Thursday, June 7, 2007

iPhone Versus Neo 1973


Can OpenMoko and the Neo 1973 compete with Apple in the Smartphone business? This is one of the only promising contenders that I have seen so far. It sure doesn't look as good, but it has a few features that make it very interesting and worth a look. OpenMoko is going where people who want to develop for this phone Neo 1973 can send programs to. The Neo 1973 is as unlocked as a phone can get and even more so than any phone today. Instead of this phone being limited to what the cellular provider or the cell phone manufacturer wants it to do, you will be able to program the phone to do just about anything you want it to do. This would make it very customizable, which would be a great thing for a phone. I have always wanted to choose the features that were what I needed and get rid of the rest so that they did not bog the phone down and make it do things that I didn't want it to do, such as "pocket calls" or "pocket pictures." I have had phones that do both of these things. One phone I had would take a picture while it was in my pocket because it had the picture button on the side of the phone and if it was presed long enough it would activate the camera. Then I would open up my phone and find 20 pictures of blackness. Very annoying. Another phone I had would make pocket calls even after I locked it, because the way it locked was easily unlocked in my pocket. These things would be fixable if you had a phone that you could choose how it locked and when or where it locked.

There are only two complaints I really have about this phone though. First, it is ugly and does not look like it will be nearly as easy to use as the iPhone because the screen is depressed. This will make input harder. Second, how will the phone run as far as stability. I think that giving it access to just about any program woud make it crash more (like a windows Smartphone). This is an area where Apple is promising to deliver. It is supposed to be very easy to use and not crash. Only 22 days and we will be able to find out for ourselves. See you in line.