Realistic plan for our own FreeCalypso phone

[david at matthews.pm]

Mychaela hello!

>
>I am getting the impression that some members of our community are
>quite displeased with my de-emphasizing of targeting Mot C1xx or
>Pirelli DP-L10 hardware in favor of building our own FreeCalypso hw
>instead, and I feel a need to address these feelings and concerns.

Please, please - it's fair to say I'm a bit disappointed, but displeased? No no no! Although I have no skills that would help freecalypso forward; I have enough experience with other software projects to understand what a massive undertaking this project is. As far as I can see, it's driven almost entirely by one person and as such that person is 100% entitled to decide where it should go. 

>
>My biggest and foremost question to the community is this one: WHY
>would you want to use a crippled C1xx or Pirelli phone when our own
>FreeCalypso phone hw can be So Much Better?  

:-) coz I already have 2 C139s, 1 pirelli (and a freerunner). I'd love to see my dumbphone collection running a practically usable version of freecalypso. BUT I have followed the technical arguments against this and I understand there are large technical road blocks. I don't have the skills to help demolish these and I don't expect M or anyone else to do this for me, unless that's something they want to do anyway. I also understand even if some suitably skilled person shares my desires, the whole thing may simply be impossible, due to undocumented chips etc. I'm not a big time cell phone user anyway and so *slightly* disappointed only.

>My solution: forego this "standard" design and go for a non-traditional
>design instead.  Use connectors for *everything* that is not on the
>motherboard itself. a lot more old-
>fashioned, but in return we gain the ability to put it all together
>without molded plastics - a worthy trade in my book.
>

To me this does sound interesting; one thing I loath about smartphones and other modern electronic gadgets is the throw-away and upgrade culture. I suspect that this plan might do away with some built in frailty?

It's gonna look weird though and it might be uncomfortable in some jurisdictions to be using a gadget that may attract attention (not for good reasons) and may be of dubious legality. nb - I am not a license worshipper (although I like the GPL) and IMO it's absurd that, provided it's use does not disrupt networks, a project such as freecalypso might be of questionable legality.

>Downsides: the hacked-up home-made phone will very, very obviously look
>home-made and not factory-made, the physical construction will very
>likely be quite delicate so the user will need to be *very* careful
>and gentle with this phone (*no* water exposure of any kind, or even
>excessive dust), 

As a careless phone user (I often forget to carry it with me) - this makes it a non starter.

>
>Male users may find this hack-phone to be a bit more difficult to carry
>in their pockets though -

Again - this rules it out for me

>
>OK, so you would have to sacrifice the solid mechanical construction
>of a standard commercially made phone for a quite fragile and very
>hacky-looking home-made one; what do you get in return?  Here is what
>you'll get:

It's of interest to me if the hardware specs result in a device that has a very long expected life span. If parts are end user replaceable if they fail +++. If you have to put on silk gloves before you pick the thing up ---!

>
>So - how do other members of our community feel?  Would you *still*
>want to use a Mot C1xx or Pirelli phone with aftermarket fw with all
>of its limitations (the inherent hw limitations of each given model
>PLUS the limitations of our fw stemming from incomplete understanding
>of the alien hw) when you have the option of getting a FreeCalypso
>phone instead?  Or would you see reason and join the forward path of
>building and using our own FreeCalypso hardware?

I think I'm gonna stick with my already stated preference - and again say I'm only slightly disappointed if freecalypso is not going in my preferred direction.

>
> Thus if some members of our
>community still desire usable FreeCalypso fw for the C139 or for the
>Pirelli (no loudspeaker, no ring, vibrate only as discussed before),
>it will be much easier for us to produce such firmware *after* our own
>FC phone, rather than before.

that would be good!

best wishes

--
David Matthews
david at matthews.pm