Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-13 Thread Doug Sutherland
Raphaël Jacquot wrote:
 it's *very* understandable. it's called the NIH syndrome...

We are talking about spectrum allocation here.
The 900Mhz band was already allocated in North America.
You can buy 900Mhz cordless phones and wireless speakers.
915Mhz is in the ISM band (industrial, scientific, medical).
There is no invention involved in spectrum allocation.
GSM was already specified.

   -- Doug


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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-13 Thread Raphaël Jacquot

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Yes well it is the dreaded silly 110V/220V,  Pal/NTSC,  lb/kg standards  monster 
again.
Not long ago (10 yeqrs ago) there were a lot of resistance to GSM here which is 
just not understandable and luckily it is getting way more foothold.


it's *very* understandable. it's called the NIH syndrome...
also, patents of all sorts may have something to do with it, and we all 
know how the US are patent  lawsuit happy



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-13 Thread Raphaël Jacquot

Doug Sutherland wrote:

Raphaël Jacquot wrote:

it's *very* understandable. it's called the NIH syndrome...


We are talking about spectrum allocation here.
The 900Mhz band was already allocated in North America.
You can buy 900Mhz cordless phones and wireless speakers.
915Mhz is in the ISM band (industrial, scientific, medical).
There is no invention involved in spectrum allocation.
GSM was already specified.


I'm talking about the previous tech, such as iden (nextel if I'm not 
mistaken)  whatever qualcomm's proprietary tech was called.



   -- Doug


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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-13 Thread Doug Sutherland
 I'm talking about the previous tech, such as iden (nextel if I'm not 
 mistaken)  whatever qualcomm's proprietary tech was called.

Motorola invented IDEN. They have been doing telecom since
1928, so you can't really blame them for inventing stuff hehe.
In Canada, Telus Mobility also uses IDEN. The PTT feature
is actually quite popular. In fact, it could be said that others 
are conceptual copies of what motorola designed. 

  -- Doug


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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Mikko J Rauhala
On to, 2007-11-08 at 06:29 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 In this case it is a very valid issue and definitely not a complaint or 
 a whine.

It can become one quickly if everyone keeps mulling it over without
adding anything new.

 It basically tanks one of the largest consumer bases and it tanks my 
 project in my company until I find something else.

Sad about your project. Hope they can make that speculated 850/1800/1900
triband version a reality quick, but you can't of course assume that.

 Will GPS work without trouble, is it in any way affected by the 
 bandwidth issue.

1) It's not a bandwidth issue. It's a frequency band issue.
2) GPS is not affected in any way.

-- 
Mikko J Rauhala [EMAIL PROTECTED]
University of Helsinki


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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Michael Shiloh

Hi,

I'm still pressing on the GSM firwmare update. TI is supposed to have an 
answer for us, and we've been calling them daily. They are incredibly 
difficult to catch.


(Same problem with Global Locate regarding the GPS driver)

Michael

ian douglas wrote:

Al Johnson wrote:

We should find out one way or the other reasonably soon.


Like we'd know reasonably soon about the TI modem firmware delivery 
system that they told us about almost a month ago? ;o)


Seriously, if they can fix the 3G issue so I can just use TMobile for 
the time being, then great, I'll keep my Neo. But if I have to wait much 
longer just for the modem firmware upgrade, then this 850 issue is a 
serious deal breaker and I want a refund.


-id

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In this case it is a very valid issue and definitely not a complaint or 
a whine.
It basically tanks one of the largest consumer bases and it tanks my 
project in my company until I find something else.


You left out one important part in your mail below.
Will GPS work without trouble, is it in any way affected by the 
bandwidth issue.
I would surely think not, but if y0ou want to market this to someone as 
a PDA only, then definitely give the complete information sucha as 
include GPS usability in NA.




Pietro m0nt0 Montorfano wrote:
So, ok, the NEO does NOT support 850/1900 MHz band, this is an issue, 
FIC is informed of that and i think that they are evaluating the 
possibilities to make it working, so please just stop crying at the 
list my neo here isn't working... ok, i understand the problem and i 
understand you, but receiving a tons of similar mail is boring. AFAIK 
FIC members read the list, and now are just considering some solutions 
(at least i hope).


So in conclusion, the replies at the FAQ on this issue are (forgive me 
if appear a bit rude but it's due to my english):
I live in north america, i have my NEO dev edition and i can't get the 
signal, what i can do?
sell your neo, it's an hardware/firmware/software issue, so it can't 
be fixed with a simple software upgrade

I need the 850 support should i buy the neo now?
No you don't have to until you want a good pda whitout the possibility 
to make phone calls
I live in NA and i usually stay in my big city, will the neo get the 
signal?
May be, it will probably get it but it's not assured, you can try to 
verify somehow if the bands supported by the neo are covering your area

What can i do to make the neo supporting those bands?
you can do nothing
What is FIC doing about this?
Don't know, i hope they are considering some solutions for this issue
Last but not least: which are the solutions which FIC is considering?
The solutions are:
1) do nothing, at least  for the GTA02, maybe a fix in GTA03 or 
something similar
2) produce 2 separate phone, 1 for the NA and another one for the Rest 
Of The World (identical phone except the capability to get the 
850/1900 band INSTEAD the 900/1800 one)
3) make a nice community poll to ask if the members can wait another 2 
month (the time is just something I think) to redesign the hardware 
and fix the firmware so that we can have a full quad band phone)


The 3rd solution was not proposed but it's another way to solve the 
problem, honestly i don't mind about the quad band, i live in italy 
and i don't think i'll ever come to america, if i'll do that i'll use 
some other cheap phone, but i think that it's important for other 
community member to have it working in quad band way, so i'll wait if 
the community will decide to wait and obviously FIC will consider this 
solution.


Cya!

Pietro

P.S. We will wait for some FIC official solution.

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Mike Hodson
On Nov 8, 2007 12:29 AM, Pietro m0nt0 Montorfano [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 So, ok, the NEO does NOT support 850/1900 MHz band, this is an issue,
 FIC is informed of that and i think that they are evaluating the

ONLY 850 is turned off. 1900 works fine. Coverage may be sproadic or
nonexistent still, but facts are useful :)

Mike

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]
We were willing to wait for the commercial version to start our 
development, but if that is not going to be functional in the USA in 
remote areas like other cellphones, then it is lights-out for any 
possible future vendor here in the USA who want to incorporate this in 
to an existing product line.

Thats a fact not a wine.

I will get a development kit from Apple and live with it.
Our products need a  gps/phone/computer system as an add-on and  it cant 
wait past January 2008.

If the GPS works great I will buy it as a PDA in future once it is released.

This morning the project using the NEO was canned, reasons are, ever 
shifting timetables and secondly,  too much risk when the rug is pulled 
from under your feet by FIC suddenly not supporting US  frequency bands, 
while there are other alternatives such as Iphone available with a 
development kit that  might meet our development scenario -- (about just).
Unfortunately rural access is crucial for our applications, so it just 
became a no-no.


Anyway thanks to all for the input, and the NEO was a great idea till 
now, unfortunately it does not seem if it will be available in a working 
state within the next year here in the USA.

All of luck with OpenMoko.

Bye.





Pietro m0nt0 Montorfano wrote:

[EMAIL PROTECTED] ha scritto:
In this case it is a very valid issue and definitely not a complaint 
or a whine.
It basically tanks one of the largest consumer bases and it tanks my 
project in my company until I find something else.
Well the man at FIC (Michael) said that this issue is being evaluated, 
i'm not associated with fic in any way so anything i'm writing is 
because i've read the mails coming from this mailing list.



You left out one important part in your mail below.
No, i've left anything because the subject of this mail is regarding 
the 850MHz issue, GPS is not involved with it.



Well, then add in the WIKI that GPS will still work in NA, else it only 
makes matters worse for marketing and is misleading by not disclosing 
all the features that will work..




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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Pietro m0nt0 Montorfano

[EMAIL PROTECTED] ha scritto:
In this case it is a very valid issue and definitely not a complaint 
or a whine.
It basically tanks one of the largest consumer bases and it tanks my 
project in my company until I find something else.
Well the man at FIC (Michael) said that this issue is being evaluated, 
i'm not associated with fic in any way so anything i'm writing is 
because i've read the mails coming from this mailing list.



You left out one important part in your mail below.
No, i've left anything because the subject of this mail is regarding the 
850MHz issue, GPS is not involved with it.
Will GPS work without trouble, is it in any way affected by the 
bandwidth issue.
I would surely think not, but if y0ou want to market this to someone 
as a PDA only, then definitely give the complete information sucha as 
include GPS usability in NA.


Updates? they are told to us from Michael and there is a wiki page for 
them, so if you want to make a business project NEO based you have to 
keep in mind that it's still in development and something could go 
wrong, the new version (GTA02) will have more hardware like wifi and 
openmoko is quite usable now, but i don't know if it's so stable. The 
OpenMoko is free software, so you have to read the license  saying 
something like if it works ok, if it don't fix it yourself or pay 
someone to fixit for you, so i have to say to be careful doing this 
choice. Good software and i think i'll enjoy it on the NEO (trying the 
qemu versions) but this is from a user/programmer/liunx 
fan/geek/everything you want point of view. From a business point of 
view you have to consider a lot of factor so you have to wait a stable 
release first and get all the updates on that: software firmware 
hardware issues (i'm doing it for the NEO just to see which are the 
progress)


I've wrote that mail only to clarify the situation beacuse anyone was 
saying the same thing. I'll buy the NEO, i'll be happy if it will be a 
quad band phone, but i don't really mind if it'll be a triband phone 
because where i live this is not a problem. Thinking about myself only? 
Maybe, but i really care about a NEO which will work fine in my 
conuntry, if i have to wait for another revision or two to let this 
phone be full quad band to let it working well in the north america, 
i'll be happy to wait, no problem. Anything I want is a good device that 
work fine, possibly in any country with a GSM compilant network.


I've made a mistake saying that the NEO isn't working with 1900MHz, it's 
only not working with the 850MHz one


(hope to be useful and if this email seems not too polite is because of 
my english)


Bye!

Pietro



Pietro m0nt0 Montorfano wrote:
So, ok, the NEO does NOT support 850/1900 MHz band, this is an issue, 
FIC is informed of that and i think that they are evaluating the 
possibilities to make it working, so please just stop crying at the 
list my neo here isn't working... ok, i understand the problem and 
i understand you, but receiving a tons of similar mail is boring. 
AFAIK FIC members read the list, and now are just considering some 
solutions (at least i hope).


So in conclusion, the replies at the FAQ on this issue are (forgive 
me if appear a bit rude but it's due to my english):
I live in north america, i have my NEO dev edition and i can't get 
the signal, what i can do?
sell your neo, it's an hardware/firmware/software issue, so it can't 
be fixed with a simple software upgrade

I need the 850 support should i buy the neo now?
No you don't have to until you want a good pda whitout the 
possibility to make phone calls
I live in NA and i usually stay in my big city, will the neo get the 
signal?
May be, it will probably get it but it's not assured, you can try to 
verify somehow if the bands supported by the neo are covering your area

What can i do to make the neo supporting those bands?
you can do nothing
What is FIC doing about this?
Don't know, i hope they are considering some solutions for this issue
Last but not least: which are the solutions which FIC is considering?
The solutions are:
1) do nothing, at least  for the GTA02, maybe a fix in GTA03 or 
something similar
2) produce 2 separate phone, 1 for the NA and another one for the 
Rest Of The World (identical phone except the capability to get the 
850/1900 band INSTEAD the 900/1800 one)
3) make a nice community poll to ask if the members can wait another 
2 month (the time is just something I think) to redesign the hardware 
and fix the firmware so that we can have a full quad band phone)


The 3rd solution was not proposed but it's another way to solve the 
problem, honestly i don't mind about the quad band, i live in italy 
and i don't think i'll ever come to america, if i'll do that i'll use 
some other cheap phone, but i think that it's important for other 
community member to have it working in quad band way, so i'll wait if 
the community will decide to wait and obviously FIC will consider 
this 

Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Randall Mason wrote:
How are there so many people who know so little about cell phones, 
GPS, and PDAs that claim to be supporting projects on this phone?  
I would challenge you on that flame Mr Ignoramus. I dont have to prove 
anything to you as I dont need your sanction.

How did you convince your company to start these projects?
Because I have several patents (working in industry) making a lot of 
money and have 100's of large industrial corporations as customers.
Why was Michael's initial post saying that 850MHz is not supported 
because of hardware layout not enough?  How do people decide that they 
want quad band phones without knowing what they really are and why 
they would want them (besides wow, quad band works everywhere, right? 
Great, I'll just get quad band so I never have to think!)?


Because simply put, IT WONT WORK in rural areas remotely as well as 
another cell phone supporting both bands. Been there done that. Cant you 
get it!?


Anyway I will unsubscribe as I am not interested in non-factual hothead 
behavior.



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Randall Mason
iPhone doesn't have GPS, so how does that fit your mythical project?

GPS works in the US.  It is a US invention.  It is owned by the US.  It is
run by the US.  We donate it to the world.  Why would it not work in the
US?  It works EVERYWHERE, that's why it's called Global Positioning System.

How are there so many people who know so little about cell phones, GPS, and
PDAs that claim to be supporting projects on this phone?  How did you
convince your company to start these projects?  Why was Michael's initial
post saying that 850MHz is not supported because of hardware layout not
enough?  How do people decide that they want quad band phones without
knowing what they really are and why they would want them (besides wow,
quad band works everywhere, right? Great, I'll just get quad band so I never
have to think!)?

On 11/8/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 We were willing to wait for the commercial version to start our
 development, but if that is not going to be functional in the USA in
 remote areas like other cellphones, then it is lights-out for any
 possible future vendor here in the USA who want to incorporate this in
 to an existing product line.
 Thats a fact not a wine.

 I will get a development kit from Apple and live with it.
 Our products need a  gps/phone/computer system as an add-on and  it cant
 wait past January 2008.
 If the GPS works great I will buy it as a PDA in future once it is
 released.

 This morning the project using the NEO was canned, reasons are, ever
 shifting timetables and secondly,  too much risk when the rug is pulled
 from under your feet by FIC suddenly not supporting US  frequency bands,
 while there are other alternatives such as Iphone available with a
 development kit that  might meet our development scenario -- (about just).
 Unfortunately rural access is crucial for our applications, so it just
 became a no-no.

 Anyway thanks to all for the input, and the NEO was a great idea till
 now, unfortunately it does not seem if it will be available in a working
 state within the next year here in the USA.
 All of luck with OpenMoko.

 Bye.





 Pietro m0nt0 Montorfano wrote:
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] ha scritto:
  In this case it is a very valid issue and definitely not a complaint
  or a whine.
  It basically tanks one of the largest consumer bases and it tanks my
  project in my company until I find something else.
  Well the man at FIC (Michael) said that this issue is being evaluated,
  i'm not associated with fic in any way so anything i'm writing is
  because i've read the mails coming from this mailing list.
 
  You left out one important part in your mail below.
  No, i've left anything because the subject of this mail is regarding
  the 850MHz issue, GPS is not involved with it.


 Well, then add in the WIKI that GPS will still work in NA, else it only
 makes matters worse for marketing and is misleading by not disclosing
 all the features that will work..



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread kenneth marken
On Thursday 08 November 2007 16:44:45 Randall Mason wrote:
 iPhone doesn't have GPS, so how does that fit your mythical project?

 GPS works in the US.  It is a US invention.  It is owned by the US.  It is
 run by the US.  We donate it to the world.  Why would it not work in the
 US?  It works EVERYWHERE, that's why it's called Global Positioning System.


donated, under the condition that you (as in the nation) have the sole right 
to turn it of at any time. lets never forget, its a military system, designed 
to guide weapons and soldiers. that its being used for civilian uses are a 
afterthought more then anything else.

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Ted Lemon
On Thu, 2007-11-08 at 03:44 +0800, Michael Shiloh wrote:
 (Same problem with Global Locate regarding the GPS driver)

It might be nice to just send out the old module, even if it
theoretically isn't useful, because somebody might be willing to hack it
to make it work.   Right now we have nothing.

On the topic of 850 MHz, it is a problem that it's not supported.   It's
early days, so I don't care about it for the current phone - I can get
by without it.   But I'd like to hear if there are serious plans to add
this band to a future revision of the phone, or whether this is simply
not possible.

Even if you have a build option for 850 vs. 900, that's not a good
solution - I want a phone that works everywhere, not a phone that works
everywhere close to me.   So I hope that this is something that can
happen with a future revision of the phone, even if it's not the very
next revision.

I'm not expecting a quick answer on this - just wanted to state my
personal concerns on this, which I think are mirrored by a few other
Western Hemispheroids on the list.



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread David Schlesinger
I wouldn't have imagined I'd see a less productive contribution than the
_rest_ of this discussion, but I guess it goes to show how mistaken one can
be.

I won't be hurt if you don't use GPS.


On 11/8/07 8:08 AM, kenneth marken [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 On Thursday 08 November 2007 16:44:45 Randall Mason wrote:
 iPhone doesn't have GPS, so how does that fit your mythical project?
 
 GPS works in the US.  It is a US invention.  It is owned by the US.  It is
 run by the US.  We donate it to the world.  Why would it not work in the
 US?  It works EVERYWHERE, that's why it's called Global Positioning System.
 
 
 donated, under the condition that you (as in the nation) have the sole right
 to turn it of at any time. lets never forget, its a military system, designed
 to guide weapons and soldiers. that its being used for civilian uses are a
 afterthought more then anything else.
 
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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Randall Mason
I want to apologize for this post.  This post has nothing to do with
community.  It is just insulting to many people.  I was wrong to post this
and I hope the people who felt insulted will accept my apology.  Stupid
posts like mine are something that just drive people apart and that is NOT
community.  Sometimes I wish I could have never said something.  Now is one
of those times.

Randall

On 11/8/07, Randall Mason [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 iPhone doesn't have GPS, so how does that fit your mythical project?

 GPS works in the US.  It is a US invention.  It is owned by the US.  It is
 run by the US.  We donate it to the world.  Why would it not work in the
 US?  It works EVERYWHERE, that's why it's called Global Positioning System.

 How are there so many people who know so little about cell phones, GPS,
 and PDAs that claim to be supporting projects on this phone?  How did you
 convince your company to start these projects?  Why was Michael's initial
 post saying that 850MHz is not supported because of hardware layout not
 enough?  How do people decide that they want quad band phones without
 knowing what they really are and why they would want them (besides wow,
 quad band works everywhere, right? Great, I'll just get quad band so I never
 have to think!)?

 On 11/8/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

  We were willing to wait for the commercial version to start our
  development, but if that is not going to be functional in the USA in
  remote areas like other cellphones, then it is lights-out for any
  possible future vendor here in the USA who want to incorporate this in
  to an existing product line.
  Thats a fact not a wine.
 
  I will get a development kit from Apple and live with it.
  Our products need a  gps/phone/computer system as an add-on and  it cant
  wait past January 2008.
  If the GPS works great I will buy it as a PDA in future once it is
  released.
 
  This morning the project using the NEO was canned, reasons are, ever
  shifting timetables and secondly,  too much risk when the rug is pulled
  from under your feet by FIC suddenly not supporting US  frequency bands,
  while there are other alternatives such as Iphone available with a
  development kit that  might meet our development scenario -- (about
  just).
  Unfortunately rural access is crucial for our applications, so it just
  became a no-no.
 
  Anyway thanks to all for the input, and the NEO was a great idea till
  now, unfortunately it does not seem if it will be available in a working
 
  state within the next year here in the USA.
  All of luck with OpenMoko.
 
  Bye.
 
 
 
 
 
  Pietro m0nt0 Montorfano wrote:
   [EMAIL PROTECTED] ha scritto:
   In this case it is a very valid issue and definitely not a complaint
   or a whine.
   It basically tanks one of the largest consumer bases and it tanks my
   project in my company until I find something else.
   Well the man at FIC (Michael) said that this issue is being evaluated,
   i'm not associated with fic in any way so anything i'm writing is
   because i've read the mails coming from this mailing list.
  
   You left out one important part in your mail below.
   No, i've left anything because the subject of this mail is regarding
   the 850MHz issue, GPS is not involved with it.
 
 
  Well, then add in the WIKI that GPS will still work in NA, else it only
  makes matters worse for marketing and is misleading by not disclosing
  all the features that will work..
 
 
 
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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Alan McSwain

Sorry. I was unclear. I was thinking from apples perspective.

Releasing an application development kit is likely to increase the  
pressure on apple to add both Bluetooth gps and keyboard support.


Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 8, 2007, at 8:40 AM, Doug Sutherland [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Alan wrote:
 Adding gps to the iPhone is likely to  be a minor Bluetooth driver  
project.


But you don't have source, so this minor project becomes impossible.
The only way that is going to happen is if/when Apple integrates such
driver support into the device.

  -- Doug
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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Alan McSwain

Mason...

I think we are all terribly frustrated with the events of the last few  
days and I think this frustration is amplified by how much we all  
desire to see OpenMoko to succeed.


We all want the perfect smartphone.

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 8, 2007, at 9:08 AM, Randall Mason [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

I want to apologize for this post.  This post has nothing to do with  
community.  It is just insulting to many people.  I was wrong to  
post this and I hope the people who felt insulted will accept my  
apology.  Stupid posts like mine are something that just drive  
people apart and that is NOT community.  Sometimes I wish I could  
have never said something.  Now is one of those times.


Randall

On 11/8/07, Randall Mason [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
iPhone doesn't have GPS, so how does that fit your mythical project?

GPS works in the US.  It is a US invention.  It is owned by the US.   
It is run by the US.  We donate it to the world.  Why would it not  
work in the US?  It works EVERYWHERE, that's why it's called Global  
Positioning System.


How are there so many people who know so little about cell phones,  
GPS, and PDAs that claim to be supporting projects on this phone?   
How did you convince your company to start these projects?  Why was  
Michael's initial post saying that 850MHz is not supported because  
of hardware layout not enough?  How do people decide that they want  
quad band phones without knowing what they really are and why they  
would want them (besides wow, quad band works everywhere, right?  
Great, I'll just get quad band so I never have to think!)?



On 11/8/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
We were willing to wait for the commercial version to start our
development, but if that is not going to be functional in the USA in
remote areas like other cellphones, then it is lights-out for any
possible future vendor here in the USA who want to incorporate this in
to an existing product line.
Thats a fact not a wine.

I will get a development kit from Apple and live with it.
Our products need a  gps/phone/computer system as an add-on and  it  
cant

wait past January 2008.
If the GPS works great I will buy it as a PDA in future once it is  
released.


This morning the project using the NEO was canned, reasons are, ever
shifting timetables and secondly,  too much risk when the rug is  
pulled
from under your feet by FIC suddenly not supporting US  frequency  
bands,

while there are other alternatives such as Iphone available with a
development kit that  might meet our development scenario -- (about  
just).

Unfortunately rural access is crucial for our applications, so it just
became a no-no.

Anyway thanks to all for the input, and the NEO was a great idea till
now, unfortunately it does not seem if it will be available in a  
working

state within the next year here in the USA.
All of luck with OpenMoko.

Bye.





Pietro m0nt0 Montorfano wrote:
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ha scritto:
 In this case it is a very valid issue and definitely not a  
complaint

 or a whine.
 It basically tanks one of the largest consumer bases and it tanks  
my

 project in my company until I find something else.
 Well the man at FIC (Michael) said that this issue is being  
evaluated,

 i'm not associated with fic in any way so anything i'm writing is
 because i've read the mails coming from this mailing list.

 You left out one important part in your mail below.
 No, i've left anything because the subject of this mail is regarding
 the 850MHz issue, GPS is not involved with it.


Well, then add in the WIKI that GPS will still work in NA, else it  
only

makes matters worse for marketing and is misleading by not disclosing
all the features that will work..



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Doug Sutherland
Alan wrote:
 Adding gps to the iPhone is likely to be a minor Bluetooth driver project.

But you don't have source, so this minor project becomes impossible.
The only way that is going to happen is if/when Apple integrates such
driver support into the device.  

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread William Weinberg
I understand distrust of the availability and governance of GPS services
by parties outside (and inside) the US, but there is a valid PoV that
the rest of world rides free on those demonic US DoD funded satellites.

Let's use up more discussion bandwidth cursing the darkness.

David Schlesinger wrote:
 I wouldn't have imagined I'd see a less productive contribution than the
 _rest_ of this discussion, but I guess it goes to show how mistaken one can
 be.
 
 I won't be hurt if you don't use GPS.
 
 
 On 11/8/07 8:08 AM, kenneth marken [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 
 On Thursday 08 November 2007 16:44:45 Randall Mason wrote:
 iPhone doesn't have GPS, so how does that fit your mythical project?

 GPS works in the US.  It is a US invention.  It is owned by the US.  It is
 run by the US.  We donate it to the world.  Why would it not work in the
 US?  It works EVERYWHERE, that's why it's called Global Positioning System.

 donated, under the condition that you (as in the nation) have the sole 
 right
 to turn it of at any time. lets never forget, its a military system, designed
 to guide weapons and soldiers. that its being used for civilian uses are a
 afterthought more then anything else.

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Alan McSwain
Adding gps to the iPhone is likely to be a minor Bluetooth driver  
project.


Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 8, 2007, at 7:44 AM, Randall Mason [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


iPhone doesn't have GPS, so how does that fit your mythical project?

GPS works in the US.  It is a US invention.  It is owned by the US.   
It is run by the US.  We donate it to the world.  Why would it not  
work in the US?  It works EVERYWHERE, that's why it's called Global  
Positioning System.


How are there so many people who know so little about cell phones,  
GPS, and PDAs that claim to be supporting projects on this phone?   
How did you convince your company to start these projects?  Why was  
Michael's initial post saying that 850MHz is not supported because  
of hardware layout not enough?  How do people decide that they want  
quad band phones without knowing what they really are and why they  
would want them (besides wow, quad band works everywhere, right?  
Great, I'll just get quad band so I never have to think!)?


On 11/8/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
We were willing to wait for the commercial version to start our
development, but if that is not going to be functional in the USA in
remote areas like other cellphones, then it is lights-out for any
possible future vendor here in the USA who want to incorporate this in
to an existing product line.
Thats a fact not a wine.

I will get a development kit from Apple and live with it.
Our products need a  gps/phone/computer system as an add-on and  it  
cant

wait past January 2008.
If the GPS works great I will buy it as a PDA in future once it is  
released.


This morning the project using the NEO was canned, reasons are, ever
shifting timetables and secondly,  too much risk when the rug is  
pulled
from under your feet by FIC suddenly not supporting US  frequency  
bands,

while there are other alternatives such as Iphone available with a
development kit that  might meet our development scenario -- (about  
just).

Unfortunately rural access is crucial for our applications, so it just
became a no-no.

Anyway thanks to all for the input, and the NEO was a great idea till
now, unfortunately it does not seem if it will be available in a  
working

state within the next year here in the USA.
All of luck with OpenMoko.

Bye.





Pietro m0nt0 Montorfano wrote:
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ha scritto:
 In this case it is a very valid issue and definitely not a  
complaint

 or a whine.
 It basically tanks one of the largest consumer bases and it tanks  
my

 project in my company until I find something else.
 Well the man at FIC (Michael) said that this issue is being  
evaluated,

 i'm not associated with fic in any way so anything i'm writing is
 because i've read the mails coming from this mailing list.

 You left out one important part in your mail below.
 No, i've left anything because the subject of this mail is regarding
 the 850MHz issue, GPS is not involved with it.


Well, then add in the WIKI that GPS will still work in NA, else it  
only

makes matters worse for marketing and is misleading by not disclosing
all the features that will work..



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Ted Lemon
On Thu, 2007-11-08 at 23:46 +0100, AVee wrote:
 I think it whould help an awfull lot, it would allow you to switch
 firmware 
 before leaving to an 850 or 900 area. In a lot af cases that will
 involve a 
 air travel and a somewhat longer stay in the 'other frequency' area.
 If it 
 could be just a build option I also can imagine a bit of software
 which makes 
 the switch trivial.

I wish it were so, but what I mean by a build option is that they put
a different part on the board if you want 850 vs. 900.   Which I think
is what was proposed.



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread AVee
On Wednesday 07 November 2007 21:39, Tommi Virtanen wrote:
 The only reason USA picked non-standard frequencies was because they
 had already licensed the 900 and 1800 MHz bands to something else.

Just totaly useless curiousity, but does anyone know what these bands are used 
for in the US?

-- 
Endless Loop, n.:
see Loop, Endless.
Loop, Endless, n.:
see Endless Loop.

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Doug Sutherland
I forgot to mention, with the modules I have looked at and 
also worked with, you send a command over the serial 
port to switch bands. That is all. Regarding the board 
design dilemma, I suppose that means the antenna as is
probably part of the pcb board is not tuned to be quad 
band. It must be possible because thousands of other 
phones work that way.

  -- Doug

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread Doug Sutherland
You should not have to switch firmware for the different bands.
That would be insanity. A quad band module should be able to
use one image for everything. That apparently isn't the case at
the moment, but it should be, and hopefully they are working
towards that end. Not sure what the deal is with calypso but
I have looked very closely at several other quad band modules
and there is none of this problem. Check out for example the 
telit modules and the mult-tech modules. They are likely more 
expensive but they definitely do quad band and they don't 
need different firmware for different bands.

http://www.multitech.com/PRODUCTS/Families/SocketModemEDGE/
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?cPath=66_68

Load different firmware to travel? WTF? Dear FIC please work 
on quad band with single firmware. If calypso is problematic for 
this then please ditch it and get another module, there are many 
many to choose from and gsm serial code is standard so there 
should not be a huge number of changes required.

I noticed that TI is very secretive and protective of their cell 
technology. I am starting to think that it's a bad choice. I have
all the docs for the above two modules and everything is well
documented and ready to go. They both have direct antenna 
connector, although the telit surface mount modules allow you 
to make part of the pcb board the antenna. 

  -- Doug

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-08 Thread AVee
On Thursday 08 November 2007 17:14, Ted Lemon wrote:
 On Thu, 2007-11-08 at 03:44 +0800, Michael Shiloh wrote:

 Even if you have a build option for 850 vs. 900, that's not a good
 solution - I want a phone that works everywhere, not a phone that works
 everywhere close to me.   

I think it whould help an awfull lot, it would allow you to switch firmware 
before leaving to an 850 or 900 area. In a lot af cases that will involve a 
air travel and a somewhat longer stay in the 'other frequency' area. If it 
could be just a build option I also can imagine a bit of software which makes 
the switch trivial.
However, the issue appears to involve hardware as well, so I don't have high 
hopes for that. But maybe thet manage to get a jumper on the board or 
something...

AVee

-- 
AMAZING BUT TRUE ...
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across the Sahara Desert, the smell would be absolutely awful.

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller


Am 07.11.2007 um 19:08 schrieb Gabriel Ambuehl:


On Wednesday 07 November 2007 18:23:18 Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:

Problem is I dont want to buy a lot of  $750 US units if I could
just develop on e.g. gphone or iphone which will be way cheaper.


You need not buy many units yourself - there is an idea for a group
purchase. So if you can convince (many) others so that it goes beyond
the order quantity of the next price scale it can go down to less
than $600.


Even then, unless someone turns this in a complete phone, quite  
some bit of
engineering will be needed to turn an SBC plus touchscreen into a  
proper

phone... Not to mention software support for it. But I'd sure love the


Just needs a plastic case (plus stylus) case. Everything else is  
available (charger, battery, etc.).



possible form factor (3.5 VGA with little bigger case).


Software: Why not OpenMoko or Qtopia or QuantumSTEP? It seems to be a  
quite small step.


CompuLabs already provides Angstrom (previously called OpenZaurus). See:

http://www.compulab.co.il/x270em/download

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Lars Hallberg

Doug Sutherland skrev:

850Mhz is odd because north america is big.
Output power 2 watt versus 1 watt for 1900 Mhz.
To cover rural areas, less towers required for 850Mhz.
There will be more not less 850 support in the future.
Europe is much more congested so can justify more 
towers with less output power on phones.


Not really true... Europe have GSM 900/1800... 850 is not that big a 
difference from 900, nether is 1900 from 1800. Probably the 900 and 1800 
 bands was occupied in the us.


However, Ericson and Nokia are pushing GSM 450 for the 3:d world and the 
most remote arias in richer countrys. So we might end up with the need 
for 5 GSM band: 450/900/1800 for 'the world' and 850/1900 (and possibly 
450) for 'parts of America'.


The part with lower frequency give bigger coverage is true. 900 reach 
~twice as far as 1800, cowering ~four times the area. 450 will reach 
~twice as far as 900, cowering ~sixteen times the area 1800 cover. Thats 
the rational for GSM 450.


Hope the Neo1973 GTA2v4 will be released fast as possably as is. Then a 
850/1800/1900 as soon as posably. Don't think a sales organization more 
then the already existing one need to be built in north America before 
the 850/1800/1900 version is ready.


If this is reconfigurable in soft/firmware... It's realy a quad band 
phone... You just have to configure what three band to listen to. I Know 
of no place having 850 and 900 in the same aria. I have litle hope for 
that tho... It sounds like hw changes is needed :-(


/LaH


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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Matthew Naftzger

I did not look further as Neo was about 100% what I was looking for.

Thanks to all for the help.

Bye.


Unfortunately, I think this is a very good summary of the issue.  The  
Neo is still primarily a developer phone w/o the 850 band, at least  
here in NA.  Since that's where I am, it's no longer an option.


It's a great project.  But for now, bye.




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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread William Weinberg
That's a shame.

Have a look at the upcoming GSM-enabled h/w from Unicon Systems:

http://www.uniconsys.com/

Bill W.

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I just checked the manual, it is
 850 / 1900
 
 So it really seems to be a bad idea to continue with NEO here in the
 states.
 Real pity as it was about the perfect solution for some of our products.
 
 Anyone has an idea of another phone-pda that can at least allow  to
 compile your own programs?
 
 I need phones for customers as service modules so they need to  be able
 to run Linux and be open enough to accept compilers for Console programs
 written in C, fpk, Ada.
 
 
 
 
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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]

I just checked the manual, it is
850 / 1900

So it really seems to be a bad idea to continue with NEO here in the states.
Real pity as it was about the perfect solution for some of our products.

Anyone has an idea of another phone-pda that can at least allow  to 
compile your own programs?


I need phones for customers as service modules so they need to  be able 
to run Linux and be open enough to accept compilers for Console programs 
written in C, fpk, Ada.





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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Joe Pfeiffer
Edwin Lock writes:
Exactly, North America(and Canada) apparently uses 850/1800 and the rest of
the world uses 900/1900.
And without 850 you won't have coverage in North America in a lot of places,
so practically it won't work.
Lucky I like in the Netherlands:)

I thought US was 850/1900, ROTW was 900/1800 (not that this affects
the 850 issue, but just for completeness)


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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]




Yes well it is the dreaded silly 110V/220V, Pal/NTSC, lb/kg
standards monster again.
Not long ago (10 yeqrs ago) there were a lot of resistance to GSM here
which is just not understandable and luckily it is getting way more
foothold.

I am currently with T-Mobile as they always were a GSM shop.

The phone with the ultimate best coverage for me here in the states on
GSM is an Old Siemens M56 on T-Mobile.
I tried several new phones/services which just died out in the sticks.

Does anyone know if the Siemens M56 was a dual or single band phone?
If the band-spec is contained in the Neo, I would not be worried about
it.

thanks 



Mikko J Rauhala wrote:

  On ke, 2007-11-07 at 10:31 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  
  
Sorry, I cannot get the original reference to why this is an issue for 
North American users.

  
  
NA uses the unusual 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands for GSM. The Neo, at
least as it will be first available, will not support 850 MHz (but will
1900 MHz). This means that it can work in NA, _but_ will get worse
coverage than GSM phones capable of also 850 MHz operation. According to
my second-hand understanding of the situation, of the major US GSM
providers, T-Mobile has more 1900 MHz coverage than ATT/Cingular, and
that major cities may have decent amounts of it as opposed to rural
areas.

It's vague, but HTH.

  





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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Gabriel Ambuehl
On Wednesday 07 November 2007 20:02:47 Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
 Just needs a plastic case (plus stylus) case. Everything else is
 available (charger, battery, etc.).

Well if someone can provide a complete unit that boots into OpenMoko for 
~500USD (and can make use of WiFi), I'll likely buy it. Plus points if it has 
QWERTY or a somewhat decent cam :P

  possible form factor (3.5 VGA with little bigger case).

 Software: Why not OpenMoko or Qtopia or QuantumSTEP? It seems to be a
 quite small step.

 CompuLabs already provides Angstrom (previously called OpenZaurus). See:

Didnt know they had Angstrom for it. That sure helps. But how do you get 
Angstrom onto the board? Do you need JTAG for that? Or can it boot from SD or 
USB the way it's shipped?




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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller


Didnt know they had Angstrom for it. That sure helps. But how do  
you get
Angstrom onto the board? Do you need JTAG for that? Or can it boot  
from SD or

USB the way it's shipped?


According to

http://www.compulab.co.il/x270em/download/x270-em-linux-doc.zip

it appears tthat it can boot and flash from an USB memory stick.

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Doug Sutherland
http://www.proficio.ca/

 Not really true... Europe have GSM 900/1800... 

They have two frequencies for different reasons. 
1800 was added due to congestion on 900. In 
North America 850Mhz is longer distance due 
to higher output power. Read specs on cellular 
modules (hardware) and you will see  850Mhz 
is higher output power. That is why it is used 
more often in rural areas. It can be hundreds 
of miles between cities over here. 

  -- Doug


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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread William Weinberg
No, actually Unicon Systems have product coming shortly (Dec/Jan) with
smaller and larger screen sizes and more memory, as needed.  I have seen
it in their offices!

Contact Marius Kaz for roadmap and delivery info : Marius Kaz
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Bill



Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
 That's a shame.

 Have a look at the upcoming GSM-enabled h/w from Unicon Systems:

 http://www.uniconsys.com/
 
 Good pointer, and already available. But...
 
 - 32 MB SDRAM
 - 32 MB flash
 - Screen:
 - TFT LCD QVGA 3.5'' 16M color screen
 
 
 
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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Gabriel Ambuehl
On Wednesday 07 November 2007 18:23:18 Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
  Problem is I dont want to buy a lot of  $750 US units if I could
  just develop on e.g. gphone or iphone which will be way cheaper.

 You need not buy many units yourself - there is an idea for a group
 purchase. So if you can convince (many) others so that it goes beyond
 the order quantity of the next price scale it can go down to less
 than $600.

Even then, unless someone turns this in a complete phone, quite some bit of 
engineering will be needed to turn an SBC plus touchscreen into a proper 
phone... Not to mention software support for it. But I'd sure love the 
possible form factor (3.5 VGA with little bigger case).

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Doug Sutherland
The 850 Mhz capability of the radio is disabled.

Article quote:
If you're in a major metropolitan area, you probably won't need the
850 MHz band, but if you travel to secondary areas regularly, you
will find the extra coverage of the 850 MHz band to be valuable.
Looking into the future, it is probable we'll see increased use of 850
MHz to expand GSM's overall coverage into more of the country.
And then, looking further into the future, it is possible we'll see
1900 MHz coverage duplicating the 850 MHz coverage. Bottom
line :  If you travel out of the main cities, you'll definitely benefit
from a phone that supports both 850 MHz and 1900 MHz.

http://www.thetravelinsider.info/roadwarriorcontent/quadbandphones.htm

I don't know many North Americans who do not travel outside
of main cities. 850Mhz

What this means for future versions depends on if they make the
changes to support 850Mhz. The lack of 850Mhz support

Antigua, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada,
Cayman Islands, Colombia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
El Salvadore, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Montserrat,
Nicaragua, Northern Mariana Islands, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto
Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States,
Venzuela.

Also, regarding the comment that some carriers only operate 1900,
keep in mind that you ROAM onto partner networks. Even if your
provider only uses 1900, there are good odds that you actually
can and possibly do use 850 outside of major cities. If you have
T-Mobile that doesn't mean you don't use other networks. You
probably don't even know you are using them ...

Mikko wrote:
 Does anyone know if the Siemens M56 was a dual or single  band phone?
 If the band-spec is contained in the Neo, I would not be worried about it.

M56 is 850/1900. Worry about lack of 850.

  -- Doug






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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller


Am 07.11.2007 um 17:20 schrieb [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

Anyone has an idea of another phone-pda that can at least allow  to  
compile your own programs?


I need phones for customers as service modules so they need to  be  
able to run Linux and be open enough to accept compilers for  
Console programs written in C, fpk, Ada.


What about

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Compulab_EM-X270



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller

That's a shame.

Have a look at the upcoming GSM-enabled h/w from Unicon Systems:

http://www.uniconsys.com/


Good pointer, and already available. But...

- 32 MB SDRAM
- 32 MB flash
- Screen:
- TFT LCD QVGA 3.5'' 16M color screen



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller


Am 07.11.2007 um 17:42 schrieb [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

Problem is I dont want to buy a lot of  $750 US units if I could  
just develop on e.g. gphone or iphone which will be way cheaper.


You need not buy many units yourself - there is an idea for a group  
purchase. So if you can convince (many) others so that it goes beyond  
the order quantity of the next price scale it can go down to less  
than $600.


An unlocked iPhone is IMHO at $500 and above and the gPhone has  
mutated into Android (i.e. not a phone but a Linux phone stack).




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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Doug Sutherland
Edwin Lock wrote:
 North America(and Canada) apparently uses 850/1800 and the rest of 
 the world uses 900/1900.

No, North America uses 850/1900 and most of the rest of the world uses
900/1800, but there are MANY MANY countries that use 1900 and more 
than just North America uses 850. And Canada is in North America eh LOL

  -- Doug 
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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Doug Sutherland
850Mhz is odd because north america is big.
Output power 2 watt versus 1 watt for 1900 Mhz.
To cover rural areas, less towers required for 850Mhz.
There will be more not less 850 support in the future.
Europe is much more congested so can justify more 
towers with less output power on phones.

I hope Neo gets this support for 850Mhz in the next
version. I love the idea but it doesn't make sense for 
most folks on this side of the pond to buy what would
effectively be a single band phone.

  -- Doug

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread ian douglas

Al Johnson wrote:

We should find out one way or the other reasonably soon.


Like we'd know reasonably soon about the TI modem firmware delivery 
system that they told us about almost a month ago? ;o)


Seriously, if they can fix the 3G issue so I can just use TMobile for 
the time being, then great, I'll keep my Neo. But if I have to wait much 
longer just for the modem firmware upgrade, then this 850 issue is a 
serious deal breaker and I want a refund.


-id

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Al Johnson
All may not be lost. FIC are looking at whether 850/1800/1900 is possible with 
the existing hardware. We should find out one way or the other reasonably 
soon.

On Wednesday 07 November 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Problem is I dont want to buy a lot of  $750 US units if I could just
 develop on e.g. gphone or iphone which will be way cheaper.
 If it is OTS, then it is way more reliable due to massicve customer
 feedback than an obscure OEM, but it is a good idea thanks.

 It seems I will have to go back to the drawing board and find something
 close to the Neo.
 I did not look further as Neo was about 100% what I was looking for.

 Thanks to all for the help.

 Bye.


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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Problem is I dont want to buy a lot of  $750 US units if I could just 
develop on e.g. gphone or iphone which will be way cheaper.
If it is OTS, then it is way more reliable due to massicve customer 
feedback than an obscure OEM, but it is a good idea thanks.


It seems I will have to go back to the drawing board and find something 
close to the Neo.

I did not look further as Neo was about 100% what I was looking for.

Thanks to all for the help.

Bye.



Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:


Am 07.11.2007 um 17:20 schrieb [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

Anyone has an idea of another phone-pda that can at least allow  to 
compile your own programs?


I need phones for customers as service modules so they need to  be 
able to run Linux and be open enough to accept compilers for Console 
programs written in C, fpk, Ada.


What about

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Compulab_EM-X270



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sorry, I cannot get the original reference to why this is an issue for 
North American users.


Can someone just give me a 2-5 liner of what this means to a user that 
will buy commercial versions released later this year as my interest is 
for product integration with existing products, so I need to know if the 
commercial version will not function in the US (if I read right)




Thanks



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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Tommi Virtanen
On Wed, 7 Nov 2007 at 12:42:28PM -0500, Doug Sutherland wrote:
 850Mhz is odd because north america is big.
 Output power 2 watt versus 1 watt for 1900 Mhz.
 To cover rural areas, less towers required for 850Mhz.
 There will be more not less 850 support in the future.
 Europe is much more congested so can justify more
 towers with less output power on phones.

On Wed, Nov 07, 2007 at 02:28:28PM -0500, Doug Sutherland wrote:
  Not really true... Europe have GSM 900/1800... 
 
 They have two frequencies for different reasons. 
 1800 was added due to congestion on 900. In 
 North America 850Mhz is longer distance due 
 to higher output power. Read specs on cellular 
 modules (hardware) and you will see  850Mhz 
 is higher output power. That is why it is used 
 more often in rural areas. It can be hundreds 
 of miles between cities over here. 

The level of confusion wrt 850 MHz is starting to annoy me, gotta jump
in.

There is *no* difference in range of 850 vs 900 MHz, or 1900 vs 1800
MHz. Both 850 and 900 use 2 watts, both 1800 and 1900 use 1 watt.
Stop claiming 850 is somehow better than 900.

The only reason USA picked non-standard frequencies was because they
had already licensed the 900 and 1800 MHz bands to something else.

-- 
:(){ :|:};:

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Mikko J Rauhala
On ke, 2007-11-07 at 10:31 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Sorry, I cannot get the original reference to why this is an issue for 
 North American users.

NA uses the unusual 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands for GSM. The Neo, at
least as it will be first available, will not support 850 MHz (but will
1900 MHz). This means that it can work in NA, _but_ will get worse
coverage than GSM phones capable of also 850 MHz operation. According to
my second-hand understanding of the situation, of the major US GSM
providers, T-Mobile has more 1900 MHz coverage than ATT/Cingular, and
that major cities may have decent amounts of it as opposed to rural
areas.

It's vague, but HTH.

-- 
Mikko J Rauhala [EMAIL PROTECTED]
University of Helsinki


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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Doug Sutherland
Alright I stand corrected on one aspect of this, but 850Mhz
(specficied power) is double the output power of 1900Mhz 
and is used extensively in rural areas. Any future version of 
Neo will need 850/1900 for North America. And as stated
earlier, these countries also use 850Mhz:

Antigua, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, 
Canada, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Dominica, Dominican 
Republic, Ecuador, El Salvadore, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, 
Haiti, Honduras, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Northern Mariana 
Islands, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and 
Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, 
Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States,
Venzuela.

It's crazy that 850 is disabled, crazier that it's called quad band.

  -- Doug 

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RE: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Swanepoel, Gareth
 
So, the North AND Southern American continents, in short, the entire
western hemisphere, then ?

Gareth

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Doug
Sutherland
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 4:34 PM
To: List for OpenMoko community discussion
Subject: Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

Alright I stand corrected on one aspect of this, but 850Mhz (specficied
power) is double the output power of 1900Mhz and is used extensively in
rural areas. Any future version of Neo will need 850/1900 for North
America. And as stated earlier, these countries also use 850Mhz:

Antigua, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada,
Cayman Islands, Colombia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El
Salvadore, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Montserrat,
Nicaragua, Northern Mariana Islands, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto
Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands,
United States, Venzuela.

It's crazy that 850 is disabled, crazier that it's called quad band.

  -- Doug 

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-07 Thread Pietro m0nt0 Montorfano
So, ok, the NEO does NOT support 850/1900 MHz band, this is an issue, 
FIC is informed of that and i think that they are evaluating the 
possibilities to make it working, so please just stop crying at the list 
my neo here isn't working... ok, i understand the problem and i 
understand you, but receiving a tons of similar mail is boring. AFAIK 
FIC members read the list, and now are just considering some solutions 
(at least i hope).


So in conclusion, the replies at the FAQ on this issue are (forgive me 
if appear a bit rude but it's due to my english):
I live in north america, i have my NEO dev edition and i can't get the 
signal, what i can do?
sell your neo, it's an hardware/firmware/software issue, so it can't be 
fixed with a simple software upgrade

I need the 850 support should i buy the neo now?
No you don't have to until you want a good pda whitout the possibility 
to make phone calls

I live in NA and i usually stay in my big city, will the neo get the signal?
May be, it will probably get it but it's not assured, you can try to 
verify somehow if the bands supported by the neo are covering your area

What can i do to make the neo supporting those bands?
you can do nothing
What is FIC doing about this?
Don't know, i hope they are considering some solutions for this issue
Last but not least: which are the solutions which FIC is considering?
The solutions are:
1) do nothing, at least  for the GTA02, maybe a fix in GTA03 or 
something similar
2) produce 2 separate phone, 1 for the NA and another one for the Rest 
Of The World (identical phone except the capability to get the 850/1900 
band INSTEAD the 900/1800 one)
3) make a nice community poll to ask if the members can wait another 2 
month (the time is just something I think) to redesign the hardware and 
fix the firmware so that we can have a full quad band phone)


The 3rd solution was not proposed but it's another way to solve the 
problem, honestly i don't mind about the quad band, i live in italy and 
i don't think i'll ever come to america, if i'll do that i'll use some 
other cheap phone, but i think that it's important for other community 
member to have it working in quad band way, so i'll wait if the 
community will decide to wait and obviously FIC will consider this solution.


Cya!

Pietro

P.S. We will wait for some FIC official solution.

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-06 Thread Michael Shiloh



Mikko Rauhala wrote:

Those who cry direct to
FIC, and not on lists, about returning phones should IMAO be
accommodated; they bought a quad-band device, even if it was a
development one. However, in the interest of expediency, it'd be nice if
those devices could find new homes directly instead. A wiki-page for
I'll buy your triband GTA01 off you, perchance?)


Great idea. I'll set this wiki page up (or any of you could).



And thanks for your thoughtful and detailed perspective!

Michael

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Re: Gphone and 850, perspectives

2007-11-06 Thread Brad Midgley
Mikko

 850 MHz:
 1) Sucks for NA people, for sure. Luckily I have no intention of
 traveling there (well, maybe Canada sometime), but I feel the pain of
 those stuck there.

poor schmucks who are stuck in Canada. that's priceless. :)

 2) It _does_ seem like a big blunder on the part of FIC.

This is the kind of thing that makes leadership rethink the flow or
responsibility and accountability in an organization. It may be a
reason for the reorganizations we've heard about.

It's a great idea to get the prototype phones out there, but it's a
problem that the feedback that would have helped the situation didn't
find its way to someone who was assigned to figure it out. Especially
feedback like  I've had the phone for months now and I haven't been
able to make one phone call.

-- 
Brad

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