Manufacturer FIC Units sold 10,000 | Type Smartphone | |
 | ||
Release date July 3, 2008 (2008-07-03) Media microSD, SDHC capable
Wolfson WM8753 Codec Operating system | ||
The Neo FreeRunner (development code name GTA02) is an open-source smartphone that is developed by the Openmoko project and manufactured by FIC. It is the successor to the first development phase smartphone Neo 1973, and is intended for users with a high demand for customizability.
Contents
Shortly before the shipping the OpenMoko project released the CAD files, the schematics and other development resources of the Freerunner (and the Neo 1973) under a Creative Commons license, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The Neo FreeRunner started shipping on June 24, 2008 and is currently priced individually at US$250 and at US$200 each if purchased in multiples of five. A debug board is available for US$99.
The Neo FreeRunner includes features that were not present in the development release of the phone (Neo 1973). The changes include 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, SMedia 3362 graphics accelerator, two 3D accelerometers, Samsung 2442 SoC, and 256 MB of flash memory.
Functionality
As of the 2008.08 software revision only the GSM phone module is working reliably; the Freerunner's hardware does not yet have fully functional software interfaces. The software development is split between Qtopia under X11, GTK+, FSO, Debian. There are also some derivates of the Openmoko main distribution SHR and FDOM (Fat and Dirty Openmoko). The vanilla Qtopia distribution is recommended by Openmoko for users not wishing to use early development stage software, and FDOM for those who want to test the latest features and fixes without worrying about stability.
It is also possible to run Inferno on OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner.
Android has been patched to run on the OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner by at least two different developers.
OpenWrt can be compiled for the Neo FreeRunner.
In media
The Neo FreeRunner makes an appearance in William Gibson's 2010 novel Zero History, as the phone initially used by the character Milgrim.
Open-Source
The Neo FreeRunner is open-source, meaning that it can be modified by the public according to the GNU Public License.