On Saturday 2. March 2019 11.05.45 Martin Rottensteiner wrote: > > > I used to browse the Maemo forums and there seemed to be plenty of > > projects that never went anywhere, so I hope that this isn't one of those. > > I see that it is a continuation of the "Livermorium" keyboard extension > > for Motorola phones which, I think, did actually ship. > > This project was actually cancelled (only a few devices actually shipped). > The company (Chen) paid the money back to the backers.
Interesting to know, and also good to know that Chen did the decent thing. [...] > In the meantime a lot happened and also a lot of information about the > device is now available. It is called Pro1, will cost 650 $/650 £, will > likely be sold in July 2019. This is the homepage: https://www.fxtec.com/ > It was presented at Mobile World Congress and generated a lot of interest, > see first TMO post in the "official" thread > http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=100554&highlight=kernel . It looks somewhat like a Nokia N900 to my untrained eyes, and that will presumably appeal to quite a few people. The physical design is certainly something that is challenging to get right, and it seems that there are experienced designers involved, so hopefully this aspect of it will be successful. [Mainlining and software support] The sentiments are certainly positive towards getting the software in place and making it supportable, which is refreshing. As Planet Computers' products appear to demonstrate, having experienced product designers might make for a nice piece of hardware, but if the software is neglected, the resulting experience can be unsatisfactory. And of course, as also seen with things like the first Fairphone device, if the software cannot be supported because it was "ordered" from some "original design manufacturer", then the usable lifespan of the device is severely limited. It is rather disturbing that the Planet Computers' Cosmo campaign refers to their ODM having a central role in delivering the software for that device, given that companies in such roles often hinder compliance with Free Software licensing. Thanks once again for following this topic! I don't think I would have the stamina to navigate 80 forum thread pages, or however many there are for this topic, especially with the usual posts of speculation, argument, and so on. Paul _______________________________________________ Community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/community http://www.tinkerphones.org
