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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: 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