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PinePhone Pro Announced

pine64.org

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Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#211

Post by _joel »

MerelyMortal wrote: post #89
_joel wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the deal breaker is not being able to run any banking apps. That's not a fault of the PinePhone, but a sad reflection of the state of affairs.

Can you open banking websites? The only downside of not using an Android/iOS app (in my case at least) would be "mobile deposits" (depositing a check by taking a picture of it).

In addition to the UX they also lack the functionality and some use the mobile app as a 2FA mechanism for the website site, so to use that I'd have to carry around another android/iphone just to 2FA.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#212

Post by CameronNemo »

opan wrote: post #147
CameronNemo wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the limit for the rk3399 SoC. I'm surprised they did not wait for the rk3588, or just use a Mediatek Dimensity SoC. If you are based in Europe, you may be interested in the Fairphone 4, which has 6 or 8 GB of RAM.

MediaTek is horribly hostile to free software and would be a terrible fit in something like this. MediaTek is the reason the Gemini PDA couldn't do what the PinePhone is doing despite making some similar claims. As for not waiting for a newer Rockchip part, it sounds like they are making it clear this is not a second generation PinePhone, just a more powerful version of what we already had. There will likely be a pro…

I'd be interested to learn more about Mediatek's hostility. I only mention them because I did not see any red flags on their SoC specifications.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#214

Post by spaetzleesser »

djent wrote: post #163

It is frustrating to me that despite the blunt verbiage about it being a beta device for software and hardware developers, people even here are griping about it being not ready for everyday use. If a free and open-source mobile operating system is missing software support for a feature you want, please contribute to its development.

From my experience a “beta” should be ready for daily use but some bugs should be expected. If it’s really unstable call it ”alpha”.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#215

Post by ocdtrekkie »

segalord wrote: post #213

Just give us accesible hardware kill switches on the side and I'm sold

Eh, I disagree. I'd hate to accidentally enable one of the things shut off by those switches. Software controls are likely adequate for day-to-day "I just don't want tracking here or there" events, but the physical hardware switch should give you an "I don't want this happening ever" comfort, which is best done by something more secured behind a cover.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#216

Post by ocdtrekkie »

CameronNemo wrote: post #131
_v7gu wrote: post #68

> Thus, the device cannot considered a consumer-ready product. Right off the store page. Why are people in the comments expecting to daily drive this? You buy this for the excitement and sense of accomplishment of actually managing to run things.

Perhaps because it is at a similar price point as a Fairphone 3, which you can daily drive.

But the Fairphone 3 is running a hostile OS that has already done most of the work, and the PinePhone is still very much an early development platform.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#217

Post by James-Livesey »

KeeganS wrote: post #115
aiilns wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit irrelevant, but I don't think you can post to Instagram from your computer, got to use the app.

It used to be that you could use developer tools to emulate a smartphone and be redirected to the mobile site, which would let you post.

It seems that you can still post from the web version of Instagram on mobile (just tested it now on Android Chrome) — I should imagine that it still works in the DevTools mobile emulator (though you do have to refresh the page).

Using the Instagram PWA may be a viable way of using Instagram on mobile Linux. Still can't seem to post stories on the PWA, though.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#218

Post by robbedpeter »

djent wrote: post #163

It is frustrating to me that despite the blunt verbiage about it being a beta device for software and hardware developers, people even here are griping about it being not ready for everyday use. If a free and open-source mobile operating system is missing software support for a feature you want, please contribute to its development.

How many hundreds or thousands of enthusiasts are needed before it's suitable to be a daily driver? I see the fragmented approach on the software side as a major hindrance to the goal of achieving a device that can be used by a normal person as a reasonable replacement for other smart phones.

I check in on it every l every 6 months or so, update my pinephone and give it a few days. So far, it doesn't meet reliability or usability for serious use.

It's a high caliber foot gun of a methodology - if they corralled all of the effort and enthusiasm currently scattered amongst a dozen (!) different os's and communities, they could establish a high quality functional baseline.

The hardware is great. The mission is great. The software is fragmented and scattered and missing the force multipliers that focused collaborative development could bring. There's not enough to riff on, toomuch goes wrong in complicated ways, and so the device is an exercise in frustration instead of a passion project.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#219

Post by RussianCow »

josteink wrote: post #186
Aeolun wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> right now it is a toy for nerds I have some standards for my toys though. If it’s sold as a phone, it should actually work as a phone (even a shitty one). If they were selling it as a mini linux computer with integrated screen I wouldn’t mind so much.

> I have some standards for my toys though. If it’s sold as a phone, it should actually work as a phone (even a shitty one). It is sold as Phone hardware with explicit remarks about software being a community effort and that you load it with whatever you like. Does someone who sells you a PC (HW) promise you that the software you load on it later will be bug-free? Of course not. That’s not a hardware-matter. Same her…

> Does someone who sells you a PC (HW) promise you that the software you load on it later will be bug-free?

No, but if someone was selling PCs with super buggy software that regularly crashes your OS or prevents everyday functionality from working, people would be returning those PCs en masse, even if the hardware maker wasn't responsible for the software at all.[0] Even if you only "sell" the hardware, customers expect the full package to work.

That's not to say I agree with all the complaints here, though; this case is different because Pine64 has numerous disclaimers and warnings on the website, and they are very up front and honest about the viability of the PinePhone as a daily driver.

[0]: Whenever I hear non-techy friends complain about system instability, they pretty consistently blame the computer itself, not Windows or whatever software is likely actually causing their frustration.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#220

Post by Arch-TK »

Aeolun wrote: post #66
buildbot wrote: post #3

I can’t wait for pinephone to succeed- hopefully this more powerful hardware + faster ram will help to address latency issues in the UI. Right now it feels like your brain is literally slowing down when interacting with a normal pinephone compared to an iPhone. Not a fair comparison at all I know.

Isn’t that silly? I could run linux (with GUI) just fine on my Pentium 3. This phone is like 8 times faster just based on clock speed, not to mention memory. How can it not drive a UI without lag?

Because your pentium 3 GUI linux had a GUI designed around pentium 3 era hardware. All the linux phone GUIs seem to be designed around the latest in special GUI effects and animations and transparency. For some reason all the people who know how to design UIs for linux are incapable of understanding hardware requirements.
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