Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

tuxphones.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 212 posts

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#81

Post by andrey_utkin »

squarefoot wrote: post #46

We're likely approaching the day when it'll be more cheap to attempt to build an open Linux phone from scratch rather than keep waiting for a manufacturer to listen to a few thousand techies who don't want their personal data chewed by proprietary OSes. That milestone will almost certainly be marked by the availability of cheap 3/4G modems (I'd be perfectly fine with 3G if it was the only option). We're not there but…

That's right. This already is happening. I got bored of waiting for "Linux smartphone" and accidentally found that it's actually quite easy and affordable to build a wearable computer from scratch. And I built myself one of course. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/c...

I just used new generation of the same display, and a one handed Twiddler 3 keyboard.

Raspberry pi doesn't have cellular, so I am looking at Zero phone project which has a solution. But so far I am already extracting value from my wearable computer in many easily implementable use cases.

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#82

Post by janjongboom »

robertAngst wrote: post #9

How difficult would this be to add GIPO to? This crushes the Raspi3 for the value.

We did exactly that four years ago with JanOS (http://janos.io/), it turned (Firefox OS) mobile phone motherboards into IoT devices. You could also control some GPIO, see http://blog.telenor.io/gonzo/hardware/2015/02/10/gpio.html for an example of remapping the volume buttons to control a new LED. Unfortunately we couldn't find a single OEM that wanted to sell the motherboards if they weren't going in a mobile phone, and ODM's didn't want to work with us either if we wouldn't build phones.

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#84

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

raghava wrote: post #78

KaiOS offers a decent package. But unfortunately, there are many things missing yet. - decent crypto base - decent set of apps (with contraints on user/input interfaces) [ as of now, there isn't an email app available yet! ] And pretty much every phone vendor/TelCo is building a walled-garden and an appstore on their own, considering the licensing possibilities offered by KaiOS. Every TelCo will block sideloading of…

>decent crypto base

I haven't used kaiOS, but if WhatsApp E2E encryption was possible doesn't it mean that it has decent crypto for implementing RSA/ECC i.e just like a web browser?

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#85

Post by jonahrd »

morganvachon wrote: post #5

Apart from the Google tie-in, I've been wanting a KaiOS phone ever since they were announced. I actually miss the days of my Nokia E71; a stripped down but modern feature phone with battery life measured in days instead of hours would be a blessing. Unfortunately these are not marketed at all in the Western world and probably wouldn't work on domestic carriers.

I'm in Canada and have both the Alcatel Go Flip and the CAT B35 and they both work here and in the US.

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#86

Post by neilv »

squarefoot wrote: post #46

We're likely approaching the day when it'll be more cheap to attempt to build an open Linux phone from scratch rather than keep waiting for a manufacturer to listen to a few thousand techies who don't want their personal data chewed by proprietary OSes. That milestone will almost certainly be marked by the availability of cheap 3/4G modems (I'd be perfectly fine with 3G if it was the only option). We're not there but…

I've been looking at this (most recently, got a 3.5" touchscreen for a RasPi3B+), but an option for a Linux handheld that fits in your pocket today might be off-the-shelf smartphone device with PostmarketOS: https://postmarketos.org/

PostmarketOS is still in a developers-only state, and there's a lot of directions you could take everything that's atop the kernel. My own whim was to incrementally build the userland in Racket (though that's on hold during job search); notes: https://www.neilvandyke.org/postmarketos/

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#87

Post by derefr »

jeswin wrote: post #14

Having spent a couple of years building apps for KaiOS (which is really Firefox OS), I can say that it's probably the easiest development platform out there - mostly pure web; with some proprietary extensions. I wish Firefox OS hadn't thrown in the towel so early. These devices are selling millions of units every month.

Is there much difference between development of a KaiOS app, and a ChromiumOS app?

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#88

Post by sdwa »

hosay123 wrote: post #70
berbec wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Edit - battery lasted two weeks between charges" Way to bury the lead! I'd put up with a lot for charge times that long. Or just a backup phpne

Minor nit, but I always appreciate receiving these -- in US English as well as British I believe it's always written "bury the lede"

I don't think that's the case. Lede is at best an alternative spelling, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_paragraph#Spelling

and FWIW, I'm British and I've never seen it spelt lede outside of this forum. I guess it's an American thing, and even then, it's pretty wrong.

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#89

Post by herogreen »

type-2 wrote: post #71
jeswin wrote: post #14

Having spent a couple of years building apps for KaiOS (which is really Firefox OS), I can say that it's probably the easiest development platform out there - mostly pure web; with some proprietary extensions. I wish Firefox OS hadn't thrown in the towel so early. These devices are selling millions of units every month.

firefox os had so much potential, now with pwa's being the next big thing, it seem like firefox os could be a game changer. Too bad they killed it.

what is pwa ?

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#90

Post by ronsor »

herogreen wrote: post #89
type-2 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

firefox os had so much potential, now with pwa's being the next big thing, it seem like firefox os could be a game changer. Too bad they killed it.

what is pwa ?

Progressive Web Apps
Post reply on HN