The Magic Box!

Published on: 2007-10-20

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The Magic Box!

2007-10-20T00:19:00

I was creating some LaTeX Beamer slides for a presentation on FreeBird when Mobin and his Google SoC friends came with a box: The Magic Box! What is inside? What's inside the magic box? The world's first freed phone, yes, an OpenMoko based Neo 1973!! The world's first "freed" phone, and the first phone whose developers encourage you to take it apart and have fun! The phone + other stuff The OpenMoko! I hear the critics saying: "*hack* a phone - isn't that stupid - we just want a pretty phone which works". I shall ask them to go and read Computer Programming for Everybody (CP4E) . And, think a bit! Today's kids are growing up with computers - `programming' as we know it today, will no longer be an `elite' activity limited to a profession called `programmers', `scientists' or `software engineers'. The `computer' will no longer be a mysterious box to be worshipped but a dear friend `embedded' in all kinds of appliances. `Programming' will be more of a basic skill like Reading, Writing and Arithmetic - and everybody will be a `programmer', to a certain extend (just like all of us are `writers'!). Now, imagine such an `Information Society - ver 2.0' full of people who have the power to understand and control the computer (and not just click at pretty icons) surrounded by a sea of devices and software which screams out `change me NOT', `understand me NOT', `modify me NOT', `share me NOT' ... doesn't that sound stupid? Look at GNU/Linux, the Free Software movement, and the world's first freed phone from this perspective, and you will appreciate it better. Booting - close up! Booting GNU/Linux! The interface/debug board OpenMoko Manual! Thank you, Mobin and friends, for such a wonderful gift!

Pramode C.E

Wed Nov 14 16:27:27 2007

I shall try it out! Thanks for the link Manish!

Manish

Wed Nov 14 13:19:09 2007

neat... i have been seeing your experiments on your blog and ashamed i waste too much time doing mundane stuff.... i have been reading abt SBCs and gumstix interest me. Btw you had a look at gphones new SDK ? Tryout openhandsetalliance.com , they just released SDK for their new cell phone.

Brijesh

Thu Jul 10 16:28:48 2008

Dear Sir Please send me some information about this product. Price, How to use? How to pay?