Close to the Edge^H^Hit

The Ubuntu Edge project seems to be a worthy attempt to crowd-source a phone. The "Formula 1" analogy that Shuttleworth uses is broken though; Formula 1 cars are prestige platforms for transporting brands in front of television cameras at carefully regulated speeds. A better analogy would be the production-concepts that car makers put out, in runs of tens at best which contain a lot of new tech and ideas. 

The Edge specs are interesting enough, but not that remarkable - 3GB low power RAM chips are just going into production so 4GBs should be coming on stream early next year. 128GB SSDs are around now, though there'll have to be some squeezing done to get them in and quick; one assumes SSDs being used to move the levelling tech off the CPU and onto hardware but I'm not sure what this buys apart from a device which can run with standard desktop Linux filesystems. 

4 core processor with no other detail, not even architecture; well yes we have quad-cores now... in ARM and in ULV Intel chips (so I wouldn't assume the Edge is ARM yet) thats all possible though no talk of GPU leaves that all vague. 1280x720 display with good colour repro... easy enough. Sapphire glass display - hardly new and in the volumes being talked about, pretty doable, but expensive. 

And then there's the elephant in the room. The battery. The non-removable battery. The non-removable Silicon Anode battery. What is Silicon Anode? Well, your current generation of mobile phone battery uses a graphite anode and thats pretty much what sets how much juice you can squeeze into the battery. Silicon is more juice absorbing, so clever chemists have been working on making anodes of silicon. 

But there's a problem; silicon anode batteries are prone to swell and crack when being recharged. So there are a number of startups working on how to solve this problem and turning out iteratively improved versions of batteries as prototypes in early trials.  Right now, these batteries are only being produced on pilot lines and these are first generation partial silicon batteries. Second generation batteries are scheduled for 2014, but full silicon anode batteries are further out. 

So, the real bet on the Ubuntu Edge is the first generation, new technology battery. I'm not a betting man, but if specifications are subject to change, I'd be putting my money on that specification changing.