- cross-posted to:
- technology@midwest.social
- cross-posted to:
- technology@midwest.social
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yay!
i wish they released mid-range phonesHonestly, I’d replace this fuckass Google device in a heartbeat, but I will never in my life understand why people want flagship phones. I got a b-ware 9a for 300 bucks and even this one is way overkill for what I want in a phone. Why can’t there just be a low-spec one instead of ones that cost more than an entry class laptop?
I would have liked an affordable midrange device (like Pixel 4a) with the option of graphene os preinstalled. That would unlock it as a device recommendation for my family members: Everything still works, and the device is good enough for all expected workloads. And with a growing user base comes mainstream relevance for graphene os.
Avant-garde nerds hacking their phones with custom roms may clear the path, but the normies can bring the necessary financial volume.
The upcoming Moto devices won’t ship with GrapheneOS, but they will be fully supported by the project with help from Moto itself.
Doesn’t unlocking the bootloader on a Motorola device void the warranty?
It can’t in a lot of jurisdictions.
It couldn’t, but it does.
I would be happy to support any competition to Google.
If they’re expensive but worth it that’s fine. Graphene powered Motorola is the only device I’d ever consider switching back to Android for.
Lenovo is just always killing it. Guess I’m getting one of these next.
Alongside this we need Posh based mobile system or Enlightenment Desktop environment based one
Gonna buy one, gotta support the cause. We need this phone to do well.
The main thing you’re supporting is Motorola, the second biggest provider of surveillance technology in the US after Flock. Deflock lists 5% of the cameras as Motorola, but the share is increasing as backlash against Flock is growing and Flock cameras are replaced with more low key competitors.
404media has reported on how Motorola cameras are used by ice.
“Gotta support the cause” is one hell of a dangerous sentiment under capitalism.
Different company?
Motorola was split into two independent public companies: Motorola Solutions (its legal successor) and Motorola Mobility (spun off), on January 4, 2011
Damn I guess most of us didn’t know that, thank you for sharing.
They’re keeping a low profile on their surveillance technology while successfully marketing themselves as a privacy alternative in consumer tech. Its pretty fascinating to watch. I wouldn’t blame anyone for missing it.
It’s also worth reading up on Aviglon, a subsidiary of Motorola specializing in surveillance technology.
You’re supporting diva devs selling out.
We don’t need GOS to do well. We need a fully open ecosystem for phone operating systems. GOS devs don’t let anyone incorporate their code.
They also refuse to provide basic functionality like inverted navbar buttons. Because they’re diva devs.
…don’t let anyone else incorporate their code.
Is it not open source?
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One thing I really dislike about the Mobile ecosystem is how much different each device is to each other.
Imagine owning a laptop and not being able to install linux without the manufacturer permission.
They really messed us up with how they created the phone architecture, so closed and restrictive.
It used to be the same with x86 computers, but over time a standardized interface was developed.
ARM is already getting something similar, but most companies aren’t interested, precisely because they’re perfectly fine with the restrictions.
The ptoblem is that all the phone manufacters don’t release any drivers, neither close or open
Imagine owning a laptop and not being able to install linux without the manufacturer permission.
Fairphone 6 ?
The exception proves the rule.
Capitalism
One thing I really dislike about the Mobile ecosystem is how much different each device is to each other.
I thought you were sarcastic when I first read this part, since way back when phones used to be innovative in both hardware and software. The current market offerings are all carbon copies of eachother with a strong trend towards converging into the exact same lineup.
Multiple cameras, one in front, 2+ in back. A power button and two for volume. Reader apps may hijack it for scroll. Gesture movements. Fingerprint and face id. Less and less conusmer freedom in software choice. Irremovable battery. No removable back plate. A rectangular brick. A near-100% display area. No headphone jack or SD card, with SIM on the way out.
Covers the vast majority of offerings on the market, with a few slight adds/subtracts. Dumbphones are a rounding error.
This definition covers even tablets, and it isn’t even deliverately vague.
Without much experimentation and development on the hardware front, no wonder software’s behaving exactly the same.
There just isn’t enough interest for proper innovation and experimentation.
Oh that’s 100% true.
I was just thinking on the firmware of the thing. And how incompatible are they between models that are almost the same.
And as you say all phones are basically the same, there’s no excuse for how little normalization there is in the software they carry.
Just because they have the same function in the OS doesn’t mean the hardware is the same. That’s where custom ROMs falter, with closed sourced hardware drivers.
The issue isn’t normalisation, it’s inaccessibility to understand the core functionality to drive the hardware.
And we’re not even talking about iphone
There is a reason we are putting up with decades of legacy stuff still from the original x86 architecture in PCs… the compatibility of hardware and the standardisation even if it’s through several extensions build off each other is unmatched.
ARM architecture might be much simpler but you constantly need hardware specific adaptions, which makes support for different mobile devices this mess.
IOW closed source drivers are the problem.
I think you don’t really understand how hard it is to standardise everything. Just because IBM managed it in the 80s doesn’t mean it was easy.
What the hell are you talking about? We have standards almost for everything now. It’s just ARM ecosystem messed up as it were on purpose.
It is on purpose
Please Motorola, please make something like Pixel 4a sized or iPhone SE / 8.
The 4a was the last light one. When I tested the newer Pixels every of the a models was much heavier. I can’t get around it, why would engineers think it’s a good idea to make a successor heavier and not lighter?
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Did it improve? Seems not. An e-ink display would improve it.
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My experience was that phones lasted two to three days back in the day. Before "smart"phones it would be easily a whole week.
e-ink has terrible refresh rates and can barely handle color. It’s not really a comparable display tech to oled.
e-ink has terrible refresh rates
Fun fact: it seems that it’s not a limitation of the type of the display itself but a limitation from either the controller or the firmware of the display, someone on youtube managed to make an e-ink display to run at 60hHz
https://youtu.be/nHbA2-_qzH4It doesn’t look as good as an LED or OLED screen of course but it’s good enough
Everything has pros and cons. Try OLED in the sun. To me refresh rates and numb coloring are irrelevant to what I need to do on a daily basis. Most of my work on the phone is speech and reading/texting anyways.
For me the most interesting piece from the Mastodon thread is the fact that the Motorola partnership was born out of Google making it more difficult for non-OEMs to get access to AOSP source code (emphasis mine):
Google replaced pushing Git tags for certain source code with obtaining source code via Google Drive after making a request through Google Forms. It’s completely ridiculous and they’ve gradually become very slow at handling requests. They’re in clear violation of the GPLv2 now.
[…]
These changes won’t negatively impact GrapheneOS on upcoming Motorola Mobility devices. In fact, it’s a major part of why our partnership exists. It only negatively impacts Pixels and hurts Google more than anyone else. Google wants to make Pixels worse for no apparent reason.
This also means that in the future Motorola devices will get faster security updates on GrapheneOS than Pixels.
This is exactly why I’ve waited to get a Graphene OS phone, Google can’t be trusted.
I’m actually kind of excited about this, despite it meaning my next phone is going to be more expensive than I want (or can really handle, so I’ll start saving now.)
I figured this would be the case, too, for the exact reason stated in the article, the Moto G devices aren’t secure enough.
BUT why I’m excited is usually Moto’s flagship phones have expandable storage!!! I want nothing more from a phone than a grapheneOS phone with a microSD! I’m still mad at the cell phone market for killing expandable storage. Now if I could just convince them to give me two USB-C ports so I don’t have to wear my charge port to use wired headphones…
I took micro SD for granted! I miss being able to just pop a card in and upgrade.
I had (still works, just retired now) the last Samsung flagship with a micro SD as my phone until 9 months ago. Note 20 Ultra. 8 miss my s pen, still, but Samsung has been charging too much for lazy trash phones for too long now, so I bailed.
Unfortunately once microSD, headphone jack, and removable batteries were gone I moved to iPhone.
My thought was if I lose all the the things I like about Android, why would I not be in the more cohesive ecosystem?
I use Linux for gaming and Mac OS for work. I waited years for Android/chromeOS to catch up, but Google can’t even get a messaging app/video chat app right.
The day memory cards and removable batteries come back I’ll think about leaving.
I still like the options and alternatives I can get from android over apple.
Also, I got a thousand dollar android that stomps the hell out of what you can have from apple for $1600. Hopefully their will be better alternatives by the time I need another new phone.
bad sign. i hope it’s at least available in my country.
“GrapheneOS has supported Pixels because Google’s Tensor chips provide the necessary security features, but not all Qualcomm chips offer the same capabilities. Only Qualcomm’s most expensive 8-series processors are comparable from a security standpoint, and those only go in expensive flagship smartphones.”
The price has to do with cpu types. As long as those particular chips remain expensive and top shelf, it won’t reach more budget devices. Its not a malicious choice.
Lower end phones are supposed to be coming later. I’m honestly not surprised that the first will be a flagship
hoping so! cheap graphene phones will be cool to have.
