Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
Smartphone users are usually torn between the two choice — Android or iOS. Their dominance is such that other competing OS like Windows, BlackBerry OS, or Symbian have almost been abandoned.Those who don't want either of them can opt for Pine64's Linux phone dubbed the PinePhone which offers good hardware and software at an affordable rate of $149.
The phone's specs aren't great, but it does include a headphone jack (I wonder if it's capable of using the JACK audio system?) and the article notes that it may provide physical switches for disabling various components. The company behind it, Pine64, also produce the PineBook Linux laptop, which also use an ARM processor.
Source: https://fossbytes.com/pinephone-linux-smartphone-149/
Related: Kickstarter: Pine A64, Cheaper and More Powerful than Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
Related Stories
Tom's Hardware is highlighting a Kickstarter project for the Pine A64, a 64-bit computer board competing on specs with the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B:
Essentially, the Pine A64 can be viewed as a more powerful next-generation Raspberry Pi device. The Pine A64 contains a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU clocked at 1.2 GHz. Compared to the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B that was released earlier this year and uses four Cortex-A7 cores clocked at 900 MHz, not only does the Pine A64 have a higher clock speed, but it also has a more advanced architecture, which consumes less power and achieves greater performance.
For graphics processing, the Pine A64 uses the dated Mali-400 MP2 GPU. Although we cannot compare the performance of the GPU inside of the Pine A64 to the VideoCore IV inside of the Raspberry Pi without testing both devices, Pine64 stated that the Pine A64 will be capable of 4K video playback, whereas the Raspberry Pi is limited to a resolution of 1920x1200. This gives the Pine64 an edge and should help to attract users planning to use it as a small HTPC system.
The two main options, Pine A64 and Pine A64+, cost $15 and $19 respectively. The A64+ comes with double the RAM (1 GB DDR3 vs 512 MB DDR3) and three additional ports for camera, touch panel, and LCD accessories. Other price tiers come with 2 GB of RAM, and 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Developers: How PINE64 is creating a community to compete with Raspberry Pi's
One of the consequences of the explosive popularity of the Raspberry Pi is the flourishing of competing ecosystems of single-board computers (SBCs). Aside from the accessibility a $35 price tag offers, the foremost benefit of the Raspberry Pi is the community—the proliferation of projects and integrations that center around the Raspberry Pi, and the ease-of-use that creates, makes competing products that look better on spec sheets a disappointment when taken out of the box.
PINE64 has attempted to head this off by fostering an involved community; the PINE64 website explains their philosophy as "the community gets to actively shape the devices, as well as the social platform, of PINE64 from the ground up. The goal is to deliver ARM64 devices that you really wish to engage with and a platform that you want to be a part of." The first-generation Pinebook was available in an 11.6" or 14" configuration, with a quad-core Allwinner A64, 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC, and 1366x768 display for $99, beating Nicolas Negroponte's OLPC XO-1, a decade after that project sputtered.
PINE64 is differentiating itself by building not just SBCs, but notebooks, tablets, and phones with community input and feedback. Ahead of the release of the Pinebook Pro this summer, a Rockchip RK3399-based ARM laptop with 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB eMMC, and a 14" 1080p display, TechRepublic interviewed PINE64 community manager Lukasz Erecinski about the Pinebook Pro, and the PINE64 community philosophy.
Previously: Kickstarter: Pine A64, Cheaper and More Powerful than Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
PinePhone Linux Smartphone Priced at $149 to Arrive This Year
Pinebook Pro Update: The $199 Linux Laptop is Almost Ready to Go
The GNU/Linux-based smartphone, PinePhone, has begun shipping. It uses the same Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit System on a Chip (SOC) as the the Pine64 Single Board Computer (SBC) and thus it also runs mainstream GNU/Linux. The goal is to provide a hardware platform for a wider variety of Linux-on-Phone projects. Hardware availability is expected to be five years.
Lilliputing: PinePhone Braveheart Linux smartphone begins shipping January 17th
The PinePhone is an inexpensive smartphone designed to run Linux-based operating systems. Developed by the folks at Pine64, the $150 smartphone was first announced about a year ago — and this week the first units will ship.
Herald Writer: The PinePhone begins delivery—a Linux-powered smartphone for $150
The PinePhone is powered through an Allwinner A64 SoC, which options 4 Cortex A53 CPUs at 1.2GHz, constructed on an attractive historical 40nm procedure. This is similar chip the corporate makes use of at the PINE A64 unmarried board pc, a Raspberry Pi competitor. There are 2GB of RAM, a Mali-400 GPU, 16GB of garage, and a 2750mAh battery. The rear digicam is 5MP, the entrance digicam is 2MP, the show is a 1440×720 IPS LCD, and the battery is detachable. There is a headphone jack, a USB-C port, and strengthen for a MicroSD slot, which you'll if truth be told boot running techniques off of. The mobile modem is a big separate chip this is soldered onto the motherboard: a Quectel EG25-G.
Earlier on SN:
PinePhone Linux Smartphone Priced at $149 to Arrive This Year (2019)
Librem 5 Backers Have Begun Receiving Their Linux Phones (2019)
If you missed out on the last pre-order for the BraveHeart release of the PinePhone that shipped last January, you have another opportunity to buy now. What is it? According to their Wiki:
The PinePhone is a smartphone created by Pine64, capable of running mainline Linux and supported by many partner projects. The "BraveHeart" edition was the first publicly-available version of the phone, though it came without a fully functional OS (factory test image) and was geared specifically towards tinkerers and hackers. People looking for a stable consumer-grade phone should wait for the final release...
The "Community Edition: UBports" Limited Edition PinePhone is aimed primarily at UBports community members, willing to run their OS on a mainline Linux and provide feedback to UBports developers.
The "Community Edition: UBports" Edition PinePhone comes with UBports OS build installed. Please note that the OS build is still in a beta stage, and while most core functionality (phone calls, SMS messages, LTE, GPS and GPU acceleration) works, some elements remain a work-in-progress.
The phone seems to be the same hardware as the Braveheart and the same price $149.99 + shipping. Pine will donate $10 to the UBPorts Foundation for every phone purchased.
It comes pre-installed with UBPorts, but there is nothing keeping you from re-flashing to whichever OS you want. Currently there are several ports in progress like, Debian, PostmarketOS, SailfishOS, Maemo Leste, etc. Some of these can even make phone calls and sms texts already :)
PinePhone Pro Linux smartphone to feature a power-optimized Rockchip RK3399S processor
Pine64 has now announced the PinePhone Pro Linux smartphone with a Rockchip RK3399S hexa-core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz, that's a power-optimized version of the popular Rockchip RK3399 processor. It will provide a noticeable upgrade to the PinePhone Linux smartphones launched in November 2019, which, by today's standards, is quite underpowered.
Besides the faster processor, PinePhone Pro also comes with 4GB RAM and 128 GB storage which should make it a better candidate at mobile desktop convergence, as well as a 5.95-inch display with 1440×720 resolution, a 13MP rear camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, and more.
[...] Pine64 collaborated with Rockchip to fine-tune the RK3399 SoC's performance so that it meets the necessary thermal and battery-consumption envelopes, as and as a result, RK3399S was born. Pine64 also explained Rockchip helped a great deal in enabling the PinePhone Pro's suspend state, which allows the smartphone to receive calls and SMS messages while preserving the battery.
[...] Just like most Pine64 products, the PinePhone Pro will rely on work from the community for software support, and the first PinePhone Pro devkit is up for pre-order for $399 plus shipping and eventual import taxes now with a clear focus on developers and established contributors, although newcomers with an established development record can also pre-order. Tech enthusiasts without a developer background are asked to wait a couple of more months for the second batch of PinePhone Pro "Explorer Edition" that is scheduled to be manufactured before the end of the year, and ship in early 2022. Additional information may also be found on the product page.
Also at Phoronix.
Previously: PinePhone Linux Smartphone Priced at $149 to Arrive This Year
How PINE64 is Creating a Device-Design Community to Compete with Raspberry Pi
PinePhone Braveheart Linux Smartphone Begins Shipping
Another Opportunity to Purchase a PinePhone
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @10:16PM (8 children)
Seems to me the components would cost more than $149. Am I missing something?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Friday February 01 2019, @10:20PM
Allwinner ARM chips are cheap as fuck, and the rest of the specs aren't really top of the line either.
If Amazon can sell a 7-inch tablet for $50, $150 seems believable for this.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @10:52PM (5 children)
Not at all. you can buy decent Chinese phones all day long for ~200 so 150 and cut the margin a bit, more than doable.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday February 02 2019, @04:23AM (3 children)
I will not buy this. I do not buy Chink shit, nor will I buy anything else.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @08:53AM (2 children)
Enjoy getting your privacy ass-raped by jews.
Even if you don't have a fagdroid or a goyphone, everyone around you does, and these things are always listening. Either move to a cabin in the woods or plug in to the botnet along with everybody else.
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:22PM
The Kaczynski Dilemma
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:36AM
so our choices are
1. privacy ass-raped by jews (which phone or whatever do they have?)
2. privacy ass-raped by microsoft (american? or can we now say that they are indian?)
3. privacy ass-raped by chinese (huawie)
4. privacy ass-raped by samsung (can we call this Korean? )
5. privacy ass-raped by google (they seem to be panracial with a lean towards panethnicity heading towards indian dominated)
what is common here is that it does not matter who is doing it
you are doing to be violated any which way you go
it is like voting with two evil candidates? choose the lesser evil?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:49PM
You can get a LeEco Le 2 [lineageos.org] for $100 over at aliexpress if you're going to run LineageOS anyhow. It's $150-200 worth of hardware (Qualcomm SoC, good screen, good battery, fingerprint scanner, decent camera, QC3 over TypeC so no headphone jack though...) compared to everything else around but the company doesn't support their cellular products anymore (they cut back the entire division to focus on smart TVs a couple of years ago). it's a clearance sale prince in a sense so they're not making a whole lot of profits off of it. But don't kid yourself. They're still in the green selling them.
So, yeah. It's entirely possible to make a cheap good phone. Free open software is the problem since the graphics and baseband are typically blobed. The baseband ends up bootstarted along or before the compute processors with a blob on it's own processor that linux talks with over a TTY and an analog(?) mic lane. The graphics are shimmed around a kernel module. There supposed to be basebands out there that don't require blobs. And by that we're not saying you get to know what they're running. Rather, that the default ROM they ship with has been in the market long enough for the manufacturer to update to a relatively bug free state. The graphics will never be truly free over the shit ton of IP and trade secret violation going on in the industry. So your only hope is the reversed graphics stack... And while those are making progress, they're mostly limited to older hardware.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:02PM
They sell the "compute module" for 30$ and the board for $15. Considering they've been in business successfully for years, they can get the parts cheap enough, and probably save by making the end-user assemble it, add the storage, and load the software. So add +50 to the price for a decent sized eMMC or just use microsd and there's the cost difference. Maybe they're going with user-supplied batteries like it looks from the dev kit, or they might just be trying to move backstock on the batteries they sell. You can get everything to assemble a (shitty slow, but mainline linux on arm64) laptop from them for a little less than $150, so a phone isn't unbelievable. I'd be a lot more excited if they had an rk3399 compute module though! Mainline AND decent specs would be pretty awesome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @10:23PM (15 children)
How are they doing this for so much cheaper and faster than the Librem 5?
https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ [puri.sm]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @10:51PM (1 child)
My guess is the Librem folks are going after a higher point in the phone market, while the PinePhone is targeting the low end only. Functional, but low end on specs, features, etc. The higher you try to hit in the phone market the more competitive, fast changing and expensive it gets. Especially for a newcomer.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:39AM
That sounds right. The real selling point is, you have root, not the telco, or the manufacturer. The phone is unlocked, and ready to do whatever YOU want, without reporting to anyone.
It has been noted previously, in other discussions on SN, that many or most feature phones belong to Google, not to you. A typical $99 feature phone won't do much of anything unless and until you sign into Google. Storage is absolutely minimal, and it won't recognize an SD card. The thing is a surveillance tracker, plain and simple.
I don't have experience with all of the burners on the market, of course, but I presume the ones I have fooled with are typical.
So, yeah, if the telcos can market a fairly nice feature phone for $75 to $125, then a lower end Linux phone can probably make a little profit selling at $150. Not a lot, maybe, but some. The CEO can afford to dine out some place classier than McDonalds or Pizza Hut.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @10:52PM (3 children)
My guess is they aren't guaranteeing open hardware/software, just that it runs linux and has physical switches.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by petecox on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:32AM (2 children)
Pine is providing a commodity phone based on similar Pine64 offerings with a mainline kernel. For userspace, they've engaged Plasma Mobile and Ubuntu Touch developers to port their offerings (and mention maemo-leste and postmarketos in their forum post).
Purism have a NIH approach of writing yet another foss phone UI based on Gnome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @06:15PM (1 child)
whatever. i may like the gnome offering.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @09:58AM
A phrase nobody has heard since 1997.
(Score: 4, Funny) by captain normal on Friday February 01 2019, @11:01PM (7 children)
"How are they doing this for so much cheaper and faster than the Librem 5?"
According to to picture in TFA, they forgo li-Ion batteries for 2 AAA batteries.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:05AM
I would love a phone with replaceable batteries.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 02 2019, @04:45AM (1 child)
I'm not sure if I care if it uses 2 AAA batteries, if it can operate while plugged into a charger, at $149 this is starting to be an attractive WiFi connected control pad for stuff, even if you never use the phone.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:06PM
Smartphones are crippled in more than one way. Today I set up an old PC that is barely half as powerful as my current smartphone, even when considering the arm vs. x86 performance. I have an old smartphone whose battery is dodo, I could have used it instead of the pc and wifi router combo, but no, even attached to DC it will seek power from the battery and shut down randomly. Talk about tariffs, I'd stick a 100% STUPID CONSUMER DONT BUY THIS tax on this crap.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 02 2019, @04:49PM (3 children)
Just for info, you can get AA and AAA lithium ion rechargeable batteries.
https://www.amazon.com/Rechargeable-Lithium-Batteries-1000mWh-High-Capacity-2pcs-Material/dp/B07DV92VK2/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1549125783&sr=1-7&keywords=aaa+lithium+rechargeable+batteries [amazon.com]
Some of my emergency lighting at work uses battery packs, consisting of 3 lithium ion AAA batteries wired together in parallel. With incandescent bulbs they were only good for two or three hours, but with our newer LED lights, they're good for most of a day.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday February 03 2019, @09:06PM (2 children)
I have an old cordless phone. (The kind that is NOT a cellphone but connects wirelessly to a home base station that itself connects to a telephone exchange a long pair of wires) It uses AAA NiMH batteries. The local battery racks in drugstores no longer stock these. Instead they have lithium ion batteries. Is there any chance they are safely compatible?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 03 2019, @09:25PM (1 child)
I would say "yes". Double check voltages of the batteries - if they match, you're good to go! As far as I know, AAA is always equal to AAA in voltage, the major difference being in capacity.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 04 2019, @12:06PM
And safe charge rates. What is perfectly acceptable for one battery can equal kaboom for another.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by acid andy on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:02AM
I just hope this "Linux" isn't based off Android's kernel like the Gemini PDA...
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by crafoo on Friday February 01 2019, @10:31PM
I have a Pine64 and it's a great single board computer. The video performance isn't all that bad. It can run a modern browser fairly well compared to other single board ARM computers.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @10:34PM (4 children)
But can it run Windows?
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday February 01 2019, @10:54PM
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2458270/you-can-if-you-must-run-windows-7-on-an-android-wear-smartwatch [theinquirer.net]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:19AM (1 child)
Can we get a "eewwww" mod? Funny isn't right and nothing else fits.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @06:19PM
we need a malware which turns the battery into a bomb if anyone puts windows on it. praise be to Linus! praise be to RMS!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @10:25AM
You meant "can it run Crysis?" didn't ya?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday February 01 2019, @10:52PM (13 children)
Been looking at Android phones this week, and the choices are not inspiring. I want a phone that uses a SIM card, can be or is unlocked, has a removable battery, doesn't cost more than $300 (really, over $200 is too much), has okay performance, and for which there is an acceptable alternative OS such as LineageOS. There's this new (as of spring 2018) Samsung Galaxy J4 on sale for $150 that might do.
Several huge problems with installing another OS such as Lineage. First, they need time to study a new phone. It's hard to find a new phone that's on the list of supported devices. If the phone is not unlocked, it is a huge pain in the rear to root the thing, if that can be done at all. The whole Galaxy J family is missing from LineageOS's list of supported devices.
I am so sick of locked phones that become more crippled and slower, with more memory used up as the months roll by, and it wasn't me who clogged it up. Have a phone that started with Android 5, and upgraded to 6. Got the visual voice mail when I upgraded. And then, the visual voice mail was pulled in an "update". It was just gone.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Friday February 01 2019, @11:05PM
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-BlackBerry-Passport-32GB-Black-AT-T-SQW100-3-GSM-GLOBAL-UNLOCKED/183619321960?hash=item2ac0908068:g:VZ8AAOSwfshbE8OX:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true [ebay.com]
I use the Priv personally or the Classic when I am making calls, but Sulla's AC friend appears to be quite happy with his passport.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Friday February 01 2019, @11:19PM
Try seond hand A series samsungs. My A5 is working very well on Lineage, inlcuding through several updates.
Battery lfe isn't as good as good as the J series, ut still acceptable.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @11:34PM (2 children)
for ~200 you have TONS of decent Chinese options from Xiaomi, umi, etc.
No carrier lock, some come pre-rooted, others are root friendly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:24AM (1 child)
And ~none of them will ever be supported by lineageOS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:29PM
What? Xiaomi is pretty much first class support on lineage. They won't have removable batteries though.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:19AM
I'm also in the market. I suspect I will need to keep my current device for work (only Android, iOS, or WinPhone can receive emails), but at 150USD I want to support this project and could use a spare phone.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 02 2019, @04:48AM (2 children)
I've been looking at Android tablets for months, and the choices are not inspiring at all.
I'd love to get a modern one to put a GoogleFi "only pay for the data you use" sim card into, but the choices are extremely limited and either carry ancient versions of Android or ridiculously expensive.
If Apple can still update and sell iPad Minis, why can't the Android tablet market get something decent out there that I can put a micro-SIM in?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday February 02 2019, @05:11AM (1 child)
The foldable revolution is upon us. Maybe there will be better options in 2 years.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:41AM
Still based on the privacy raping systems we have today
Until phones come with root access by default and the ability to firewall and uninstall all software the consumer is screwed
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Saturday February 02 2019, @11:44AM
Wait until Motorola announces this year's budget phones, then check those — they usually have at least one model that fits that description. (That's why I went with 2017's Moto E4 for my phone, as I had the same requirements.)
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:01PM (2 children)
It doesn't have a removable battery, but aside from that I'm very happy with the OnePlus 5T that I bought a couple of weeks ago. The battery lasts long enough that I haven't had any problems and charges very quickly. Unlike the newer versions, it has a headphone jack and no notch in the screen. Apparently people want those two 'features' so it's now a lot cheaper than the 6 / 6T and the price seems to have been dropping for a little while - it will probably hit your requirements soon. Installing LineageOS on it was easy, with F-Droid and the privileged extension so F-Droid can automatically update things. It supports two SIMs, so you can stick in a cheap local one while travelling but keep your phone number working. The fingerprint sensor on the back works fine with LineageOS, as does everything else. It took a while to get a GPS fix the first time (I guess there's a calibration step somewhere?), but after that it's been working well. OnePlus have now released Project Treble support, which should make it easy for LineageOS to keep supporting it long term (device drivers not using unstable Linux kernel binary interfaces, so you can upgrade the kernel independently of the platform drivers).
I had been using a first-gen Moto G since it came out, but it was starting to die (loose connection to the speaker meant that it didn't ring 80% of the time). This one has 8GB of RAM, 128GB of flash, and a 4+4 big.LITTLE core configuration, which seem like specs that will last me a very long time - it has as much RAM as my last phone had flash...
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:07PM (1 child)
I knew I had to upgrade my laptop when my phone had more ram... Shit is ridiculous. How can I even use 8 gigs on a phone? I barely even need that much 99% of the time on a real computer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:51PM
How about ramdrive mode?
The industry is starting to move to 12 GB, btw.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @11:31PM
Even if its lower power, its still good to have an 'open' option.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:28AM (14 children)
Has that ever been done on a phone?
I assume you'll take off a back plate to get access to switches, battery, etc.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Arik on Saturday February 02 2019, @02:33AM (13 children)
Yes, that's how they all used to be done. :D
Even in recent years there have been a few. Palm used to have a physical mute switch to disconnect the ringer, for instance. I think some iphones have those too. It's handy to have; makes sure your phone can't embarrass you by ringing in the middle of a lecture, even if it goes berserk and factory defaults in your pocket.
I'd like to see a few more of them, and it wouldn't actually be hard to fit them if you design it carefully. One for each radio, one for the microphone, one for the camera if we must have one of those. Physically disconnected they should draw no current from the battery. Switches should be tactile meaning that you can tell which setting they are in by touch. You should not need to remove anything to access them - positive buttons that require a push down and THEN a slide over are pretty safe in the pockets.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:24AM (2 children)
I wouldn't mind a little door the slides or swings out exposing a row of DIP switches, e.g: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=DIP+switch&t=lm&iax=images&ia=images [duckduckgo.com] . In some ways, I think that would be easier to use (and build) than a bunch of exposed switches.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:38AM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday February 03 2019, @01:58PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:58AM (6 children)
TFA mentions switches for wireless, cameras, and speaker (I'm going to assume they meant the microphone). I don't know of any precedent for having the ability to physically disable all these on a smartphone, without doing some serious surgery on the device. Considering how tightly integrated SoCs are, the claim may need to be thoroughly fact checked.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:03PM (5 children)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:06PM (1 child)
The point of the switch being that you can turn it back on!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:53AM
Sure you can 'turn it back on'.
Get a hole punch, and put a hole in the right place and it will 'disable' the swipe to pay functionality. The antenna is literally disconnected.
Turning it back on may involve a bit of work, but hey, you could install a dip switch while you're there. You know, for, next time.
Or just buy one of those aluminium wallets.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday February 03 2019, @12:19AM (2 children)
Not true. The wifi on these things are hostile computers running their own blobs. If it's powered on, it can communicate with anything on the bus. It needs to be powered off and/or disconnected from the bus; preferably both.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:26PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:17PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:45AM (1 child)
I would pay extra to have this.
I never use GPS. Ever. I never want the chip to be activated.
Yet, if I open Google Maps it always turns the GPS on for a moment, captures my data, and sends it to Google. Forget making this type of action illegal. It should be impossible.
I do not own or fully control the OS on my phone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @06:58AM
GPS does not hurt your privacy alone. The problem is when you have internet/cellular at the same time.
Even without GPS, your location can be estimated with cellular, wifi, etc.
(Score: 2) by cosurgi on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:40AM
linux phone will never go berserk. Linus does all the berserking.
#
#\ @ ? [adom.de] Colonize Mars [kozicki.pl]
#
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ilPapa on Saturday February 02 2019, @02:54AM (3 children)
Is it my imagination or are products like this announced every six months or so for the past 10 years and never end up actually selling or coming to market? It seems like this entire pitch (open source, low-cost basic phone for cheap without bloatware) is something I've heard before.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:48AM (2 children)
Not your imagination. I've noted the same thing. But, SOME FEW of them actually make it to market. There is one in Europe right now, that won't ship to the US. (I think it's Sailfish OS.) Makes me want to choke some Europeans, but it's a real thing. Librem actually seems just about ready to ship. We could still be disappointed with them, but Librem has sold real products in the past, and their phone is on the verge of being ready.
Yeah, lots of failures, and the successes all seem to be limited. But, that doesn't stop us hopeful optimists from looking!
As an aside, it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that products like this are selling in China and the rest of Asia on the black market. In a business environment where Apple devices are routinely knocked off, it makes sense that someone is building and selling unlocked Linux and other devices that are completely under the control of the end user.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:45PM
This is actually very likely to come to market. The Pine guys have been shipping boards for years and are probably the biggest next to raspi. Plus, this thing seems to be mostly using their existing hardware (the compute module, which would mean these things might just be easily upgradeable!).
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:48PM
Yup. I have Sailfish on a Sony XA2. I use it as my daily driver. There are one or two bugs - knowing the triple-press of the power button to disable the proximity detector which the OS sees as being locked to 'something is near me so turn off the screen' mode means it works well enough for me.
Jolla have just released the beta-software that includes support for Android 8.1 apps [jolla.com], which is pretty irrelevant for me, as I don't use Android, but important to others. I'll be upgrading the OS as soon as I get the time to do so.
Sailfish is NOT Open source. Bits of the OS are proprietary - but much isn't: sources are here: http://releases.sailfishos.org/sources/ [sailfishos.org]
A diagram of the mix of open and closed software is here: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FbfD5dlCtEA/VtYez7UFDHI/AAAAAAAAA3g/1XByZOdCKYY/s1600/Sailfish_Architecture%255B1%255D.jpg [blogspot.com] (I can't find it on the officla pages right now)
The PinePhone looks interesting.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday February 02 2019, @04:28AM (1 child)
This is bullshit. This is nothing more than Good Night.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 03 2019, @05:47AM
I really don't get this. What does 'good night' mean?
Is this something you say to your hooker after you pay her? How is this relevant here?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @09:36AM (3 children)
It's funny how so many Chinese internet pages are so shoddy. Horrible broken English. Yet they expect to get all my money.
Broken English makes me feel dirty and scared. Those are not things that help loosening the purse strings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @10:51AM
At least they have an excuse, but it really rankles when you see horrible 'engrish' and other such bastardisations of the language on sites by companies headquartered in countries where English is officially the native language (though when you wander round certain cities, it's increasingly rare to hear it being spoken..).
And then there's those annoying sites full of spelling mistakes...you know the ones, where colour is always being misspelled as color...
(Score: 3, Funny) by shortscreen on Saturday February 02 2019, @10:57AM
Is that because you haven't spent enough time on sex chat websites, or because you've spent too much time on sex chat websites?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:39PM
Raspi shill spotted!
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Sunday February 03 2019, @09:23PM (1 child)
Can I plug in an sd card of any description?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 04 2019, @06:28PM
This article says:
https://liliputing.com/2019/01/pinephone-linux-smartphone-to-sell-for-149-dev-kits-coming-soon.html [liliputing.com]
I guess it isn't set in stone, but I expect it will have one in the end.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]