Phones can only last so long and my admittedly ancient BlackBerry Curve took one-too-many tumbles and now needs to be replaced. Thanks to recent changes in the cell-phone market, I'm looking to purchase a phone, outright, and get a month-to-month plan for it.
I am very privacy conscious and have, so far, avoided Apple (walled garden - blegh) or Android (tell Google everything). I suspect there are fellow Soylentils who hold a similar perspective. (My current cell provider is US Cellular. I'm open to change, but would like to avoid AT&T and Verizon --- have heard too many horror stories.)
Background: I've been programming computers since the 1970s. I've tried using Apple products, but it seems they are user-friendly to the extent that you want to do what they have already decided is okay. They seem to expose a bare minimum of controls to allow customization. That would frustrate me to no end.
So, that leaves me with Android as the other major alternative. I am leery about giving any more info to Google than necessary -- given a choice, I regularly choose an alternative over a Google product (i.e. DuckDuckGo for search, openstreetmap, etc.)
My thoughts, at the moment, are to get a phone and load cyanogenmod on it. I've read good things about the privacy capabilities it provides; especially fine-grained allow/deny access permissions. Added bonus is ability to apply updates more frequently than a telco-branded phone would provide. I have no experience with rooting/flashing a phone, so I need this process to be as idiot-proof as possible. Also, I'm leery of getting a phone only to see support for it dropped shortly thereafter.
[Continues...]
Must-have: SOLID cellular reception (my apartment seems to have plaster walls - the BB still got great reception), removable battery, removable storage (micro-SD card), WiFi, LTE (USA), good camera, and fine-grained permissions control.
Nice-to-have: hardware keyboard, tethering (i.e. use my phone to get an internet connection that I'd share with my laptop), FM Radio.
REALLY nice to have: Ability to bring up a terminal window and have full CLI ability (e.g. bash) where I could edit/run custom scripts/programs.
Size/specs: I do not want or need a phablet or the latest/greatest processors. I'm reminded of the adage to buy last-year's top-of-the-line model. For some degree of future-proofing, would like to be able to view 1080p content on it.
Other: What did I forget? What things do you wish you knew that you only found out after you got your phone?
My main system runs Win 7 Pro but I could also run a live CD with some Linux distro.
What have your experiences been? Both positive and negative? Please save me from making a mistake that you have already learned from!
I'm looking to replace my phone within the next day or so. I've been impressed with the shared knowledge of this community -- please help!
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @01:26PM
I've been happy running a VZW M8 on Cyanogen. It's been running it for almost two years and I did have to pay for the initial exploit kit that allowed me to flash an unlocked bootloader.
In general, start with a phone that has specs you like that Cyanogen supports. Then read the xda-developers.com forums for your chosen model of phone to see if it is currently possible to get the bootloader unlocked and what it entails. If forums say phone still good and locked down, pick another Cyanogen supported model and try again.
I must note there are two levels of gaining control of a phone or tab. There is mere rooting and there is having the bootloader unlocked. It will often be the case that a phone has only had root achieved and pretty much only has heavily customized variants of the stock oem load available. Some of these aren't bad. I ran a VZW 4G LTE Incredible with such a load and avoiding "Google Play Services" is at least possible in that they have to be flashed after the fact anyway.
Sometimes a clever dev will figure out how to bootstrap another room entirely using the stock loader to load some kind of "rom launcher". The gold standard is an unlocked bootloader because that lets you flash any firmware that will capably run the phone.
(Score: 1) by mmlj4 on Wednesday April 20 2016, @01:59PM
HTC is/was notorious for hamstringing the bluetooth stack, such that I was unable to use a fold-up keyboard I'd paid $100 for. Does cyanogen alleviate that problem?
Need a Linux consultant [joeykelly.net] in New Orleans?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:08PM
Good question. I never used one with it. It is quite likely a gimped driver so if Cyanogen supplies a kernel compatible with the blobs the phone needs to run then ... maybe it fixes your problem. OTG cables are something else that are commonly gimped but replacement kernel packages for the phone can fix.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @01:28PM
I had to recently get a new phone and was satisified previously with my Android experience. Unfortunately this one likes to automatically turn on the wifi and waste my battery all the time. This should not be possible, even if it is due to some preeinstalled crapware. The OS should be preventing this, and if it is due to the OS itself... thats even worse.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Wednesday April 20 2016, @03:53PM
Use the supplied tools (look around setup/about/battery/battery use) and see if it will tell you what your piggie is, otherwise get something like wakelock detector. Once you know what the problem is make a decision, keep it or toss it. I assume you have root so system apps should not be a problem, right? Sometimes you have to accept a half solution, like Walmart's out of control batteryhog where it works to force quit it when done using it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:40PM
No, I haven't messed with the phone very much yet. Eventually it looks like I will have to install cyanogenmod or something else.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:20PM
I've never had an android phone that turned on wifi after I turned it off. If yours does, there is something wrong in your settings.
And, just for the record, if you are at home/office with your own WIFI, using wifi SAVES battery, and it saves quite a bit of battery at that.
(its a lot easier to transmit a few packets to check mail thirty feet to your wifi router than three miles to the nearest tower).
Even out running errands, having wifi on, but not used is not the battery hog it used to be.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:26PM
I turn the data off too unless I am using it at the moment. As long as the wifi does not turn itself back on my battery can last for weeks. My point is, that if I choose a setting to "turn off wifi", then it should stay off. The fact that something is going on in the background despite me doing that (by default too, since this happened with all factory settings), is very bad.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday April 20 2016, @07:30PM
He didn't say what model. It might be some vendor installed package, and there might be no user controls. As such it wouldn't be an Android feature, but the feature of some particular vendor. And it might not be uninstallable without re-installing an OS.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:43PM
But I've had MANY different model from many different manufacturers and I've never ever not once found any android device that would force wifi back on when it was set to off.
Its highly suspicious.
As is his claim that it will run for weeks as long as all of his data connections are turned off. Screens burn way way more battery than radios. And I don't know a single person owning a smartphone that never looks at it, and for whom week long battery runtimes are important. People who need week long battery, and never have a need to look at a screen don't buy smartphones.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:09PM
Many people report this:
http://androidforums.com/threads/what-keeps-turning-my-wifi-back-on.754155/ [androidforums.com]
Also, I don't really want a smartphone but that is what came free with the plan. It does come in useful for 2FA though.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:48PM
Many people report this:
And all of them get it solved.
The thread is from 2013 for christ sake, and all recent posters were nubes.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/android-marshmallow-app-permissions,review-3287.html [tomsguide.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:55PM
Either way, I cannot rely on that device to respect the settings I choose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:53PM
Recent versions of Android do want to periodically power up the WiFi radio and scan for nearby APs for location-guessing purposes. There's a setting whether to allow this even though WiFi is disabled (although in that cases, it's not really disabled, right?!); I'm not sure whether this setting was opt-in or opt-out. However, this scanning is done behind the scenes, while WiFi still appears disabled to the user, so it doesn't sound quite like your problem...
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @01:31PM
We can assume at this point that all Android devices are -- or will be -- infected.
Add in all the crapware you're going to get (Thanks, Verizon!) and you might as well just start including your credit card numbers, mother's maiden name, and first pet's name into all your email sigs. You'll probably end up getting birthday cards and personal messages from your local police department ("Hey, we flipped on your front-facing camera yesterday--that's a nice outfit, but you'll never pull it off unless you lose twenty pounds.")
Screw that.
Buy this: http://www.johnsphones.com/store/johns-phone-business/item45 [johnsphones.com]
Too austere? Get a good feature phone. Head to Amazon and type in 'feature phone' and you'll see a boatload of unencumbered devices.
Alternatively, look around for what's available in your market. DO NOT go gentle into that good night.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dyingtolive on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:40PM
That phone is amazing. I really wish I could pick something like that up. Unfortunately, most of my use case for a smartphone is maps/gps. I've been wanting to get a separate garmin handheld, but I'm not there yet. Also, gps still isn't necessarily navigation. I probably could navigate by atlas (do they even still make those? They used to be free handouts at rest stops, but I haven't seen them for years) but I haven't had to do that in about 10 years.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 1) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Wednesday April 20 2016, @03:42PM
The John’s Phone Business reminds me so much of Cinco-Fone, by Cinco.
Now THAT'S a phone I'd carry, especially with the Cinco Cooling Gel.
https://youtu.be/ZG8ZKwaC1jY [youtu.be]
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday April 20 2016, @04:13PM
A feature phone would be nearly useless to me. *Talking* on my phone is one of my least-used functions. I use it a lot more for (in no particular order) 1) voicemail (no, I am not ever going back to "press 1 for next message, press 2 to delete, etc."), 2) calculator (RealCalc), 3) Tinder dating, 4) Google Maps/Waze car navigation, 5) Osmand navigation (for recording hiking trails), 6) flashlight, 7) camera, 8) web browsing (usually looking something up on Wikipedia during a conversation), 9) texting (no, I can't text on a 10-key keypad). And many times when I do use it for talking, I use a WiFi dialer so I don't burn my minutes. Replacing just some of these would require carrying around a slew of devices on my belt, which isn't going to happen, and some of them simply cannot be done at all without a smartphone.
Face it, feature phones are just obsolete.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:41PM
1) Do not buy any phone from any carrier. Just buy direct or make sure it is an international version, unlocked.
2) Run Cyanogenmod. (Their fine grained permissions are NOT substantially better than those in Android Marshmallow, but at least you know that most of the spyware will be missing. But bear in mind that Microsoft is a big investor on Cynao these days. You will have problems installing apps [stackexchange.com] unless you relent and allow the Google Play store be installed on your phone. Or you can use third party play stores, one or two of which have good reputations, the rest have high rates of compromised apps.
3) If you want to pay by phone with NFC, remember that several such solutions may not work on Cyanogenmod.
There becomes a point where its not all that worth while to go all heroic trying to avoid Google from knowing anything at all about you. Don't use their email (you just about have to have a gmail account to run android, but you don't have to use it) and turn off tracking (which they seem to honor) and you've done most of what you can do without sacrificing the usefulness of the phone.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:39PM
A thought about number 1: If getting an international phone, you need to make sure that it supports the fastest radio bands for the region you're primarily using it in.
I bought the international Nexus 5 when the phone first came out and couldn't get it onto an LTE network. Exchange it and got the US version, worked immediately.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:52PM
True, a little shopping is in order when you are buying something that costs $500.
However, the last three phones I got were ordered from the Manufacturer (usually when on sale), and they
have the ALL the LTE radio bands you will need for your country, the US and the EU.
They've finally got the radio chip prices down so that they can include all pertainant bands.
If in doubt, check out the specs at http://www.gsmarena.com/ [gsmarena.com]
..
.
.
.
Speaking of Costs...Motorola is running a 50% off sale till monday.
http://www.motorola.com/us/products/motomaker/FLEXR6? [motorola.com]
.
.from my spam bin direct to you. My wife has that phone and loves it.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @02:30AM
Where are you seeing a 50% off on Motorola phones? I see $50 off. 50% off and I would've grabbed one immediately, as I really need to get away from my Lumia 635.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:29AM
I miss read it.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday April 21 2016, @12:35AM
I use android. I use google's services, including google plus. I do not have a gmail account. My identity for all this is via my email account on my own server, which is in my basement.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday April 21 2016, @01:59AM
...Don't use their email (you just about have to have a gmail account to run android, but you don't have to use it)...
Whenever I've bought (outright or on a plan) a smartphone (both times) I've started a gmail account just for the phone, checked if a file manager had to be downloaded from the company^w android store and then nuked the gmail account. Any further apps I get from F-Droid and sideload.
I'd probably be inclined to consider Google Play if they made it easy to sort by licence. But they don't so I'm not.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:20PM
So.... why leave out the burner phones?
I absolutely, utterly, and forever refuse to give any kind of identifying information whatsoever to a carrier again. If you do, and this is unavoidably and unarguably true: You're under mass surveillance 24/7 by government .
Worrying about a phone? They lock you into the PSTN system with zero protection or support, and also apparently guarantees 60 minutes can access it because SS7 is as secured as SCADA. The more you fight to unlock that bootloader, the more you're just making a literal spectacle of yourself in front of the cell towers.
Since PSTN surveillance is completely and totally unavoidable with Verisign operating the mediation switches for the Tier 1 providers, you might as well give up. You can't secure PSTN traffic, but you can use it as an untrusted line to move to trusted ones. Fighting to secure the phone also seems quite pointless to me.
Here's what I do:
1) Get yourself the most basic burner phone model possible.
2) You're a small boy. Therefore, start installing stupid ass games from the Google play store. Yes, play with it occasionally. Regularly search for banal stuff via the browser. Whatever you do, you're acting as somebody else to provide a fake behavioral profile associated with this device. Become an actor :)
3) Texting is free most likely with the correct plan, so sign up for "Cat Facts". If you can have an automated bot, all the better.
4) Lock it into tether mode.
5) Connect your real tablet to it, treating the connection as untrusted. Meaning, use proxies, TOR, whatever you need and can do to obfuscate your traffic back to your servers.
6) Perform your communications and business over this, using very strongly encrypted connections. Doing so it is possible with enterprise phone software (thankfully Open Source or FOSS) to make that tablet an endpoint, even connected to different PSTN numbers. Texting, even straight SMS, can be moved over to this device. Many large providers for SIP services now also offer SMS at the same time, on the same numbers. So this "landline" number is now no different than a cell phone number to anyone you deal with.
7) Every 60-90 days, wash, rinse, & repeat.
I recommend giving the phone to a homeless person, or somebody in need. That way the fake behavioral profile starts to change, but it doesn't actually stop producing data points either. Anyone attempting to find you from your enterprise endpoints in use on the tablet will hit your servers first, and even then, they need to do a bit more work to identify that burner phone as the one connected. Whatever happens, the likelihood of you noticing somebody attempting to trace you could be quite high if you're the actual personnel that law enforcement would need to speak with to do so in the first place....
Yes, DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 5, Funny) by dyingtolive on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:52PM
I think I'd rather the government see me listening to some music on my way home from work than deal with the fact that cell tower triangulation reports that I seem to have someone resembling a minor at my house every two months, only to be replaced by another as their old phone mysteriously winds up in the hands of a homeless man.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 4, Funny) by edIII on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:50PM
I....
That had not occurred to me. Obviously no plan is perfect at first...
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Wednesday April 20 2016, @11:12PM
Well, I mean, the first couple might not even throw a flag. For all I know, the 50th one wouldn't throw a red flag. And for all I know, you can't triangulate position off towers (god forbid GPS doesn't disable when you tell it to like a lot of people suspect) precisely enough for it to be tracked down to you. The funny thing about paranoia though is that you don't know which of those assumptions are safe to rely on. :)
Semi-on-topic: I wonder if there's been any reports of anyone with a used phone getting investigated for things the former owner did.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @11:27PM
Are you sure you would want to tie a homeless person to your personal behavioural profile? Are you really sure about that? Yes, I know that using proxies will keep all but the most determined of law enforcement agencies at bay, but it is never going to be 100%. It seems to me that giving the phone to a homeless person in order to cover your tracks is just asking for trouble. For example, if the homeless guy is a recently released sex offender, I could easily see you having to face some pretty nasty and thorough investigation by law enforcement if that guy decided to have some rather unsavoury internet browsing habits. Just sayin'.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday April 21 2016, @06:34AM
No, that would be stupid. Which is why you keep your personal behavioral profile on your tablet, and you use a fake behavioral profile on the burner phone. Nothing you do on the burner phone should be tied to your identity in any way, shape, or form unless its via a secure tunnel originating from the tablet to an endpoint on the Internet. All of it needs to be fake, or as general as humanly possible.
If it's imperfect then law enforcement understands what the burner phone is, and what my tablet is, and the difference between them operationally. They're not confused about identities, and therefore I can call them out on that.
If it's perfect than law enforcement can only have access to the fake behavioral profile and we have nothing to worry about.
That would be really interesting since many of my burner phones are purchased with cash by a homeless person in the first place. I wait out in the parking lot for it.
Completely unconcerned though. I'm already working with the homeless and materially deprived people in my community. If law enforcement started giving me crap, I would shut those fuckers down in a split second with, "So... I can't give my phone to a person in need? I believe I can. I believe I did. I also believe you need to go deal with that person and not the one giving care packages to the homeless. If you have a problem with that... [hold my hands out to be arrested]". I'm not intimidated about dealing with cops, or that I may have to go to jail. Doing so only provides the community litigation vehicles to accomplish changes in incorrect and harmful policy. It wouldn't be the first time that cops were getting in the way of community organized efforts to help people. Sometimes they need to be reminded that just because a person is homeless the rules don't actually change on how they need to treat them.
Me giving homeless people phones serves two purposes at the same time, one of them being to provide them with some of the things they need. 30 days worth of phone service is something homeless people need, and it helps.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by khakipuce on Thursday April 21 2016, @08:33AM
So the government, assuming they at all give a sh!t about you and your data (what the hell are you doing in your spare time anyway?) see a burner phone with a large amount of encrypted data emanating from it. A few months later that stops and a new burner (what? if they have the level of tracking that your paranoia suggests, they surely know which phones have registered addresses and which don't) appear in the same area with the same volume of encrypted data.
You better not be a Muslim or look at all like you originate from the middle east.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday April 21 2016, @06:42PM
I'm attempting to create a system whereby people can exchange burner phones and specific helper programs to simulate behavior on those burner phones. The burner phone itself is reduced to a device providing an untrusted route. Nothing more, nothing less. The behavioral programs are designed to make all burner phones look the same, in so far as their consumption patterns. If successful, then we all appear to be operating a TOR network across burner phones. That's NOT ILLEGAL, so they come ask me what I'm doing at any time and I have a perfect excuse :)
Yeah, sometimes some people have to take a hit for the TOR network, but I look at that as a badge of honor should it happen.
And? They are all practically unregistered. Most people getting these things are purchasing refill cards for cash. In any case, if you have over 10k+ participating devices across the country that are unregistered that gives you plausible deniability. The same principle upon which TOR operates. The fact some phones may be registered is immaterial to providing the plausible deniability network.
The new burner phone can be somebody else's old burner phone too, which is really the point. All of the burner phones in the system are being exchanged, preferably across large geographic areas. Remember, the only thing you care about is having an untrusted route for your real device. Security considerations are fairly minimal if you are exchanging often, and you can trust a stranger far more than you can trust a wireless carrier or the government. In other words, the TAO will have a real hard time figuring out how to target you specifically. Any compromise will be treating you as a general target, not a specifically chosen one. Since you *are* treating this as an untrusted route, your real device is strongly protecting itself via firewalls and tunneling of all real communications across heavily encrypted connections. You face the same dangers with the device that you face at Starbucks.
That's extremely highly unlikely to have the same volume of data, and is trivially easy to randomize your total bandwidth usage.
Yeah, I guess not. However that has more to do with Donald Trump than anything else. There are millions of Muslims in the United States, and they live peacefully enough. I don't care what I look like to anyone.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 5, Informative) by MadTinfoilHatter on Wednesday April 20 2016, @01:33PM
SOLID cellular reception, removable battery, removable storage (micro-SD card), WiFi, LTE (USA), good camera, and fine-grained permissions control
Check, check, check, check, check and check
Ability to bring up a terminal window and have full CLI ability (e.g. bash)
Check. Root privileges without jailbreak, (even though you didn't mention it) also check.
hardware keyboard, tethering, FM Radio
No but I think a 3rd party made "another half" that had a HW keyboard. Check for tethering and nope for radio.
I do not want or need a phablet or the latest/greatest processors.
And you won't get it - but they did recently drop the price to 199€, which is nice.
What things do you wish you knew that you only found out after you got your phone?
A maximally hackable/free/open phone. F*** walled gardens - preferrably with a spiked bat where it really, really hurts.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:07PM
Apart from the fact that the UI is utterly braindead. A friend gave me a Jolla last week. I wasted no more than about 2 hours playing with it as I was shouting "that's utterly inconsistent, or deliberately double-using metaphors to represent different actions even within the same app - did you take all of the worst idiots from Nokia's Maemo/Harmattan teams, as that's the kind of idiocy that I experienced on the n900 and n9?!?!" at the phone every 2 minutes.
Still using my utterly inconsistent braindead-GUI n900... and will do for at least 15 years, as I now have 5 spares. I use it 99% for xterms from which I'm either bashing l33t command lines, or ssh-ing to other machines in order to do the same.
(Score: 3, Informative) by jmorris on Wednesday April 20 2016, @03:56PM
No you won't. The cell modem will become obsolete long before then.
(Score: 1) by Deeo Kain on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:42PM
Unfortunately Jolla's smartphones *and* tablets have been out of stock for some time. Rumors have it Jolla is financially going down the drain: http://www.igadgetsworld.com/jolla-lets-go-half-of-its-workforce-citing-financial-troubles/ [igadgetsworld.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:50PM
You can install Jolla on a Fairphone 2
(Score: 1) by oakgrove on Wednesday April 20 2016, @03:46PM
I was able to find one Jolla phone on eBay [ebay.com] right now so there's that.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:22PM
Exactly. These guys turned out to be scam artists. Stay away from them.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Wednesday April 20 2016, @04:22PM
I'll 2nd this, I do miss the FM tuner but it's a small price to pay. I ordered my Jolla off ebay from a guy in Italy. Only 3G but reception is good enough.
To be oneself, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity
(Score: 3, Insightful) by q.kontinuum on Wednesday April 20 2016, @01:34PM
Privacy-wise, the phone OS doesn't make a bit difference in my opinion. I even still use a Windows Phone. The problem is, each phone has closed source parts in the firmware, so unless you trust the vendor at least that far, you can only get a dump-phone and take out the battery as often as you don't really need it.
Once you trust the vendor to only abuse you as much as they officially grant themselves the right in their EULA and admit openly, I don't see much difference in trustworthyness of Google, Apple or Microsoft. You could go for Ubuntu phone or Cyanogen-Mod, but might afaik lose the use of push-notifications (still required for good WhatsApp-/Telegram-messaging-exerience and for some other services) and navigation software (Google Maps is afaik not open source, and while you can post-install it to Cyanogenmod, that would probably not be legal. I might be wrong, if someone knows better please tell me so.) HERE Maps is available for free, so if you manage to get it from Google Play, you should be able to have navigation on Cyanogenmod.
What you can do, however, is to set up your own Owncloud to manage your contacts and appointments. Officially at least, they should not be forwarded to your mobile OS vendor in that case. With dynamic DNS you should be able to run it from home probably even on a raspberry pi. Without dyndns you could still run it at home and synchronize only when you are in reach of your wifi. Owncloud works very nicely with Windows Phone (built in support for iCloud accounts), but you have to create a self-signed certificate and install on your phone; Windows Phone will not allow an unencrypted connection, but will accept self-signed certificates :-). For Android, you can get it working with "Easy DAV" nicely as well.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by iamjacksusername on Wednesday April 20 2016, @06:46PM
For maps, you can use OsmAnd or (OsmAnd+). It is open source with the difference being the paid version has some nice integration features for adding to the OSM database, they have polished the UI a bit and getting data directly onto your phone is a bit easier.
Email / calendering can be tough. Unless you want to run your own server, you are going to have to do desktop sync. I have a Pre3 in storage with a working copy of Chapura. I loved it - I could even sync Sharepoint Calenders that were provisioned in Outlook but, alas, WebOS is no more :(
For Android, there are a few desktop sync packages but I started using Touchdown with an Exchange account after many months of trying with desktop sync. This was around 2010 so many things have improved... I do remember CompanionLink used to deleted one random contact every time I sync'd it to Outlook. I will say, if you do not mind hosting your own EAS server, Touchdown is the best EAS app on the market. It is the only EAS app that I know of that actually supports the entire spec as of v16.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by jon3k on Wednesday April 20 2016, @01:40PM
In what way is Apple more "walled-garden" than a Blackberry? The iPhone is 1000x more powerful and has millions of apps.
(Score: 3, Informative) by RamiK on Wednesday April 20 2016, @01:55PM
Nah. Blackberry was open since at least 2010: https://news.vice.com/article/exclusive-canada-police-obtained-blackberrys-global-decryption-key-how [vice.com]
:D
compiling...
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Deeo Kain on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:45PM
Apple and Blackberry are both walled-gardens, which means they both ought to be discarded by privacy-conscious people.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:16PM
Yeah, because those bastards at Apple *never* stand up for their users' privacy . . .
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:30PM
They sure as hell don't stand up for their users' freedoms. Otherwise, they wouldn't be making proprietary software and utilizing digital restrictions management. No matter how evil the person or company, you can *always* find something good that they did, but that does not excuse their other evil actions.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday April 20 2016, @06:52PM
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:57PM
You can run anything you want on a blackberry. All you have to do is flip a switch to allow apps from outside the app store and you can run apps from anywhere.
That being said, when you run an app in this fashion, it's always a surprise to find out what doesn't quite work properly...
(Score: 1) by jon3k on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:13PM
Yes, all those wonderful blackberry apps.
*snickers*
(Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday April 21 2016, @02:09AM
Blackberry has an Android runtime, so it's actually all those Android apps.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @01:58PM
That you are disregarding modern Blackberries. I have been a bb user since 2007 and I am quite happy with my Classic. Although I will probably be picking up a Priv here in the next month because my employer will help cover it.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by redguitar2009 on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:38PM
The Classic is my favorite phone. I am not sure Blackberry has a security advantage apart from BES. I hate to admit it but I like what I hear about the Apple secure enclave and the AES keys being hidden from the CPU.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday April 20 2016, @03:28PM
The Blackberry Priv is an Android phone with some extra software and a slide-out keyboard. I assume OP is concerned that it will give Google everything, as he stated for other Android phones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @07:21PM
Actually, the Q10 has almost everything asked for. Hardware keyboard, USB and Bluetooth tethering, removable battery (noticeably lacking in all newer BlackBerry), LTE, microSD, FM Radio, CLI on top of QNX with many common tools (no root however), decent Android compatibility with some granular control and of course BB's reception quality. At least I never had a problem with it. I have a Priv now but sometimes consider going back. I really wish the Passport had a removable battery, as I would jumped on that day one. BBOS10 was considerably better than Android for everything but launcher customizability and rooting.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Zinho on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:14PM
For carrier I'd recommend Ting. [ting.com] They are an MVNO for T-Mobile and Sprint, so you can have your pick of phones that will work on one of those two networks. They do not do bundled phone plans - you have to own your phone outright, Ting is only interested in selling you minutes, megabytes, and messages. My family has 4 smartphones and a dumbphone on our contract, and our bill last month was $49 total. The contract is pay-for-what-you-use, so billing changes month to month depending on usage; we've used a few more minutes and megabytes this month, so it'll probably be $65 for April. There's a bonus program for referring friends as well; I won't post the link here unless requested, I don't want to be shilly in this forum.
Anyhow, reception is as good as T-Mobile or Sprint will give you in your area. Tethering is allowed by default in the contract. As far as service goes, it seems like a good fit for you.
For handset I'd suggest looking at BLU. I kinda wish I'd looked harder at them whem making my last phone purchase, I think I'd have been happier with a BLU than with my Huawei. Decent hardware at a good price, reputation for not bundling too much bloatware, and active developer community for custom firmware. [blu-dev.com] I can't guarantee you'll find the perfect phone, but it's at least worth your time to check it out.
One more thing, if you intend to go GSM with Ting make ABSOLUTELY SURE that the phone you choose works on the T-Mobile network. There's a guide to required frequencies. [ting.com] I suggest making sure your phone is capable of all those frequencies; I tried one that had the right 4G antenna, but was missing the 3G, and it suffered from frequent network disconnects while driving. T-Mobile's network depends on fallback to 3G to cover dead spots between 4G cells, and if you don't have it your reception will suffer. I ended up turning off 4G and falling back to 2G only on that phone; I eventually gave it to my daughter to use.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:44PM
Buy a quad-band burner, used off ebay and pay for $100 worth of minutes with cash at a t-mobile store. The minutes will last a year and the store won't require your name.
(Score: 3, Funny) by bitstream on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:24PM
You did not pay the eBay seller with PayPal, credit card or send your address? did you?
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:01PM
T-mobile keeps surveillance video from its stores for two weeks. [aclu.org] If one is buying service at the carrier's store, why not buy the handset there as well?
A phone that's kept for a year is IMO not a "burner." [arstechnica.com]
A quad-band GSM phone is desirable for international travel. The OP may not need that.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hojo on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:49PM
I've run only Cyanogenmod (CM) for several years now. It allows outstanding control and excellent updating, way better than any carrier, including Google itself.
For example, my old Galaxy Nexus was abandoned by Google for updates, but due to the support of CM guys, I'm running it to this day in a limited capacity on my scooter and motorcycle and using Android 6.0.1 (the very latest OS, in other words). Works fine.
Same for my old Galaxy S3 (used by my kids, running 6.0.1, runs perfectly).
Same for my current Galaxy S4 (still used by me, recently got the latest 6.0.1 also). The S3 and S4 are very nice in that I can hop them up with giant SD cards and enormous batteries. The S4 is 1920x1080 for display while the S3 is 720p. An S4 looks like it's around $180-200 on ebay right now.
If buying a new phone, you might wait a while and get the new HTC 10, which is promising that it will play nicely with an unlockable bootloader. I won't swap out from my S4 until I find another phone that has SD capability and good CM support. Seriously, there is nothing like having a smooth, crapware free phone that just works. I can block ads, run any damn thing I want, swap out recovery software, anything. I would never go to a walled garden as the newer Samsung or Apple phones require a user to submit to.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by richtopia on Wednesday April 20 2016, @03:08PM
My plan is to purchase a used Nexus 5 and run Cyanogenmod. I have very similar considerations to the OP, but I do use Google Voice for call forwarding so Cyanogenmod is the best compromise I can find. The Nexus 5 has one of the most active developer communities and solid hardware specs; I expect it to continue to provide functionality for a while.
If you want a more modern phone for Cyanogenmod, the One Plus One guys https://oneplus.net/ [oneplus.net] have a solid headset and decent track record for the OS. Not exactly Cyanogenmod (split from community), but a decent compromise for the latest hardware.
(Score: 3, Informative) by kadal on Wednesday April 20 2016, @02:57PM
3 weeks ago, I installed CM 13 on my Moto G (2013). It's so breezy it feels like I got a new phone. I am extremely happy. Plenty of settings for the privacy conscious too.
Just sign in to google with a fake id and you're all set. I think you can avoid that if you wanted.
The very latest moto G seemed to get stellar reviews too. The only drawback I see is the lack of 5Ghz WiFi. But it has an SD card slot, 4G support and costs only $180! The bootloaders on the older G models could be unlocked. Not sure about the latest, but seems likely. It might even come with android M installed with very minor modifications.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @06:04PM
I have and love the new Moto G, but keep in mind it doesn't have a removable battery.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:06PM
Have the Moto G (2015) and cyanogenmod works very well
Unlocking the bootloader is officially supported by Motorola, so this is probably the best combination of features and value for money in the market
(Score: 4, Interesting) by iamjacksusername on Wednesday April 20 2016, @03:04PM
I started using a Z3 Compact a few months ago. The Z5 Compact / Z5 / Z5 Premium are the current models. They also make a dual-SIM variant. It is a basically a Nexus but with a SDCard slot, amazing battery life and a good camera. The Compact series is the only Android phone on the market with a smaller formfactor (4.6") but the same parts as the 5"+ size phones which is the reason I went with it - it is the perfect size for me and doesn't have budget parts.
As far as ROMs, you can officially run AOSP as Sony provides binaries for that (6.0 is the latest); there are many other ROMS as well via XDA so you can use the fine-grained permission manager.
http://developer.sonymobile.com/knowledge-base/open-source/open-devices/ [sonymobile.com]
Out-of-the-box, it does tethering and FM Radio.
The battery is non-removable but, for this phone, I do not think it is not an issue. I say this as someone who had the 7000Mah battery for the Samsung Galaxy S3. The battery life is legitimately all day and I sometimes do not charge it for two days. I recently spent a few months on the road traveling by motorcycle using OsmAnd+ for offline navigation on it and the GPS worked really well (even in my pocket). I never ran the battery down and was using the GPS with cellular signal going in and out (lots of dead spots in SEAsia)... still had 60%+ after 8 hours on the road running navigation (with the screen mostly off).
I have not had any major issues with it. The camera takes good enough pictures (I am not a serious photographer so YMMV), never had reception issues or any problems with voice clarity. The speaker is a bit weak but that really only comes up if I am trying to show someone a YouTube video. WiFi is great and the phone has stayed speedy even with Fb messenger running. Also, it supports Miracast really well... which I did not care about until I had it. Now, I cannot imagine not having it. At someone's house and want to see your own netflix queue? Miracast. Want to show everyone that weird video clip on LiveLeak or YouTube? Miracast. Need to run a Powerpoint off your phone? Miracast.
My $.02
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday April 20 2016, @03:36PM
I have a Samsung G3 which is plenty fast, has good battery life and a nice screen.
The best feature -- it has a removable battery. I don't trust any phone these days, especially ones you can't actually shut off. With the G3, you can pop the back off and pull the battery. That's about the best security you can get these days.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by jmorris on Wednesday April 20 2016, @04:09PM
Wanna get really nuts with the paranoia? That battery pack has a computer in it too. All "The man" would need do is put just a little more computer in that battery and a microphone. So when you take out the battery it records and stores audio for an hour or two and then uploads it back to the phone over the health monitoring link when you put it back in. Pretty much by definition any conversation where you take the battery out is likely going to be interesting to the powers that be. Some phones have the modem processor handle all of the low level details like charging so it could go straight out the cell modem and you couldn't possibly know, even if you have alternate firmware, even if you hand compiled your own kernel and all of the other bits straight out of the git repos. All modem firmwares are an encrypted blob of mystery for "regulatory compliance".
We are long past the point where we should just laugh at such theories. Has it been done? Probably at least as a one off intel job by one of the major agencies.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:41PM
Nice. Before this I had only been concerned about some on-board battery backup to do the same thing, but hadn't considered hiding it in the charge controller on the battery. :-/
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @04:03PM
I would get a fairphone if i needed a phone right now. It will have at least the option to run tree different
operating systems Android, Sailfish and FirefoxOS which makes it a great choice in my book.
I am not affiliated with fairphone in any way. https://www.fairphone.com/de/phone/ [fairphone.com]
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:04PM
Use this to download your apps from the play store (no login required):
http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/ [evozi.com]
Tether with PDANet+ from June Fabrics (currently on sale for $7.95, normally $14.95). Purchase through the Play Store is not available, it has to be bought through their site.:
http://www.junefabrics.com [junefabrics.com]
Converting your contacts from Blackberry to Android:
https://www.recovery-android.com/transfer-blackberry-contacts-to-android.html [recovery-android.com]
A few notes:
The APK downloader will allow you to side load anything you can get from the play store, but there are other repositories (FDroid comes to mind).
I've been using PDANet+ for about 7 years when I travel for work (which is a lot). I've never had an issue, but make sure you keep your license key in a safe place as the free version has some limitations. It allows not only USB tethering, but BT and Wifi as well. The Wifi uses FoxFi, which is included in your purchase price.
I have never tried the BB to Android Contact converter, but my Google-Fu is strong today.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Wednesday April 20 2016, @05:30PM
In January 2016, Cyanogen rolled out an update that started advertising Microsoft applications when a user attempts to open certain file types on Cyanogen OS phones. Do I need to say more?
Perhaps one can remove that shit just like some Linux distros that tried to impose spamware on users.
Replicant [wikipedia.org] is an alternative to Cyanomod.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Philip Hands on Wednesday April 20 2016, @06:42PM
http://neo900.org [neo900.org]
A Nokia n900 with the innards ripped out, and replaced with something a bit quicker, that is as Free/Libre friendly as anything that's going to manage to make a phone call.
Of course, not yet available, and expensive, and it's a development crowd-funding project, so you might not actually get anything from you deposit, but if you're sufficiently interested in privacy then being able to monitor what the cell modem is doing, and unpower it and/or disconnect the aerial if it's not doing what you want.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:48PM
If the reason you're replacing your phone is that it's broken, why don't you just get another of the same Blackberry Curve model? You'd have your broken one for spare parts. You'd already know how to use it. Would you be able to install your paid-for apps on the new handset without buying them again? Potentially you could save time and money that way.
If by "fine-grained permissions control" you mean the ability to deny permission to an app to use certain features of the operating system, Android doesn't have that. You're told on installation what features the app uses, and you can choose to install it, or not. I've heard that iOS [howtogeek.com] does offer that feature, as does Blackberry (as you kjnow).
The ACLU obtained a document called "Retention Periods of Major Cellular Service Providers [aclu.org]" which compares Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, Nextel and Virgin Mobile from the point of view of law enforcement agencies. If you want privacy from the police, using a mobile phone in the usual way (meaning, connecting it to the cellular network) is incompatible with that.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:07PM
Android 6.0 and up support individual app permissions
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/6270602?hl=en [google.com]
"App permissions for Android 6.0 and up
Below are the app permissions available on Android 6.0 and up. The permissions you see on your device may vary by manufacturer.
To review the permissions on your device, follow the instructions under "Turn permissions on or off" above.
Body Sensors
Calendar
Camera
Contacts
Location
Microphone
Phone
SMS
Storage"
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:47PM
They are all unlocked, have pretty much any size and price point from $60 up to $400, and come with plain jane vanilla Android, no extra crap added. Oh and the things are built like tanks, I'm lucky if I can get a phone to last 6 months because I'm so rough on the things yet my BLU is over a year and a half old and still purring like a kitten. I haven't looked into mods for it because...well plain vanilla Android works quite well without all the added carrier/OEM garbage and with a quad core and a Gb of RAM it does everything I need it to do quite well without having to be futzed with. I have several customers that are even rougher than I am and after switching to BLU their phones have likewise taken a real beating and kept on going, one dropped his nearly 10 foot out a bucket truck onto pavement....scratched the screen a bit but the case that comes with them standard absorbed the impact and the phone still works great.
So if all you want is a plain no bullshit Android phone that is tough, has a decent screen, and at a great price? Check out the BLU phones. Oh and they also make WinPhone models as well, the wife HATES both Android and iOS so I got her a BLU WinPhone...she just loves the thing, its snappy and has a long battery life which were her main two concerns. All in all I have zero complaints about the BLU phones, I've been through Samsung, HTC, LG, and ZTE phones and none has held up as well or been as BS free as my BLU, just great solid phones.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:56PM
You didn't say why you needed a phone. Break your addiction and get a dumb phone.
The cheapest pre-paid cell service I've found is through Page Plus Cellular (use reseller Kitty Wireless). 4 cents per minute if you buy in $80 increments. Those minutes expire after a year, but buying more minutes extends the expiration date of all minutes.
http://www.kittywireless.com/refills/monthly-plans-and-cash-cards/ [kittywireless.com]
If you really must tether then buy a separate, dedicated tethering only plan for your laptop.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mattwrock on Thursday April 21 2016, @12:39AM
If you have truly worked in IT since the 70s, then you should be aware by now that ANYTHING over the Internet is NOT PRIVATE. You want privacy when broadcasting your radio waves? I think it is incredibly hard to practically impossible to be "off the grid". If you somehow manage this, I am sure there is enough of a profile of your to track in other ways. I personally think of it this way, use the public airwaves, but publish as little as possible. Be anonymous in the white noise, but nothing is private anymore.
Ones and zeros everywhere... I even saw a 2 - Bender
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday April 21 2016, @01:02AM
I have no answering machine or voice mail. When I come home I unplug the wall jack. Complete privacy!