Wish List - Hardware

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**The tag could be switched on or off. A nice feature would be a module able to clone tags. This would unfortunately probably be rather expensive.
 
**The tag could be switched on or off. A nice feature would be a module able to clone tags. This would unfortunately probably be rather expensive.
  
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Revision as of 17:44, 16 February 2007

Contents

Hardware enhancements

Some small hardware enhancement could be cheap, but very useful. Please add your ideas/wishes here:

Video-capable camera
  • preferably in rotatable turret set into top of unit, so it can face in either direction, making it useful for video conferencing. For a phone to stand a chance in the modern market it will need a camera else it is likely that it won't be bought.
Integrated WiFi hardware
  • To sync data
  • To access Internet when WiFi is available (at home, work, school, friends)
  • For VoIP (this uses much power but maybe the user have the charger connected)
    • I'm willing to port Yate to it if the Internet connectivity issue is solved --@Dexter 13:58, 16 February 2007 (CET)
  • for videoconferencing (as with AccessGrid)
  • Even 802.11b 11Mbps -only would do -- the point is being able to connect it to the Internet without incurring the (sometimes huge) costs of GPRS or (even worse) HSCSD.
LED
  • A blinking LED would be cheap and low power, good for informing the user about new SMS/Email....
    • A simple alternative to this would be for one small segment of the LCD to be seperately backlit. There are typically many LEDs in the backlight, all normally on equally. This has the large advantage that you can display reasonable amounts of information on the bit of the screen that's illuminated. The disadvantage is the field of view is smaller, and it's comparatively dimmer, as the LCD absorbs some light.
  • Note: the LED and button ideas could be combined: illuminated buttons
  • A yellow LED for GSM/GPRS Tx burst, a blue one for Bluetooth/WiFi Tx burst, a green one for non-urgent notifications (sleep state, missed call etc.) and a red one for urgent notifications (battery almost drained out, new SMS etc.). All of this could be done in one, multicoloured (RGB) LED, similar to the nice one on the Yaesu VX-7R.
D-Pad and Buttons
  • Adding a D-pad (to the bottom of the phone) and 2 to 4 buttons (to the top) would provide some tactile input controls, in addition to the touchscreen. They could be used as shortcut keys in the menu, or playback control when playing media. When the phone is held sideways, they can be used as games controls. (With touchscreen alone, gameplay options are limited)
Accelerometer

This enables the phone to sense where 'down' is - to enable various options.

SIR transceiver
  • Could be used to detect when to turn off the display (if the low power IR signal is reflected) and activate the key lock. And could be used as a remote. iPhone has a proximity sensor.
  • FIR would be nice as well, but I would settle for SIR if it would be added. Linux already has a working IrDA stack so the standard part would be satisfied. I would be more than glad to write lirc thingies for OpenMoko then :)
Standard 3.5mm jack
  • I think everyone interested (and knowledgeable) enough to buy a Neo can make a 2.5mm male to 3.5mm female adaptor cable in under 1/2h and under 10EUR :-)

Certainly - now make it light, small, pretty, durable, tangle-free. I want a 3.5mm jack. The only problem is - are headsets widely available in the same format as 2.5mm. --Speedevil 14:28, 16 February 2007 (CET)

Multitouch screen
Multi I/O adapter
  • VGA, standard Jack (line in & out), standard USB
MMC/SD/SDIO slot (rather than?) miniSD or microSD
  • Cheaper cards
  • More durable cards
  • Cards are harder to lose
  • Wider selection of accesories, including SDIO accessories.
  • More widely accepted format
  • Only because CF takes too much room (or CF would be the wish, instead)
Expansion Back
  • Replacement backs with additional features
  • I believe this would be a great idea, if put into practice. It would solve the extensibility need, usually associated with Open Source projects. It would allow for lots of other devices and for functionality to be developed and put into use without making it a burden for FIC.
Thumb keyboard or keyboard attachment accessory
  • Could be slide out or clamshell (hinge on long side) design with an external OLED. The keyboard should be protected when not in use.
  • Could be a clip on keyboard that attaches to the serial port or communicates by bluetooth (not preferred for permanent keyboard users).
  • cheap clippable miniusb keyboard
LASER keyboard (can be a full QWERTY keyboard)
  • someone knowing sth about the price?
    • This doesn't sound like it is likely to be cheap, and (at least for myself) I'm looking for a phone/pda/mp3 player, not for a very bad personal computer with a tiny screen that I can barely read. If it were cheap enough, I suppose it would not be a problem, but I doubt I'd pay a premium for it...--Perry 14:52, 15 February 2007 (CET)
    • I see. I thought sth. like that. In my opinion it would be better to implement an IrDA connector or use the bluetooth interface to connect to a small keyboard. So you could use it if you want but not everyone has to pay the price for such an exclusive feature --denis_std 19:47, 15 February 2007 (CET)
EDGE support
Ability to insert more than one Sim-Card and (if possible) connect to more than one network at the same time
RFID tag
  • Advantages of a RFID tag? I would see a lot privacy problems
    • The tag could be switched on or off. A nice feature would be a module able to clone tags. This would unfortunately probably be rather expensive.
Powered USB 2.0 host
UMTS support
Dump the egg-shaped case design and go rectangular for more screen space
A standard slip-on or clip-on template (possibly with buttons) to make the touch-screen blind accessible
Speakerphone functionality
Reposition Speakers
  • putting the two speakers on opposite sides of the screen would make the stereo sound much more effective

The screen is 2.8" across. That's not especially effective. Also, the speaker noise does come out the side - look at the grills in the pictures. --Speedevil 06:19, 16 February 2007 (CET)

Small metal frame for protection (like Siemens M65, only with more style)
free GPIO ports on a connector to allow easy, simple hardware extensions
Video acceleration

Hardware acceleration for video playback.

3D acceleration

3D hardware acceleration for 3D games, GUIs, etc. (maybe a PowerVR MBX Lite ?).

Alcohol Sensor

Alcohol sensor adjacent to microphone. It doesn't have to be accurate, just has to detect any amount of alcohol on the speaker's breath. I understand this is a very narrow market, but alcohol is on every parent's mind.


Disinfection UV-Light

I had read about it in an Article on http://www.americanairandwater.com/UV-news/. But Motorola patents it. Yes - finally a way to stop the billions of annual deaths due to cellphone infections! --Speedevil 14:04, 16 February 2007 (CET) It´s just something that flying in my head... It´s not the first "unreal" or "useless" idea. Just for fun! --MookiE 14:51, 16 February 2007 (CET)

More seriously - UV of the required frequency is inherently eye-damaging. Also, as I understand it, there are actually no UV LEDs that will reliably produce 'germicidal' UV. The most expensive - and they are very expensive - ones produce UV of a sort that may kill very susceptible bacteria, but comparatively few. IIRC the LEDs are $20 per. --Speedevil 15:11, 16 February 2007 (CET)

Personal tools

Hardware enhancements

Some small hardware enhancement could be cheap, but very useful. Please add your ideas/wishes here:

Video-capable camera
  • preferably in rotatable turret set into top of unit, so it can face in either direction, making it useful for video conferencing. For a phone to stand a chance in the modern market it will need a camera else it is likely that it won't be bought.
Integrated WiFi hardware
  • To sync data
  • To access Internet when WiFi is available (at home, work, school, friends)
  • For VoIP (this uses much power but maybe the user have the charger connected)
    • I'm willing to port Yate to it if the Internet connectivity issue is solved --@Dexter 13:58, 16 February 2007 (CET)
  • for videoconferencing (as with AccessGrid)
  • Even 802.11b 11Mbps -only would do -- the point is being able to connect it to the Internet without incurring the (sometimes huge) costs of GPRS or (even worse) HSCSD.
LED
  • A blinking LED would be cheap and low power, good for informing the user about new SMS/Email....
    • A simple alternative to this would be for one small segment of the LCD to be seperately backlit. There are typically many LEDs in the backlight, all normally on equally. This has the large advantage that you can display reasonable amounts of information on the bit of the screen that's illuminated. The disadvantage is the field of view is smaller, and it's comparatively dimmer, as the LCD absorbs some light.
  • Note: the LED and button ideas could be combined: illuminated buttons
  • A yellow LED for GSM/GPRS Tx burst, a blue one for Bluetooth/WiFi Tx burst, a green one for non-urgent notifications (sleep state, missed call etc.) and a red one for urgent notifications (battery almost drained out, new SMS etc.). All of this could be done in one, multicoloured (RGB) LED, similar to the nice one on the Yaesu VX-7R.
D-Pad and Buttons
  • Adding a D-pad (to the bottom of the phone) and 2 to 4 buttons (to the top) would provide some tactile input controls, in addition to the touchscreen. They could be used as shortcut keys in the menu, or playback control when playing media. When the phone is held sideways, they can be used as games controls. (With touchscreen alone, gameplay options are limited)
Accelerometer

This enables the phone to sense where 'down' is - to enable various options.

SIR transceiver
  • Could be used to detect when to turn off the display (if the low power IR signal is reflected) and activate the key lock. And could be used as a remote. iPhone has a proximity sensor.
  • FIR would be nice as well, but I would settle for SIR if it would be added. Linux already has a working IrDA stack so the standard part would be satisfied. I would be more than glad to write lirc thingies for OpenMoko then :)
Standard 3.5mm jack
  • I think everyone interested (and knowledgeable) enough to buy a Neo can make a 2.5mm male to 3.5mm female adaptor cable in under 1/2h and under 10EUR :-)

Certainly - now make it light, small, pretty, durable, tangle-free. I want a 3.5mm jack. The only problem is - are headsets widely available in the same format as 2.5mm. --Speedevil 14:28, 16 February 2007 (CET)

Multitouch screen
Multi I/O adapter
  • VGA, standard Jack (line in & out), standard USB
MMC/SD/SDIO slot (rather than?) miniSD or microSD
  • Cheaper cards
  • More durable cards
  • Cards are harder to lose
  • Wider selection of accesories, including SDIO accessories.
  • More widely accepted format
  • Only because CF takes too much room (or CF would be the wish, instead)
Expansion Back
  • Replacement backs with additional features
  • I believe this would be a great idea, if put into practice. It would solve the extensibility need, usually associated with Open Source projects. It would allow for lots of other devices and for functionality to be developed and put into use without making it a burden for FIC.
Thumb keyboard or keyboard attachment accessory
  • Could be slide out or clamshell (hinge on long side) design with an external OLED. The keyboard should be protected when not in use.
  • Could be a clip on keyboard that attaches to the serial port or communicates by bluetooth (not preferred for permanent keyboard users).
  • cheap clippable miniusb keyboard
LASER keyboard (can be a full QWERTY keyboard)
  • someone knowing sth about the price?
    • This doesn't sound like it is likely to be cheap, and (at least for myself) I'm looking for a phone/pda/mp3 player, not for a very bad personal computer with a tiny screen that I can barely read. If it were cheap enough, I suppose it would not be a problem, but I doubt I'd pay a premium for it...--Perry 14:52, 15 February 2007 (CET)
    • I see. I thought sth. like that. In my opinion it would be better to implement an IrDA connector or use the bluetooth interface to connect to a small keyboard. So you could use it if you want but not everyone has to pay the price for such an exclusive feature --denis_std 19:47, 15 February 2007 (CET)
EDGE support
Ability to insert more than one Sim-Card and (if possible) connect to more than one network at the same time
RFID tag
  • Advantages of a RFID tag? I would see a lot privacy problems
    • The tag could be switched on or off. A nice feature would be a module able to clone tags. This would unfortunately probably be rather expensive.
Powered USB 2.0 host
UMTS support
Dump the egg-shaped case design and go rectangular for more screen space
A standard slip-on or clip-on template (possibly with buttons) to make the touch-screen blind accessible
Speakerphone functionality
Reposition Speakers
  • putting the two speakers on opposite sides of the screen would make the stereo sound much more effective

The screen is 2.8" across. That's not especially effective. Also, the speaker noise does come out the side - look at the grills in the pictures. --Speedevil 06:19, 16 February 2007 (CET)

Small metal frame for protection (like Siemens M65, only with more style)
free GPIO ports on a connector to allow easy, simple hardware extensions
Video acceleration

Hardware acceleration for video playback.

3D acceleration

3D hardware acceleration for 3D games, GUIs, etc. (maybe a PowerVR MBX Lite ?).

Alcohol Sensor

Alcohol sensor adjacent to microphone. It doesn't have to be accurate, just has to detect any amount of alcohol on the speaker's breath. I understand this is a very narrow market, but alcohol is on every parent's mind.


Disinfection UV-Light

I had read about it in an Article on http://www.americanairandwater.com/UV-news/. But Motorola patents it. Yes - finally a way to stop the billions of annual deaths due to cellphone infections! --Speedevil 14:04, 16 February 2007 (CET) It´s just something that flying in my head... It´s not the first "unreal" or "useless" idea. Just for fun! --MookiE 14:51, 16 February 2007 (CET)

More seriously - UV of the required frequency is inherently eye-damaging. Also, as I understand it, there are actually no UV LEDs that will reliably produce 'germicidal' UV. The most expensive - and they are very expensive - ones produce UV of a sort that may kill very susceptible bacteria, but comparatively few. IIRC the LEDs are $20 per. --Speedevil 15:11, 16 February 2007 (CET)