tech grumble
What I would give for a *reliable* open hardware feature phone that was *just* smart enough to run some encrypted chat apps... and also for chat apps like #Signal to support such devices.
No, the #PinePhone is not this. Sadly.
Maybe cursed idea, but... you can already run Linux on the #PinePhone modem... so like, if you just wanted a phone that can make calls... what do you even need the rest of the phone for? Imagine what the battery life could be if the main SOC was replaced with something more minimal. Maybe completely eliminated, idk, I'm not an electronics expert.
@csepp > what do you even need the rest of the phone for?
Let's see... screen, cameras, GPU, VPU, WiFi, Bluetooth, battery charging, more RAM and flash than 256MB (part of which is used up by proprietary firmware)...
If all you want is "just calls", you can easily design a simple board around EG25/BM818 (or something else better suited) in no time. But you'll then want to "just" add SMS. Then just USSD. Then just MMS. Then just IM. Then just encryption. Then... It's never "just calls" :)
