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posted by mrpg on Tuesday September 11 2018, @10:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the I'd-buy-one dept.

Progress update from the Librem 5 hardware department:

[...] Making a non-Android mobile phone that will run an FSF-approved OS that supports all the features that we've all come to rely on (cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, touchscreen input) has and continues to involve a lot of pathfinding, given that a RYF phone has never been attempted before and discovery involves solving issues as they come up.

The industry offers all the hardware to create a smartphone on a fast path, as the SoC vendors typically provide the modem (cellular and wifi) integrated directly on the SoC. Like a recipe in a cookbook—take an SoC, place it on a PCB, add RAM and flash chip on top of it (called a package on package—PoP), add antennas and finally power. The difficulty comes down to the firmware and the software that run these devices. The necessary firmware to operate the cellular modem, WiFi, BT etc. is provided by the chip maker, including the drivers for the GPU and more. The firmware and software included is proprietary with no source code with little to no alternatives.


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  • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday September 11 2018, @12:20PM (6 children)

    by RamiK (1813) on Tuesday September 11 2018, @12:20PM (#733115)

    The bottom shouldn't have ports and you should leave one side clear from buttons, ports and switches. The reason is that people like propping their phones on their chests when laying back or at their laps while sitting in vertical and horizontal positions depending on content (browsing / gaming / watching films / reading) WHILE cables are connected (power/headphones). So, if the speaker and ports are at the bottom, they'd surf with the phone upside down and then need to flip when a call comes through. And if there buttons and switches at both sides, they'll accidentally trigger stuff incorrectly when propping the device horizontally.

    There's also issues with docking stations if the cables are coming in from the bottom...

    If short on room you can put the card slots on the bottom bellow the mic and led.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 11 2018, @12:24PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 11 2018, @12:24PM (#733116)

    Is that really your priority for this phone?

    • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday September 11 2018, @12:45PM (2 children)

      by RamiK (1813) on Tuesday September 11 2018, @12:45PM (#733125)

      Priority suggests needing to compromise something in order to get better agronomic. That's not the case. You can retain the same features and have the same ports, switches and slots without sacrificing usability by arranging the PCB differently.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 11 2018, @01:06PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 11 2018, @01:06PM (#733129)

        I'm sure there was some strategy applied to the arrangement. Eg in this case they need to put the hardware switches in a convenient place.

        • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday September 11 2018, @02:13PM

          by RamiK (1813) on Tuesday September 11 2018, @02:13PM (#733150)

          What's convenient about them being buried in your palm? At best, they're deliberately made inaccessible to prevent accidental switch-offs: https://puri.sm/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018-07-26-dev-kit-blueprint.jpg [puri.sm]

          But if that's the case, why not put the switches on the top and everything else on the left? This way you'd still get the bottom and right clear and the switches separated from the buttons. And you could still put the SIM and microsd tight on the right/bottom if you can't fit it all on the left since those aren't extended with cables...

          Really, lots of way to go about this better.

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 11 2018, @03:33PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 11 2018, @03:33PM (#733174)

    Questionable agronomic.

    As long as the crop is plenty and healthy, who cares how questionable is the agronomy?

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by RamiK on Tuesday September 11 2018, @04:43PM

      by RamiK (1813) on Tuesday September 11 2018, @04:43PM (#733205)

      Ergonomics... The sad part is that I learned Latin and when the spell check corrected argonomics to agronomic, I was wondering where did the etymology go from farming to comfortable design.

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