Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

PinePhone Review

drewdevault.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–268 of 268 posts

Re: PinePhone Review

#261

Post by mehhh »

minimalist wrote: post #236
rsync wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My phone uses a sim card from a verizon MVNO. I don't even know the phone number. "My" phone number was provisioned, and has always lived, in Twilio. I set up a simple call forward and SMS forward to my SIM number. When I land in a foreign country, I get a new sim card and just point the forwards to the new number. Easy. I wrote a shell script that allows me to SMS from the command line from my phone number . So I ca…

For people who are looking for a similar setup, jmp.chat is an alternative service built on free software and a voip provider like twilio. They forward SMS over XMPP and you can make calls with any old SIP client. Its literally a bunch of ruby scripts, a very charming project. I jumped ship from twilio after they made payments without a credit card impossible for small-timers like myself.

Number availability in some area codes is pretty limited with jmp.chat as they use the same underlying carrier as Google Voice.

Re: PinePhone Review

#262

Post by ossguy »

mehhh wrote: post #261
minimalist wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For people who are looking for a similar setup, jmp.chat is an alternative service built on free software and a voip provider like twilio. They forward SMS over XMPP and you can make calls with any old SIP client. Its literally a bunch of ruby scripts, a very charming project. I jumped ship from twilio after they made payments without a credit card impossible for small-timers like myself.

Number availability in some area codes is pretty limited with jmp.chat as they use the same underlying carrier as Google Voice.

We don't always provide our complete number list at https://jmp.chat/ - as an example, we usually have off-list numbers available in area codes like 416 and 212.

Just message the JMP support number (+1 416 993 8000) or my Jabber ID, denver@ozg.ca , to let us know which area code(s) you're interested in and we can send you a number list.

Re: PinePhone Review

#263

Post by ncmncm »

gsich wrote: post #83
ncmncm wrote: post #81

Why do these things (pine, librem) have so much trouble producing audio? It seems like that would have been one of the first things to have got working.

Shady modem manufacturers.

I don't think the modem is involved in driving the speaker or microphone.

Re: PinePhone Review

#264

Post by dustfinger »

thinkmassive wrote: post #258
dustfinger wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This, and the cost, is why I opted to go with Pine Phone over Purism Librem 5 I am now considering purchasing a Pine Phone and the cost is definitely motivating. I only wish that the PinePhone had hardware kill switches like the Librem 5 has.

The PinePhone actually has more kill switches for finer grained control, but they’re behind the rear cover instead of exposed on the side. PP: modem, WiFi, microphones, rear camera, front camera L5: modem, WiFi, cameras+audio Check out this comparison by Martijn Braam, a developer of postmarketOS: https://tuxphones.com/yet-another-librem-5-and-pinephone-lin...

Thank you,

I shouldn't have just made the assumption that the PinePhone lacked kill switches. I like the fact that the PinePhone kill switches are hidden behind the back cover. It seems like kill switches on the outside might easily be switched by mistake. I also like that the PinePhone kill switches allows greater granularity, since it has six switches, allowing the cameras and microphone to be killed independently. On the other-hand, I really like that the Librem5 kill switches can cut the GPS. Of course, all three have to be switched to accomplish that, but it is still nice to have the option.

Both phones use a Qualcomm modem that is black boxed and connected via the USB so that the phones do not have to deal with the firmware. The downside of this approach is that, I am assuming again, the firmware can't be updated for the modem. So a vulnerability found in the modem's firmware would not be patchable. However; the Librem 5 modem is replaceable.

Re: PinePhone Review

#265

Post by [deleted] »

dustfinger wrote: post #264
thinkmassive wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PinePhone actually has more kill switches for finer grained control, but they’re behind the rear cover instead of exposed on the side. PP: modem, WiFi, microphones, rear camera, front camera L5: modem, WiFi, cameras+audio Check out this comparison by Martijn Braam, a developer of postmarketOS: https://tuxphones.com/yet-another-librem-5-and-pinephone-lin...

Thank you, I shouldn't have just made the assumption that the PinePhone lacked kill switches. I like the fact that the PinePhone kill switches are hidden behind the back cover. It seems like kill switches on the outside might easily be switched by mistake. I also like that the PinePhone kill switches allows greater granularity, since it has six switches, allowing the cameras and microphone to be killed independently.…

[deleted]

Re: PinePhone Review

#266

Post by dustfinger »

thinkmassive wrote: post #258
dustfinger wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This, and the cost, is why I opted to go with Pine Phone over Purism Librem 5 I am now considering purchasing a Pine Phone and the cost is definitely motivating. I only wish that the PinePhone had hardware kill switches like the Librem 5 has.

The PinePhone actually has more kill switches for finer grained control, but they’re behind the rear cover instead of exposed on the side. PP: modem, WiFi, microphones, rear camera, front camera L5: modem, WiFi, cameras+audio Check out this comparison by Martijn Braam, a developer of postmarketOS: https://tuxphones.com/yet-another-librem-5-and-pinephone-lin...

I did it again. I made the assumption that the PinePhone has no way of killing the GPS. In fact, this is incorrect. According to the PinePhone wiki [1] the hardware killswitch for the modem also kills the GPS:

> Modem: On enables 2G/3G/4G communication and GNSS hardware, off disables.

That is because the GPS is bundled with the modem.

> GNSS: GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou/Galileo/QZSS, with A-GPS

The PinePhone sounds great!

[1]: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone#Killswitch_confi...

Re: PinePhone Review

#267

Post by m4rtink »

rwmj wrote: post #222

Could someone who knows say how this compares to the Sony Xperia running Jolla / Sailfish? I guess that Jolla contains some binary blobs in the kernel still whereas this is fully free.

Sailfish OS uses Android driver blobs via libhybris on the Xperia. I guess on the PinePhone either open drivers or native compiled blobs are in use.

But from the user perspective likely the main change from the Xperia would be the missing Android emulation layer. This is only available on officially supported devices, which the xperias (X, XA2, 10). On community ports, which Sailfish OS for the PinePhone is at the moment, the Android emulation layer is not available. I guess that could change if there is enough demand to roll it in to the Sailfish X program, like the Gemini PDA.

BTW, other than the Android emulator a and two more things (MS Exchange, typing prediction) the community ports are pretty much identical to the officially supported devices, all native apps will work, etc.

Re: PinePhone Review

#268

Post by mwcampbell »

thekyle wrote: post #124
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…

> 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…

> Spotify - has a web app

Doesn't that require Widevine DRM?

Post reply on HN