I wish this phone had slightly better specs for example more ram, but I am going to order it anyway to support this awesome initiative.
PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder
211–220 of 308 posts
Re: PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder
#212I ordered one and then realized the GPU is from 2008, doesn't even support OpenGL ES 3!!! Trying to cancel the order, even if supporting the initiative would be nice, my 3D MMO needs OpenGL ES 3!
Out of curiosity - why is this a deal breaker for you?
Re: PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder
#213I really want to grab one, if nothing else to take part, but man I just don't have the funds for a Gen 1. Maybe Gen 2.
If you want to play with some of the UIs and apps, check out the devices postmarketOS supports [0]. Especially Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) support is looking pretty good, and the devices are quite affordable used (low to middle double figures, or you may even have one already!).
Generally, postmarketOS is just awesome, the abilities of their pmbootstrap tool alone are amazing.
Re: PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
I personally don't expect the 2 years, but tell that to the regulator. You may be able to declare it as a DIY kit, but I have doubts. But I suppose this type of stuff is exactly what the higher priced stores are for. If you want it cheap but without support, buy directly from China.
Sure, but I doubt that they ship any kind of volume that would draw the attention of EU regulators. Also Pine64 is from China, they are based in Hong Kong iirc. The shipping warehouse in Poland is just a place where they keep stocks.
It's not about the volume. There were issues shipping into particular countries that may actually check items on the border for more than just price matching the product so customs/VAT is not gamed, and the state gets their proper cut. Things like manual in the language of the country, certifications, etc.
My country is more on the "we just want the cut" side, but some people in Germany had trouble getting individual shipments into the country, for example.
Re: PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder
#215I personally think that the effort to create open source phones is the single most important technology project going on out there. We have open source browsers, we have open source social apps, but we definitely do not have open source phones. Phones that can be truly owned and controlled by users will reshape the privacy discourse, from one of complaining and legal coercion, to one of choices and markets.
Isn't AOSP fully open source? What is the point of the PinePhone over an Android phone running pure AOSP?
Even AOSP hardcodes some reliance on Google servers. It is open source, but not independent of this dominant corporation as many privacy advocates would like.
Re: PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
Last month they even managed to fully open parts of the modem, and do calls without the closed blob for the firmware! https://twitter.com/biktorgj/status/1357217053745250304 (edit: caveat: they might not be able to actually ship the firmware since laws on this are very strict basically everywhere) The app store(s) is a bit of a problem, but in time it might be solved. Not a big problem for me.... But I'd also like to…
To clarify, 4G modem modules (like the one in PinePhone) are usually based on stripped down smartphone SoCs, running Linux on ARM + a huge multi-milion lines FW blobs running on some DSP, that's actually implementing most of the functionality you expect from the modem. So what this means is that PinePhone is basically a smartphone withing smartphone, and what's opensourced is the Linux kernel running on the modem's S…
Yes, but with the Quectel EC25 modem used the blobs are isolated on the modem itself, your device does not need to load any binary blobs to bring up a usable cellular connection.
Re: PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder
#217This is great, and I plan on getting one to support the project. I do however wish there was a smaller screen one (perhaps EInk) with more 4G bands like band 71, and with Anbox/microG support to run apps like Signal. I would like to know what apps people are using for video chat, if they aren't using Signal.
I very much doubt the hardware in this can keep up with a video chat. It can barely play a YouTube video at 480p.
Re: PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder
#218I'd much prefer a list of phones where people have been able to crack the bootloader open completely and then I can just install Linux on top of it. Not a big fan of extremely old hardware which would never be able to keep up with what I can get out of a Raspberry Pi. In fact, how feasible is it to create a hat for the Raspberry Pi compute module which operates effectively as a mobile phone. Like you would an obvious…
https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices
> postmarketOS now boots on over 200 phones and tablets (as of 6 May 2020)
That, I believe, is about mainline kernel. And only boot.
[1] https://tuxphones.com/postmarketos-boots-200-linux-phones-ta...
Re: PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder
#219This is great, and I plan on getting one to support the project. I do however wish there was a smaller screen one (perhaps EInk) with more 4G bands like band 71, and with Anbox/microG support to run apps like Signal. I would like to know what apps people are using for video chat, if they aren't using Signal.
Anbox is supported in various distributions, see e.g. https://odysee.com/@linmob:3/manjaro-daily-dev-builds-for-pi....
Video chat on the PinePhone is "early work in progress" at best, see https://marius.bloggt-in-braunschweig.de/2021/03/04/pinephon....
Re: PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is nothing wrong with App Stores. See: F-Droid and GNU/Linux repositories. The problem is in multinational monopolies.
People use iOS/iPhones BECAUSE of how tightly controlled the App Store is. It's like Atari vs Nintendo. If I wanted pure "freedom" I would have gotten an android, since they have at least fixed their performance issues now.
No. I used an iPhone for years because it was the only way to participate in iMessage group chats and Android had the same issues iOS had. Most people are using the iPhone because they have no other real choice, giving them freedom would be a good thing put I've personally given up all hope for both the platform and the company that created it.