These were supposed to launch about a year ago, but the rocket kept being delayed.
The phones are Nexus Ones (and a Nexus S, which I didn't work on so I cannot comment) with a custom kernel to enable their serial port.
Are these within reach of an individual to build, if not to launch?
If I build one, how do I launch it?
Why do the signals need to be crowdsourced over Ham?
What are your personal favorite/most cool applications for lots of cheap satellites?
* Yes, definitely. One of the sats was even hand soldered.
* You talk to NASA, the cost to launch one commercially would be around $20K. We mostly piggybacked on a rocket that was being tested.
* Because there was no budget for following these things on the ground, honestly :) Plus it gets people involved.
* We were talking about having these things detect circular cloud formations to indicate a possibly forming hurricane, and having a "real" weather sat take a better look on its next pass.
The phonesats waited in a box for more than a year in order to find room.
* Technical hurdles not really, but there was a lot of bureaucracy involved.