On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:53:32 +0300, Yogiz <yogizz@gmail.com> wrote:
quoted text
>> Hello,
> Hi
> 
>> I consider buying Neo Freerunner, and would like to use it with Debian
>> (since its what I have on my PC). I intend to use it as my primary
>> cellphone and not merely as PDA. My problem is the Hardware bugs,
>> mainly concerning audio quality during call, listed here
>>
>
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner_Hardware_Issues#Poor_Audio_Quality
quoted text
>> :
>>
>> #  Caller hears a loud echo of their own voice #1267
>> # Buzzing noise caused by GSM radio interference #883 #1352
>>
>> My question is - would those hardware bugs be fixed in some revision
>> of GTA2 or do I have to wait until GTA3? If it is going to be fixed in
>> GTA2 how long could it presumably take before new revision will be
>> available for purchase, and if not, the same question regarding
>> presumable release of GTA3?
> As far as I know, they're software problems, not hardware and they're
> pretty close to being fixed. On the latest QT extended I have pretty
> stable call quality and no echo. My om2008.09 echoed at the beginning
> but stopped after I upgraded to testing version. This was too unstable
> for my liking however.
> 
> Yogiz

Sorry but I wanted to offer corrections: The buzzing is definitely a
hardware issue,
(http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/hardware/2008-August/000415.html)
though it affects different units on different frequencies and different
carriers differently.  (I rarely am affected, never severely, on 1900mhz US
T-Mobile in NC - travelling rural areas daily and rarely have buzz even
when signal fades to zero)) 

The echo problem's "solution" is a band-aid of sorts, turning on
undocumented echo suppression in the GSM chip to reduce the effect
dramatically (especially on cell to cell calls where the latency is more
obvious), but that's a partial correction of the effect, not the cause. 
The 'fix' unfortunately is not an onboard DSP with echo cancellation, just
a suppression feature that mutes the audio from phone to carrier when
you're not talking - like a half-duplex speakerphone cutting off the mic so
you can hear, except it cuts off the mike so the other party /can't/ hear.

That said, with the present suppression fix in place the call quality is
perfectly acceptable for me.  (The only low-level 'bug' I'm currently
bothered with is the GSM re-registration bug apparently in some GSM
firmwares, again addressed by a 'band-aid' undocumented AT command to
prevent deep sleep powersave on the GSM chip if afflicted)

j


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