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Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

tuxphones.com

31–40 of 212 posts

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#31
post #13

A closed-source Google-developed OS for feature phones. Obviously it's the best spend DoD money so far. Just 20 millions. You need to track poor people too.

> You need to track poor people too

Bingo. That's is what it all about. Free email, free cloud docs and photos, free browser, free web tools. KaiOS should be running Google code. Replace DoD with Google (Skynet from Terminator) though.

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#32
post #6

It will probably require a plan. Walmart tried selling a $10 prepaid smart phone and they were all bought up by tinkerers. A $10 phone means lots of hobby and maybe even some commercial projects get a cell phone mounted as a touchscreen interface.

How is that a problem?

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#33
post #21
post #13

A closed-source Google-developed OS for feature phones. Obviously it's the best spend DoD money so far. Just 20 millions. You need to track poor people too.

If DoD wanted to track people they can just do it by triangulating the cellular signal. No need for a smartphone.

If you want transcriptions, proximity indication, scanning wireless networks, expanding your geodesic grid to accurately locate dumbphones etc, you need custom software. This is what this is (mostly) about. Sure we can pretend it's about "harmless" data mining but there's no such thing.

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#34
post #22

How difficult would this be to add GIPO to? This crushes the Raspi3 for the value.

Yes you are correct. These phones range anything from 300-700 MB of ram and have a pretty decent hardware. Combine that with a user operable interface (physical buttons, screen, audio) and you've got a nice package. I was looking a bit into this. It seems that KAI os is not an opensource project. Plus the OS is flashed into the ROM of these phones so its also very difficult to install a new OS reliably. So even if yo…

Thoughts, since this is a real life issue/question I'm making a decision on-

>I'm quite surprised at the cost of a USB GIPO board. I suppose I shouldnt have been.

>Developing an OS for a platform that could change at anytime, seems risky/time consuming.

>novel ways of communication- Put everything on wifi relays, or communication with other peripherals

Might be worth buying one of these phones and taking it apart to see whats inside.

EDIT: Looking to select my microprocessor for a consumer product. An entire computer would be nice.

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#35
post #27
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was Firefox OS targetting this kind of phone though? I thought it was trying to be a touch-screen smartphone OS.

Wasn't really, although their focus was on low cost phones too. Credit to KaiOS for recognizing the potential of non-touch devices. However, the effort required to enable a non-touch UI would have been a small fraction of the overall FirefoxOS effort. Something Mozilla could have responded to, if the team was intact.

The non-touch concept was under development when firefox os was cancelled.

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#36
post #3

I'd buy a few of these for my kids.

Kids will tell you years later that it was wrong giving their data to Google, an Ad company, with core business of monetizing people's data.

In the 2 years they use this phone what value is there possibly to be gained??? It's virtually zero value to anyone.

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#37
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes you are correct. These phones range anything from 300-700 MB of ram and have a pretty decent hardware. Combine that with a user operable interface (physical buttons, screen, audio) and you've got a nice package. I was looking a bit into this. It seems that KAI os is not an opensource project. Plus the OS is flashed into the ROM of these phones so its also very difficult to install a new OS reliably. So even if yo…

Thoughts, since this is a real life issue/question I'm making a decision on- >I'm quite surprised at the cost of a USB GIPO board. I suppose I shouldnt have been. >Developing an OS for a platform that could change at anytime, seems risky/time consuming. >novel ways of communication- Put everything on wifi relays, or communication with other peripherals Might be worth buying one of these phones and taking it apart to…

You do have different leverage producing a volume product. Maybe there's a chance the manufacturer would be willing to cooperate?

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#38
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids will tell you years later that it was wrong giving their data to Google, an Ad company, with core business of monetizing people's data.

In the 2 years they use this phone what value is there possibly to be gained??? It's virtually zero value to anyone.

They'll keep their Google accounts, because of emails and logins on other sites, and use them on their next devices, keeping data flowing and attributed.

Hell. They would even browse Internet using Chrome signed in to their G accounts, giving away browsing history (all their secret dreams, interests that even closest people don't know about)

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#39
post #24

How difficult would this be to add GIPO to? This crushes the Raspi3 for the value.

+ screen, GPS and modem, it seems fantastic. Even without GPIO, USB solution or bluetooth + some nrf chip could do. In practice though, unless you plan to deploy a lot of them, as a hobbyist, your time is likely more valuable than any hardware so it seems reasonable to just go with the most popular platform.

One "GPIO" could be the vibration motor stuff, another the audio out ... but it's probably not worth it.

Re: Linux-based 4G phones with Google Assistant sold for $7 in Indonesia

#40

Apart from the Google tie-in, I've been wanting a KaiOS phone ever since they were announced. I actually miss the days of my Nokia E71; a stripped down but modern feature phone with battery life measured in days instead of hours would be a blessing. Unfortunately these are not marketed at all in the Western world and probably wouldn't work on domestic carriers.

"I actually miss the days of my Nokia E71"

A Nokia E71 was my daily driver for about a year, starting in 2010. I loved:

- the hardware (slim yet solid, keyboard only slightly worse than a Blackberry, nice tapered+curved edges)

- the extensive list of features (e.g. Wifi+3G, built-in SIP client, support for Exchange ActiveSync)

- support from important apps (e.g. Skype)

I hated:

- How finicky it was. I lost count of the number of times I had set up the mail client again (maybe after re-installing it) because it stopped syncing. (This was back when GSuite free accounts supported ActiveSync, which allowed push email.)

- The weirdness around selecting Wifi or 3G connection (I don't recall exactly what the issue was, but I remember there was something confusing about it).

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