LINux on MOBile - AndroidLINMOB.net is a blog about LINux on MOBile devices. With the PinePhone (Pro) and Librem 5 shipping it is back to report on GNU+Linux on mobile devices.Zola2021-09-29T21:35:00+00:00https://linmob.net/tags/android/feed.xmlLinBits 64: Weekly Linux Phone news / media roundup (week 38/39)2021-09-29T21:35:00+00:002021-09-29T21:35:00+00:00https://linmob.net/linbits-64-weekly-linux-phone-news-week38-39/<p><em>This week in mobile Linux:</em> Android kernels adopting a more mainline approach, Waydroid running on SailfishOS and Ubuntu Touch, libcamera, how to cross compile for Plasma Mobile (this time with a tool that should help a lot), a GTK app to browse LINMOBapps and more! <span id="continue-reading"></span> <em>Commentary in italics.</em> </p>
<h3 id="software-releases">Software releases</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/ManjaroLinux/status/1443263810589102080">Manjaro Phosh beta 16 for the PinePhone</a> has been released, delivering a few things early: MMS support, splash screens for Phosh — features that at least partly have not even been merged into their upstream projects. <em>While it's nice to be have these things early, please don't bug upstream with bug reports concerning these unmerged features.</em></li>
<li>Gtkeddit is now <a href="https://gitlab.com/caveman250/Headlines">Headlines</a>!</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-noting">Worth noting</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/Speiburger/LINMOBappsBrowser">LINMOBappsBrowser</a> is a new project that's building a more performant, native GTK way to browse apps.csv on your Linux Phone! <em>It's early days, but I love what Speiburger has built so far!</em></li>
<li>Maemo Leste have made progress <a href="https://twitter.com/maemoleste/status/1443180939144740868">around email</a>!</li>
<li>Popcorn Computers (who are making the <a href="https://pocket.popcorncomputer.com/">Pocket P.C. hacker terminal</a> are <a href="https://twitter.com/tuxphones/status/1443270015441113091">collaborating with postmarketOS</a>.</li>
<li>Waydroid of the week: <a href="https://twitter.com/adampigg/status/1442379954386255873#m">Sailfish OS on PinePhone now with networking</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-reading">Worth Reading</h3>
<h4 id="hardware">Hardware</h4>
<ul>
<li>Liliputing: <a href="https://liliputing.com/2021/09/gpd-pocket-3-handheld-computer-will-be-a-convertible-tablet-with-stylus-support-and-a-modular-feature.html">GPD Pocket 3 handheld computer will be a convertible tablet with stylus support (and a modular feature)</a>. <em>Nice hardware!</em></li>
<li>TuxPhones: <a href="https://tuxphones.com/cadmium-linux-for-chromebooks/">Cadmium is a Linux distribution to liberate ARM Chromebooks</a>. <em>Cadmium is seriously nice, only kernel upgrades aren't fun (yet)!</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="software">Software</h4>
<h5 id="software-progress">Software progress</h5>
<ul>
<li>Claudio Cambra: <a href="https://claudiocambra.com/2021/09/26/turbocharging-kalendar-kalendar-devlog-15/">Turbocharging Kalendar — Kalendar devlog 15</a>. </li>
<li>Alberto Mardegan: <a href="http://mardy.it/blog/2021/09/mitubo-03-brings-basic-rss-support.html">MiTubo 0.3 brings basic RSS support</a>. <em>MiTubo is not just for Ubuntu Touch, hint hint.</em></li>
<li>Phoronix: <a href="https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=libcamera-2021">Libcamera Maturing Well As Open-Source Camera Stack</a>. <em>I look forward to libcamera support landing for the Librem 5!</em></li>
<li>Jolla Blog: <a href="https://blog.jolla.com/whats-up-with-sandboxing/">What’s up with Sandboxing?</a>. <em>These plans sound promising!</em></li>
<li>UBports Blog: <a href="https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/ubuntu-touch-ota-19-release-3779">Ubuntu Touch OTA-19 Release</a>. <em>I missed this last week, do read it!</em></li>
<li>This Week in GNOME: <a href="https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2021/09/twig-11/">#11 Forty-one!</a>. <em>Some nice, new apps!</em></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="mainline-all-the-things">Mainline all the things</h5>
<ul>
<li>Phoronix: <a href="https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Android-Linux-Upstream-First">Google Finally Shifting To "Upstream First" Linux Kernel Approach For Android Features</a>. <em>Now this is going to take a while to really make an impact, but I am glad to see this happen anyway. Thanks to PizzaLovingNerd for making sure that I would not miss this!</em></li>
<li>TuxPhones: <a href="https://tuxphones.com/10-year-smartphone-initiative-right-to-repair-lifecycle/">The "10 Year Smartphone" initiative aims for a sustainable mobile ecosystem</a>. <em>This feels really important, although the idea <a href="https://ollieparanoid.github.io/post/postmarketOS/">is not exactly a new one</a>. To be fair: This is a different, political approach.</em></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="distro-future">Distro future</h5>
<ul>
<li>Christian F.K. Schaller: <a href="https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2021/09/24/fedora-workstation-our-vision-for-linux-desktop/">Fedora Workstation: Our Vision for Linux Desktop</a>. <em>Now this is not about phones per se, but what's attractive about Silverblue or Kinoite would be great for phones, too.</em></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="development-news">Development news</h5>
<ul>
<li>Gunibert: <a href="https://www.gunibert.de/posts/gnome_builder_41/">GNOME Builder 41 Highlights</a>. <em>Look at this!</em></li>
</ul>
<h5 id="cross-compiling">Cross Compiling</h5>
<ul>
<li>Han Young: <a href="https://www.hanyoung.uk/blog/cross-compile-to-pinephone-part-three/">Cross Compile to PinePhone Part Three</a>. <em>Awesome!</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-watching">Worth Watching</h3>
<h4 id="phosh">Phosh</h4>
<ul>
<li>Geotechland: <a href="https://tilvids.com/w/613e1cc2-fd9d-477a-b0a0-ebfae26668d4">Manjaro Phosh - Pinephone BETA 15</a>. <em>Great video! Sadly I doubt too much of an app startup time improvement is going to happen for big apps like Firefox. But, with e.g. with the <a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/Phosh/phosh/-/merge_requests/886">splash screen</a> feature, perceived app load time is going to be reduced. It's landed in Manjaro beta 16, BTW.</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="plasma-mobile">Plasma Mobile</h4>
<ul>
<li>Nat Tuck: <a href="https://odysee.com/@NatTuck:9/nat-quick-look-pinephone-plasma:7">A Look at Plasma Mobile on the PinePhone</a>. <em>Great in depth video review!</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="gnome">GNOME</h4>
<ul>
<li>mzeinali: <a href="https://odysee.com/@mzeinali:c/PinePhone:a">PostmarketOS with Gnome desktop on Pine phone</a>. <em>Seems to work well!</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="fun-projects">Fun projects</h4>
<ul>
<li>Martijn Braam: <a href="https://spacepub.space/w/xpkUVzdVBvGLka8yfZg2k5">Running Octoprint on the PinePhone with camera</a>. <em>If the PinePhone does not work for you as a phone (or you have to many PinePhones), and you like 3D printing, here's a use case for you!</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="tutorials">Tutorials</h4>
<ul>
<li>(RTP) Privacy & Tech Tips: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ8BjLjl7EA">SSH Passwordless Logins & Avoid SSH MITM Attacks</a>. <em>Great howto by RTP!</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="ubuntu-touch-corner">Ubuntu Touch corner</h4>
<ul>
<li>UBports: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nca_5_k4cH8">Ubuntu Touch Q&A 109</a>. <em>Dalton is back and joined by Alfred and Marius to discuss OTA 19, current challenges around Miracast and Miroil. Also: A new stable release for the PinePhone is going to land this week, yay!</em></li>
<li>anino207: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyOgI8PRt9w">Early Preview of Waydroid on Ubuntu Touch (Pixel 3a)</a>. <em>Waydroid is just soo smooth, even for gaming!</em></li>
<li>Wolf Fur Programming: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFvwAaMC17U">Ubuntu Touch Oneplus 6</a>. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="sailfish-os">Sailfish OS</h4>
<ul>
<li>Adam Pigg: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ8BjLjl7EA">Pinephone /home encryption using SailfishOS</a>. <em>I missed this last week, but it's just to nice!</em></li>
</ul>
<h4 id="shorts">Shorts</h4>
<ul>
<li>5ilver: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/FhAdJby">Pinephone mms via matrix</a>. <em>If you want to know how to do this, ask on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/PinePhoneOfficial/comments/pxoou1/video_of_mms_images_working_on_mobian_via_matrix/">Reddit</a>. I guess that this uses <a href="https://gitlab.com/untidylamp/mmmpuppet">MMMPuppet</a>, but I am not sure.</em></li>
<li>Sailfish official: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5aGZPo-AuE">xz2 sailfish os 4.2.0.21</a>. <em>Don't believe that channel name!</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="stuff-i-did">Stuff I did</h3>
<h4 id="linmobapps">LINMOBapps</h4>
<p>This week I've been tackling the <a href="https://framagit.org/linmobapps/linmobapps.frama.io/-/milestones/1">"overhaul" milestone</a>, a bit more, 4 of 7 issues could be closed.
Also, a few apps were added, and more are to follow shortly:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://gitlab.com/greenbeast/run-free">Run Free!</a>, a running log app built for Phosh with some basic analysis of your running schedule, submitted by its creator — thank you very much again, Hank! </li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/DiegoIvanME/plano-rewritten">Plano</a>, a cartesian plane calculator that uses GTK4 and libadwaita</li>
<li><a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-software">GNOME Software</a>,</li>
<li><a href="https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-calculator">GNOME Calculator</a> and</li>
<li><a href="https://gitlab.com/mardy/mitubo">MiTubo</a>, a native (QML) video player for YouTube videos.</li>
</ul>
<p>Because of a few apps that were archived the week before (don't worry, they are going to show up on LinuxPhoneApps too), the total app count of apps.csv is now at 314.</p>
<p><a href="https://framagit.org/linmobapps/linmobapps.frama.io/-/commits/master">Read here what (else) happened</a> on LINMOBapps this week. And please <a href="https://framagit.org/linmobapps/linmobapps.frama.io/-/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md">do contribute!</a></p>
<h4 id="linux-phone-apps">Linux Phone Apps</h4>
<p>Not much happened here, aside from thinking about how to implement a few things. I am hoping to make some progress with this project on the coming saturday.</p>
LinBits 0: Weekly PinePhone news / media roundup (week 27)2020-07-04T11:15:18+00:002020-07-04T11:15:18+00:00https://linmob.net/linbits0-weekly-pinephone-news-week27/<p><em>I really hope I can make this a recurring thing.</em></p>
<p>This is some the best stuff that happened around the PinePhone this week. <span id="continue-reading"></span><em>Commentary in italics.</em></p>
<h3 id="software-releases-and-improvements">Software: releases and improvements</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/phosh/-/tags/v0.4.0">Phosh 0.4.0 Release</a>. <em>Already in Mobian, this release brings a really neat feature: You can now automatically scale apps that are otherwise too big using the command</em> <code>scale-to-fit <APP-ID> on</code> <em>, e.g.</em> <code>scale-to-fit gnome-calendar on</code> . <strong>Edit 5th July 2020:</strong> <em>Apparently,</em> <code>scale-to-fit</code> <em>is not in every distro automatically with the 0.4.0 release, as it is not in postmarketOS at the time of writing this remark.</em></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/GloDroid/glodroid_manifest/releases">GloDroid 0.3.0 pre-Release</a>. <em>I am curious whether this is better than the previous release.</em></li>
<li><a href="https://gitlab.com/ubports/community-ports/pinephone/-/issues/37">UBports Camera might work soon</a>. <em>Please don‘t expect premium smartphone photography.</em></li>
<li><a href="https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-alpha1-with-phosh/151630">Manjaro ARM Alpha1 of Phosh for PinePhone and PineTab!</a>. <em>After putting out five Alpha releases of Manjaro featuring Plasma Mobile, Manjaro now release a Phosh based image. BTW: A couple of days earlier, <a href="https://github.com/dreemurrs-embedded/Pine64-Arch/releases">a new ArchLinux ARM image was released</a>, too.</em></li>
<li><a href="https://linuxnews.de/2020/07/avmultiphone-20-stunden-laufzeit-auf-dem-pinephone/">AVMultiPhone claims 20 hours battery life on PinePhone (german, linuxnews.de)</a>. <em><a href="http://archivista.ch/cms/de/aktuell-blog/avmultiphone/">AVMultiPhone</a> is a postmarketOS-based distribution which looks more like your average desktop than a mobile OS. I could not get myself to try it yet, but that battery life sounds tempting. In a <a href="http://archivista.ch/cms/de/aktuell-blog/preisgeld-1000-euro/">recent blog post</a>, the creator sets out a 500 Euro bounty for getting the "wake up on phone call while in deep sleep" to work.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-reading">Worth reading</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://roiredideas.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/pinephone-review/">Non-static Pinephone Review — roiredideas</a>.
<em>This seems to be the only sensible way to review it right now. There is so much software and so much progress on so many ends, that it is just impossible to reach anything close to a verdict.</em>
<em>My experience with PureOS differs, but every project puts out a wonky image once in a while. Also: If you want a dark theme on Phosh-based distributions,</em> <code>gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme “Adwaita-dark”</code> <em>is your friend</em>.</li>
<li><a href="https://victorhckinthefreeworld.com/2020/07/03/install-opensuse-on-a-pinephone-device/">Install #openSUSE on a #Pinephone device — victorhckinthefreeworld.com</a>. <em>Interesting interview, even if you don't really care about openSUSE.</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="worth-watching">Worth watching</h3>
<ul>
<li>HackersGame: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_RpvXSuY2Q">PinePhone Images on the Librem 5</a></li>
<li>Pine64: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Q_SQKK7EQ">PinePhone disassembly and reassembly</a></li>
<li>PizzaLovingNerd: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_72hnUVehs">ICE SSBs on the PinePhone</a>. <em>Webapps on the PinePhone, nice!</em></li>
</ul>
<h3 id="stuff-i-did">Stuff I did</h3>
<ul>
<li>I mostly used <a href="https://www.mobian-project.org">Mobian</a>:
<ul>
<li>I listened to a Podcast in the Gnome Podcasts app,</li>
<li>I managed to install <code>gnome-passwordsafe</code> from flathub, and got signed in to Nextcloud using Gnome Accounts, ticking two boxes on my "daily driver" check list,</li>
<li>I installed <code>nheko</code> to find out that the <code>squeekboard</code> keyboard does not work with it and then logged in to <code>fractal</code> to have non-encrypted Matrix.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Switching Phones without wanting to2020-02-01T06:41:00+00:002020-02-01T06:41:00+00:00https://linmob.net/switching-phones-without-wanting-to/<p>On December 21st, 2020, my Google Pixel XL, which I had used with LineageOS and microG and loved for its great camera, just plainly died. During a phone call.<span id="continue-reading"></span> The screen turned black, and never lit up since. When connected to a computer, it turned out it is stuck in something that is called "HS-USB QDloader 9008 mode".<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup> And, if all resources I have found yet are to be believed, without specific files that would have to published (or leaked) by the device manufacturer, there is no way to get this fine hardware back into a usable state.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#2">2</a></sup></p>
<p>While trying hard to buy less electronics because of their carbon intensity and the resulting toxic waste, I had already planned a switch of phones in this year, as I had pre-ordered the Purism Librem 5 in late 2017 (?) and a Pine64 PinePhone "Braveheart Edition" later in 2019. But none of these phones were yet in my hands.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#3">3</a></sup> All I had in fairly recent hardware were an iPhone SE that I had got myself as a secondary phone for my old number<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#4">4</a></sup> and then the bq Aquaris X5 I had purchased new in early 2017 for about 120 Euros, which had served me just fine before getting the Pixel XL. In order to avoid switching SIMs I just went ahead and started using the bq Aquaris X5 again. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, going back to a phone that is worse in almost every single way (performance, camera, display, storage, …) and is not supported by Lineage OS officially any more and thus does not receive any regular security patches feels really like defeat. I found an experimental build of Android 8.1, which ran mostly fine (even though I could not get signature spoofing and thus microG to work), but boy did I hate using it ever more. So I found myself hunting for Pixel XLs on eBay and Pixel 2s, and ... in reality I just mostly used that teeny tiny iPhone SE, since it was just a lot better.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#5">5</a></sup> Given that I am set to receive two new phones this year anyway, and the fact that the Pixel XL has no more vendor support, while newer Pixel phones are not supported by my favourite Custom ROM and running stock Android<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#6">6</a></sup> is completely out of the question for me, I eventually figured I would just go ahead and use this iPhone SE as my main phone for now. Despite sustainability and avoiding excessive consumerism, on motivation was the availablity to easily do local, non-cloud backups with the iPhone, having just lost a bunch of data with my seemingly unfixable Pixel XL.</p>
<p>The main obstacle as I moved the services I use over was battery life. Even with moderate use, the battery was often asking to switch on "Low Power Mode" around 1pm. So there I was, thinking again: Well, maybe I should just pay the money and get myself an iPhone 11. But (aided by being short on money after switching appartments in mid-January) I managed to find an alternative: There are third party battery cases for the SE, that have ok reviews. They aren't as well integrated as Apples own battery cases<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#7">7</a></sup> I just bought a cheap one of Amazon.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#8">8</a></sup></p>
<p>With this thing on, my iPhone SE earned itself a new nickname: Klumpen.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#9">9</a></sup> <em>And it just works.</em> iSH is an okay termux replacement, KyPass is not beautiful, but usable/decent KeePass client. I am fine. And my mobile life is again backed up: If I loose this SE (physically or through sudden device death) I can just get myself another iPhone and restore an encrypted backup.</p>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="1"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">1</sup>
<p>For reference, have a look at this <a href="https://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel-xl/help/help-pixel-xl-hs-usb-qdloader-9008-mode-t3574278/page6">discussion on xda-developers</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="2"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">2</sup>
<p>Actually, I think that there ought to be regulation to make this category of problems user repairable (#righttorepair) or to force the manufacturer to offer fairly priced (compared to used-market device prices) repair options.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="3"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">3</sup>
<p>They still aren't.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="4"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">4</sup>
<p>I bought it for three reasons: 1. Its miniscule size; 2. being able to use iOS again every now and then; 3. Use services that did not work with microG, like car-sharing or eScooter and other mobility services.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="5"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">5</sup>
<p>The SE I use is not perfect though: The front camera has dust between camera and glass and it just has 32GB of storage (the eBay listing said it would have 64 GB, but …).</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="6"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">6</sup>
<p>… or Graphene OS, for completely different reasons (services not working that I may want to use).</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="7"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">7</sup>
<p>They ironically never made one for the iPhone SE, even though it has the worst SoC-compute/battery capacity ratio of all iPhones ever.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="8"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">8</sup>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07S5K37BC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1">This one.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="9"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">9</sup>
<p>Rough translation: Chunk or nugget.</p>
</div>
Back to QWERTY2015-02-28T13:51:00+00:002015-02-28T13:51:00+00:00https://linmob.net/back-to-qwerty/<p><a href="http://brimborium.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-28-14.33.40.jpg"><img src="http://brimborium.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-02-28-14.33.40.jpg" alt="Motorola Droid 4 und LG G2" class="size-full wp-image-3344" /></a> Droid 4 trumps the LG G2</p>
<p>In November 2013, I bought a new smartphone for the last time so far. It was an LG G2. Since then, a few new devices have been released (yes, now it's Mobile World Congress again soon, the device flood has already experienced the first advance "leaks"), but even though I had constantly spent too much money on all kinds of smartphones over the years before, I soon had to realise that the quick change suddenly didn't make sense anymore. Yes, the LG G3 is a bit better, but somehow not really (who needs this display resolution, and why is the thing even bigger?). I don't touch Samsung for reasons (TouchWiz, hardware design), HTC has 4 megapixel cameras and the cases are too big compared to the display.</p>
<!--more-->
<p>But there was a drawback. The text input. Admittedly, with a 5.2" display diagonal in 16:9 format, even I can type to some extent with my sausage fingers. But: </p>
<ol>
<li>I can't type blindly, </li>
<li>at least for the German language, the standard dictionaries of various smartphone keyboards are not quite adequate for my vocabulary, </li>
<li>what do autocorrect allow?</li>
</ol>
<p>I then went back to smartphones with hardware keyboards and returned to the Motorola/Verizon Droid 4, which I had already tried out in 2012 in semi-defective condition. Honestly, it wasn't a conscious decision. I bid $ 42 USD on a Droid 4 on eBay just for fun. With shipping from the US including import VAT, it cost about € 50 at the exchange rate, which was different at the time. I received a functional, albeit relatively scuffed device on which, unfortunately, the earpiece was overloaded at one point and the headphone jack doesn't work either. Otherwise it's fine. And above all, Android 5.0 "Lollipop" in the form of Cyanogen Mod 12 is available for this device from early 2012, which, incidentally, is the last high-end smartphone with a hardware keyboard and SIM card slot to date.</p>
<p>I have since acquired another Droid 4 in better condition for €75, which does not have the shortcomings of the other device. Meanwhile, the LG G2 is gathering dust. Yes, the Droid 4's display is not great. Yes, the browser is slowed down by the hardware here. Yes, the camera of the LG G2 is clearly better. But at last I can write my thoughts in a note app on the go without having to constantly check with algorithms that this long word is actually in the dictionary or that my neologisms shouldn't be destroyed. As a result, I can write down my thoughts undisturbed, no longer write rubbish in chat apps, and writing on the go is fun again. </p>
<p><strong>TLDR:</strong> Hardware keyboard = improved quality of life.</p>
Open webOS2012-11-28T08:35:00+00:002012-11-28T08:35:00+00:00https://linmob.net/open-webos/<p><a href='http://m.webosnation.com/phoenixs-open-webos-android-project-gets-past-lock-screen'></a></p>
<p><em>The idea is good, but the world isn't ready yet.</em></p>
XobotOS to solve Android's legal problems?2012-05-15T20:07:00+00:002012-05-15T20:07:00+00:00https://linmob.net/xobotos-to-solve-androids-legal-problems/<p><a href='http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/15/2996144/android-xamarin-xobotos-java-c-sharp'>Android made Java-free thanks to 'XobotOS' project, but what are the legal implications? | The Verge</a></p>
<p>Just in case you missed the existence of XobotOS, it's "monofied" Android. While it looks like an emergency exit in case of a lost Oracle vs. Google case, it might not be as legally safe as it appears to be, given the concurrence between Microsoft and Google.</p>
Tiny robot: Android ported to the HP Veer2012-05-14T17:12:00+00:002012-05-14T17:12:00+00:00https://linmob.net/tiny-robot-android-ported-to-hp-veer/<p>Tiny-Droid: Installing Android On The HP Veer (by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6hbmUWKwtU">pocketnowvideo</a>)</p>
<p>This is really interesting: A port of Android to webOS hardware. Surely, most HP/Open webOS enthusiasts would totally prefer this happening the other way round, but still it's great to see an almost working port created by nice folks from China. The best bit: You've got the good old webOS gestures!</p>
<p>If you want to install this on your HP Veer (it does not replace webOS (dual boot installation), check the above linked source of the video or the <a href="http://xndcn.github.com/android-on-veer/english.html">project page</a>.</p>
Android, about 6 years ago2012-04-25T18:44:00+00:002012-04-25T18:44:00+00:00https://linmob.net/android-about-6-years-ago/<p><a href='https://www.theverge.com/2012/4/25/2974676/this-was-the-original-google-phone-presented-in-2006'>Android, about 6 years ago</a><div class="link_description"><p>You can so totally see that this was pre-iPhone age</p></div></p>
Oracle vs Google2012-04-23T05:49:00+00:002012-04-23T05:49:00+00:00https://linmob.net/oracle-vs-google/<p><a href='http://www.fosspatents.com/2012/04/pragmatic-approach-to-copyrightability.html'>Oracle vs Google</a><div class="link_description"><p>Florian Müller, anti-software-patent activist on the ongoing case, whether Google has actually infringed Oracles Java Patents with Android.</p></p>
<p>*Just kidding: If Android is being banned from market, there might be a real world market chance for Tizen, Boot2Gecko and Open webOS… or maybe Nokia is bought because of its Maemo/MeeGo assets.</p></div>
My Next Android!2011-12-05T22:11:00+00:002011-12-05T22:11:00+00:00https://linmob.net/my-next-android/<p>This was a tough one. Really, after buying the Acer Stream S110 earlier this year, an Android phone which would happen to be refused an update to Gingerbread not much later; and even more so after testing the Samsung GT-I9100 for a while, I felt quite disappointed with Android phones.</p>
<p>Not that both were such horrible devices—the Galaxy SII being good enough to sell really well, making it the Android phone you spot the most out there in the streets. Still, I hadn't been overly enthusiastic with the Galaxy SII, I hadn't really liked it, finding it too wide to hold comfortably, disliking the rather low pixel density and the placement of hardware buttons. Then, on the other hand, all competing Android headsets had there own flaws. LGs dual core “Optimus” superphones, the Speed (P990 / T-Mo USA P999) and the 3D (P920) seemed nicer to me because of their LCDs and overall button layout, but had obvious flaws of their own. Flawed were all the other devices, such as the Sensation, maybe the least flawed of the aforementioned, but being out of the game for me because of HTC Sense, or the Motorola Atrix, which while really cool seeming with its Laptop Dock suffered a lot from its (albeit featuring qHD resolution) PenTile-LCD screen and Motorolas slow software updates, a few variants of this device are still officially stuck on Froyo.</p>
<p>In addition to the hardware, I felt that the software had real problems that didn't make it quite likable to me. I started to really dislike Android's menu button, a relict carried over from the days, when Android was being imagined as a Blackberry-competitor running on devices that itself resembled the classic blackberry formfactor: A small, maybe 2,6” sized display, placed on a rather wide candybar in a landscape position atop a full QWERTY keyboard. This form factor had never been really popular with android, even the old and famous G1 (HTC Dream) had looked very difficult from this because of its vertical slider. But with the G1 the menu button hadn't been much of an issue, as you had a trackball and thus weren't really forced to use the touchscreen at all with the early iterations of Android. With the 4,3” WVGA Galaxy SII this had fundamentally changed, and it had become totally obvious to me, that Android was a land of usability horror, partly due to the aforementioned problem, partly due to apps that didn't fit into the problematic way Android did things, resembling iOS-Apps instead.</p>
<p>Being frustrated with all that, and reading that Honeycomb was still overly complicated (BTW a few issues, that aren't so problematic with smartphones because of their smaller size will likely remain on tablets even with Ice Cream Sandwich), I felt like going webOS wasn't the worst idea ever. This turned out to be wrong the night Leo Apotheker killed webOS, rendering the really promising HP Pre 3 an unannounced device. (HP may try to revive webOS, but I doubt that they can undo the damage done, rendering what was ahead this announcement an uphill battle a battle that is virtually impossible to win…) As we know now, the HP Pre 3 will likely never ever receive more updates, rendering the non carrier branded Rest Of the World version of it stuck on basically the same version it shipped with. This version has a load of bugs, the whole Skype integration doesn't feel matured at all, and you happen to run into “Too many cards”-Errrors way to often. That aside, the accelerometer is effingly shaky, doing very abrupt orientation switches, making the device a rather painful thing to use as you can't even switch that thing of. There simply is no patch for that. (You see, I really should update my review of the Pre3 and make it more negative.)</p>
<p>The most promising Linux platform out there not yet mentioned had been killed ahead of the launch of its last device. Maemo 6 as you should call it, as it hasn't really much in common with the MeeGo open source project (which was cancelled and will come back as “Tizen” rather soon), made a good to great impression on the Nokia N9 anyway, because of physically stunning hardware (even though the SoC is clearly old and dated) and great usablility concepts. However, it is simply to expensive, being higher priced than the Galaxy SII, making it no real option for me.</p>
<p>Frustrated as I was, I bought the N900 in an attempt of escapism. Well, that thing is nice, but it is an awkward thing, being nowhere near a modern smartphone in its design and much rather a downsized Nokia Internet tablet that can do 3G and phone calls. While the N900 is insanely cool because of all its geeky features (FM sender, Infrared, the debian based package system), it is also fundamentally flawed by it's landscape forcing software and form factor, its thickness, the resistive screen and a web browser, that doesn't show you most of the great mobile webpages that were released since the rise of the iPhone and Android—some of these are so useful, that I use them on the desktop, because they are just a lot simpler while delivering all the important parts.</p>
<p>So I finally had to realize that it was time to get a decent smartphone, as I can't carry my iPad everywhere. Not that it is too big, it is really OK and has an outstanding battery life, but you get awkward looks with it on the subway and in the rest of real life. Way to many people start asking you questions about it, its way to “Show Offy”, while all this doesn't happen if you carry an “iPhone like device”.</p>
<p>I had been waiting for the Galaxy Nexus. While Ice Cream Sandwich looked really stunning, I simply hate a few details about this device. One is the SoC, which doesn't seem to be the best choice. I don't really understand why this isn't an Exynos device. However, this doesn't make enough of a difference to kill it for me. The camera is said to be decent. Be that as it may, 5MP isn't what you expect in late 2011. Another downside, the very one that kept me from buying the Nexus S, is that you have no microSD option. And last, but not least, there's the same button placement (volume and power button) that drove me nuts with the Galaxy SII. I know, I am just holding it wrong, but that kills it for me. Seriously.</p>
<p>So I instead opted to buy two devices that are said to even be officially updated to Ice Cream Sandwich. One is the aforementioned LG Optimus Speed (P990), which I got because it is an official CyanogenMod device—I really want to have this again, as this project prolonged my G1 use by about a year. The other is running the only Android skin I might be able to like: It's the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pro, the best spec'ed full QWERTY Android Smartphone available in Europe.</p>
<p>One of these (or both) will be my next Android smartphone(s). I will share my impressions!</p>