in not so great case (at least for me) and instead of 2
platforms to hack on I will have just 1 again.

Would be great to have some plans for new case (I know that qwerty is
much more difficult to manufacture and that you're already working on 
something). And if there is new case, will it use the same LCD from
GTA02 (it there enough modules?) or will it use something else?

In other words I would advertise GTA04 board more like base of 
completely new phone not as board upgrade for old one (GTA02).

I know you can use GTA04 without LCD and case already, but for people
who don't have GTA02 or don't want to sacrifice it yet, it's not an
option to keep it that way forever, they want some vision of new phone.

If there is LCD which will for sure fit in future case and if there is
some promise that there will be new case (maybe even with qwerty kbd) I
think that more people will buy board+LCD now to start playing with it 
and then complete their new phone with case after maybe 6 months, while 
still keeping their GTA02.

Regards,
-- 
Martin 'JaMa' Jansa     jabber: Martin.Jansa at gmail.com
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