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Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

theguardian.com

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Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#841

Post by scarface74 »

josephcsible wrote: post #683
scarface74 wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comparison isn’t really relevant. Could you run the then current operating system in 2006 on a computer that you bought in 1986? A 2010 iPhone 4s can’t connect to any network in the US let alone a 2007 iPhone. Computers changed leaps and bounds in the first 20 years just like smartphones have. Sure my 2010 Dell Core 2 Duo with 8GB of RAM can run Windows 10. But a computer bought in 1997 couldn’t run the then cur…

> Could you run the then current operating system in 2006 on a computer that you bought in 1986? Linux can do something very similar. You can run the latest version of Gentoo Linux today on an Intel 486 from 1989.

The subject was about Microsoft. Could a computer from 1989 be useful with the 2006 web? Flash and all?

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#842

Post by scarface74 »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #709
scarface74 wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comparison isn’t really relevant. Could you run the then current operating system in 2006 on a computer that you bought in 1986? A 2010 iPhone 4s can’t connect to any network in the US let alone a 2007 iPhone. Computers changed leaps and bounds in the first 20 years just like smartphones have. Sure my 2010 Dell Core 2 Duo with 8GB of RAM can run Windows 10. But a computer bought in 1997 couldn’t run the then cur…

> This comparison isn’t really relevant. Could you run the then current operating system in 2006 on a computer that you bought in 1986? The processor available in 1986 was the i386, which was supported by Linux until 2012. i486 support is on its way out just now, more than 33 years later. > A 2010 iPhone 4s can’t connect to any network in the US let alone a 2007 iPhone. It's not expected to do what modern phones can…

> The processor available in 1986 was the i386, which was supported by Linux until 2012. i486 support is on its way out just now, more than 33 years later

What could you do with it in 2012? A 2010 Core2Duo 2.66Ghz Dell laptop can run Windows 10. Browse the modern web, mine had gigabit Ethernet, could run the latest version of Office decently and had a 500Gb hard drive.

> It's not expected to do what modern phones can do. But it could still connect to WiFi, so why shouldn't it be usable for reading text or listening to music?

Yes, as far as I know, the iTunes app still supports all iPods and iPhones. You can sync your music. And you can fill all of its massive 4GB or 8GB of storage.

Even back in 2004 - 3 years before the iPhone. I had this

https://www.lacie.com/support/multimedia/classic-hd/

It was a much better NAS than trying to repurpose an iPhone with very bad Wifi.

You are going to “read text” on a 3.5 inch 320x480 Poot resolution screen in 2023?

And you want Apple to continue supporting a “phone” that can’t be used as a phone anymore?

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#843

Post by psmith50 »

roryisok wrote: post #740
einpoklum wrote: post #730

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite possibly - like hundreds of Millions of other people who use older phones.

This is the reason. All those people who need to be on the absolute bleeding edge, sell perfectly good phones for a quarter of what they cost new, to people like me. Everyone I know buys new phones for anywhere up to 800 for the latest Samsungs (and don't even get me started on the Apple stuff) and I just can't fathom it. It's like buying a brand new car and then selling it three years later to buy another brand new…

Where do you typically go to buy your used phone? eBay? Local shops?

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#844

Post by MisterTea »

manuelabeledo wrote: post #833
noisy_boy wrote: post #751

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They basically need four models to pretty much cover all the bases: 1. Budget: - Basic processor/camera/space with 6 inch screen - Basic processor/camera/space with 4.5 inch screen 2. Flagship - High-end processor/camera/space with 6 inch screen - High-end processor/camera/space with 4.5 inch screen

There's no significant market for a 4.5" screen phone in 2023. It's not like manufacturers haven't tried. I would also argue that small screens are awful for consuming content nowadays. People with bad eyesight struggle with bigger fonts in a small screen, and publishers tend to try to fit more and more content in each screen. It's systemic.

> I would also argue that small screens are awful for consuming content nowadays

I wouldn't. Most content is time wasting nonsense and ads.

> People with bad eyesight struggle with bigger fonts in a small screen,

My experience with Presbyopia is that a bigger screen is still impossible to read without glasses. Without glasses my only hope is to pinch zoom or browser zoom which works on both large and small screens.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#845

Post by [deleted] »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #285
solarkraft wrote: post #35

I'm happy about this! But, while repairability is always great, a major (maybe the biggest) part of phone obsolescence is due to software. 2 or 3 years of updates are a joke, Apple does up to 8. The best hope here is that this phone's repairability will attract a software hacking community to provide inofficial updates, but what a terrible thing to have to rely on. Besides: Phones by other brands like Pocophone are p…

Psh 5 years? What kind of standard of quality is that? We should have several decades of support for all cheap electronics at least…

[deleted]

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#846

Post by cassepipe »

dajonker wrote: post #808
cassepipe wrote: post #794

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S7 for under 99$: https://www.backmarket.com/en-us/l/samsung-galaxy-s7/d416373... And it will under guaranty for at least six months. The website guarantees a at least 70% of the orginal capable batteryu That's what I have. Has a jack, a physical home button and back button, a microSD slot. Don't know your expectations but the camera is better than the expensive camera I bough…

If those are the only apps you use, you might be fine for a while but lots of apps won't support old Android versions which could be problematic if you depend on such apps, e.g. for banking or signing into government services.

Nah I use for banking too. I use a bunch of apps and I am yet to find any that doesn't work.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#847

Post by mmastrac »

colordrops wrote: post #731
mmastrac wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a FP4 in Canada and it's been amazing. I suffer from a lack of parts, but I make up with that for excuses to vacation in Europe.

Can't parts be shipped from Europe?

Not that I've found, unless I use a re-shipper but I'm not familiar with that sort of setup when Europe is involved.

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#848

Post by dataflow »

Sammi wrote: post #826
grishka wrote: post #704

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I build Android apps for a living. Let me tell you, the majority of users are on "outdated" OS versions. You have to support 5-7 years of Android releases to cover a substantial part of the Android user base. The app I'm currently working on requires a minimum version of 6.0 — this came out in 2015. I still test my apps on a Nexus 5. Many people would buy a phone that will never receive a single update. The software…

Tell your management that usage of v6.0 is as good as gone, and you are wasting resources in doing any work to keep support for it: https://gs.statcounter.com/android-version-market-share/mobi... I you look at that data then you can see that the oldest version with any significant usage is v8.1. But even that is quite low, and you might do quite well in not supporting anything older than v9.0.

> Tell your management that usage of v6.0 is as good as gone, and you are wasting resources in doing any work to keep support for it

How do you say this without any knowledge whatsoever about the type of app they work on, or their target audience? v6.0 alone is almost 2% of users based on that chart. In fact if you include everything before v8.1, you seem to get something like 8% of users. What if their app, say, provides the poorest people access to public transportation? Would you really just drop 8% of people on the floor in any scenario?

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#849

Post by einpoklum »

commandersaki wrote: post #763
einpoklum wrote: post #735

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Malware can indeed be worse than hell. Have you ever had your bank account hacked? Or your email account broken into? Or your identity stolen and had to deal with dozens of credit cards being registered and then hit the limit under your name? To be honest - as an older-phone user, that's part of why I never access email on my phone, nor my bank account. I see my phone as something that's basically insecure, and tak…

Your phone (Android or iOS) is probably more secure than your desktop when it comes to accessing bank or email. It's more hardened and locked down.

My phone has a large amount of software written and installed by Google and by Xiaomi, both of which I absolutely don't trust; and it also has software which I do trust - but trust to spy on me, like Meta's WhatsApp...

Re: Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

#850

Post by flas9sd »

kwiens wrote: post #511
user8501 wrote: post #478

“Partnership with iFixit” just sounds… weird. You were supposed to destroy the Sith not join them!

Our mission is to help everyone fix all their stuff. We'll work with any manufacturer that wants to make their products last longer. Nokia has been really great to work with. Their engineers genuinely want to make this phone easier to work on.

I'm writing this from a 2016 device that ticks all of the boxes of repairability the announced phone has. Without the GPL, bootloader unlock and a willing vendor (motorola), it's end of life would've been in 2019. Thanks to source availability the community gave it another lease up to today and it's a candidate for a 10+ year phone thanks to kernel mainlining.

While hardware repairability is a pillar, it's only one of two and nothing without "software repair". Sadly even the ecodesign draft proposal (in the EU) goes soft on this topic and criticism of it (by eeb.org) still thinks only in "update duration" instead of the real ingredient of sustainability: software sources and ability to build it.

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