Doesn't it have a front camera?
Blloc – minimalist smartphone
71–80 of 174 posts
Re: Blloc – minimalist smartphone
#72Does anybody know of any projects similar to this one (and Light Phone 2 [1]) but for desktop OS in laptop format? Apple's products of late does not interest me and I'm stuck with my beloved 2013 MacBook Air until it dies or something better comes along. I have yet to find something better.
I long for a laptop purposely designed for productivity, simplicity and minimalism. Ideally with a custom designed OS (could just be a linux distro checked for compatibility etc.) to go along with it.
Is anybody working on something in this vein?
Re: Blloc – minimalist smartphone
#73I would like an e-ink smart phone please
Re: Blloc – minimalist smartphone
#74I was excited as long as I assumed this would be E-Ink.
It is odd how that has not happened in the mobile phone form factor or even as part of an add on case. I do think you have a point in that there should be marketspace for what the old Nokia was - something that could stay on all week without babysitting the battery. Website accessibility is possibly an important part of this, if everyone wrote proper responsive websites that met accessibility standards to look good o…
It's been done. There is the Russian Yota phone and some similar Chinese phones; IIRC there is also a case for iPhones.
Re: Blloc – minimalist smartphone
#75"The root" is an exact copy of BlackBerry 10's Hub and sounds great. The problem with all these new phones is they can't secure enough funding or developer attention to ever take off. Not to mention hostility from third party app providers like Facebook. This is android based which is great, but how the heck is The Root supposed to work? I don't think it's possible with closed APIs and walled gardens. You chat with your facebook friends how and when facebook wants you to.
Re: Blloc – minimalist smartphone
#76Just a warning on the name. Phonetically, it could sound very close to bullock, or bullocks (if multiple of them).
Re: Blloc – minimalist smartphone
#77Trying to do hardware and software simultaneously from the start is going to kill this project. Pick one and get it right; let the lessons from that inform the next phase.
It looks like you're building a pretty generic device with an interesting software stack, so I'd start by making the software shine, and leveraging e.g. LineageOS to get an install base. Once you have feedback from a good swath real users you can look at making a bespoke device based on real-world needs.
Re: Blloc – minimalist smartphone
#78Any other details about the OS? Is it an Android? How are the applications managed and what's their update pipeline? Are they whitelisted and managed by the manufacturer's own App Store? What's the privacy policy like? How often will it issue updates? I really like the display. I've been waiting for a phone with minimalistic display to save battery ever since the Motofone F3. But there's way too little information th…
we def. screwed up communication as we've been focused lately on finishing hardware. its based on Android 8.1 and the apps are downloaded via play-store normally. We don't white or black list, but rather are going through the most used apps and building easier integrations for them
Awww. I was excited when I thought it might not run El Goog's cruft. :(
Re: Blloc – minimalist smartphone
#79So, I'll give some unsolicited recommendations for your website, regarding accessibility: - The contrast between the body text and background is to low; it makes it difficult for people with visual impairments to use the website. - Font size and font weight, the font is too thin and adding this to the low color contrast, it makes it even more difficult to read. - Images that don't add meaning (textually) to the page,…
I don't require any accessibility accommodations and still found the site very very hard to read. Small text with low contrast is not a win.
Re: Blloc – minimalist smartphone
#80https://www.quora.com/Is-it-legal-for-vendors-to-sell-an-And... >The AOSP doesn't come with Google Services. You can build a device and sell it, but it will not have the incredibly important set of Google Apps people love, not even Google Play (so people cannot go and download Google Maps and Gmail afterwards). Hmmm, and yet this comes with Google Maps... Suspicious... Edit: A post below indicates that it is Android…
Lots of companies sell Android devices without explicitly calling it Android. The most notable example is Amazon (Android - without GApps - is the OS on pretty much everything in the Fire line, e.g. Fire Tab and Fire TV).
In other words, I think you've got it backwards: you're not allowed to use Google's branding/trademarks (including "Android") unless you have authorization from Google. Meanwhile, I'm not aware of any requirement to call the OS "Android" even with that authorization; the word "Android" doesn't show up at all in the official product page for Samsung's Galaxy S9 [0].
[0]: https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/phones/galaxy-s/galaxy-s9-...