Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

The latest changes to hit the #Librem5 staging repo have dramatically increased my quality of life. First, Chatty now can use the haptic motor so I get vibration notifications w/ messages. Second, the top menu bar now features quick access to more settings.

A powerful thing about the #Librem5 running PureOS instead of a mobile-specific OS is that existing desktop apps run w/o porting to a new platform, some just need UI tweaks to fit on the screen. GNUcash works out of the box in landscape mode both without the toolbar at default scaling and with the toolbar scaled 1.5x.

Wireshark works great on my #Librem5 out of the box when the screen is scaled from 2x down to 1.25x the physical resolution. This could be an option for apps that need more time for developers to adapt to a phone form factor.

I was interviewed for a DW News article on how @purism is taking on tech giants with the #Librem5 #privacy-focused smartphone.

https://m.dw.com/en/smartphone-startups-take-on-google-apple-and-put-privacy-first/a-52369255

It's been fun to track the steady and rapid progress with #Librem5 development. Each week that goes by moves this phone closer to replacing my other phone entirely. Most recently, a simple one line change to a file dramatically improved cellular modem performance.

If you are looking for a decent stand for your #Librem5 and have access to a #3Dprinter then I've found this design scaled up 1.25x works well and leaves enough room at the bottom for a USB-C cable:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2056389

Since the #Librem5 runs regular PureOS it means you can often solve problems using the same steps you'd use on a desktop. In this post I use classic command-line techniques to backup and restore my phone:

https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-backup-and-restore/

Something that has surprised me over the few weeks I've had this #Librem5 phone is the rapid progress. Each week brings at least one big improvement. Case in point, yesterday's kernel update (should hit main repos in a few days) made a noticeable change in the phone's heat and touchscreen performance.

I've really been enjoying how easy it is to write simple, useful GUI applications for the #Librem5 and I wrote two posts this week that describe how I wrote a simple screenshot and flashlight app:

https://puri.sm/posts/easy-librem-5-app-development-take-a-screenshot/
https://puri.sm/posts/easy-librem-5-app-development-flashlight/

I discovered today that zenity works as well on this screen as it does on a regular desktop to create basic shell-driven GUI programs on the #Librem5 so you can expect to see some simple apps from me in the future.

1. Buy medication I never have bought or even searched for before at local pharmacy w/ credit card
2. Go to car, decide to test #Librem5 cellular by visiting my account on mobile.twitter.com
3. Immediately see ad for type of medication I bought!

No location tracking possible on this Librem 5 (used browser, not native twitter app), so either a crazy coincidence, or near-real-time reporting between CVS and #adtech w/ linking between my name, card, and twitter account.

Something I didn't know I was missing but now use all the time on my #Librem5 is writing a shell script to perform a task along with a local .desktop file to run it from the home screen. Adding notify-send commands gives me feedback as the script runs in the background.

A two-line change to /use/share/gpodder/UI/gtk/gpodder.ui to change two horizontal panes to vertical ones was all it took to make it fit perfectly on the #Librem5 screen. I love #FOSS.

Since I'm running real Linux on my #Librem5 phone, I'm having thoughts like: should I host NextCloud from it? Maybe a Tor hidden service? OnionShare? My phone *is* always on after all, hosting personal services (optionally w/ a front-end cache on my regular server) might make sense...

Set up openvpn on my #Librem5 #Chestnut so I could ssh into it from my home network (keys only) regardless of the cellular/wifi network I'm on.

Mutt running natively on my #Librem5 #Chestnut phone--just needed to install the deb and scp my mutt settings from a different computer. #livingthedream

It's happening! I already moved my SIM over so I can treat it as my main phone. #Librem5 #Chestnut

I love this post:

"When we first approached hardware manufacturers almost two years ago with this project most of them instantly said “No, sorry, impossible, we can not help you.”. Others warned us, that it could never work, that it was too complicated, “the industry does not do that” and so forth.

And yet here we are, later than we wanted, but we are actually shipping first hardware! It is possible but it comes at a price." #Librem5

https://puri.sm/posts/breaking-ground/