New Linux smartphone made for developers - $150

[ttuuxxx]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/01 ... 2eQb8KCagg looks like it could be very possible to make a Puppy OS for this phone, it boots off a SD card and has switches to shut off things like the Modem/GPS, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, microphone, rear camera, and front camera. If we are going to support this phone, let me know I'll buy one and help with its development.
ttuuxxx

[ttuuxxx]

Looks like they are already sold out, well that's not good, also they say its normal to have a few dead pixels on a phone, well I've had a mobile phone since the early 1990's and never once have I ever had a dead pixel on the screen. https://store.pine64.org/?product=pinep ... ly-adaptor

[foxpup]

Hi ttuuxxx.
This is exiting!!
Imagine a smartphone on Puppy!
I would love that.

[BarryK]

What you need to be wary of is battery life and overheating.

It is (probably) the penalty of using a SoC not designed for a phone, and a separate modem, also not designed for a phone.

Unless the Purism developers pull a rabbit out of the hat, it is killing the Librem 5 phone project.

Battery is flat after about 2.5 hours. That is for "Chestnut", the second-generation version:

https://forums.puri.sm/t/also-got-my-ch ... -life/8315

https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comment ... pressions/

https://forums.puri.sm/c/librem/phones

[ttuuxxx]

What you need to be wary of is battery life and overheating.

It is (probably) the penalty of using a SoC not designed for a phone, and a separate modem, also not designed for a phone.

Unless the Purism developers pull a rabbit out of the hat, it is killing the Librem 5 phone project.

Battery is flat after about 2.5 hours. That is for "Chestnut", the second-generation version:

https://forums.puri.sm/t/also-got-my-ch ... -life/8315

https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comment ... pressions/

https://forums.puri.sm/c/librem/phones

Hi Barry I don't thinks its a Purism Librem 5 Phone at all Quote"It's hard to mention PinePhone without mentioning that other Linux smartphone, the Purism Librem 5. They could both end up running the same software one day, but the two companies are taking totally different approaches to hardware. Purism has a hardline requirement for the hardware: it needs to be as open and freedom-focused as possible, which means the company couldn't use the typical supply chain that exists for Android phones. Purism has only a limited amount of open source-compatible vendors to choose from, and it uses M.2 socketed chips for the closed-source Wi-Fi/Bluetooth and Cell modem. The result is a device that is very thick (16mm), hot, and expensive, at $750. The PinePhone is less averse to binary blobs and is a lot closer to a normal smartphone. It's a more reasonable thickness (9mm) and a more reasonable price: $150."
ttuuxxx

[BarryK]

What you need to be wary of is battery life and overheating.

It is (probably) the penalty of using a SoC not designed for a phone, and a separate modem, also not designed for a phone.

Unless the Purism developers pull a rabbit out of the hat, it is killing the Librem 5 phone project.

Battery is flat after about 2.5 hours. That is for "Chestnut", the second-generation version:

https://forums.puri.sm/t/also-got-my-ch ... -life/8315

https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comment ... pressions/

https://forums.puri.sm/c/librem/phones

Hi Barry I don't thinks its a Purism Librem 5 Phone at all Quote"It's hard to mention PinePhone without mentioning that other Linux smartphone, the Purism Librem 5. They could both end up running the same software one day, but the two companies are taking totally different approaches to hardware. Purism has a hardline requirement for the hardware: it needs to be as open and freedom-focused as possible, which means the company couldn't use the typical supply chain that exists for Android phones. Purism has only a limited amount of open source-compatible vendors to choose from, and it uses M.2 socketed chips for the closed-source Wi-Fi/Bluetooth and Cell modem. The result is a device that is very thick (16mm), hot, and expensive, at $750. The PinePhone is less averse to binary blobs and is a lot closer to a normal smartphone. It's a more reasonable thickness (9mm) and a more reasonable price: $150."
ttuuxxx

Hi ttuuxxx!
Yeah, the Pinephone may manage to do better in respect to power consumption. Now that they are shipped, there should start to get some feedback about battery life.

I am also interested. I backed the Purism phone by purchasing the original dev. kit, but I won't be buying a phone. I posted about an independent engineer's assessment of the Librem 5 design:

https://bkhome.org/news/201911/librem-5 ... ation.html

The Pinephone modem has frequencies that work with Telstra (the telco that I am with) in Australia, so if they get reasonable battery life, I am a potential buyer.

[enrique]

I am more pessimistic that you guys. I do not see that having this kind of open source Linux phone is the answer. Not the answer when it is composed of much lower resources than a normal phone. And even less if there is no builtin OS for it. What we need is a cellphone manufacturer that allow their phone to be total unlock at lower prices. This obsession to signing and locking boot loaders is way out of place. But the people had become like stock animals. They buy crap because that is what everyone else does. Where is the sense of independence and having a will to buy ONLY what we want and how we want it. Just in case this last comment has nothing to do with this Linux Smartphone. But to those that buy a Iphone or latest Android when they do not even know why they need such a product. Just because they think a successful person needs to buy that model or brand.

[don570]

best video so far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc2bxRBt3NY
____________________________________________________

pinephone uses Quectel EG25-G LTE modem
https://www.quectel.com/product/eg25g.htm

a wide range of M2M and IoT applications such as industrial router, industrial PDA, rugged tablet PC, video surveillance, and digital signage.

SHANGHAI, July 16, 2019 -- Quectel Wireless Solutions Co., Ltd. ("Quectel" or "the Company", Stock Code: 603236.SH), the leading global supplier of cellular and GNSS modules, announced that the Company has listed its initial public offering of 22,300,000 shares of common stock at RMB 43.93 per share on the main board of Shanghai Stock Exchange today. Proceeds of the IPO will be mainly used to expand the Company's 5G, high-speed LTE and LPWA product portfolio, and build R&D and technical support centers, which will greatly enhance its competitiveness to secure continuous and stable growth.

___________________________________________________

[BarryK]

I am more pessimistic that you guys. I do not see that having this kind of open source Linux phone is the answer. Not the answer when it is composed of much lower resources than a normal phone. And even less if there is no builtin OS for it. What we need is a cellphone manufacturer that allow their phone to be total unlock at lower prices. This obsession to signing and locking boot loaders is way out of place. But the people had become like stock animals. They buy crap because that is what everyone else does. Where is the sense of independence and having a will to buy ONLY what we want and how we want it. Just in case this last comment has nothing to do with this Linux Smartphone. But to those that buy a Iphone or latest Android when they do not even know why they need such a product. Just because they think a successful person needs to buy that model or brand.

I am a lot more cynical than I let on in posts.

For example, the Purism guys make a big deal out of removing firmware blobs, coz we don't know what is in them, and they could be spying on us.

But, the hardware of the chips could be just as easily, even more easily, spying on us. The circuitry inside a SoC is immensely complex, and we don't know what is in there, it is just a black box, could be anything. Binary blobs are singled out, but it is just a marketing exercise.

The bottom line is, we have to trust a company like Intel to make chips that do not spy on us. And if we do that, then we should also trust their binary blobs.

Anyway, that's how I see the situation. ...and if that is correct, then the entire foundation on which Purism is built, is pointless.

[enrique]

Before I need to say when I LOOK at things, I am at least 10% paranoid. But in reality when I ACT I may do only 1% paranoid. So from some what paranoid guy like me, then It will be sound weird to minimize this threat.

From your last comets , maybe I see now what is your point. You are studding this as phone that is better secure than regular phone. Uhhm! It is not just to have Linux on it.

Wao I can not accept or deny your points. But the threat on:
*"The circuitry inside a SoC is immensely complex, and we don't know what is in there, it is just a black box"
* " firmware blobs"
**The constant update ( I am adding this)

This will apply to ALL our electronics, so even our Puppy Linux are in this category as it run on similar hardware/software limitation. My point is we will never now. See that I have not included by name any of your suggested new devices. As this is a condition we all face.

Conclusion. I have not install on my old phones a full Linux OS like the Ubuntu phone video. But I have run Debian withing Android in chroot environment. This provides me with the more or less extra freedom I need. About Security!! Well As I said I do not know.

But here my MAIN POINT. My current phone Galaxy S5, a gift. 6 years old and I can say it has better characteristics. Even my OLD Galaxy S(1) that has 10 years old seems to compete with the suggested phones. Except for the much wider screen size. And this is not a promotion to a trademark. Galaxy S is the LAST phone I had buy. Shame on you NSA, Google, Samsung, kernel.org and even Intel, witch destroy what was the best open source phone technology we had. It was all fine until 4.X, where we start seen the Lock on here and there.

I will be keeping an eye on your post here in the future. Good lock and hope you find that better phone we all need.

[don570]

Another video of phone using Ubuntu Touch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST_BjKicTAk
________________________________________________

[don570]

postmarketOS reported success with phone calls on today's twitter

https://twitter.com/thepine64/status/12 ... 4120559618

So I checked their change log...

Changelog
2020-02-20
Upgraded to Plasma 5.18
Added the neccesary scripts to set up calling
Made calling work
Fixed call audio
Added modem init script to fix calls

___________________________________________

Image available
https://images.postmarketos.org/pinepho ... sma.img.xz

382mb
-------------------------------

[don570]

pinephone now supports kernel 5.6-rc3 and will soon support 5.7
https://twitter.com/nullr0ute/status/12 ... 0163172359

So first boot of
@fedora
on the
@thepine64
#PinebookPro with the Fedora 5.6-rc3 kernel and u-boot 2020.04-rc3 plus some patches. Well that was the easy bit... now the hard work starts!

[BarryK]

A report on battery life of the Librem 5:

Now up to 6 hours on standby:

https://forums.puri.sm/t/battery-run-ti ... by/8014/40

...but that is with the modem turned off!!!

I can't find the link now, but there was a recent report that the PinePhone was getting 12 hours on standby ...I do hope that is with the modem running, so that it can receive calls!

[bigpup]

This things seems to be just a small tablet computer, with the ability to make phone calls.
Well, that is more or less what smart phones now are.

[don570]

I can't find the link now, but there was a recent report that the PinePhone was getting 12 hours on standby ...I do hope that is with the modem running, so that it can receive calls!

I saw that on twitter as well. A Danish programmer was able to shut off
3 of the 4 cores in the arm processor and that extended the life of battery
from 10 to 12 hours. I assume that the phone would be in some type of sleep mode with one core working .
It would wake up if a phone call occurred.
_______________________________________________

There's a linux appimage version of the Etcher program for writing images to
a SD card.
https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/releases

[don570]

Here's report

Marius from UBports has started experimenting with having the kernel downclock the core frequency, drop the CPU voltage and turn off 3 cores when the phone’s display is off (in its idle state). This early experimentation has resulted in a stand-by time of approximately 12hrs, which is rather impressive for a first battery-preserving attempt. This will only get better with time, as it becomes paired with more advanced power management.

First attempt = 12 hours of stand-by time ... I like that.

____________________________________

[don570]

Latest news of pinephone development...
https://9to5linux.com/heres-manjaro-lin ... nd-pinetab

But what’s more important is that Manjaro ARM for PinePhone now supports phone calls, and that right there is a great example of the amazing work the Open Source community can do.

______________________________________________

[don570]

UBPORTS blog has interesting info about adding an external monitor to the pinephone.
This could turn the pinephone into a regular computer.
https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-blog-1 ... q-a-70-264

PinePhone and external display support
PoVoq asked whether the PinePhone will be able to support use of an external display, as current devices do? The answer is yes, support will come eventually but a lot of software needs to be built for that and of course for us getting the PinePhone working well as a phone is our first priority. Extending external functionality will come later. The way things work with existing devices in still not as smooth as we would like and we need to apply improvements across the whole range of them. Libertine is another area where we need to see improvement but again this involves all our devices, not just the PinePhone. A supplementary question was whether legacy apps on the PinePhone were already working better in some respects than other devices. It isn't yet but we are quite clear that it will eventually. It is a simple fact that Xwayland works better than Xmir, so in the end the PinePhone build will be superior for running arbitrary legacy apps.

__________________________________

[wiak]

UBPORTS blog has interesting info about adding an external monitor to the pinephone.
This could turn the pinephone into a regular computer.

I think it is all a bit crazy. We already have regular computers but some had long term dream of having their favourite OS on their phone. But Google took Linux and their research presumably informed them that standard Linux wasn't a good fit for a small phone device; hence they created Android, which works (problems being more a result of Google control and advertising/constant-updates etc). As others said you can run standard Linux (e.g. Debian) in a chroot and, my goodness, you can chromecast to as big a monitor as you like, and... your phone may not need charged every 6 or 12 hours!!!

Having said that, development for development's sake is a good thing too, in my opinion - it may not yield the most usable products, but a lot is always learned in any attempts, which informs other more practical projects later.

wiak