[Q] Crowd-funded QWERTY device - General Questions and Answers

I've been pondering this for a while.
I'm still on my HTC Desire Z (or G2) and the one reason that keeps me from upgrading is the keyboard. I own a Nexus 7 and I've played around with the new phones and they're awesome, but the typing experience of a physical QWERTY keyboard is still simply unmatched.
I still dream of having a device with a
Full QWERTY keyboard with Z-mechanism like on the HTC I currently have
4.2" full-HD display
At least 2GB of RAM
Quad-core processor
High capacity battery
Good cameras
Full root access from factory & vanilla Android
There are a ton of cool pieces of hardware on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and IndieGogo. I wonder how much it would cost to be able to manufacture a similar phone, with modern specs. With the right people behind it, I believe it could be a success.
I mean, these guys managed to gather 12 million:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge

No comments? I guess I'm the only one who's waiting for one of these devices then...

Sechzman said:
Full QWERTY keyboard with Z-mechanism like on the HTC I currently have
4.2" full-HD display
At least 2GB of RAM
Quad-core processor
High capacity battery
Good cameras
Full root access from factory & vanilla Android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahahaha, This is the ultimate device for some. But if this would be crowfunded. You will have alot of issues. (believe me you will)
Who's gonna manufacture it?
Who's gonna provide the software? (okay we are on a developers site but still )
Who's gonna be there for support?
etc.
We all want this kind of device. I only dont see it happening. But it ever is gonna exist. You have my support

E-13 said:
Hahahaha, This is the ultimate device for some. But if this would be crowfunded. You will have alot of issues. (believe me you will)
Who's gonna manufacture it?
Who's gonna provide the software? (okay we are on a developers site but still )
Who's gonna be there for support?
etc.
We all want this kind of device. I only dont see it happening. But it ever is gonna exist. You have my support
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, hey. Someone's gotta do it, and you have to start somewhere. Everything starts with an idea. I'm just throwing something random in the air here to see what others have to say about it.
I don't have the knowledge personally to get from start to finish, but there are plenty of people out there who do. I have no idea what it would cost, for starters, and how hard it is to get all the legal things figured out. And who knows, maybe there are agreements to be made with manufacturers.

Related

Android and the Fuze!!!!!!

so with t-mobile G1 coming out wendsday i wanted to start a post about the fuze and the android OS. i know the tilt has a bootable version and i searched and found nothing for the touch pro. so i guess my question is does anyone have a working android OS on a TP/FUZE. if there is nobody with one yet when and if one could be available. im interested in this because it is open source.
Thanks
BobMarley2k9
I am also interresting in Android. Wondering if there is something coming for TP!
Everyone's interested, but no one's making a move. No, there's nothing available as far as I know, and there won't be for a while if I were to guess.
i'd have to say that it definitely wont be here until the fuze is released, and probably a few months after that. people need to get their hands on the actual phone to roll the drivers, debug, and work out the kinks. i'm definitely interested in trying it, as this phone is one that will have the horsepower to run it on top of windows mobile (provided most everything is turned off in winmo). here's to hoping that some intelligent soul spends some time on this!
m.carroll said:
i'd have to say that it definitely wont be here until the fuze is released, and probably a few months after that. people need to get their hands on the actual phone to roll the drivers, debug, and work out the kinks. i'm definitely interested in trying it, as this phone is one that will have the horsepower to run it on top of windows mobile (provided most everything is turned off in winmo). here's to hoping that some intelligent soul spends some time on this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh most definitely, I don't see any problems running it at all... If you can run the memory hogging TF3D on top of WinMo with 288MB RAM, and the G1 comes with 192MB, I think 288MB should be just fine to run Android as well.
no kidding, with TP's spec it would run android much better than G1 does.
baboola said:
no kidding, with TP's spec it would run android much better than G1 does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
besides the whole capacitive screen thing. do you know if the android os is resolution independent? ie: will it work on the vga screen that is different from the g1's 480×320 screen?
lolz: it will look better in higher resolution!
m.carroll said:
besides the whole capacitive screen thing. do you know if the android os is resolution independent? ie: will it work on the vga screen that is different from the g1's 480×320 screen?
lolz: it will look better in higher resolution!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out zzzphone.com and find a spec for that screen, that'll tell you if it's resolution independent (unless they completely reconfigured it to that phone).
Black93300ZX said:
Check out zzzphone.com and find a spec for that screen, that'll tell you if it's resolution independent (unless they completely reconfigured it to that phone).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that thing is horribly photoshopped. i'm sorry for scammers, and even more sorry for the people who fall for it.
m.carroll said:
that thing is horribly photoshopped. i'm sorry for scammers, and even more sorry for the people who fall for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not totally sure it's a scam, but the site is horribly set up and that photochopped phone is very misleading. I wouldn't trust custom-built Chinese electronics even if it was legit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/technology/personaltech/21phone.html
You do know what they say though, when something seems too good to be true... 7MP camera, 4 stereo speakers, GPS, wifi, 512MB RAM, touch screen, $459?
LOL
Please tell me that someone listened to the "TV Commercial" on the site!
Funniest thing I've heard in a while LOL!
http://www.zzzphone.com/flash/tv-en.swf
Quote!
"We preinstall your MP3 and MP4 so your phone arrives ready to use!"
So fully circumventing licensing and copyright - NO PROBLEM FOR ZZZ PHONE!
lol! that phone gives me the Zzzz's
It might be possible now:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/21/google-opens-the-floodgates-open-sources-android/
http://source.android.com/
qazzi76 said:
Please tell me that someone listened to the "TV Commercial" on the site!
Funniest thing I've heard in a while LOL!
http://www.zzzphone.com/flash/tv-en.swf
Quote!
"We preinstall your MP3 and MP4 so your phone arrives ready to use!"
So fully circumventing licensing and copyright - NO PROBLEM FOR ZZZ PHONE!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I stopped the slideshow and left after I saw they couldn't even spell Micro SD, thats a total scammer site.
anyway ...
so now that the source has been dropped by google for android, do you all see HTC developing andriod for future phones even putting roms out for their "current" line.
i looked in the rom dev section, and didnt see anything, but would anyone on this board here be looking into writing for the TPro? I am WAY more interested in a TouchPro with Android than with windows.
i dont think the resistive/capacitive screen matters since android is supposed to be scalable. so ... i dunno whats gonna happen, but id really like to see someone adapt the TPro to android. would they have to start from "scratch" or could they somehow use the build for the G1 and change it to accommodate the TouchPro. similar hardware ... if it was released.
but if anyone has any news, other than scammer sites, id love to hear whats goin on, on the dev side.
thanks!

Some advice please.

Hey guys, I'm having a bit of trouble deciding what phone I should get.
I really like the HD2 as far as having the huge screen and it's definitely a big plus, however Windows Mobile and it's upcoming demise is a turn off. Now I know that there are people working on porting Android to the HD2, and that's something I'm really looking forward to.
The obvious alternative would be the EVO 4G, but as I'm from England, I'm never going to get one that works over here.
The other possible alternatives in my eyes are either take a hit on screen size and go for the Desire, or wait for the Droid X. My gripe with the Droid X is that Motorola is a huge turn off for me, I've had a LOT of bad experiences with Motorola products, and I just don't trust the company.
As I'm guessing some of you can tell by now, I pretty much want a HTC phone, as I'm not so keen on any other manufacturers apart from Nokia (who don't have the kind of phone I would like anyway)
So with all this said, would you either...
A) Get a HD2, use some of the amazing custom WM roms on here and wait until a fully working and full speed Android port is available?
B) Go for the Desire and take a hit on screen size, but gain all the advantages of Android?
OR
C) Wait for a while and see if something good appears around Christmas this year and make my purchase then?
Hope I haven't left anything out, budget doesn't come into it so much as I just want some ideas.
Thanks in advance.
If you are not in a rush and can wait till December wait!
If you hardly need it now go for leo definitely!
Yeah, it all depends on how long I can stand using this stupid Samsung Jet, without throwing it in the bin.
The thing with technology is that no matter how long you wait, a few months after that there'd probably be a better spec phone. So buy one when you need one. =)
Mokurex said:
The thing with technology is that no matter how long you wait, a few months after that there'd probably be a better spec phone. So buy one when you need one. =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I realize that, I was more just intrigued as to whether there might be another big screen HTC phone on the horizon.
Read here
........
Ooh, I'm VERY interested in that! Thanks for the link, any news on release date?

A Rant...

It annoys me how biased some people can be towards phones for the stupidest reasons. Just because it's not HTC, they put it down and only think of all the bad points it could possibly have even though it either hasn't been released or they haven't owned it. For example, the ATRIX is by far more superior hardware wise than the Inspire, yet people make comments that it's gonna be a fail because it's not HTC and point out that all the things better than the Inspire are useless (ffc, dual core, HDMI out, docks, 1GB ram, fingerprint scanner thingy). Yes, some of them are useless (fingerprint scanner imo) but, like, I saw a post saying "not HTC, only 5 MP camera... no thanks" which is completely biased and annoys me. They also say that motoblur is horrible and htc sense is the best, but I honestly dont like sense. It goes to far into the system and you just can't get rid of it, plus I find it slow. With motoblur its just the launcher and a few widgets. Get a new launcher from the market and its gone. I've had smartphones from all 3 major manufacturer and I can't bring myself to judge a phone based on the manufacturer. HTC is great, but not the best. They all have good and bad things to them. My experience with HTC has been bad build quailty. Plus they seem to use the least powerful innards. I know their will be flamers for this, but its the truth and i'm seeing in everywhere in general discussion.
Probably the main reason people badmouth the Atrix is because Motorola took a perfectly good product and vomited BLUR all over it, thus making it less than half as awesome as it would ordinarily be.
Not to mention they likely locked the bootloader, too...
Edit: HTC is usually praised for build quality and while they don't use the most powerful guts (likely a side effect of their allegiance to Qualcomm), they do respectably well. The things I hear HTC panned for are usually things like Sense sucking and the audio/media playback quality being terrible.
I can think of one reason to hate Motorola: EFUSE. Simple. Its draconian, it alienates a large portion of users, and serves practically no value that I could find. Htc has something similar, but wasn't it cracked really quickly?
Powered by Fission, from my DROID 2
I was hoping that Motorola would use the OMAP4 SoC over the Tegra2, but I guess that's cool of them to use Tegra2. Motoblur is kind of bad though, but better than TouchWiz to be honest.
I have had phones from both Motorola (although not smartphones) and HTC. I wouldn't get a Motorola phone on my network because all of them are kind of bad, but the ones on other networks (mainly Verizon) are pretty cool.
As the saying says "Everyone speaks according to their own personal experience"
Said that, I have been using HTC since 2005 and never had any problem!, so I´ll keep it faithful to the brand
The best devices designs on my personal opinion.
I've had both and I love my HTC. I don't really like stock Sense but custom ROMs fix that quickly. But HTCs have awesome build quality and quality control which cannot be said for motorola. That being said, the Droid X is a sexy ass phone.
Lemme join the rant.
I have no specific love for HTC, despite typing this on a HTC phone. However, I consider Motorola a good hardware company with crap support and product on the software side. Considering the bootloader, kernel, blur, etc.
Powered by Android
pl4sMa said:
Lemme join the rant.
I have no specific love for HTC, despite typing this on a HTC phone. However, I consider Motorola a good hardware company with crap support and product on the software side. Considering the bootloader, kernel, blur, etc.
Powered by Android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the time people care about what kind of experience they get from using the phone. In this case, Motorola usually doesn't deliver in the software end.
If I know that I don't want to use Motorola's version of software, I'd come here or go to another place where I can download a firmware I like better. Without that option, I don't want the phone no matter how good the innards are (not which company makes it).
That said, I'm willing to wait to see what kind of 3rd party support, if any, the Atrix gets.
Honestly it should say something about the company though if people are willing to go out of their way to either avoid or endorse it. Honestly over the past few years I have just not been hot on Motorola's build quality, its been going down hill, nor the way it treats its customers. In the end I would just prefer to vote with my wallet, and the day some one makes a phone that has a totally removable SD card memory that is totally hackable, that is the day a company will find a totally unwavering customer.
I saw the OpenMoko phone at an Linux event.
copius said:
Most of the time people care about what kind of experience they get from using the phone. In this case, Motorola usually doesn't deliver in the software end.
If I know that I don't want to use Motorola's version of software, I'd come here or go to another place where I can download a firmware I like better. Without that option, I don't want the phone no matter how good the innards are (not which company makes it).
That said, I'm willing to wait to see what kind of 3rd party support, if any, the Atrix gets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is so bad about motoblur? And even if it of tjat bad couldn55 just use a custom launcher to solve the problem? Oh and im asking; I haven't used a motorola phone yet.
Undying brand loyalty can be very illogical, but people are bound to find themselves being loyal to a brand if they've had nothing but good experiences with it.
As XDA members at least we aren't as limited in our choices, as most would be, when deciding what to buy. We have the option to tailor our software preferences to our liking with custom ROMs, themes etc, thanks to the great devs and their prodigious output!
Zephyrs said:
It annoys me how biased some people can be towards phones for the stupidest reasons. Just because it's not HTC, they put it down and only think of all the bad points it could possibly have even though it either hasn't been released or they haven't owned it. For example, the ATRIX is by far more superior hardware wise than the Inspire, yet people make comments that it's gonna be a fail because it's not HTC and point out that all the things better than the Inspire are useless (ffc, dual core, HDMI out, docks, 1GB ram, fingerprint scanner thingy). Yes, some of them are useless (fingerprint scanner imo) but, like, I saw a post saying "not HTC, only 5 MP camera... no thanks" which is completely biased and annoys me. They also say that motoblur is horrible and htc sense is the best, but I honestly dont like sense. It goes to far into the system and you just can't get rid of it, plus I find it slow. With motoblur its just the launcher and a few widgets. Get a new launcher from the market and its gone. I've had smartphones from all 3 major manufacturer and I can't bring myself to judge a phone based on the manufacturer. HTC is great, but not the best. They all have good and bad things to them. My experience with HTC has been bad build quailty. Plus they seem to use the least powerful innards. I know their will be flamers for this, but its the truth and i'm seeing in everywhere in general discussion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand exactly how you feel. Make a comment about owning and using an LG Ally. See how nasty the comments get then. This phone does everything I need it to do with no issues whatsoever. But, I get to hear about how much of a POS it is, how slow it is, how LG phones are garbage, etc, etc, etc.....blindly ignorant loyalty to a certain brand is really ridiculous.
JL
I just wish they would sell two versions of each phone, stock android and sense/blur/touchwiz. I personally dislike all the manufacturer uis , but I know plenty of people who love them.
I know that is crazy thinking, but its the reason I'm getting a nexus s, go stock go home.
Zardos66 said:
I just wish they would sell two versions of each phone, stock android and sense/blur/touchwiz. I personally dislike all the manufacturer uis , but I know plenty of people who love them.
I know that is crazy thinking, but its the reason I'm getting a nexus s, go stock go home.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too, hate them with a passion. Nexus line all the way for me, whoever makes it!
I wish Google would take a leaf out of the MS play-book and insist on manufacturers selling their devices with a stock OS. Of course then it would run counter to the open-sauciness of Android.

Its getting busy in here :-)

Wow this area of the forum is getting busy, last week there was just a few of us, now the numbers are increasing fast. I knew this phone was going to be popular, just wait till the USA gets it too
Welcome new O3D owners.
Pete
i was just thinking the same i'm a member since yesterday but i followed this forum a few days before that and it's getting real busy awesome
mmm, when is supposed to be out in USA?
I guess we all just know a good phone when we see it.
Can't believe I was considering a Galaxy S2 or an HTC Sensation over my O3D. What was I thinking?!
Lagamorph said:
I guess we all just know a good phone when we see it.
Can't believe I was considering a Galaxy S2 or an HTC Sensation over my O3D. What was I thinking?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really dude, what were you thinking. Forget about the 3d, Optimus is still better than them. Tri-Dual and the Omap4 is the key
I noticed so excited when I purchased my LG because I'm not so sure whether it is true the right smartphone for me and if it gets the community it deserves. But what amazes me it goes fast because it is not yet available everywhere. I think there are still some great things to come
I'm very close to buying one.
My main concern is that the standard 2D 5MP camera is going to be rubbish up against the Galaxy S II. However, my software support fears have been alleviated by the fact CM7 has been confirmed.
I hear the 3D really is quite excellent.
See this thread if you have a decent pictures to share - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1174827
well i started in this forum with my HTC Elfin, then Xperia X1, then Motorola Milestone, then Galaxy S, then Galaxy S2 (for two weeks) and now my journey ended with this masterpiece of a smartphone!
looking forward to flash and test and flash and so on
Robboftw said:
I'm very close to buying one.
My main concern is that the standard 2D 5MP camera is going to be rubbish up against the Galaxy S II. However, my software support fears have been alleviated by the fact CM7 has been confirmed.
I hear the 3D really is quite excellent.
See this thread if you have a decent pictures to share - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1174827
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone tell me why cm7 is so much talked about...whats so special about it? A video? I looked at the about page, and it seems its just a malware protector, themer ect. Nothing special? We already have themes?
borgqueenx said:
Someone tell me why cm7 is so much talked about...whats so special about it? A video? I looked at the about page, and it seems its just a malware protector, themer ect. Nothing special? We already have themes?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its so much more than just themes. there is deffo no malware protection. most manufacturers would probably describe it as malware!
cyanogenmod is a completely from the ground up customised version of android operating system designed for the power user with the intent of maximising the control over and performance of the raw hardware. it allows you to fully manage the settings and behaviours of your device to suit the way YOU like it.
i will honestly never buy another phone that does not have cyanogen available for it, its that good.
Things do seem to be picking up now in these forums which is nice to see.
hefonthefjords said:
its so much more than just themes. there is deffo no malware protection. most manufacturers would probably describe it as malware!
cyanogenmod is a completely from the ground up customised version of android operating system designed for the power user with the intent of maximising the control over and performance of the raw hardware. it allows you to fully manage the settings and behaviours of your device to suit the way YOU like it.
i will honestly never buy another phone that does not have cyanogen available for it, its that good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it will give us full root, and contain alot optimalisations to make the phone even faster?
borgqueenx said:
So it will give us full root, and contain alot optimalisations to make the phone even faster?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well it's not that easy...
cyanogenmod is a opensource version of android.
normal customroms are basing on firmwares of the company.
cm7 not. its based on the officual code from google.
on the one side the programmers are able to change the code more easyer and deeper than the firmwares, on the other hand its harder to port cm7 to a new device with all the hardwaresupport.
and yes cm7 is always rooted
pros of cm7:
faster (not from the beginning on)
more funktions
cooler
cons of cm7:
at the beginning there are always bugs (due the different hardware)
some functions never work (for example tv-output of the galaxy s)
at the beginning batterydrain
so at the beginning the cm7-ports to a new device are buggy, slow, batterydraining and don't support the full hardware.
but after a lot of new releases it's really great! blazing fast, cooler, batterysaving and and and
Just got my P920 hope the amount of users will grow everyday

Are there really no good qwerty phones anymore?

So I love one thing, and that is to have a phone with a qwerty hardware keyboard. I've had many many phones over the past 8 years, but the ones that I will never forget are my ADP1(Dream), and my Nokia N900. Right now I dumped my M8 and got back with my N900. But I do want the speed and hardware of newer smartphones, I see projects like the Neo N900 and I drool.
Of course blackberries and their PRIVacy which doesn't allow rooting are a no-no.
Anyone knows something I don't?
peter768 said:
So I love one thing, and that is to have a phone with a qwerty hardware keyboard. I've had many many phones over the past 8 years, but the ones that I will never forget are my ADP1(Dream), and my Nokia N900. Right now I dumped my M8 and got back with my N900. But I do want the speed and hardware of newer smartphones, I see projects like the Neo N900 and I drool.
Of course blackberries and their PRIVacy which doesn't allow rooting are a no-no.
Anyone knows something I don't?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The current times are leaving devices like that behind just like with the old flip phone. Get used to it and get a touchscreen phone.
I DO NOT GIVE HELP IN PM, KEEP IT IN THE THREADS WHERE EVERYONE CAN SHARE
True, it's not like I expect to see a whole new line of phones with physical keyboards, but every now and then something has to come up. There has to be a device coming up to cater to the needs of people like me! I know I'm not the only one who would love this.
peter768 said:
True, it's not like I expect to see a whole new line of phones with physical keyboards, but every now and then something has to come up. There has to be a device coming up to cater to the needs of people like me! I know I'm not the only one who would love this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Things like physical keyboard are a thing of the past, so much so that I doubt there will be many more devices that have them. Think about it, it costs them more to make devices with physical keyboard plus it leaves less room for screen space. Touch screen with software keyboard is the smarter, cheaper, better option. Plus, non keyboard devices makes more marketing sense given that competitors kill them in sales.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
Yeah I see that, that's why I'm looking for a device that's not too deprecated. As in the best qwerty handheld device out there for someone who can't let go of hardware keyboards, excluding a certain sprint-locked device(that's you photon q). Unless someone has seen something about an upcoming hopefully rootable(if android) qwerty device.
peter768 said:
Yeah I see that, that's why I'm looking for a device that's not too deprecated. As in the best qwerty handheld device out there for someone who can't let go of hardware keyboards, excluding a certain sprint-locked device(that's you photon q). Unless someone has seen something about an upcoming hopefully rootable(if android) qwerty device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try these links
www.phonerated.com/android_phones_with_keyboard-listbycat
thedroidguy.com/2016/11/top-7-android-smartphones-physical-qwerty-keyboards-87556
www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,3253,l=292845&a=263435&po=1,00.asp
There is also this kind of option, it wouldn't surprise me if more models started using something like this as an accessory.
www.androidauthority.com/slimtype-galaxy-s6-qwerty-keyboard-666872
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

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