Comment by rckt
3 hours ago
It would be great if all these companies contributed to a some kind of a unified modular platform like Project ARA. I see a lot of new devices, but they all do their own stuff. They produce hardware for their software, the end result is the same as with big brands. Most of these devices are usable while they are supported by these companies. Some of them allow installing custom Android roms, but not many.
Looks like the market just gets more fragmented without any improvements towards better sustainability/reusability. The only thing that really caught my attention recently was Pilet, a handheld Raspberry Pi. That's a really cool thing, that gives mobility while maintaining functionality.
I hope not. Projects like that to have any chance at surviving have to be good phones first. Adding modularity will make it worse in terms of specs, more expensive and in the result dead on arrival. Once they launch a few successful (or at least sustainable) products, they can maybe try doing some modularity
Am I the only one who just feels burnt out on these type of projects? We have a plethora of raspberry pi and other arm mobile developer kits that all just fail to deliver. They make great pet projects but fail at what most mobile phones do great which is provide a computer I can reliably and safely take with me in life. This pilet thing has 7 hours of battery life, is huge and will probably explode if I put it in my bikes bag.
While it's not perfect I've been investing more time into learning to live with grapheneOS. I can run Emacs and clang on the go. It's a better start that won't turn into a paperweight.
There is probably one other person on planet Earth who also just feels burnt out on these type of projects (you can just call it cyberdeck).
Meanwhile, from [1]
> 2,777 backers pledged CA$ 1,264,707 to help bring this project to life.
> UPDATE: The project got fully funded within 5 minutes! Can’t believe the support—thank you so much!
ClockworkPi's DevTerm, uConsole, GameShell are constantly sold out [2]. Hackberry Pi, constantly sold out.
Jolla's strength is SailfishOS which is a successor of Maemo/MeeGo. It is a Linux-based solution with a good, gesture-based UI with Android emulation.
GrapheneOS has nothing to do with any of these projects. It is software-only, for Google Pixel devices, and it has a specific strength (security) no other OS/HW combo comes close to.
The strength of a modular smartphone is, it is repairable and you can physically alter its features without changing form factor, like Framework. For smartphones, I believe a Fairphone is very modular, and smartwatches Pixel Watch 4 (but it only runs WearOS).
[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soulscircuit/pilet-open...
[2] https://www.clockworkpi.com
Graphene requires a Pixel device. I can hardly call it accessible.
7 hours is not bad, considering my iPhone 13 mini can only last for day with occasional usage.
I'm not sure what you think Jolla is, but they have a track record of releasing phones that are good enough to be used as daily drivers. They are also targeting enthusiasts, but I've been using exclusively phones that run Sailfish OS (their main product) since 2014.
Sorry if my post is confusing I'm referring to the poster I replied to mentioning the Pilet which is a raspberry pi based project. Jolla phone I really can't speak too. It sounds closer to graphene where they understand the benefit of reasonable hardware quality and battery life.