Thread: Neo900 - finally a successor of N900
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joerg_rw is offline joerg_rw
2015-05-19 , 19:23
Posts: 2,222 | Thanked: 12,651 times | Joined on Mar 2010 @ SOL 3
#2538
Wow, a lot of good questions :-) Here we go...
Originally Posted by Kabouik View Post
- I'm not comfortable with choosing the modem variant. I don't even fully understand the criteria that are used to differentiate them in the shop, which is not a good sign. The technical sheets are Chinese to me. Any help would be much appreciated! If it helps, I live in Europe, but if the price is the same for worldwide connection (including Europe), then I'd surely prefer it, as I happen to travel for work, sometimes.
VERY simply put:
LTE aka 4G (PLS8) is faster on data but very poor on roaming. Select your local variant for either Europe or USA. Other regions please see http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=93095 and my post a few above.
UMTS aka 3G (PHS8) is still fast enough for me (YMMV) and should work almost worldwide.
PXS8 is a PHS8 that also supports CDMA2000 data (as I understand it). We can't test that modem here since we have no CDMA networks in whole Europe. Unlike Endsormeans suggested, availability of the PXS8 is not really a question, we have very good contacts to Gemalto.
Price for the LTE variants is probably a 20..50 bucks higher than UMTS
Originally Posted by Kabouik View Post
- Is the "End of 2015" ETA a safe estimation? It doesn't need to be very accurate, but I'd like to know if huge delays should still be expected or, conversely, if the main barriers before production have already been passed (except funding, of course).
Sorry no promises on that one, like every other company's policy too. We hope for that date, but we got no crystal ball. All known main barriers are eliminated and thus we went to open up the preorder shop. That's the whole story. Now I hope I we can continue doing what we're great in: electrical engineering - instead of struggling blindly through Prestashop parameter-jungle :-)
Originally Posted by Kabouik View Post
- Will the Neo900's USB port be more reliable/solid than the N900's?
Yes, but that's actually a question answered a zillion times, please use "search in thread" tool of the forum.
Originally Posted by Kabouik View Post
- I seem to recall that Maemo 5 compatibility would be guaranteed (though I do like the Debian plan too), but I don't find it in the FAQ anymore. Has this goal been discarded?
Maemo5 compatibility is a core feature with impact to complete design of Neo900, it never will get dropped. I dunno if it ever was in FAQ, but for sure should be there. Thanks for bringing it up.

Originally Posted by Kabouik View Post
- What exactly is a down payment? Excuse me but I'm not a native speaker and I'm not quite sure what it corresponds to. If I pay 350€ now (minus the voucher), will I need to pay 640€ later (provided that the price stabilizes at about 990€), or is that just a preorder confirmation worth 350€ but paid only at a later point when the device is available (990€ payment at the end, or 350€ loss in case I leave the ship)?
In German it's "Anzahlung", basically it's a partial payment to the final invoice amount. You have a contract for a device and you will receive a final invoice when the device is ready to ship, for the missing difference between what you already paid and what the device will sell for.
So yes, your case #1 is correct.
Originally Posted by Kabouik View Post
- Is there a deadline for making the down payment, before the shop is closed/the voucher expires/the expected stock of boards or Neo900s runs low?
The voucher basically never expires. However I plan to order N900 for all those who ordered a Neo900_complete_device in a maybe 6 weeks from now, and it's completely unclear if orders coming in after that purchase of N900 will have a chance to get satisfied. Same story for other risk parts basically. For the N900 odds are I can't do a second order later on. But for sure I will try. So there's no hard deadline but several steps where your chances to actually succeed with your order will diminish. I can try to get more N900 (or whatever risk part) til the very point where we start production (and beyond, for a second batch), but odds are that it turns out we need to refund you completely (and partially in already purchased components) after first batch of devices got built and we can't build a second one for whatever reasons. It's a really complicated calculation what can get done and what has to happen when and whether or not it can get done once more. Right now is the sweet spot where all sourcing obstacles are solvable when we tackle them now. Thus the preorder Down Payment. Order now and you're in for sure

Originally Posted by Kabouik View Post
Extremely naive question, and I reckon the answer is negative, but asking stupid questions does not hurt: can we hope running Android applications in the final OS, using an emulator, development SDK or something like that, if the OS actually is Debian?
I know there's NitDroid and Replicant. No idea about VMs or whatever to run apps for android inder Debian

OK, please holler when any of the answers above was not comprehensive or clear enough.

cheers
jOERG

[edit]fontsize boost by me
Last edited by joerg_rw; 2015-05-19 at 19:38. Reason: fontsize boost
 

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