half as wide. cinematic 2.3 aspect ratio, maybe more.
less snark comment (but also true), just jaw dropping that these pocket PC's do so much. on the down sides, I think the main think that floors me, just stabs me in the heart, is that they are still almost totally trash at communicating with those around us. Google dropped Project Eddystone, that sucked; totally straightforward sensible way to broadcast a url to the world about you. Apple has their file sharing AirDrop, which Google continues to make floundering attempts at (Beam, then Fast Share/Nearby Share), & never via any open protocols or specs. amazing personal communicators... totally reliant on completely centralized infrastructure. The couple Bridgify/Open Garden alternatives, it all seems too stack specific & lacking the layering of protocols & extensibility that allows communication tech to grow over time, become of enduring value.
I forget what it is but someone was telling me the Bump competitor in Japan is still used, that you still have a physical little ritual with your devices that causes them to exchange contact info. That kind of real.world connectivity seems like it ought be just the start, for how tech can augment the real world, versus us needing to start & navigate the digital to connect. We're doing little favors, entrenching connectivity so reservedly in the digital all space.
Japan the land of paper business cards.. and the lovegetty! Does anybody remember the poken which you could carry on your keyring. Touch two together and there was a kind of lovering glow, to exchange contact info. Insert the usb side into laptop to download the contact information. It almost hit critical mass in Japan. Poken parties in Tokyo were fun. Such a pre-covid alt reality...
We got free Poken at a conference. I was a bit of a snob for a day or so, & didn't really know or trust the controlling entity, but I decided to try it. It was really fun! Easy to use.
I think Bump happened a year or two latter, which was also fun. But it felt far more intermediated, like it was pulling down much more data. Looking at who in the area also bumped at just that instant to triangulate who to put in contact with each other.
I remember back in the 90's wear(able)-comp(uting) world, PANs were going to be a thing. Personal Area Networks. Your skin itself would be a low-baud rate modem, so you could shake hands & transmit your contact information. Definitely pre-covid. ;)
I really think Project Eddystone has many of the answers for how we ought to make ourselves visible to the world. It was mainly focused on commercialized entities, and people are scared of the internet, but I think there's still great potential. Alternatively, it seems weird that NFC, which is much more tightly coupled, 1:1, "safe", is so under-utilized. I'm not sure if there are good open standards for data-exchange over it. Meanwhile proprietary AirDrop and FastShare/Nearby Sharing are some of the few, tightly controlled offerings for offering files. All these manners of tech needs some champions to drive good protocols, enable more interesting futures. Sorry, I think I'm repeating myself again. Thanks for the fun comments dcsan.
I don't know many people who care about the hardware except for the camera. How is it? Can it compete with the current phones from Apple and Google? Does it do all the standard things like include filters, portrait mode, night mode, etc...? Can I search for "dog" and get all my dog photos or search for a city and get all the photos taken there?
And how's the app store? When some random game goes viral and I want to play with my friends, am I going to be able to? Are the apps vetted for security and safety?
Does it integrate with my car? One of the primary uses of my phone is for navigation. Being able to plug it into my car and say "navigate to 123 main street" as I drive is pretty key.
Is their store only online? If they don't have their own retailers can I at least see them at a carrier store or BestBuy? Will Verizon activate the phone on their network? A decade ago they wouldn't approve the Nexus 7 tablet, so this is something I think about.
> I don't know many people who care about the hardware except for the camera.
These phones are not for many people.
> How is it?
In development. The pinephone can take still shots. The Librem 5’s camera isn’t functional yet AFAIK.
> Can it compete with the current phones from Apple and Google?
No. It’s not playing the same game. I would pay money not to have one of those.
> Does it do all the standard things like include filters, portrait mode, night mode, etc...?
AFAIK, no.
> Can I search for "dog" and get all my dog photos or search for a city and get all the photos taken there?
I don’t know of any apps for them that do that at the moment.
> And how's the app store? When some random game goes viral and I want to play with my friends, am I going to be able to?
Probably not. It probably has about 6 orders of magnitude fewer users, and 5–6 orders fewer devs. You can virtualize Android, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a much worse experience than Proton on desktop (it doesn’t have Valve behind it. Anti-cheat might get you banned).
> Are the apps vetted for security and safety?
Yes, in some repos. Most of the distros will let you use Debian’s, which IIUC have had z-e-r-o zero malware (not counting systemd ;)) in their decades-long history.
> Does it integrate with my car? One of the primary uses of my phone is for navigation. Being able to plug it into my car and say "navigate to 123 main street" as I drive is pretty key.
I’m confused why it needs to integrate with you car to give directions. Do you mean connect with Bluetooth to use your speakers?
> Is their store only online?
Yep.
> If they don't have their own retailers can I at least see them at a carrier store or BestBuy?
Nope.
> Will Verizon activate the phone on their network? A decade ago they wouldn't approve the Nexus 7 tablet, so this is something I think about.
Nope, not as far as my crystal ball can see. The pine wiki says you can activate a SIM on a burner phone and swap it into the pinephone, and Verizon shouldn’t care.
Turn it in to a cube maybe an octagon. I'm sick of rectangles.