Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by e12e » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:02 PM UTC

angott wrote: post #137

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…

PWAs make sense today, but back then, they just came too early in the game. The iPhone only had EDGE (2G) networking, it was painfully slow both in terms of throughput and latency. Each HTTP request would take ~300-500ms under optimal cell coverage. Additionally, unlike modern PWAs, web-apps back then had persistence for data only, so you had to reload the entire application over the network at each launch. People ba…

Worked well for i-mode in 1999 - of course that did do some magic on the protocol level.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode

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

#152

Post by Yetanfou » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:27 PM UTC

hawski wrote: post #148

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.

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/

Why wait for a $150 phone or preorder a $649 phone while more or less the same thing is available on a $7 phone in India? I think that $7 phone should go on sale in other countries as well, either in its current guise or - probably at a higher price - without the Google bits. It would certainly be an interesting device to use in circumstances where pricey and vulnerable smart phones don't make sense - e.g. when crossing unfriendly borders, when working outside in the dirt where that smart phone always runs the risk of being damaged or lost, etc.

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

#153

Post by Yetanfou » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:34 PM UTC

Arelius wrote: post #143

meruru wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

AOSP and its derivatives may be maintained by Google but they don't call home without the proprietary Google apps. Just leave those off and use something like F-Droid to get apps and you're Google-free. None of the Android devices I use (phones and tablets) has any Google-proprietary code installed, all of them work fine without such.

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

#154

Post by blackflame7000 » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:38 PM UTC

squarefoot wrote: post #144

blackflame7000 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thanks for the links! One note about the last one is that it looks like it only supports WCDMA: 2100MHz so Verizon is your only option for 4G coverage but they don't support LTE B1/B3 according to this chart (could be outdated)

https://www.droid-life.com/2015/02/05/us-wireless-carrier-ba...

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

#155

Post by morganvachon » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 8:53 PM UTC

abrowne wrote: post #16

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.

In the US there's the Alcatel Go Flip on T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T (at least I think the "Cingular Flip 2" is similar). https://us.alcatelmobile.com/alcatel-go-flip/ FWIW it apparently uses an older, pre–Google-investment KaiOS.

Good to know, thanks! I may pick one up and put it on my Ting account to use at work (my iPhone is on Xfinity Mobile for the next couple of months until I move it back to Ting as well). I'm constantly watching my battery life at work because I have my desk line forwarded to it (I'm never at my desk very long until the end of the day).

Edit: It's $100 new which isn't too bad, but less than $40 open box on eBay and other sites. That's practically impulse buy territory. I'll definitely have to consider it.

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

#156

Post by hawski » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

Yetanfou wrote: post #152

hawski wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

Why wait for a $150 phone or preorder a $649 phone while more or less the same thing is available on a $7 phone in India? I think that $7 phone should go on sale in other countries as well, either in its current guise or - probably at a higher price - without the Google bits. It would certainly be an interesting device to use in circumstances where pricey and vulnerable smart phones don't make sense - e.g. when cross…

Google invested in it not for it to be available without them. So I say it's not gonna happen even with higher price. They would also not like a suggestion that the same phone without their software is somehow more valuable. Also I feel that the GP asked for less hypothetical options, not more.

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

#157

Post by GordonS » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

sdwa wrote: post #88

hosay123 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

FWIW, I'm British and I've only ever seen it spelt 'lead' by Americans on this forum :)

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

#158

Post by stuaxo » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 9:16 PM UTC

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.

I hope it's got a lot more polished, I got one of the first firefox phones and it was pretty unusable in most areas.

I pretty quickly got an Android phone instead.

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

#159

Post by stuaxo » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 9:18 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #113

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…

An idea that was already being explored on Symbian with their WebRuntime actually. https://web.archive.org/web/20100603124720/http://www.forum....

I feel like the whole Symbian ecosystem disappeared, it's a shame nobody is preserving any of the software, that was 10+ years of tech that is basically gone.

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

#160

Post by Shebanator » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 9:35 PM UTC

koala_man wrote: post #150

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.

Exactly this. T9 input is difficult for most people, but especially for the customer base of the Jio phones: a lot of the people who buy these phones are looking for content in languages they aren't necessarily fluent in, and some are even semi-literate in their native language. Being able to send a text message, make a call, or search for a popular video via voice input is a huge boon for those users.