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

#201

Post by blackflame7000 » Sun, Apr 07, 2019, 3:00 PM UTC

squarefoot wrote: post #197

StudentStuff wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Band 13 is Verizon's 700Mhz LTE band, and is the core of Verizon's coverage. Band 4 (2.1Ghz downlink from tower, 1.7Ghz uplink from phone) would be nice for speed, but isn't strictly necessary to build something that has LTE. The only major sticking point with this is Verizon has a nasty habit of letting non-approved devices (like this) run for a few weeks, then suddenly bricking them without any notice. This module…

Can you be more specific about that bricking? Although I'm in Europe, so no Verizon over here, it still concerns me that a carrier can render a communication device inoperable.

AT&T completely bricked SM-T337A trying to root. I should have read more carefully but every other version of that tablet is rootable except AT&Ts. Attempting to root with my version results in an endless bootloop with no way to restore because they havent released a signed version of their kernel to restore to. Obviously this is outside the ToS but my point is to elucidate that they protect their devices from modification to the low level baseband aggressively

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

#202

Post by rolph » Sun, Apr 07, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

gregknicholson wrote: post #199

Yetanfou wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I would certainly pay more to avoid Google.

"Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant " i was ok with the first phrase, the second was like grain alcohol spiking a fine bourbon.

The reason i would buy a linux phone would be to avoid having a MITM burned onto the rom of my phone. The device presented in this article doesnt provide that nessecity.

I think the law of averages applies, not knowing how much google and others payout to burn kruft into peoples product, im going to guess that the increased global saturation level of google ASSistant is worth it for google and a good revenue for the OEM. ill bet the price is subsidied to 7$, i would pay 70$ for this phone, if it had no google ass in it.

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

#203

Post by rolph » Sun, Apr 07, 2019, 4:09 PM UTC

auslander wrote: post #124

newhotelowner wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> from friends who do have kids I hear they get teased (and sometimes bullied) if they don't have a half decent smartphone My daughter is in middle school, and pretty much everyone in her class has iPhone. Only a few have an Android phone. School requires every student to have a Chromebook, but even teachers encourage students to use smartphones. Also, one of the apps only works on smartphones. My daughter has my old…

> School requires every student to have a Chromebook And a mandatory Google account for tracking your kids. I'd change the school.

or change something about said chromebook :)

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

#204

Post by icebraining » Sun, Apr 07, 2019, 6:46 PM UTC

azinman2 wrote: post #123

I can’t even imagine the environmental / labor horrors that must be involved to allow for a phone to cost $7 retail.

Other phones of the same caliber have the same horrors, you just pay an higher profit margin.

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

#205

Post by icebraining » Sun, Apr 07, 2019, 6:58 PM UTC

kwhitefoot wrote: post #100

How do I get one?

Are you in the West? Usually these types of phones appear on ebay or gearbest, etc after some time, for a somewhat higher price

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

#206

Post by StudentStuff » Sun, Apr 07, 2019, 9:46 PM UTC

squarefoot wrote: post #200

naraic0o wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine he means they blacklist the IMEI, rendering the device useless in the country (if there’s only one carrier that supports the device’s band).

Ah ok, I thought they would mess remotely with the cards FTDI style [1], turning them into paperweights. [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/ftdi-admits-to-bricking-innoce...

Verizon picks up that the IMEI of the device on the line is different than the one that is on file for your line, attempts to update it, and in the process of doing so breaks service on your line. You can swap over to a working Verizon supported device and swap back, but it could be hours to weeks later when you get this issue occurring again.

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

#207

Post by JetSpiegel » Sun, Apr 07, 2019, 11:15 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #188

JetSpiegel wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The desktop has been replaced by laptops and 2-1 foldables Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Pholdables are not even being sold yet, let alone "replacing the desktop".

Sure they are, I mean devices like the Surface.

Ah, not pholdables, laptablets? We need more classes of devices!

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

#208

Post by stefan_ » Sun, Apr 07, 2019, 11:35 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #187

stefan_ wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Treble is just another layer of abstraction on top of HALs and more binder use. Android HALs don't replace kernel drivers and so it's still the same distance from mikrokernel as it ever was, and neither did Treble further the split from mainline Linux. If anything, Android 8 reduced the gap to mainline with switching e.g. to DRM synchronization fences.

Reading through AOSP documentation and AOSP source code tells another story. > Binderized HALs. HALs expressed in HAL interface definition language (HIDL). These HALs replace both conventional and legacy HALs used in earlier versions of Android. In a Binderized HAL, the Android framework and HALs communicate with each other using binder inter-process communication (IPC) calls. All devices launching with Android 8.0 o…

Nothing you quoted changes anything. Yes, they added more abstraction on top of HALs. No, that doesn't mean HALs are now any "closer to the metal" than before.

Here are some obvious hints to why this is not true:

* there are no HALs defined for even 1/3rd of what kernel drivers you would need to run a modern device

* a bunch of the HALs require you to provide handles obtained from standardized kernel interfaces (e.g. the aforementioned sync objects)

Finally, of course: all HALs run in userland! All their power is in being granted SELinux access to various kernel interfaces! Vendors can not change these rules or risk failing certification.

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

#209

Post by eropple » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 12:19 AM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #180

eropple wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...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.

I just banned the TV’s MAC address from my network. IMO there’s no reason for it to connect to the outside world.

Good solution if you can do it, but my girlfriend likes watching YouTube and Sling through it. :-/

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

#210

Post by Can_Not » Mon, Apr 08, 2019, 12:25 AM UTC

JetSpiegel wrote: post #174

pjmlp wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The desktop has been replaced by laptops and 2-1 foldables, it won't die that easily, specially since Android apps on tablets and 2-1 keep beinging maximized phone apps.

> The desktop has been replaced by laptops and 2-1 foldables Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Pholdables are not even being sold yet, let alone "replacing the desktop".

My last 3 computers were all foldable laptops. My current foldable laptop is a Dell with 4k screen and nvidia graphics card and digital pen.