Thierry de Coulon wrote:
I read many months ago about the Pine Phone and was not convinced in anyway that it is useful either. Let me know what is your experience and share some use cases. For example can you sync data, how the usual features work, calendar, alarms, sms, e-mail clients etc.
I'd be happy to share, but you seem to be a much heavier phone user than I am :)
well, I can not carry my PC in the pocket - so except phone and sms, I need reminders (calendar) and contacts, which I need to sync (and I refuse to use cloud services for that) The other thing is that I have issue with business contacts, mails and scheduled meetings, so I need some kind of outlook on the phone as well. These are my use cases and I basically driven from the need to do business.
I don't think many (if any) "linux application for phone" have been writen, so you mostly have to rely on apps that were not inteded to be used on a phone (or a tiny screen, or a vertical screen).
I contradict, because Sailfish (the former MeeGo) was developed exactly for smart phones.
As far as I undestand, Pine's idea is that no one will write these applpications as long as there is no hardware, so they try to provide that hardware. The software still has to be created.
Well this is where former Nokia and later Jolla/Sailfish failed and this is how Alien Dalvik got adopted (license cost 50€ and is permanent). So the point is that the developer expects some kind of monetization and if the community is not big enough, there is no motivation to write apps
How does it behave in a car - can you connect and use the phone (HFP)?
Sorry, don't know what HFP means (english is not my mother tongue). Hand free maybe? There is bluetooth but I never tried to connect in a car (only use it with a special app to control charging...). I'll take a look.
Yes, HFP is hands free profile. The other one that you may use is HSP (head set profile). HFP is used mostly in cars as it offers some additional functions.
can you encrypt the filesystem?
I guess this will depend on the system. Never tried it with android either, I have no secrets on my phone...
which ECO systems are available?
Not sure what you mean. Some linux-for-phone systems are based on regular distributions, such as Mobian - Debian. Some GUIs are based on KDE. But I did not have the feeling that there was a real integration at this point.
the eco system is the apps and the way you manage them (install, access to data on the phone, monetization, user base etc.)
Can you use clients such as Signal, WhatsApp, Firefox?
Firefox sure. Does Signal have a Linux version? AFAIK WhatsApp is IOS/Android only (but as I use neither this in only hearsay).
Yes it has Linux version, but it is closed/pre-compiled for specific distributions. WhatsApp is BS, but they use it here and I need it for contacting the school etc.
I must say I'm rather a phone hater - I use my Android as a PDA (alarm, short notes, Kindle), parking paying and - when I absolutely have to - phoning. I usually have phone costs (all included) of less then $5 a month...
Oh, good that you can be so conservative, I am trying too, but I already described the use cases that are driven by the circumstances. The stupid thing is that is expected if you want to be part of the company/social life :/
BR