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

tuxphones.com

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

#141

Post by tgragnato »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #118
cronix wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kind of funny that PWA was Jobs original vision for iOS apps with HTML5, before they came up with the walled garden cash cow approach. > “The full Safari engine is inside of iPhone. And so, you can write amazing Web 2.0 and Ajax apps that look exactly and behave exactly like apps on the iPhone. And these apps can integrate perfectly with iPhone services. And guess what? There’s no SDK that you need! You’ve got e…

It's not like this went away, though. You could always, and still can, write iOS apps this way. Safari even has the "add to home screen" feature which lets you run these apps without the Safari chrome around them.

Safari/Webkit still lags behind the other browsers, and finally started adding the basic features for PWAs last year.

It's nice that a lot has been implemented, albeit slowly. Though some may still think about Apple incentives.

I.e.: http://nolanlawson.com/2015/06/30/safari-is-the-new-ie/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19586219

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

#142

Post by amenod »

cs702 wrote: post #64

Not only does GNU/Linux appear to be unkillable, it always seems to take over every single market niche overlooked by larger, established players promoting fully or partially proprietary stacks. And in many cases, these niche markets end up being quite large or even mainstream. Amazing.

In other words - while there is Linux running in the background (what is left of it anyway), it benefits mostly tech behemots. Not only that, the user is left with virtually no control over the OS. Good luck trying to change OS on your latest Android phone - sure, with a combination of effort and compromises you can actualy do it, but it turns out the phone is almost unusable without the (proprietary) Google Play and related services.

And now Google generously writes a check for $20M to KaiOS... No strings attached I'm sure.

It makes me sad that the phone platforms are not free (not just as beer, but especially free as in freedom). It makes me furious that "smaller" players (Sony and the like) weren't strong and smart enough to step together and create an open platform that would avoid Google's control. But I guess when you are strong enough to do that, you no longer have the incentive to. So the users are left with a bunch of bad options... Basically, we are free to choose one or more of: walled garden, data stealing^W^Wadvertising, spyware, UX disaster. Nice.

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

#143

Post by Arelius »

meruru wrote: post #134
jschwartzi wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested in this on a modern smartphone platform with a touchscreen and virtual keyboard just to cut Google out of my life.

Why not run Lineage OS then?

I dunno, switching from a phone with a pre-installed Google maintained OS to a custom rom of a Google maintained OS isn't exactally fully cutting Google out.

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

#144

Post by squarefoot »

blackflame7000 wrote: post #106
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…

The cheapest 4G modem I can find is still $80. I wonder how they are making the entire phone for just $7

There are however some interesting cheaper cards/adapters/dongles worth of investigating.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/lt4120-Snapdragon-X5-LTE-T77...

https://www.amazon.com/powerday-Mini-PCI-Adapter-Module/dp/B...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2017-Newest-SIM-Card-4G-LTE-...

Last one is a complete hotspot and apparently can use the USB port either as a 4G modem (maybe WiFi card also through an internal hub?) or as a power supply port when stuck on a power bank.

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

#146

Post by Sylos »

0815test wrote: post #103
icebraining wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These phones run on the same rendering and JS engine... "KaiOS apps are based on web technologies–HTML, CSS, and JavaScript–and are run by Gecko runtime." https://developer.kaiostech.com/

Except that Firefox is phasing out Gecko and replacing it with Servo (we're not yet there but some components have been replaced already - this is what the Firefox Quantum thing was all about). So this KaiOS thing is basically picking up an abandoned project...

Servo is nowhere near production-ready and there's no reason to assume that it will be anytime soon.

Just consider that Mozilla is pretty much working full-pelt on Gecko and merely keeping up with Google. They (as well as Google) are far away from implementing all currently specified web-standards, of which more get specified all the time.

So, in order to get Servo to the level of current browser engines, they would have to have an even higher developmemt velocity, while not really being able to stop developing Gecko in the meantime either.

Maybe if the majority of components someday are shared between Gecko and Servo, they might do the final step and switch out the core completely, but even that is still far away.

Servo is specifically a research project. To explore what could be done, if one were to do things right. That they were able to isolate and share components, that even came as a surprise to Mozilla.

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

#147

Post by eropple »

reaperducer wrote: post #125
BoorishBears wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WebOS was ahead of its time.

Is , not "was." My LG television runs WebOS.

...as a conduit to barf ads at you. I wish I could have gotten my TV without ask the parts that forced me to install a PiHole just to not get ads overlaid onto my menus. Any good parts of webOS are now just incidental.

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

#148

Post by hawski »

jschwartzi wrote: post #97
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.

I'd be interested in this on a modern smartphone platform with a touchscreen and virtual keyboard just to cut Google out of my life.

Wait for Pine Phone for $150 [0] or preorder Librem 5 for $649 [1]. However expect beta experience either way.

Also remember that you probably don't want to entirely cut Google out of your life, as for example Linux have Google salaried developers. But that's, I imagine, not what you meant.

[0] https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=7339 - no canonical site yet

[1] https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/

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

#149

Post by brighteyes »

Sylos wrote: post #146
0815test wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that Firefox is phasing out Gecko and replacing it with Servo (we're not yet there but some components have been replaced already - this is what the Firefox Quantum thing was all about). So this KaiOS thing is basically picking up an abandoned project...

Servo is nowhere near production-ready and there's no reason to assume that it will be anytime soon. Just consider that Mozilla is pretty much working full-pelt on Gecko and merely keeping up with Google. They (as well as Google) are far away from implementing all currently specified web-standards, of which more get specified all the time. So, in order to get Servo to the level of current browser engines, they would…

Also, Servo isn't a general-purpose browser project anymore at Mozilla. It's part of the "Mixed Reality" department:

https://blog.servo.org/2018/03/09/servo-and-mixed-reality/

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

#150

Post by koala_man »

mrweasel wrote: post #127

I don't understand why the Google Assistant has to be thrown in. Beside me not liking the idea of Google Assistant processing my request, I don't really believe that it's a feature that many need or even request. Of cause I'm in a non-English speaking country, so that may change the usage, but I don't know anyone who uses Google Assistant, Siri or Cortana and only two people who use Alexa, which technically isn't eve…

I use it regularly to search for things because it's often faster than typing, and that's on a smartphone with a swipe keyboard. Compared to T9, it must be even better.
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