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PinePhone Review

drewdevault.com

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Re: PinePhone Review

#141

Post by dmitriid »

zdkl wrote: post #115
dmitriid wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

(Hopefully) Ease and flexibility of development for 3rd party applications?

Do people really complain about ease and flexibility of development for iOS and Android?

Re: PinePhone Review

#142

Post by alpaca128 »

rasvj wrote: post #125
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 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.

In my opinion Windows Phone 8 is still far ahead of Android in terms of usability. It has at least 3 features I wish Google would just copy.

Pretty much all the apps were bad though, I agree. Even the official OneNote app was a joke compared to the Android version.

Re: PinePhone Review

#143

Post by StavrosK »

mr__y wrote: post #137
StavrosK wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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")…

Imagine future cashless society with mobile-only payments. And a smart-car that needs a phone to open/start. And a smart-home with front-door unlocked with a phone. If you loose/break your phone - no problem, you can replace it with a new one, borrow one or use that old phone you keep in a drawer just in case. Not a huge deal. But if your account gets locked you have a problem. I'm afraid we as a society are giving t…

> It's not that of a problem yet of course

And that's the problem, that it's going to be insidiously gradual. These lockouts will mostly be seen as acts of God, things that happen to the less fortunate other people and not us. As long as they're kept rare enough, people won't bother solving them, like what happens with countless other things.

Re: PinePhone Review

#145

Post by padraic7a »

It's cool that he's writing his own shell but I think that Ubuntu Touch as maintained by Ubports is worth a mention as it's going to be one of the available options for the Pine Phone.

The UI is slick and well developed. The app ecosystem isn't amazing but you get a browser, choice of Telegram clients, Signal client etc. You can get an idea of the range of apps here https://open-store.io/?sort=-updated_date&type=app

HN readers might like to note that there is also an established developer community and resources like documentation.

Well worth a look if you're thinking of getting a Pinephone, and / or developing a anything for it.

Re: PinePhone Review

#146

Post by thekyle »

_-o-_ wrote: post #135
thekyle wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Bank - should have a website (and if they don't have a website they most likely don't have an app anyway) In my experience mobile banking is more often than not provided via app exclusively.

What are some American banks that don't have a website but have an app? I'm curious.

Re: PinePhone Review

#147

Post by lostgame »

TylerE wrote: post #41
lern_too_spel wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Openmoko sold 13000 phones, which is much more than "dozens." Commercial failure does not necessarily mean you can fit all the customers in a room.

13k is a rounding error. Apple sells that many iphones every 30 minutes. (I'm not kidding... they sell 217M iPhones a year = 594k a day = 24.9k/hr)

Not sure why this is being downvoted? It’s a fascinating statistic alone.

Re: PinePhone Review

#148

Post by jcelerier »

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.

> And I'm far from something special or unusual.

from my experience, the "average" person (if not the majority) has trouble handling a TV remote

Re: PinePhone Review

#149

Post by Tepix »

padraic7a wrote: post #145

It's cool that he's writing his own shell but I think that Ubuntu Touch as maintained by Ubports is worth a mention as it's going to be one of the available options for the Pine Phone. The UI is slick and well developed. The app ecosystem isn't amazing but you get a browser, choice of Telegram clients, Signal client etc. You can get an idea of the range of apps here https://open-store.io/?sort=-updated_date&type=app…

I think that too much fragmentation in this space can turn out to be a big problem for Linux phones.

Designing and implementing a user-friendly and fast GUI is a very big task. Ubuntu Touch has had a lot of work go into it.

Re: PinePhone Review

#150

Post by Tepix »

jcelerier wrote: post #148
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.

> And I'm far from something special or unusual. from my experience, the "average" person (if not the majority) has trouble handling a TV remote

That may be true but there are still plenty of people who are able to hack on a developer Linux phone. Far more than a few dozen.
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