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ZTE Open Firefox OS phone is available on eBay

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Re: ZTE Open Firefox OS phone is available on eBay

#61

Post by zokier »

thecodeore wrote: post #25
wslh wrote: post #7

I hope other organizations related to free software follow this route. Where is GNU Mobile? Debian Mobile? FreeBSD Mobile? etc, etc. In six days ends the Ubuntu Edge "fundraising" but I don't think this is the way to go. If few people like Linus Torvalds ignited a revolution why the same is not happening on the mobile space with less than $ 32mm? Even starting without big expectations about the market penetration bec…

Tizen..........? That is the Linux Foundation Mobile OS

The Tizen with no announced devices and proprietary SDK? No thanks, I rather place my trust on Mer/Nemo.

Re: ZTE Open Firefox OS phone is available on eBay

#64

Post by yangyang »

reidrac wrote: post #19
foz wrote: post #16

The specs say 320x480 px screen, which is a bit disappointing.

I'm not an expert, but £59.99 is a very competitive price for an unlocked smartphone.

I thought that too, but then I found the ZTE Tania, for £69.99, same seller as the Open. It's a Windows Phone, but it's got a faster CPU, 800 x 480 screen, 217ppi (vs. 480 x 320 on the Open), bigger battery, more flash. No micro-SD slot though.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brand-New-Unlocked-ZTE-Tania-Windo...

Comparison: http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5320&idPhone2=...

Re: ZTE Open Firefox OS phone is available on eBay

#65

Post by rsync »

57 comments into this thread and not one mention of the string "baseband".

Surprising, as that is far and away the most interesting thing that could happen in this space, and it continues to not happen.

Depending on the phone and the implementation of the baseband firmware, your carrier could have as deep as DMA access to that computer in your hand.

Osmocom is interesting, but it is 2G only, works (almost) exclusively on euro-GSM handsets, and is barely making calls at this point.

This (the op) is all very interesting, but all that matters is getting an open baseband firmware that you can protect from the carrier.

Re: ZTE Open Firefox OS phone is available on eBay

#66

Post by rdtsc »

untog wrote: post #36
rdtsc wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A smartphone to be useful has to have applications and a market to get more applications. A smart-phone that doesn't is no better than a an older locked down brick or flip phone with pre-loaded vendor supplied 'apps'

No. A smartphone has a fully competent web browser, which instantly places it far, far higher than a brick or flip phone.

A user doesn't care what underlying technology it has. Even crappy phones have some web browser on them. A user cares about thing like "Can I get Shazam installed?" or "What about my Facebook app and the game I saw my cousin play on his iPhone?" If the answer if no, they don't care what magic soup of technology acronyms there are inside.

Re: ZTE Open Firefox OS phone is available on eBay

#67

Post by GzkpAWpQXAfVYFs »

felideon wrote: post #39
aroch wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you're binging your own phone and its 3G limited, your best bets for cheap plans is an ATT PAYG plan [0] and I would forgo the data plan or StraightTalk [1]. If you want data, you can probably get away with ATT's 'basic' phone unlimited data plan (Honestly, I would consider a FfOS a feature phone and not a smartphone) for $35 a month. Or a StraightTalk ~$44 a month unlimited plan that doesn't care about feature…

"(Honestly, I would consider a FfOS a feature phone and not a smartphone.)" You would. I hope to God that AT&T will, too. The whole "you -must- have a data plan if you have a smartphone" is ridiculous. In any case, I don't think they have automatic 'smartphone' detection, and if they do, they probably won't add ZTE Open to their list any time soon. By the way, I didn't know AT&T had a 'basic' phone data plan. Will ha…

Not many know/do this, but it's possible to have a smartphone without a dataplan (or at least is for the gophone plans). Walk into a store and ask for them to set a SIM card up for you. Tell them you don't have the flip phone with you (if they ask) and they'll likely program the card for an all 1's IMEI. You might be able to do this yourself online as well if you purchase one from their store , but I'm not positive.

Once you have your 1111111111111111 IMEI SIM card, cut it down to size if necessary, turn off cell data on your smartphone, pop the card in, and power cycle your device. I've had this running successfully on a few different devices (iPhone 3gs, Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy) for the last 2-3 years. I use their 2-dollar a day plan (free to receive texts, only get charged if you respond or make a call) with the majority of my usage over WiFi only - but I still receive texts for free and can respond/call in an emergency. Costs me ~8.33 a month.

Re: ZTE Open Firefox OS phone is available on eBay

#69

Post by zokier »

reidrac wrote: post #19
foz wrote: post #16

The specs say 320x480 px screen, which is a bit disappointing.

I'm not an expert, but £59.99 is a very competitive price for an unlocked smartphone.

as _enai mentioned, china has ample supply of cheap android devices of varying quality.

Here is one $90 one, with far better specs than the Fx phones (on paper):

http://www.pandawill.com/star-v980-smartphone-mtk6577-dual-c...

* Cortex A9 vs A5

* Dual-core vs single-core

* 512 vs 256 MB ram

* 4GB vs 512 MB "rom" (flash)

* 800x480 vs 480x320 display resolution

* 5MP vs 3MP camera (most likely both are useless)

* Smaller dimensions even with a larger display

Too bad that you can't just install whatever OS you want easily on whatever hardware. And of course random cheap Chinese electronics are bit risky purchases quality wise.

Re: ZTE Open Firefox OS phone is available on eBay

#70

Post by fzzzy »

untog wrote: post #48
felideon wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, are you running the latest FxOS build, etc.? I know Engadget has an article somewhere saying the lagginess improved a bit. I ordered one in order to replace my feature phone. Although the phone doesn't crash nor would I call the UI feedback on pressing a button "laggy", it certainly isn't fast.

As best I know I am, yes- I see relatively frequent "System Update" notifications and apply them whenever I get them.

Check to see if you are on the 1.0.1 or the 1.1 channel. 1.1 is a lot better and has been getting very stable over the last month.
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