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PinePhone Review

drewdevault.com

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Re: PinePhone Review

#121

Post by afandian »

Mashimo wrote: post #110
afandian wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how do people without phones participate in society? I don't use a google account on my phone, so that means no App Store. I'm trying to one day get rid of my google account too. It doesn't cause me many issues in the UK though I can't use things like Uber, and that's no loss to me. How would I get on in Denmark?

> So how do people without phones participate in society? It's not super hard. Until ~3'ish years ago I did not have a smartphone here in DK. Life is just so much easier with it. I think they got rid of the 10x Bus ticket you would buy at a kiosk, so now you have to buy a single tickets with coins inside the bus. (depends on the city) Which means you need cash. DK society is very much cashless, I mostly see older peo…

Sounds like Sweden. About 10 years ago I was very surprised to be able to pay for a bus journey using my (foreign) debit card. Now it's normal in the UK. And I have Swedish friends who have never seen the newly issued currency.

Crazy but it's the future. It's just a shame that it's gatekept by unaccountable duopolies such as Google...

Re: PinePhone Review

#122

Post by unionpivo »

dmitriid wrote: post #106
Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft couldn't do it because everyone new (of the users) that even if they put in their effort to switch and wait for the ecosystem to grow, they will end up with just the same crap: another closed-source monopoly with it's own quirks. We won't have just two overlords, but instead 3 of the same. Wow such a difference... Now an truly open system might make a difference. Not saying it will, it has it's own problems…

You greatly overestimate the number of users who care about how closed or how open an ecosystem is. If the user can't interact with their bank, whatchu YouTube, talk to their friends and parents over Snapchat or Skype, call Uber, play Spotify, etc etc etc, it doesn't matter in the least if your phone is 100% open source. Microsoft had sunk billions into trying to get the ecosystem off the ground. What makes you think…

it doesn't have to.

All it really needs to do is make calls and have good browser (Firefox would do). Signal would be a nice bonus.

This might not be enough for all (i am sure it wont), but for me and several other people I know, it would be enough, to be our main phone.

Re: PinePhone Review

#123

Post by rimliu »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #69
Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #66

IMO, Librem5 and PinePhone are the most exciting news of this decade w.r.t mobile ecosystem for hackers, tinkerers, enthusiasts. Librem5 stuck to its security, privacy first agenda and managed to build a phone with PC grade hardware. PinePhone stuck to its affordability first agenda, bringing a Linux capable smartphone hardware to the masses. My only wish is that these project become commercially sustainable and attr…

I think Windows Mobile gave up just prior to the best chance of breaking the duopoly: PWAs. Most app developers will never want to support a half a dozen phone OSes. The solution will inevitably, eventually, be the web.

This is turning to "Linux for desktop" really fast. Or really slow depends how you look at it.

Even the web does not look like the web anymore. I am not even sure what do you mean by "the solution will inevitably be the web". The solution for supporting half a dozen phone OSes will be fewer phone OSes. If you think that nobody will want to develop half a dozen versions of the app natively, why do you think they will want to debug PWAs on half a dozen OSes?

Re: PinePhone Review

#124

Post by thekyle »

dmitriid wrote: post #106
Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft couldn't do it because everyone new (of the users) that even if they put in their effort to switch and wait for the ecosystem to grow, they will end up with just the same crap: another closed-source monopoly with it's own quirks. We won't have just two overlords, but instead 3 of the same. Wow such a difference... Now an truly open system might make a difference. Not saying it will, it has it's own problems…

You greatly overestimate the number of users who care about how closed or how open an ecosystem is. If the user can't interact with their bank, whatchu YouTube, talk to their friends and parents over Snapchat or Skype, call Uber, play Spotify, etc etc etc, it doesn't matter in the least if your phone is 100% open source. Microsoft had sunk billions into trying to get the ecosystem off the ground. What makes you think…

> If the user can't interact with their bank, whatchu YouTube, talk to their friends and parents over Snapchat or Skype, call Uber, play Spotify, etc etc etc, it doesn't matter in the least if your phone is 100% open source.

Most of this should be available on the PinePhone at launch (albeit not as nicely as on Android).

Bank - should have a website (and if they don't have a website they most likely don't have an app anyway)

YouTube - website again (youtube.com)

Skype - has a web app and a Electron app available for Linux (web.skype.com)

Uber - has a PWA that can be used for booking rides (m.uber.com)

Spotify - has a web app and a Electron app available for Linux (open.spotify.com)

Re: PinePhone Review

#125

Post by rasvj »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #92
moksly wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t need your Raspberry PI to run your bank app, handle your payments or your bus-tickets. I’m not sure how I’d even purchase a non digital ticket for quite a few things in Denmark. Don’t get me wrong, I really hope something like PinePhone sees enough adoption to get the apps I need a smartphone to run so I can break away from the two monopolies. I just don’t believe it will happen when Microsoft couldn’t do i…

Microsoft couldn't do it because everyone new (of the users) that even if they put in their effort to switch and wait for the ecosystem to grow, they will end up with just the same crap: another closed-source monopoly with it's own quirks. We won't have just two overlords, but instead 3 of the same. Wow such a difference... Now an truly open system might make a difference. Not saying it will, it has it's own problems…

You overestimate how many people care about whether something is open or closed source.

I had a Windows Phone. It was bad. Even Microsoft apps were subpar. Skype app was simply unusable. They weren't dogfooding.

Also Google torpedoed it.

Re: PinePhone Review

#126

Post by StavrosK »

afandian wrote: post #121
Mashimo wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So how do people without phones participate in society? It's not super hard. Until ~3'ish years ago I did not have a smartphone here in DK. Life is just so much easier with it. I think they got rid of the 10x Bus ticket you would buy at a kiosk, so now you have to buy a single tickets with coins inside the bus. (depends on the city) Which means you need cash. DK society is very much cashless, I mostly see older peo…

Sounds like Sweden. About 10 years ago I was very surprised to be able to pay for a bus journey using my (foreign) debit card. Now it's normal in the UK. And I have Swedish friends who have never seen the newly issued currency. Crazy but it's the future. It's just a shame that it's gatekept by unaccountable duopolies such as Google...

Funny you should mention that, my Google account got somehow restricted yesterday due to Google Pay not liking my rooted phone. Now not only can I not pay with the phone, but I have to submit all my private information to a random Google web page, hope someone sees this, hope they agree it's correct, and hope that this was the problem in the first place (since all the app says is "this operation cannot be completed").

In summary, fuck Google. This is why I want cryptocurrency to succeed. I don't want corporations deciding how I spend my own money.

Re: PinePhone Review

#127

Post by rvense »

afandian wrote: post #103
moksly wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t need your Raspberry PI to run your bank app, handle your payments or your bus-tickets. I’m not sure how I’d even purchase a non digital ticket for quite a few things in Denmark. Don’t get me wrong, I really hope something like PinePhone sees enough adoption to get the apps I need a smartphone to run so I can break away from the two monopolies. I just don’t believe it will happen when Microsoft couldn’t do i…

So how do people without phones participate in society? I don't use a google account on my phone, so that means no App Store. I'm trying to one day get rid of my google account too. It doesn't cause me many issues in the UK though I can't use things like Uber, and that's no loss to me. How would I get on in Denmark?

There are a few things you cannot do. In some areas of Copenhagen you can't pay for parking without an app, I'm told (but I don't drive so I don't know for sure).

The biggest mobile-only thing is an app called MobilePay which is used mostly for person-to-person transfers, and a lot of people don't use cash at all anymore. I am starting to see classified ads that specify "MobilePay only", although I guess you could usually convince people to accept a bank transfer instead. A lot of shops also accept it, but there is a law that shops have to accept cash, but some places don't respect it. Very few shops don't accept credit cards, but these generally also like cash...

As for digitization in general, all communication with the municipality and state and things like your bank and insurance company is digital. You're required by law to have a bank account and to have it associated with your personal ID number (all Danish residents are tagged with their birthday + 4 digit code in the Central Person Register). This all goes via a website that works with all browsers, though, but I wouldn't be surprised if down the line some features started being smartphone/app store only.

Re: PinePhone Review

#128

Post by squarefoot »

dmitriid wrote: post #107
bildung wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about open source phones, of which Apple has sold exactly zero.

This makes open source phone cheaper to produce? Cheaper to ship? 13k phones won't cover even the costs of production, much less R&D

Give FOSS phones the same media coverage of the iPhone, possibly including its ad induced reality distortion field, and they will sell like candies.

Seriously, once the software is ready, 30 seconds of any popular celebrity showing one would make it sell hundreds thousands in a week. Problem is the small manufacturers couldn't either pay for that level of advertising or satisfy the demand without turning themselves into what they're fighting against now (venture capital, investors etc. don't come free), so I welcome numbers as small as 13k or even much less if that means the product isn't polluted by the typical corporate mindset (close as much as possible to protect intellectual property, make it obsolete sooner to sell newer models, etc).

Oh and by having an unusual phone I can also play the elitist bastard with friends:*)

Re: PinePhone Review

#129

Post by OrgNet »

I wish I could use that dream phone on Xfinity/Comcast mobile, but even if they use Verizon tower, they block most phones that are Verizon-compatible... they only allow BYOD if you have an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel.

I have a phone that isn't supposed to work with Comcast mobile, but 4g works for about 30 minutes if I reboot... I wonder if it would be the same with this phone.

Re: PinePhone Review

#130

Post by Hamuko »

realusername wrote: post #85
pjmlp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I see the PinePhone as a Raspberry Pi equivalent in the Smartphone world, there's definitely a big niche for that.

I mostly see Raspberry Pis being used for embedded devices, for automation, lightweight servers, etc. What would the PinePhone be used for?
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