- cross-posted to:
- linux@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- linux@programming.dev
cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/hardware/p/2144337/commodore-announces-linux-based-flip-phone-with-no-social-media-no-browser-the-callback
Linux-based phone still ‘runs 99% of Android apps’ so you can do more with it, if you wish.
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$499? No thanks
While it seems like everyone here hates it, I’ve been looking for a minimal phone for when my current one dies. This seems to hit the exact sweet spot of functionality I want vs what I don’t want. As for the price, well, I’m spending at least that much on my next phone anyway so it seems fine by me.
And I have a huge nostalgia for flip phones and transparent electronics. So yeah, signed up to preorder.
Nice! I’m very tempted… I really like that it’s SailfishOS. I bought an Xperia 10 III with SailfishOS and it works pretty decently. I’ve used the Android compatibility layer, it’s pretty good.
I know it’s not 100% FOSS, but maybe it’s seeming like we could rally around SailfishOS for an alternative to Android and iOS.
I don’t get that “minimalist phone” market I can just get an older phone, remove all social media and use it
The issue. You won’t be able to get old phones when theyre gone. Just like cars.
With the billions of devices lying around without use, there will be enough for a looong lime
You can’t remove lot of apps in most Android phones. I have an older phone S7 Edge which I installed an alternative Android OS called “/e/OS”. Its way more private by default. Besides all the benefits of privacy, I also do not use the Google Play Store and do not have any social media on it installed.
You absolutely can remove every app (including hidden base OS functionality that is packaged as an installed app) through ADB, or through tools like Shizuku that give you effectively “on-device” ADB. There are GUI based apps to do this for both PC and runnable on Android itself.
It’s not easily accessible for the average user, but it’s literally easier than flashing a custom OS, if you’re already looking into that level of things.
Oh okay, I was nor aware this was possible for the regular Android. But it make sense if you get root access. So I learned something new today. :-)
As the owner of a relatively new Android phone, who wanted to disable a software update nag, this is no longer always true.
In my research I built a history of instructions for disabling these nag screens/notifications on phones from this manufacturer. At first, there were things you could do on the phone itself. Then you had to change a setting with ADB. Then you had to disable a system app with ADB. Then you had to get root access to uninstall the app with ADB. And now, for my phone and other recent models, there’s literally nothing you can do, even with root access in ADB, short of flashing custom firmware.
A custom rom is great and the best path for the techie users. For the general public, you can still disable non needed invasive apps. For minimalist usage aimed at reducing overall phone usage, that’s mostly enough. There’s also a launcher called baldphone available on fdroid that turns any android phone in a minimalist phone, aimed at the elderly, but still nice for any minimalism enthusiast. It requires some tech skill to install though.
For the longest time I am using a minimalist desktop too (i mean a launcher or default home app), called Unlauncher.
They lost me at $499. A phone that is just a phone should be about a hundred bucks max. I didn’t read the article though. Maybe it’s still very computery.
Small production run + half-decent internals probably accounts for a lot of the price.
Having experimented with $100 underpowesed flip phone on KaiOS, lack of apps was a real problem. What (some) people want is the slight inconvenience of a T9 keyboard and an annoyingly small screen to help them limit their screen time, but they still want full functionality of all their apps.
as someone who has been using t9 phones for the last 3-4 years, the tough part is will the software and keys even be good on this. you just don’t know till you use it. It’s true, having an underpowered phone sucks ( I’m using the Sonim X320 now which I believe has 4GB of ram, and it’s soooo nice compared to the Cat S22 Flip ). But a lot of issues on my previous phones (prev mentioned Cat, then the Qin F25) was mostly the software not working well with buttons or the screen size. The sonim I have now works well because the stock apps a designed for the hard ware. $450 or whatever is still too much, but if it covers all the bands and use usable, at least it’s an option.
I know some people who would actually kill for a physical T9 keyboard so they could touch-type. It’s not my cup of tea, but I can definitely see it being a major draw for people who grew up texting on a real flip phone.
I thought it woud suck, but with the touch typing + consistent dictionary guessing, it’s really on par with the random chaos of a touchscreen keyboard.
Just found out about the Twiddler 4–a single-handheld bluetooth keyboard. too damn expensive at over $200, but something I’d definitely try otherwise.
500 dollars!? What’s the justification for that price?
Trying to imitate apple.
Step 1: turtleneck
Step 2: reality distortion bubble
Step 3: massive profit
read recently a tweet: 'in two years we will be paying to NOT have Internet ’
kinda fits this price tag
How does it not have social media or browser if so many apps are compatible? Doesn’t that amount of compatibility mean we can still have social media and browsers?
Based on the article, they have a blocklist of certain apps. You can only install apps they allow. Not sure how extensive the list is, but surely the most popular ones are blocked and they will probably update the list.
You can only install apps they allow.
Untrue, the article clearly says that you can sideload anything you want.
Do I misunderstand the article? They state following:
Users are still able to sideload apps outside those that are blocked, using APK installer files
Meaning you can only sideload apps, that are not blocked. So you would not be able to install anything they do not allow to.
You misunderstand, the list of apps they block are “inside” the said list, while sideloading apps “outside” of the said list is possible. So you can only find and install whatever apps they’ve approved within whatever app store they use to serve apps to their customers, but you can install any apk on the phone by sideloading it, given the app supports the phones CPU architecture of course.
“Users are still able to”: Means despite the block list in the operating system, users can still do following…
“sideload apps”: … install applications manually outside the app store…
“those that are not blocked”: … applications not in the known block list from the company.
I don’t know how one can interpret this differently. Where does your “inside” and “outside” interpretation come from?
You can sideload apps, whether they are on the blocklist or not. That’s what the sentence* you quoted says. Well, that’s what I interpret anyways. Maybe I’m wrong.
I broke it down for you and explained each part. And that does not align with your interpretation. That’s why I asked you where your interpretation comes from. “sideload apps those that are not blocked” means “sideload apps that are not on blocklist”. Where does this paragraph states, that it allows to install apps whether they are on the blocklist or not? Could you explain it?
Lmao
I interpret it as “We do not install bloatware such as Facebook etc. by default”.
The fact that Android vendors do this is annoying.
I want to know the opinion of the person who down voted you. I only buy phones with unlockable bootloaders for this reason.
WhatsApp isn’t a social media app?
It’s a messaging/chat app, closer to social networking than socual media.
I wouldn’t really class it as such, its just fancy texting for the majority of users
Yeah I use it for that, I don’t use channels or stories etc. Would be nice if I could convince more people to signal.
As a non user, fair enough.
Maybe because it’s owned by Meta?
My first thought was, this might be about just what’s installed by default. Reading a bit further the article says:
Apparently, the OS has hard blocks to stop the installation of browsers and social media apps.
“Users are still able to sideload apps outside those that are blocked, using APK installer files…”
So I’m not sure why I would want pay 500 Dollars / Euros, just so they have control over what I can install and not. To me this would be a deal breaker. Also this seems to be “basically a custom version of the Jolla Sailfish OS”, so there are probably “better” options using the same OS. And it only has 4GB of RAM? I am not impressed for the price and for the control.
At $200… Maybe.
AI slop video, no faith in what will (or likely won’t) be delivered.
I can get a new modern smartphone which works without major problems at $80. I see no reason to spend double that on a flip phone.
Is that phone truly Linux based, have expandable memory, a temeable battery, etc… and does it have a team actively supporting it to maintain and expand those features? I’m saying I’d pay $200 for what they were describing IF real people were building a movement away from the same black apple/samsung rectangles, locked into deep Google surveillance fed back to palantir.
I keep repeating this for a decade. Buy a used old iPhone (like SE) and get a no fancy phone which is mostly fine for that use case.
Well, looks like someone made a Jack Tramiel based LLM and let it hallucinate.
My mainphone is currently Nokia C2-01 which I got for free. It’s perfectly enough for me. But damn that thing looks good…
Look, I love the idea of a Linux phone.
But $500 and it manages my temptations for me? Fuck no.
The whole point of Linux is freedom.
Enough behavior shaping.
Yeh right, i already don’t use social media on my phone, skill issue
Social media is humans being social through media, I am sick and tired of it being categorically villainized especially because the scientific evidence for it being inherently bad is laughable.
To say that social media is just people socializing through media is rather like saying that newspapers are just news on paper.
In both cases it ignores the deliberate, pervasive, and frequently toxic efforts of the platform curators to maximize “engagement” with their audience in pursuit of ad revenue.
When I socialize with people offline, it looks almost nothing like modern social media “services”.
In both cases it ignores the deliberate, pervasive, and frequently toxic efforts of the platform curators to maximize “engagement” with their audience in pursuit of ad revenue.
We are on social media right now, this is not inherent to social media it is a choice forced on it by corporations.
No browser is wild. And what does that even mean here? You have to run everything by app now? That sounds like ass.
What is the point of it being linux if it just runs “99% of android apps” but no browser?
Sounds great for kids. The price point can suck a dick tho
how affordable of them [̲̅$̲̅(̲̅ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°̲̅)̲̅$̲̅]
