Omega Point

I’m sick. Sure, I’m getting over it now, but it’s been a couple of days. I’m not actually sure what I have, only that it sucks. So far, I’m pretending it wasn’t due to my walking to the pharmacy in the rain the day before I started seeing symptoms. No, that’s crazy talk.

Recently, it seems like everyone I know is either sick, or involved in some massive family/social life drama, or having stuff stolen. I lost one half of a pair of earrings, Eric lost his camera equipment and Rob from Social Signal had his MacBook stolen.

Rob, of course, had the courage to at least put on a brave entertaining face for the rest of us, but man… that had to hurt. After a quick “back up your data, seriously” conversation, I did just that. Badly. But I’m going to grab another drive this week, so… you know, please don’t steal it before then, guys.

In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about ways of LoJacking my MacBook Pro to produce some kind of entertaining photoblog of snapshots of whoever stole it, complete with a record of access points detected, cross-referenced to WiFiMug. (or better yet, some obsessive wardriver’s map!)

Experience tells me that stolen laptops are rarely recovered, and that photos of computer thieves are frequently faked. Still, it’s something I’m setting up just in case.

Like most Mac-owning, right-thinking individuals, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the Apple iPhone, despite living in Canada, where mobile data rates are unfortunate, to say the least. Also, the whole “closed platform” thing. That and the “how do you dial this with gloves on?” bit. And the fact that there’s no word of any Canadian release date, and there’s only two GSM carriers in Canada anyway… and they both use the same network. But hey, it syncs well with iCal and has a real web browser! I want one already!

So enough about products whose chief value is making its user look cooler and more affluent than non-owners! There’s a far more geeky smartphone just over the horizon!

Behold, OpenMoko! It’s made of Linux! FIC (not that FIC) has spearheaded the open smartphone platform with their currently-almost-released Neo1973 phone being the first capable of running OpenMoko. The actual handheld looks… cute, actually. Kind of 70s retro, like a non-translucent clamshell iBook.

The featureset is impressive, with WiFi, AGPS and a 640×480 screen, and includes everything we’ve come to expect from a smartphone, save for a camera. According to the OpenMoko wiki:

“The 2nd generation OpenMoko device will be introduced at this time. We have something special in the works, but again, you will help shape this device.”

That sounds like a camera to me, since one’s missing, but who knows?

The UI seems somewhat dated, which is not altogether unheard of with Linux, though it will obviously be skinnable in some way — a feature I’d definitely want to make use of. I’m not totally impressed by the look of the dialer in particular. I’d like to see something a bit higher-contrast, personally.

I do like the fact that it uses a similar multi-touch panel as the iPhone, but isn’t that patented? Oh. Yes it is — but maybe not by Apple.

Personally, I find the most important feature of a phone or PDA is ease of use and how well it can sync with my computer. I’m eager to see how well the OpenMoko platform does among the early adopter crowd, but for now, I think I’ll be holding off on that preorder.

Aren’t all blogs supposed to have one of these after an extended absence of posts?