[sudo-discuss] Broke fancy smart phone, arg.

[Pete Forsyth]

G! I love this annotated feature list, and would gladly jump into a
Kickstarter campaign to produce one. I'm sure I can't be the only one.

Thank you, to you and the others who have repled to my request. Today I
bought, for $150, a Alcatel Fierce, brand new, which seems to be a pretty
decent phone with a mediocre screen and a mediocre camera. I believe I will
be happy with it (all things considered) and am  happier with $150 of
liability in my pocket every day than $500.

I will also order the repair kit for the One S, and hope I can get it back
up and running.

Pete


On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 5:37 PM, GtwoG PublicOhOne <g2g-public01 at att.net>wrote:

>
> A decent plurality of mobile device users are fed up with carrier
> shenanigans, Spynet, planned obsolescence, and other "heads they win, tails
> we lose" games to extract money out of people.
>
> This points to the need for a grassroots project to design & have
> manufactured, a mobile device that's robust and fully user-serviceable,
> which can also include other benefits:
>
> = Perspex instead of glass for the touch-surface on the screen.  Main
> housing either aluminum or thick enough plastic to withstand drops.
> ("Lite" as in devices = "Lite" as in beer, "no thanks!")
>
> = Four visible screws at the four corners of the screen module, into brass
> inserts in the plastic housing: remove the screws, remove & replace the
> screen in a minute or two.
>
> = Circuit board mounted to main housing with via the same screws, with
> rubber grommets to protect against drop impacts.  Battery separate from
> circuit board so it can be replaced by end-user.
>
> = Hardware switches to enable selectively turning off the audio
> transducers (mic and earphone), camera, and GPS, and turn off power to the
> entire unit.  This obvious privacy/security enhancement would add less than
> $5 to the component cost of the unit.
>
> = Data storage on micro-SD card, so you can keep your data while changing
> out other components or if you ship the device back to a third party for
> whatever reason.   Two card slots to enable selective data copy from A to B.
>
> = Connectors for wired headset (bluetooth sucks & is highly insecure) and
> keyboard/mouse.  Nearly 30 years ago I saw a prototype IBM keyboard that
> was about the size of a touchtone dial and intuitively easy to use.  Each
> key surface was split into four indentations such that your fingers pressed
> multiple keys at once, thereby achieving "chord keyboard" compact size
> without a learning curve to use it.  By now the patents have expired so
> this could be freely manufactured.
>
> = Multiple SIM Card slots to enable software-selectable use of multiple
> carriers.  This enables direct and immediate use of competing carriers
> moment-to-moment, and if it was widely adopted, might force carriers to
> behave better.  This would also enable keeping multiple unrelated telephone
> numbers on one device (such as personal and work, for partial pushback
> against the 24-hour work day).
>
> = Secure operating system with full user control (rather than a walled
> garden or equivalent, see also:
> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/re Google's efforts to manipulate the Android ecosystem).
>
> = And last but not least, default to G.711 audio for voice calls, because
> putting up with G.729 and its pre-1935 (proof on request) audio quality in
> 2013 is absurd.  Less bandwidth for Spynet, more bandwidth for speech.
>
> That would be a mobile device that you control, that isn't subject to
> yearly planned obsolescence, that doesn't spy on you everywhere you go, and
> that you can repair with nothing more than a small Philips screwdriver.  At
> that point, I'd even get one;-)
>
> -G.
>
>
> =====
>
>
>
> On 13-10-28-Mon 2:56 PM, Pete Forsyth wrote:
>
> So, today I dropped my fancy smart phone (HTC One S) and smashed the
> screen to smithereens. I have almost (almost! but I think not quite) just
> had it with the concept of cell phones, almost ready to just figure out how
> to plan ahead and make use of my land line and wifi.
>
>  But I don't think I'm there -- I just rely too heavily on stuff like
> Google Maps and text messaging when I travel or am otherwise out and about.
>
>  I thought I'd throw the question out there before I up and buy a new
> phone. Does anybody have a 4g, T-Mobile compatible phone they'd
> recommend…or perhaps one to sell?
>
>  Or… what are some good "I'm sick of dealing with cell phones" hacks
> these days?
>
>  Pete
>
>  p.s. I'm (finally!) out of my TMobile contract and happily so. I am also
> done with insurance plans. I want to just buy something free and clear,
> something that I can unlock and potentially throw a foreign SIM into in the
> future. Even if it means spending more up front. I'm sick of cell carrier
> shenanigans and don't want to play their money games if I can avoid it.
>
>
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>
>
>
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