I’ve been keeping my eye on open source cell phones for a while now. After a few delays, Phase 1 of the OpenMoko based FIC neo1973 is finally available to developers. You can get the Neo Base kit ($300) for application developers, or the Neo Advanced kit ($450) which is dubbed the “hacker’s dream box.” OpenMoko bills itself as the first integrated open source mobile communications platform. Their tag line is “Free Your Phone.” There is also a developer’s portal called openmoko.org.

The software is based on a Linux 2.6 kernel, X11, Matchbox, GTK+ and KDrive with various layers added by the OpenMoko community. The hardware is based on a Samsung chipset and includes GSM/GPRS, AGPS, Bluetooth, USB and a 2.8″ 480×640 touchscreen. The Phase 2/Mass Market hardware, set for release in October, will include a faster processor and WiFi.

There’s another Linux based cell phone development platform that’s been out for a while called the Greenphone. It’s from Trolltech, the software company responsible for the Qt software framework. The Greenphone is based on a Linux 2.4 kernel and Qtopia, an embedded Linux device version of Qt. The Greenphone has a QVGA touchscreen, GSM/GPRS, Bluetooth, USB, and a 1.3 megapixel camera. The development phone device costs $695 and the software is available for the development community under a GNU GPL. The phone and software can be ordered from the Trolltech Web Shop. There is also a developer portal at qtopia.net. I don’t believe the Greenphone is ever intended for the mass market, only as a reference platform.

Technorati Profile

Once again, I seem to be falling behind with my blogging. It looks like it’s been 3 weeks since my last pose here. I did post a couple time on my other blogs. One post was related to the release of the iPhone on geek blog. The other was a recap of the backpacking trip Mary and I went on to Chilnualna Falls in Yosemite on my travel blog.

On the hiking front, we did a couple of evening hikes to Mission Peak near the full moon. We’d basically hike up to the peak and watch the sunset, then hike down in the dusk. When the moon comes out nearly full, there’s more than enough light to see the trail. The first time we went, Chris and Ashley joined us. On the way down, we were able to spot the Space Shuttle and International Space Station fly by. On the second trip, Ashley came with her mom and we had birthday cake for her mom at the top as the sun was setting. That was pretty nice. There are a few more pictures of the sunset views on my gallery.

Our weekend have been pretty busy. First we had the backpacking trip. The next weekend we hiked Mission on Saturday, then when to visit with my friend Linda (and Paul and Kate) who were visiting Berkeley from Boston. On that Sunday we went to Mary’s company picnic. This past weekend we hiked Mission and went to a barbecue at Joe and Cam’s house. We stopped by Don Edward’s and the Alviso area a few times and recently saw some kestrels there (picture on right). We’ve also been visiting downtown to look for the falcons. They are all still around. I’ve posted a few more pictures on my gallery and someone also set up a wiki page.

On the 4th of July, Mary and I went out on San Francisco Bay to watch the San Francisco fireworks. Our friend Matthieu has a sailboat, but he ended up having too many people interested in going. Fortunately, one of his friends with a boat also wanted to go out, so we split the group across two boats. Mary and I (and Mary’s brother) ended up on the other boat captained by Robert and his “crew”, Patrick. We had a great time and the fireworks were beautiful. I forgot my camera, but Matthieu has some pictures posted here. You can see the boat Mary and I were on in the 9th picture. Matthieu’s boat had some problems on the way back to the harbor. We ended up getting home at 3 AM.

On the work front, I’m moving forward on the green/clean tech venture with Nate from Berkeley. The product concept is a more efficient home thermostat using a wireless sensor network and some algorithms developed by Nate during his PhD research to improve home heating and cooling efficiency by 30% while generally improving the comfort level. We’re working on a business plan to build a company around this initial product. We haven’t yet decided on a company name. We did submitted our entry to the California Clean Tech Open in the Smart Power category. The finalists for this business plan competition will be announced on July 26. Hopefully we’ll make it at least that far.