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(a)att.net>wrote;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-control…
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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