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PinePhone Review

drewdevault.com

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Re: PinePhone Review

#12

Post by kick »

catchmeifyoucan wrote: post #9

Would be super cool to build a web based distribution like Firefox OS for this.

Why? Not even Mozilla had faith in Firefox OS, and on a phone like this, it's barely powerful enough to. I'm not trying to attack you, I'm just genuinely confused at this viewpoint.

Re: PinePhone Review

#13

Post by kick »

kop316 wrote: post #8
livueta wrote: post #5

That's extremely exciting news! Working LTE? No blobs? "Holy shit!" is an understatement. Tangentially, what's an appropriate entry point for a reasonably capable C/C++/Unix systems programmer without prior mobile guts experience interested in working on software for this platform? I'm kind of assuming that'd be "grab a compatible device, clone postmarket, rtfm" but confirmation/pointers would be appreciated.

I hate to temper your excitement a little bit (I am excited too!), but I am not a bit surprised that LTE data works. Calling and SMS/MMS over LTE (for T-Mobile USA) are two things that at least that as of today, you need proprietary libraries to have it function on Android, and likely don't work on the Pinephone. I strongly suspect that other USA carriers will have the same issue (I say that because there are additio…

Calling and SMS works without proprietary software already. The ubPorts people already did it:

https://twitter.com/thepine64/status/1202162774186582017

Re: PinePhone Review

#15

Post by monoideism »

"right now, there are very few people, perhaps only dozens, for whom this phone is the right phone, given the current level of software support."

I think he greatly underestimates the number of people with the interest and ability to do this kind of work. If it's easily available, I'll probably get one and hack on it, and maybe contribute to some projects. And I'm far from something special or unusual.

Re: PinePhone Review

#16

Post by kick »

throwawaysea wrote: post #11

Will this work with US carriers? I am not clear on whether there are limitations imposed by carriers to only allow "certified" phones.

Drew lives in Philadelphia, and he notes that it works, so yes.

Here's a tip, though, if you ever get concerned about whether or not a phone will work with your carrier. Check what modem it has. In the PinePhone's case, it's the EG25-G.

http://files.pine64.org/doc/datasheet/project_anakin/LTE_mod...

So now that we know the name, let's look and see if your carrier mentions it as one it approves. For the sake of brevity, I'll assume you're on AT&T.

https://www.att.com/modules

Google's cache nicely and conveniently converts spreadsheets into web documents, so let's view it on that:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:G7My6z...

The EG25-G is #51, and is fully supported.

Re: PinePhone Review

#17

Post by kop316 »

kick wrote: post #13
kop316 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to temper your excitement a little bit (I am excited too!), but I am not a bit surprised that LTE data works. Calling and SMS/MMS over LTE (for T-Mobile USA) are two things that at least that as of today, you need proprietary libraries to have it function on Android, and likely don't work on the Pinephone. I strongly suspect that other USA carriers will have the same issue (I say that because there are additio…

Calling and SMS works without proprietary software already. The ubPorts people already did it: https://twitter.com/thepine64/status/1202162774186582017

Is it on 3g or LTE?

I wouldn't be surprised if both work over 3g, but I would be very surprised if it works over LTE.

Re: PinePhone Review

#18

Post by pjmlp »

monoideism wrote: post #15

"right now, there are very few people, perhaps only dozens, for whom this phone is the right phone, given the current level of software support." I think he greatly underestimates the number of people with the interest and ability to do this kind of work. If it's easily available, I'll probably get one and hack on it, and maybe contribute to some projects. And I'm far from something special or unusual.

The countless commercial failures of such projects since OpenMoko proves otherwise.

Re: PinePhone Review

#19

Post by [deleted] »

monoideism wrote: post #15

"right now, there are very few people, perhaps only dozens, for whom this phone is the right phone, given the current level of software support." I think he greatly underestimates the number of people with the interest and ability to do this kind of work. If it's easily available, I'll probably get one and hack on it, and maybe contribute to some projects. And I'm far from something special or unusual.

[deleted]
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