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Author Topic: Anyone Know any GPL Smart Devices? Phones/Tablets?  (Read 3,341 times)

Renegade

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Anyone Know any GPL Smart Devices? Phones/Tablets?
« on: February 26, 2013, 02:56 AM »
I'm looking to see what's out there for GPL compatible smart devices - phones & tablets.

I've seen this:

http://zareason.com/shop/zatab.html

But they're sold out.

My searches seem to turn up jack today (or my cold is just making me stupid), so I'm wondering if anyone could point me to anything.
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4wd

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Re: Anyone Know any GPL Smart Devices? Phones/Tablets?
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2013, 04:15 AM »
AuraSlate - Open source tablet.

I think they're still just shipping development kits though, not a fully finalised product.

US$99 for the 7" and US$179 for the 10".

However, this post in xda-developers may give pause for thought, (it's 9 months old though):
Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by garuhhh View Post
Anybody have tried this tablets? The website says it's open for deliveries. The 7 inch version is just 150usd

Adam Outler did an "unboxing" with the 10 inch version.

I'm interested with a review of any of the unit, have any suggestion?
At least Adam's first impression (him being an actual device owner) and mine (based on reading through their site) is they are not nearly as open as they claim to be.

1-2 months ago they were providing ICS firmwares without kernel source - that's less open than any legitimate Android tablet manufacturer. Not sure if they've rectified these issues, but any vendor claiming to be open source/open hardware should NEVER have done that except by accidental error - however there was a post in their forums effectively saying they were withholding source.

http://auraslate.freeforums.org/kernel-for-ics-t53.html - found it, see auraslateadmin's post - This is UNACCEPTABLE from ANY company, ESPECIALLY one that claims to be open source. If you have provided a kernel binary to the public, you MUST provide source code upon request.

Auraslate's marketing of being "open" is a blatant lie - they keep talking about how open they are to sell devices, but then withhold kernel source.
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« Last Edit: February 26, 2013, 04:20 AM by 4wd »

Renegade

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Re: Anyone Know any GPL Smart Devices? Phones/Tablets?
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2013, 07:50 AM »
Hmmm... Their last blog post was last April...

Quote
Upgrade at your own risk as usual, please don't complain.

Gives more cause for pause...

From their price page:

Quote
Not intended for Consumer use.

It seems they might be in a bit over their heads for normal use.

Thanks for pointing it out though.
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