The DnD Sanctuary

Here in this thread we'll cover every phone :yikes: except maybe those funny things with a wheel (https://dndsanctuary.eu/index.php?topic=253.0). Cellphones, DECT phones, satellite phones... Slightly outdated trunking radio phones...
Military radiophones. NASA/ISS "phones". Skype-like apps... 

So, what sort of a phone have you had/do you have? Brand?

Well, I've had two or three old Motorolas so far. Then I bought a Sagem. MyX-something. It has 2MB memory (dynamical). In total. It's rather customisable, but there are language issues.
Then I tried a Fly (slider). Quite a cute thing, has a microSD card slot, blabla...  Also it was a feature phone -- namely camera-phone, by Pantech. The camera is still working, etc...
Last time: Philips. Bought for 2-SIM simultaneously run and gross charge capacity. Rather reliable thing, though having some minor issues. Has a game to shoot space bad guys.:P

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Phones! phones! phones! (https://dndsanctuary.eu/index.php?topic=308.msg17753#msg17753)

If lunatics are putted into asylums, I wonder why this one is free to keep on opening threads....

You are spika Inglesh better and better, Bel! :up: :lol:

Well, let's talk about all that "smart typing" stuff?
I have a decent T9 on my Sagem -- both languages I use, and it allows for adding new words.
On my Fly it's been pretty simple, but not dull. On my PANTECH - well, I don't use it much, though I can say that the modes tinkering adds a bit of complexity to typing there.
The dullest thing I have on my Philips. Not mentioning the plough-through mode switching, its "smart-typing" thing doesn't feel very "user-friendly" (how to "select" words and how to add punct. in that "smart" mode), and its vocabulary was written by I don't know whom and I don't know if that person was high or what: half the words I deem basic are not there at all (no custom voc.) - moreover, it does even not "know" any word forms at all! Well, I have, say, "crowd", then no "crowds", no "crowded", nothing; I have "go", but there's no "going" -- such stuff I have to add manually. So the mode very soon gets pissing me off. Apart from that, gradually typing gets more and more "thinking about something else" (in any mode) - the more I've filled in the slower it responds to 'irritants'.

Smoke signals. It's not easy, especially over any distance.

Last message received: "My blanket is on fire".

The dullest thing I have on my Philips. Not mentioning the plough-through mode switching, its "smart-typing" thing doesn't feel very "user-friendly" (how to "select" words and how to add punct. in that "smart" mode), and its vocabulary was written by I don't know whom and I don't know if that person was high or what: half the words I deem basic are not there at all (no custom voc.) - moreover, it does even not "know" any word forms at all! Well, I have, say, "crowd", then no "crowds", no "crowded", nothing; I have "go", but there's no "going" -- such stuff I have to add manually.

Unlike English, the PHILIPS "knows" LOADS of word forms in Russian 90% of which simply don't exist and most of them even can't exist by the Russian grammar rules.

I got an offer for some phone called Jolla. I'm not going to fall for it, but a review on YT looks interesting enough to post here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP_opXBWZzc

Highlights:

- Built by ex-Nokia Meego team
- Sailfish OS forked from Meego
- The colour of the "other half" back cover affects the theme of the OS
- Compatible with Android apps
- A tray/screen for all running apps so as to switch to them or kill them conveniently
- Not many apps out of the box, but comes with a terminal emulator on board, and can be hacked to basically switch to Android OS

The default design of the screens is a vertical scroll instead of horizontal pages, which is the way I like it. This long vertical scroll is how I made my apptray look like when I got an Android phone myself, switching away from horizontal flipping pages. On the other hand, access to the phones menus looks kind of confusing for me. Cool, but confusing. Plus I don't like the near-absolute lack of hardware buttons. Some hardware home button or menu button should be there to make sure precisely how dead the device is, when there's a bigger hickup.

Next Lumia is Microsoft Lumia, not Nokia http://www.windowscentral.com/lumia-535-announced

Funny thing, some people are saying it looks like the iPhone 5c (or whatever version number). Apparently they don't recall this (https://www.techenclave.com/community/threads/apple-announced-iphone-5s-and-iphone-5c.152567/page-5#post-1869554)…

Dedoimedo is doing the only smartphone reviews worth reading, for the vast majority have about zero in common with my interests: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/iphone-6-review.html

My own experiences with iPhones have been largely negative. The interface responds smoothly, but trying to send or receive a file via Bluetooth isn't supported (wtf, every phone I've owned since at least '05 could do that) and autocorrect is the most annoying POS I've ever encountered. Note that on Android 5 it's also been made yet more complicated to turn that off than it used to be, but that aside.

When I'll have to replace my current Xperia Ray running CM 12.1 I'll probably go with Jolla. I might consider an Ubuntu Phone instead. But how I despise capacitive touch. Resistive is so much better. Alas.

As screens have become bigger on phones and tablets, hardware buttons have become less relevant. While browsing the web with P500 (it's becoming excruciatingly inadequate for even casual browsing), I have thought that scrolling by swipe at the phone's edge would make perfect sense. A slightly rounded edge would also provide more screen real estate while the size of the device would remain compact. Samsung Edge devices do that currently. Incidentally, the very first smartphone ever - Sony Ericsson P800 - also did that by means of a hardware wheel button on its side. It's rather convenient to scroll a webpage this way by swiping along the edge of the phone.

In Sony Ericsson P800, the wheel button scrolled the webpage, and Opera automatically selected links as you scrolled. The same wheel could also be pressed to go to the link. Not sure if Samsung Edge phones are this convenient. There could be a danger in having a constantly active edge on the device. I don't know what the edges of Samsung Edge do when you are answering a phone call, but possibly something very bad is prone to happen.

In the first touchscreen smartphones (such as Sony Ericsson P800), there was a stylus for pressing. This was a better manner to interact with the screen in my opinion. A pinkie's fingernail also worked, while the fat side of the fingers didn't. It provided superior precision compared to the touchscreens we have now. Stylus devices are rare now.

On the other hand, the specs of Samsung Galaxy Note Edge (http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note_edge-6631.php) are unbeatable. It must be the best device currently on the market. Outrageously overpriced, yes, but also the best.

By the way, web shopping sucks, particularly when you agonise over the decision. I got jealous over the specs of Frenzie's Zenfone 2 and I cancelled my purchase of Xperia M5 to think things over one more time. Then I thought the full Xperia Z3 looked good - the overall size is just one millimetre bigger than M5, while the screen is .2" bigger at the same reso. On the downside, Z3 is somewhat overpriced at my provider compared to other stores (that's somewhat overpriced, as opposed to outrageously overpriced). I tried to place an order for Z3, but it didn't let me complete the last step - out of stock. Zenfone 2 32GB is nicely available here and perfectly affordable, but size truly matters to me. Zenfone 2 is over 7x5mm bigger than M5.

In the end, some half an hour ago, I placed the order for M5 back, because there's no better option. I would like a smaller phone, but no good ones are available. Z3 Compact would have been perfect and I regret that I could not get it.

The advantage of buying from my own provider is that I can spread the payment across two years without any interest. And they began another campaign on Monday, so I got the M5 now 20 euros cheaper than my order was a few days ago. A quantum of solace.

I would still prefer physical buttons. I'm constantly getting windows and tabs opened merely by trying to scroll through a site on the phone. The new Blackberry Priv  (http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=4978) has a slide out keyboard, but costs why more than I'm willing to pay for phone. :p

I would still prefer physical buttons.

So do I. In my search, I gave some consideration to Blackberry Q10 (http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_q10-5274.php), a phone with very well balanced parameters in every sense.

Edit: But I am opting for a bigger separate keyboard. Right now I am carrying around a netbook, which is a small laptop with 10.1" screen, and a mobile phone so I can connect the netbook to the internet via phone when wifi is not available. The idea in the future is to carry around a phone with a tablet-ish screen and a travel keyboard for it, so I won't need the netbook.

One might think that acquiring a real tablet (8" screen and above) would be more appropriate to replace a netbook. However, with a real tablet to replace my netbook of 10.1" screen, I would miss things that I could do only with a netbook, such as install my own OS on it and tweak it as I please. Android devices don't easily permit this, much less iOS or Windows devices. So, a smartphone will it be.

My new Xperia M5 is becoming way too creepy. Yesterday I loaded a bunch of videos on it to test if it plays them (it plays everything thus far) and took a bunch of photos of our heavy snowfall here. Today the phone has, of its own initiative, compiled a film of the material I handled yesterday, except that there's creepy clown music in the background I never heard before :yikes:

lol, did it? :P

Today the phone has, of its own initiative,

Smash it to pieces mercilessly. Do it right now before is too late.

When things get too bad, you can probably make it run CyanogenMod. :P

lol, did it? :P

It's not funny, srsly!

The offending app is Movie Creator.

The software will automatically determine the timeline to create its movie – so it could take a selection of photos/videos from a Saturday afternoon, or for a three-day period or for a week. When the film is created you will be notified (notifications can be turned off in the settings).

Turn off notifications... How about turning off the app? On phone forums I see people complaining that when they throw the thing out, it keeps returning by itself. The idea of an app tampering with my material whenever the app feels like it is terrible, but it even adds that awful clown music to it. Right now it's notifying me of an update. Has the atrocious feature been removed in the update or have worse features been added?

My first encounter with Xperia M5 was bad enough. When I took it out of the box, I could not tell the frontside from the backside. When the display is silent, it's black glass everywhere. Sometimes I still cannot tell the frontside from the backside when I take it out of the pocket.

Next, it seemed impossible to switch it on. I pressed the main key briefly, then long, then something in between. No reaction. I put it on the charger and tried again. Still no reaction. I got frustrated and put it back in the box, determined to return it and to argue my way to Zenfone 2 instead. However, in the box I heard the thing switching itself on. Pretty creepy.

Heroically, I am doing my best to like my new phone, but the phone is not exactly helping in this difficult task. I am very disappointed with its shape and size. In hand it is constantly out of balance, there's no way to grasp it securely. Zenfone 2 fits the palm much better. I have been looking around for merchandise that would improve the grasp and handling, but things like this are more readily available for the Z*-line, not for M5.
(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-static.se-mc.com%2Fblogs.dir%2F0%2Ffiles%2F2013%2F11%2FSCR14-style-cover-stand-4000x2100-fba6b80c2d790941d9ff8942e0e1d923-940.jpg&hash=dc01d7f4bb47dceca6a45cbeb9e542d6" rel="cached" data-hash="dc01d7f4bb47dceca6a45cbeb9e542d6" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://www-static.se-mc.com/blogs.dir/0/files/2013/11/SCR14-style-cover-stand-4000x2100-fba6b80c2d790941d9ff8942e0e1d923-940.jpg)

Keep in mind there are many models of the Zenfone 2. Rather confusing. Mine isn't making videos by itself though. :p

I know precisely which phone you mean. It so happens that it's the only kind of Zenfone 2 available here, exactly the right kind.

There's one thing I like about M5 - the zoom button on the edge.* Good in browsers that support it for scrolling. And the camera makes gorgeous pics, even though I should probably try some other photo app to get more settings. In the old LG P500 I could select between three different qualities for both pics and videos, but this phone supposedly made for photography does not provide such options. And another good thing is the alleged waterproof body, even though I suspect it's more like splash proof, unless you hold the phone upside down in the rain (the microUSB socket is down under).

*In Zenfone 2, is the long thing at the back the zoom button? Does it work in Dolphin browser?

this phone supposedly made for photography does not provide such options.

To be fair, you'd generally want the highest quality. One of my peeves is that most default to medium rather than highest. However, my Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray had such a setting with the default software?

*In Zenfone 2, is the long thing at the back the zoom button? Does it work in Dolphin browser?

It's the volume button. I'll have to install Dolphin browser to see if it can be assigned as zoom. In the camera app it defaults to being the shutter button.

Hm, I'm always weary of installing something which proclaims to be the best right in its title. :P

To be fair, you'd generally want the highest quality. One of my peeves is that most default to medium rather than highest. However, my Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray had such a setting with the default software?

I think I'd generally want the highest *workable* quality, i.e. the quality easy to play back, share and upload. If I or my contacts can't play it back, why would I want to record this quality?

When recording video, the default quality is 1080p. There's a distinct setting to record 4k, which is unworkable for most common folks and ordinary machines. Xperia M5 itself plays a 4k video without any issues.

When taking a photo, there's no setting whatsoever to pick a quality. They evidently expect me either to engage in postproduction or to download another photo app/extension.

Edit: A workaround would be to zoom in when shooting. Digital zoom upon shooting is the same thing as cropping in postproduction. An optional preset would still be better though.

Quote from: ersi on 2016-01-16, 22:38:40

*In Zenfone 2, is the long thing at the back the zoom button? Does it work in Dolphin browser?

It's the volume button. I'll have to install Dolphin browser to see if it can be assigned as zoom. In the camera app it defaults to being the shutter button.

I'd be grateful if you try Dolphin to see if your backside button scrolls. I think it would be interesting for yourself also to know, how this kind of scrolling works. With an edge button it works pretty good.

The P800 wheel was brilliant. In addition to the wheel movement  it had three button presses, in, up, and down. A decade has gone since the hardware buttons disappeared in most phones and we still don't have haptic interfaces, so the user experience is much poorer.

I think I'd generally want the highest *workable* quality, i.e. the quality easy to play back, share and upload. If I or my contacts can't play it back, why would I want to record this quality?

True, but I'm not talking about RAW images or anything here. Higher JPEG quality visibly produces less artifacts without adding too much extra.

When recording video, the default quality is 1080p. There's a distinct setting to record 4k, which is unworkable for most common folks and ordinary machines. Xperia M5 itself plays a 4k video without any issues.

Shooting in UHD allows you to share a lot better quality FHD videos (unless they're in a lower bitrate). But this isn't really comparable to adding an extra 100 kB or so to a 2 MB picture.

I'd be grateful if you try Dolphin to see if your backside button scrolls. I think it would be interesting for yourself also to know, how this kind of scrolling works. With an edge button it works pretty good.

It's just the volume button. However it is interesting that Dolphin allows you to enable on-screen zoom buttons, plus settings its text size smaller actually has an effect. Unfortunately it seems to be superior to Firefox Mobile, and possibly Opera/Blink Mobile as well. I'm pretty sure Firefox didn't want access to my identity, although I'd have to double check…

decade has gone since the hardware buttons disappeared in most phones and we still don't have haptic interfaces, so the user experience is much poorer.

Hear, hear!

My new LG Stylo (http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=4722) came today from T-Mobile, the American subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom

My new LG Stylo (http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=4722) came today from T-Mobile, the American subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom

This one? http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_g_stylo_%28cdma%29-7245.php

What made you choose it? Did you get a good price or did some of its features attract you?

Looks like the stylus might be a distinguishing feature.

I like having a stylus. Samsung's button placement on it leaves something to be desired but it is nice to have a more precise interface than my finger. I don't use it as much as I could because of old ingrained touchscreen habits it guess.  Pinch zoom or a double tap usually works well enough that I don't really think to slide the stylus out to navigate with much. But for notes or lists more than a line or so it's way faster to write it, after some getting used to, than type on a virtual kybd. I do still use SMS for short on the spot notes out of habit. So again it hasn't been much of a game changer for me but others may love having a stylus more.

For a bit more precise input, I occasionally long to be able to tap and draw with my pinkie's fingernail again. This used to work in the very first touchscreen smartphone, SE P800, whose stylus broke easily. When I received, once upon a time, my second-hand SE P800, the stylus was already a little cracked and only got worse over time, but it wasn't a problem because my pinkie's fingernail did the same job more conveniently.

Currently I am getting good easy results by connecting my newest smartphone with ordinary keyboards via USB OTG. It's possible to select any random keyboard layout. Pretty much all the keys work, even though it's a bit app-dependent. For example Shift doesn't seem to work in TurboEditor (fairly major issue actually), but works in QuickEditor. Menu key works. Media keys work. Even Alt+Tab works! And the mouse works too via USB OTG, so it makes sense to acquire a travel keyboard with trackpoint/trackpad and the smartphone becomes a near-complete netbook.

keyboards via USB OTG

well played .

btw is it possible to use otg to usb , and then usb to vga .
even it is only can do 800x600 , cos i dont think it support usb 3.0 for higher resolution .

btw is it possible to use otg to usb , and then usb to vga .

Connected to a monitor via VGA? I don't have such connectors/adapters, so I haven't tried.

On one of my monitors, I have a weird hole where I can stick a cable that was provided. The other end is supposed to go to USB on my computer, but when connected, it seems to be doing nothing. (Otherwise the monitor does the ordinary monitor thing via VGA connector.) I have no faith that monitors connected to mobile phone via USB would perform better. But as said, I haven't tried.

If your phone can use MHL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_High-Definition_Link) you should be able to convert the HDMI to VGA with an adapter.

weird hole

i think it is Hdmi .

with an adapter it can connect   mini hdmi ( smartphone ) to HDMI monitor /HDtv .

monitors connected to mobile phone via USB would perform better

it aint perform better .
but hence,  it will make the text bigger and higher resolution .

What made you choose it? Did you get a good price or did some of its features attract you?

Well, I got a decent price at 75 USD off :yes: I also liked that it had such a large screen and the stylus will probably come in handy :)

For a bit more precise input, I occasionally long to be able to tap and draw with my pinkie's fingernail again. This used to work in the very first touchscreen smartphone, SE P800, whose stylus broke easily. When I received, once upon a time, my second-hand SE P800, the stylus was already a little cracked and only got worse over time, but it wasn't a problem because my pinkie's fingernail did the same job more conveniently.

Using e.g. an old Windows Mobile phone or my Nintendo DS makes me utterly despise capacitive touchscreens all over again every time.

On one of my monitors, I have a weird hole where I can stick a cable that was provided. The other end is supposed to go to USB on my computer, but when connected, it seems to be doing nothing. (Otherwise the monitor does the ordinary monitor thing via VGA connector.) I have no faith that monitors connected to mobile phone via USB would perform better. But as said, I haven't tried.

Many monitors have an integrated USB hub. Are you sure yours doesn't? :P

Many monitors have an integrated USB hub. Are you sure yours doesn't?

I know what a USB hub is. The weird hole doesn't act this way. The cable has the following endings and the weird ending goes to the weird hole I am talking about.
(https://dndsanctuary.eu/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fpisces.bbystatic.com%2Fimage2%2FBestBuy_US%2Fimages%2Fproducts%2F5886%2F5886035_sa.jpg&hash=4eed07ce11108e560a4ba6564b0ac17c" rel="cached" data-hash="4eed07ce11108e560a4ba6564b0ac17c" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5886/5886035_sa.jpg)
I call it weird because it looks weird. And I haven't noticed it do anything.

That's just a standard USB like you'd use for a printer, scanner or other peripherals.

If your monitor is a touchscreen it'd have one too... I think Frenzie was just suggesting the monitor might have USB ports on it. Sometimes hubs are built into monitors so you don't have to reach around everything to plug stuff in. (Often around the edges or on the face at the bottom)

I have a USB hub in some of my keyboards and I use them for the trackball, so I know how this works. I also know what is supposed to happen when you connect a printer to the computer.

In the case of this monitor, it has a D-Sub (VGA) connector which does the monitor thing. Then it has the USB cable which does nothing. Literally. Possibly meant to be connected somewhere else than to a computer...

Okay. You wouldn't be the first person to miss a USB port on the side of a monitor. I just feel like this is an answerable question so I just wanted to be sure all is clear.

So now it's either the monitor has some features the OS can use with software... like it's a touchscreen but not necessarily only that... Or maybe it can work as some sort of kiosk or POS aux monitor. Again that would require software and/or hardware to pull that off via USB. It's not just gonna plug in and work. But I'm just shooting in the dark out of curiosity. Not like I have any real information to go on.

You are right that a CD-ROM came with the monitor. The software of course doesn't do anything in Linux.

Or maybe it can work as some sort of kiosk or POS aux monitor.

What does POS stand for in this case?

Oh my fault. - Point of Sale. Like a cash register's screen or the screen that faces the customer and shows the total (and usually ads).

Got yourself an odd-ball there. :)

thats printer cable .

if i am not wrong some modem also have that kind of   port .

about  why monitor have that kind of port , i really have no idea .

thats printer cable .

No, it's just a regular USB cable. I'd say a "printer cable" is one of those parallel things from the '80s and early to mid-'90s, although even those were used for much more than just printers. My monitor sports the same thing, except it's USB 3 so it has a little extension on top.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/USB-3.0-Stecker_%28Typ_B%29.jpg/1599px-USB-3.0-Stecker_%28Typ_B%29.jpg) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USB-3.0-Stecker_%28Typ_B%29.jpg)

My monitor has one of the USB ports hidden among the other connectors (DP, mini-DP, HDMI), which is inaccessible with the back panel on. I've been thinking about buying a tiny extension cord for it. The other hole is simply on the back, which is where I typically plug in my Xbox One controller.

Burn all the phones. We don't need brain washing.

Now my old phone^[1] has this issue - as soon as I arrive within the city limits on the train, the network vanishes. As soon as I return home after work on the train, the network reappears precisely at the city limits. Regularly so for a week now. My provider is not visible to my phone within the city limits at all. Other providers are, but they are blocked from me. It's as if my provider were in the process of removing the old GSM frequencies. Just to force me to buy another new phone, I suppose...

The reason I had to replace my own 5/6-year old '06/'07 feature phone by my already defunct first "smart"phone is that it started having trouble reconnecting to the network after being in the metro. In principle that's normal — your connection might get lost occasionally in a tunnel or something — but it should reconnect right after. I discovered it never seemed to reconnect without a restart, prompting me to buy my already defunct first "smart"phone.^[1] Phones are weird. :)

this recently i also hve battery isssues at my android phone.

it just drain the battery so fast like there is no tommorow.

the solution is simply underclock the cpu and gpu.

however,  underclock and overclock mobile devices is not as easy as desktop.


need aweek to figure it.

Undervolting reduces energy usage; underclocking might counterintuitively increase it. When calculations take longer, it takes longer for the CPU to go back to a low-energy state.

As far as battery on Android goes, the main thing is to reduce or eliminate the amount of services that autosyncs and such.

it is 8 cores,  even at 800mhz and gpu at 300mhz. 
it doesnt show any lagging issues. which mean it processing well.

i dont find the right tools to undervolts mobilephone processors yet.

and for sure,  the background services already optimized.

but it will need more than background  services optimization  to cut the  battery  usage.


 need  to limit cpu  and gpu frequency.

inthe extreme level,  perhaps limit the number of cores uses.

nor using hibernation apps to disable all background services  and limit the frequency tothe lowest.

Meet Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition (http://www.gsmarena.com/meizu_pro_5_ubuntu-review-1452.php). It's a smartphone with Ubuntu on it. The review says that despite Unity's approach to touchscreeny interface, it's still not handy enough. There's no opsys optimisation, so that minimised apps would tone down their processes to spare the battery. And camera seems to perform worse under Ubuntu. For these and other reasons, this edition doesn't compare well with Meizu Pro 5 Android (http://www.gsmarena.com/meizu_pro_5-review-1336.php) which is flawless.

Now I have Galaxy Note 4. Tough decision, but if it is the last smartphone in my life, then not too tough. Some notes.

- It came with Android 6 preinstalled. Seems that the occasional multiple-window-like interface is mainly an Android 6 feature. It's a significant gain for multitasking, even though it doesn't apply to all apps. It applies to multimedia and office and to the main browsers, so that's good enough.
- My much-craved MHL doesn't work (because of Android 6 "improvements"?). I am not frustrating myself by trying too much.

cont'd

- In earlier Android models, IIRC, it was possible to wipe aside individual items in the list of available updates and then update all without those items. Not possible anymore in Android 6. In Android 6, if you want to exclude some apps from updates, you have to update everything else individually.

I assume you mean in the Play store? I don't recall being able to do that (but I don't think I've had a reason to try), but that's pretty much half-separate from Android. Specifically, what I mean is that even older Android phones will be updated with the latest Google Play stuff.

Possibly Play store, yes. Whatever it is that pops open when you push the update notification on the taskbar. I used to like to go over the list and swipe things aside. Now I will try to desactivate some apps and see if they will still beg for updates.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is off production. It explodes too much.

It's not the first device to flop this badly, but it's probably the first in having necessitated specific warnings on flights. "We have agreed with Samsung that their devices should not be charged on our airplane." This probably applied only to passengers in the business class, but I heard it too on my last international trip that included a bunch of flights.

More here and elsewhere http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/business/samsung-galaxy-note-fires.html

Galaxy Note 4 remains the best among Galaxy Notes. Samsung has moved on to Galaxy Tabs, I suppose.

I hate idiots speaking about their cellphones. Better girls speaking about dolls.

Don't you hate ereaders more than phones?

Start a thread about dolls. I would certainly participate.

Incidentally, the very first smartphone ever - Sony Ericsson P800 - also did that by means of a hardware wheel button on its side. It's rather convenient to scroll a webpage this way by swiping along the edge of the phone.

In the end, some half an hour ago, I placed the order for M5 back, because there's no better option. I would like a smaller phone, but no good ones are available. Z3 Compact would have been perfect and I regret that I could not get it.

I have used a good number of phones over the decade, and those two (the P800 and my current Z3 Compact) are the two I have been genuinely happy with, and the Z3C the point at where I've accepted the passing of the feature phones, and decided I could live with Android (The opposite, the worst and most expensive phone I've ever bought in my life was HTC Diamond; Windows mobile, say no more).

Good battery life and a phone that isn't ugly (like iPhone, say no more) are bonuses. As it was when I accidentally dropped the phone in boiling water (countryside farm, say no more) and the phone worked fine when cooled down and dried (one of the flaps had opened so it wasn't watertight).

(The opposite, the worst and most expensive phone I've ever bought in my life was HTC Diamond; Windows mobile, say no more).

Huh, I thought my wife's HTC Diamond 2 was a terrific device. On top of which, using it to transfer some old settings a couple of years ago was a fantastic experience. None of that proprietary Android lock-in nonsense. Simple export to file or bluetooth through a microSD that you could just take in and out. Love Windows Mobile.^[1] Love resistive touch. Could you expand a little on what you disliked about it specifically?

Primarily, Windows Mobile. Now I don't mind Windows, this is written on a Windows 2-in-1, but early Windows Mobile was one of the worst system I have ever used (the worst systems were all experimental/internal/hush systems we made browser for at Opera that oughtn't be released in the wild, and for the most part weren't).

I have rarely come across an operating system so at odds with what I would use the device for, it made easy things hard, hard things unattainable, and everything slow and painful. Stupidly I thought "can't be that bad" when co-workers complained about Windows Mobile. It could.

For hardware, battery was the worst. I had three that I swapped. The screen I don't remember, but around Diamond 1 resistive screens were the norm anyway. Camera was sub-par. The whole thing was slow.

I still have it. It was my most expensive phone I ever bought with my own money, but I turned it into a guest phone as soon as I got a replacement phone. In total it has been used maybe two months, so should still be usable (battery willing).

Well, I admit I never tried to use Windows Mobile for stuff like calendar sync or anything, but I thought it certainly made some things very easy that Android makes very hard and the system felt snappy. (Again, the HTC Touch Diamond 2, not 1.) But wouldn't that have been with Windows Mobile 6 or so back in '08-ish?

I have used a good number of phones over the decade, and those two (the P800 and my current Z3 Compact) are the two I have been genuinely happy with, and the Z3C the point at where I've accepted the passing of the feature phones, and decided I could live with Android

I personally never was too happy with P800. It was big and bulky. I tried to use it as my main phone for a while, but it just wasn't portable enough. To put it another way, I didn't have appropriate pockets for it at the time. But I liked the software inside and how it worked. It had wonderful potential and some ingenious details (such as resistive screen and multi-directional scrollwheel) that have gone lost in further evolution of smartphones.

My happiest phones throughout the years have been Nokia 5110, Ericsson w200, and LG Optimus P500. The current Galaxy Note 4 is a more ambivalent case again. You have to love the ability to do multiple windows that approaches true multitasking. It's a formidable photography tool. But it has no pretensions to shock-proofness and resistance to liquids like Xperias have, so it suffers as an actual mobile phone when you cannot answer it in rain or snow.

Good battery life and a phone that isn't ugly (like iPhone, say no more) are bonuses. As it was when I accidentally dropped the phone in boiling water (countryside farm, say no more) and the phone worked fine when cooled down and dried (one of the flaps had opened so it wasn't watertight).

Durability is an important aspect that deserves special attention. Almost as important as fixability (exchangeability of components). Of course everybody would prefer a product that never breaks and never drowns, but it's more realistic to find a product that is fixable in case it breaks.

This test shows that Galaxy Note 7 is actually quite good, apart from occasional explosions.

The modular design of early PCs and phones where you could replace a part for a better one, or for one that is working, is largely gone. Screws are expensive and big, cheaper and faster to glue.

Though now miniaturisation has reached the level that this design is getting possible again (https://www.cnet.com/news/google-project-ara-hands-on-rafa-camargo-interview-modular-phones/), perhaps with some non-adhesive forms of joinery (http://www.boredpanda.com/traditional-japanese-joinery-techniques/).

Possible, yes, but down the drain (http://fortune.com/2016/09/03/why-google-canceled-project-ara/).

With Galaxy S8, Samsung has added a "desktop experience" to the external monitor, so the phone can replace a netbook now. Unless there is a catch that I am not catching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DKu_-thYLM&t=54

This probably amused me more than it should've. Posting it here 'cause Fb is one of those major battery hogs on many users' phones (not mine).

btw, this will allow users to pick which of your attachments from that page to share from the share-dialog box (if that feature is still supported, idk, i'm a fb-dev not a fb-user). (emphasis mine)

With Galaxy S8, Samsung has added a "desktop experience" to the external monitor, so the phone can replace a netbook now.

You have to buy a $150 dock.

I'm not super happy with my S8+. The wrap around screen is useless, I've turned all the related features off, as they are way too easy to accidentally activate. Perhaps of note also, I cracked the corner of mine rather quickly. Wrap around screen means don't drop it. My Note 4 survived much worse... I'm tempted to go back to it. With a custom rom i'm almost sure I can make up for the performance difference. Actually using the S8+ to its full potential tanks battery life.

Quote from: ersi on 2017-04-26, 08:38:27

With Galaxy S8, Samsung has added a "desktop experience" to the external monitor, so the phone can replace a netbook now.

You have to buy a $150 dock.

Thanks for doing it so we can learn from your experience :)

I'm not super happy with my S8+. The wrap around screen is useless, I've turned all the related features off, as they are way too easy to accidentally activate. Perhaps of note also, I cracked the corner of mine rather quickly. Wrap around screen means don't drop it.

Does "wrap around screen" mean something like "edge" popularised by some earlier Galaxies? The first time I saw it, I understood it would be a problem to hold such a thing in hand when you want to just hold it, not touch anything. This would imply imbalanced grip and this in turn would imply dropping the thing, so investing in some good cover is compulsory.

My Note 4 survived much worse... I'm tempted to go back to it. With a custom rom i'm almost sure I can make up for the performance difference. Actually using the S8+ to its full potential tanks battery life.

I heard that S8 (and probably + too) at first has some features turned off and when you turn them on, it warns about battery. That's as good as scaring users away. Who doesn't know that actually using the phone consumes the battery?

Thanks for doing it so we can learn from your experience

I didn't. But I did look into it after buying the phone. Grand total after all the peripherals; you could of had a nice notebook.

Does "wrap around screen" mean something like "edge" popularised by some earlier Galaxies? The first time I saw it, I understood it would be a problem to hold such a thing in hand when you want to just hold it, not touch anything. This would imply imbalanced grip and this in turn would imply dropping the thing, so investing in some good cover is compulsory.

Yes, the screen wraps around the edges. Absolutely useless. especially given you MUST get a protector case for it... Not so bad as you might think when holding it. Trying to use other apps only to activate an edge feature would be my gripe... That and slides right out of your pocket no problem. :mad:

I heard that S8 (and probably + too) at first has some features turned off and when you turn them on, it warns about battery.

To be fair all phones are throttled. It's actually nice to see a stock phone give you the option to use the device's potential. That being said, if we're going to go in that far, give me some control of the kernel values. (Things I'm used to with custom ROMs). Altering WiFi/Bluetooth ping rates and CPU thresholds would allow me to mitigate the battery drain at the higher performance marks (the ones they advertised mind you.).  

Oh yes, that's a very good point. It sort of slipped my mind because this was already happening with Mini-B (from 2000!) before the switch to Micro-B (from 2007), which is something that annoyed me slightly due to different connectors. It was understandable on account of the smaller size.

There's this on one hand
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61DaX6rdwoL._SY355_.jpg)

and this on the other

(https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/1cac2dfb-d84c-48b7-9756-60ae6b2a9198_1.871e81251596225a6c7b6a4e17445531.jpeg)

Clearly different things marked with the same symbol. The latter is the kind of cable that rules on mobile phones and tablets. However, there are small exceptions. For example Prestigio devices seem to come with something very very similar, but they are really different (from both) and connecting them to non-Prestigio chargers will quickly ruin the connection and the device cannot be charged anymore. 

I have noticed people express their annoyance at that the cable can be connected just one way while at different devices the holes are in different ways. That's a legitimate annoyance. I personally wish for a more solid connection too, so that it's easily felt that it's connected and then it stays there. It should not require any trial and error to see if it's really charging. Right now charger connections seem to have been purposely done to cause wear and tear. Everybody around me keeps borrowing chargers, but I never ask one from anyone - because who knows where it's been. Rather, I keep multiple chargers with me for my devices, plus one extra charger to give out when asked.

And I note that laptops still, in 2017, practically each have their own different charger per model for no purpose whatsoever other than let manufacturers earn a bit more by selling chargers.

Now for a something completely different: which is the best Android launcher? (i.e. skin/home screen)

There are a handful of manufacturers that have committed to an essentially stock build of Android – think Nokia and OnePlus. Others, like Motorola, stick close to that (with some Enhancements) and recently parent company Lenovo announced it will be switching to stock as well.

I'd say it's best to have a choice. In my old LG Optimus One P500 I soon switched to ADW Launcher available from the app store. It fit perfectly for my needs and I kept it as long as the phone lasted.

In Xperia M5 that I had for a brief while, I opted for the "simple" view of the home screen. For some weird reason this "simple" view provided quick access to everything relevant and nothing was left missing.

Whereas in Samsung Galaxy Note 4 I keep leafing through three screens with many widgets (time, weather, system stats and calendar), tons of foldered icons and I have not figured out how to rationalise this better. Young people I have seen, they do it even worse - they let messenger chatheads pop up on the screen in addition to everything else. I turn all such notifications off. I treat chat like snail mail: I will certainly at some point get to a point when I can and will reply, it might take a day, but I will surely get there - not before I get to that point though. 

There are some niceties in Galaxy Note 4 that I have not noticed elsewhere. For example you can uninstall apps in the apptray (the view that displays all the icons, where you usually open them, if they are not on the home screen). Most importantly, there is some sort of window-like multitasking: you can have two apps side by side and you can have any number of apps as floating windows which you can minimise to "appheads" (appheads is a term Apple has apparently stolen; here it suffices to say that Samsung Galaxy does the same thing).

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PWDDboVQnfw/UUmkDP034II/AAAAAAAAIIA/qpbxsCbIjKk/s1600/mw.jpg)

(https://www.androidcentral.com/sites/androidcentral.com/files/styles/larger_wm_brw/public/article_images/2014/12/note4-multitasking.jpg)

Some of this functionality can be enabled on any Android with some apps (look for "multi window", "floating apps" and such), but in Samsung Galaxy (probably just the big ones, like the S line and Notes) it's available out of the box and works quite smoothly.

One of the things CyanogenMod used to do but doesn't anymore is locking rotation modes. Now (at least in cm13/Android 6) it's back to the default Android idiocy of either auto-rotate of rotate. You can work around that with Tap 'n' Turn (https://f-droid.org/packages/com.gabm.screenrotationcontrol/). It's a great app and the devs are really responsive to bug reports/suggestions, but I still don't understand that Android doesn't do self-evident stuff like that by itself. Is wanting to lock the device in landscape mode occasionally really such a niche thing?

Is wanting to lock the device in landscape mode occasionally really such a niche thing?

On a Lenovo tablet I spotted this feature: When on landscape mode, you can lock it to landscape. Quite common sense, because when on portrait you can lock any Android to portrait.

Such obvious features should indeed be included everywhere. Really, I don't like this "there's an app for everything attitude". It's as bad as FF's "there's an extension for everything". Well, maybe there should be more apps to do desktop environment features like home screens, apptrays, system menus,  and window management.

either auto-rotate of rotate

That was of course supposed to read "either auto-rotate or portrait".

In CyanogenMod <13 the rotation quicksetting used to have at least three taps: portrait, landscape, and auto. I don't recall if it had one for reverse landscape, but it almost certainly didn't have a reverse portrait, at least without diving into the advanced settings.

On cm13 you can (at least in theory) choose which auto-rotation angles you allow. So if you only allow 90 degrees or 270 degrees, you would be able to lock it in landscape. Except then you'd have to go into the settings every time instead of quickly toggling it. Although... it just occurred to me that by locking auto-rotate to landscape, you could actually get a proper toggle between portrait and landscape ("auto-rotate"). Annoyingly, I often like auto-rotate, so the previous three-tap setting was much preferred. I would suggest what you said (lock to current rotation) to the Tap 'n' Turn devs but I don't want to seem ungrateful. :P

It's as bad as FF's "there's an extension for everything".

It's pretty bizarre too. I had to install an app to do something as simple as transferring text messages or contacts from one phone to the next. This is something that could always be done via Bluetooth no trouble with an open standard, implemented not just by Sony Ericsson but also by real smartphone operating systems such as Windows Mobile.^[1] On Windows Mobile it was also trivial to export all kinds of things onto the SD card.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SigyAbMH2xA[/video]

Also see this classic video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkuirEweZvM

And this recent one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC1DZsuyleI

Lenovo A5 (https://www.gsmarena.com/lenovo_a5-9225.php) has roughly the same specs as Galaxy Note 4, except lesser screen and Android version updated to 8. And sells for less than a 100 e on Aliexpress. I just might try it out.

Apple invented the notch for the iPhones (quickly copied by several stupids) but Galaxy manages to stay clear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHCIpX7ms1c

Still, this "true fullscreen" display is an entirely misdirected craze. Galaxy's earlier "edge" screens in S6 and S7 have already gone the way of the dodo for a valid reason: They do not allow the user to hold the phone without affecting the screen. "True fullscreen" suffers from the same problem.

Even on my Note 4 it occasionally happens that I have to fiddle something on the side or at the back of the phone and the homescreen gets accidentally messed up so that it takes a half an hour to get things back to their places. This problem is exponentially exacerbated on "edge" and "true fullscreen" displays.

Human users physically need neutral space around the display for just holding the device without random things happening. How hard is it for engineers to understand?

For a little while some may have imagined that they can live with the notch. Maybe Steve Jobs could have brainwashed people into having faith in the notch a little longer, but no, it's over rather sooner than later.

Bezelless computer monitors though, that's another matter (as long as they have good arms/legs/VESA mounts). I wonder why there aren't any already by now.

Bezelless computer monitors though, that's another matter (as long as they have good arms/legs/VESA mounts). I wonder why there aren't any already by now.

There are these new HP monitors at work that have a bezel of just a mm or so. I much prefer my older, bigger, big bezeled 16:10 over one of those smaller 16:9 things though. Plus they can't even sit at a proper height. Now if they were almost indistinguishable from one of the monitor I use, except with slightly better color accuracy and tiny bezels, then we'd be talking a no-brainer…^[1]

Should they want to replace them and the opportunity presented itself, I'd definitely consider taking one or more of those 16:10s home with me.^[2]

There is one use for debezelled displays: they could be tiled with sufficiently clever hardware and drivers.

If you had 160 (or 40) square displays, you could make a 16:10 display of your own, just by tiling them yourself on some serviceable frame.

Is this idea applicable to phone displays too?

There is one use for debezelled displays: they could be tiled with sufficiently clever hardware and drivers.

Well yes, that is the only reason I half care about the bezels at work. For example, you might want one application on about half of one monitor with a big Excel document stretching across one and a half so you can see more of the information within at once.

But given how Windows (or any other WM afaik) doesn't conveniently support doing that kind of thing it's a moot point regardless. I'm curious actually how people with those ultrawide monitors handle window management, because theoretically that might be the ideal version of my work setup. It seems like it would completely break the regular half maximized (Win+left/right), full maximized (Win+up) workflow.

Unfortunately my second monitor is an inferior model that doesn't even align properly. ;)

Is this idea applicable to phone displays too?

You'd still see the cracks, so I don't think it's really applicable to anything except if you're only supposed to view it from several meters away.

Dev kits for Purism’s ultra-private Librem 5 smartphone are now shipping https://thenextweb.com/plugged/2018/12/19/dev-kits-for-purisms-ultra-private-librem-5-smartphone-are-now-shipping/

Looks like everybody can build their own modular custom smartphone now. Great.

As far as I can glean, the concept is similar to the Pyra-Pandora handheld-portable mini-computer https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/

I wonder if they considered Sailfish OS and if so, why they rejected it.

Or the other way: Have Sailfish makers (Jolla) noticed Librem and are they considering a version for it? They did something for Xperia X a year ago.

In fact I just bought an XA2 to replace my Zenfone 2. Sailfish is definitely nice. I probably won't switch to it as my phone until the paid version with Android support is ready.

Annoyingly, I can't just test it a little as a phone and put my SIM right back in my current main phone because of this idiotic nano-SIM concept. Micro made some kind of sense, but what's the point of nano?

Ubuntu phone is a thing again when you have Samsung Note 9.

Here is how it works. You need to install the Linux on DeX app on your Galaxy Note9 or Tab S4, once the application is installed a secure container will be created and you can add an Ubuntu Linux image on this container to run it.

[...]

Linux on DeX runs only on Samsung DeX and you may need peripherals such as monitor, keyboard and mouse to have a full experience. Terminal mode can be run outside of Samsung DeX mode.

So it's like the Termux app with more Linux beef around it, apparently up to the desktop environment!

Wait, there already is such thing.

AnLinux : Run Linux On Android Without Root Access

This application will allow you to run Linux on Android, by using Termux and PRoot technology, you can even run SSH and Xfce4 Desktop Environment!!!

For me, the plain terminal mode of Termux is quite sufficient for everything.

If it's built into the system it might have some chance of working reasonably well, whereas the regular on-Android stuff is a collection of horrible hacks.

In my blissful ignorance I simply consider software in terms of what it does, without thinking much about what amount of hacking and experimenting and workaround went into making it do what it does. If that's what you mean.

The fact that the Ubuntu image (and whatever it is that underlies Termux, perhaps Debian) has to be tacked on to Android instead of having the ability to be sort of naturally integrated, speaks of Android's closedness and inflexibility. Because, you see, Android kernel basically *is* Linux kernel, so why is there a need to download a whole new real Linux kernel alongside with it and all the rest of that stuff? The procedure kind of implies that Linux would run in a virtual machine sandbox environment or the like.

Well, I am happy enough that Termux works. I do not worry myself too much over how it was achieved - as long as the internal drive still has space.

In my opinion, this year is about as bad for Samsung Galaxy as the year of exploding Note 7's.

Apple invented the notch for the iPhones (quickly copied by several stupids) but Galaxy manages to stay clear

Well, not anymore. Galaxy S10* succumbed to the notch craze and now Galaxy Note 10*^[1] lost the headphone jack. The next step is losing the microSD slot... 

Luckily I still have my Note 4 with all the goodies:
- headphone jack
- no notch
- bezels (thumbspace!)
- microSD slot
- removable battery

Dual SIM and it would be perfect, but a separate backup device is also a good idea.

- headphone jack

I understand why manufacturers want to sell junk with a built-in expiration date,^[1] but I don't comprehend people who defend having yet another thing to charge. Most of the reason my phone has usurped various other mostly superior dedicated devices^[2] is precisely because it means I don't have to worry about their batteries anymore. The remainder mainly being that I have to plug in my mp3 player to update my podcasts while my phone has wifi, that I have to manually transfer pictures from my old P&S and even my much superior DSLR camera while my phone has wifi + auto-backup, plus of course I always have my phone on me for phone reasons.

The next step is losing the microSD slot...

I maintain that a phone that requires the Internet to access all of Wikipedia, for instance, is a dumb terminal, not "smart."

- removable battery

I bought an XA2 and Sailfish. The battery replacement procedure is… somewhat reasonable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL3QkIbWvRM

I have an ASUS laptop where the battery is quite easy to replace. It's not the traditional quick swap which seems like a stupid feature to lose,^[3] but pretty much all it takes is a few screws. Okay, a lot of screws, and you need one of those special Torx screwdrivers to take off the back of the laptop, but provided you have those (and they are genuinely better, none of that destroying the head or losing grip nonsense) you can do it in a couple of minutes.

Unfortunately it has soldered on RAM, something I wasn't really aware was even a thing when I bought it,^[4] so I suspect that by the time it'd make sense to replace the battery I'll still want to get a new one because 4 GB is already starting to feel a lot more inadequate than back in 2016.

Right now I'm thinking I might look into used business laptops when the time comes.

In addition to ruining Note with the camera notch, removing headphone jack from it, and splitting the phone into multiple versions as if it were a salad, also the Fold is a misstep in my opinion. Not only because its screen simply cracked at first (and will definitely still crack in the middle - this foldable screen technology continues to be crap, cheap-looking in real life while ultra-expensive to acquire) but also because of the camera placement again. Come on guys, you got multiple screens, yet you still manage to disfigure the huge internal screen with the camera notch! I hate the camera notch!

(https://fdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/samsung/samsung-galaxy-fold-5g-3.jpg)

There are many cameras on the Fold because no thinking went into how to place them reasonably, economically. There are cameras on every side, and the worst one is on the smaller-screen side. But the smaller-screen side is exactly where ALL the cameras should be! From the pic above it is easy to tell that the cameras would fit just fine together with the secondary screen.

My logic is as follows: We want good pics, i.e. we want to shoot with the best camera only. For selfies or outside-world pics, only the best camera is good enough. At the same time, we want to see what the pic would look like before shooting, whichever way the phone is facing. The solution to this selfie vs outside-world problem is the secondary screen on the best-camera side. Given a secondary screen on the best-camera side, there is no need for any other cameras on any other side, because other cameras are lesser and we do not want to take lesser pics. Removal of secondary cameras liberates the big-screen side for the screen only, no need for notch, and enables the users to take all pics with the best camera(s).

Fold has two screens, yet it still manages to have the notch on its primary screen. Big fail. Not to mention all other failures, such as lack of dustproofness, possible inability to have a cover, etc.

there is no need for any other cameras on any other side

I disagree. The secondary camera on my phone is good enough for video calling (albeit obviously worse than the "good" camera in low-light conditions) and it enables you to more easily switch between showing someone something in the room and regular video calling. And it easily beats the expensive Logitech webcam I bought a decade ago.^[1]

I think it would be great if we could easily reuse old Android devices as touchpads or webcams. You can kind of do that with regular Android, but that's slow and cumbersome. I mean more like a plugin USB device, where instead of slow Android booting you have a minimal quick boot.^[2]

Of course as a selfie camera it's a lot worse than just taking a classic P&S selfie where you turn the camera around.

My Sony Ericsson T630 came with a mirror just below the camera for selfie purposes. It's a lot cheaper than even the cheapest secondary screen and almost just as effective. Possibly more so because cheap screens may not be visible in bright lighting conditions. You just can't see if it's focusing correctly.

When a device actually already has a secondary screen, it's pure madness not being able to use that for selfie/video calling purposes. That missed chance seems like it could be a killer feature with the Instagram audience.

Quote from: ersi on 2019-09-29, 07:48:42

there is no need for any other cameras on any other side

I disagree. The secondary camera on my phone is good enough for video calling...

Maybe, but the better camera would be even better, wouldn't it? Therefore, if you want good video calling, you are actually agreeing with me :) Or, if you do not want video calling to be too good, then you actually do not like video calling much.

I have probably made just two video calls on my phone. They were Skype calls. And about two Skype video calls on the computer too. So few calls partly because the cameras are crap and also the sound is not too good, and often there are ambient disturbers. The chat feature is enough. Well, at work we need to do Skype conferences. There are often glitches that will never endear me to this form of communication. I will forever prefer writing.

I think it would be great if we could easily reuse old Android devices as touchpads or webcams. You can kind of do that with regular Android, but that's slow and cumbersome. I mean more like a plugin USB device, where instead of slow Android booting you have a minimal quick boot.

Isn't the hardware capacity there, so it is just a software issue? What you need is some community hacking the appropriate os/platform/app. I would very much like to use handhelds as displays for different inputs too, e.g. from my computer over bluetooth or wifi maybe. Surely there are apps for that, and if you want quick bootup, there should be a way to make that particular app the only app...

My Sony Ericsson T630 came with a mirror just below the camera for selfie purposes. It's a lot cheaper than even the cheapest secondary screen and almost just as effective.

Yes, that was ingenious.

(https://fdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/sonyericsson/snt630_00.jpg)

Maybe, but the better camera would be even better, wouldn't it? Therefore, if you want good video calling, you are actually agreeing with me  :)  Or, if you do not want video calling to be too good, then you actually do not like video calling much.

The way video calling works is you have a good picture on the front and a better picture on the back for when you want to show something. But the thing is, except for putting in either two good cameras or two good screens I can't think of a better compromise than the one that exists, with a fairly decent front and a "good" rear camera.

On the Sony Xperia XA2 they implemented an interesting twist on the compromise. The front cam is basically a good wide angle cam, not unlike how on more expensive phones there are now multiple cameras on the rear. Quite inconvenient when you might want to take a non-selfie wide angle picture, but it does take the compromise to a whole new level.

Unfortunately the camera is worse without proprietary Sony stuff, quite possibly the biggest disadvantage of Sailfish. Or more accurately, custom anything; unlocking the bootloader removes their special camera sauce. If you like the phone for its camera you'll be forced to do some serious soul searching.

However, I've done some minor experiments with shooting in RAW (DNG) and using Darktable for processing. It does seem to result in somewhat better quality pictures. Once you've got a profile figured out you don't need to individually look at pictures, basically you'd just tell Darktable to do its thing to your pics.

Isn't the hardware capacity there, so it is just a software issue? What you need is some community hacking the appropriate os/platform/app. I would very much like to use handhelds as displays for different inputs too, e.g. from my computer over bluetooth or wifi maybe. Surely there are apps for that, and if you want quick bootup, there should be a way to make that particular app the only app...

In part. My XA2 boots in about 15-20 seconds. Quite speedy for a phone. But a regular drawing tablet/touchpad is just plug & play. Same for a webcam. A couple of apps difference only makes a few seconds difference at the tail end of booting.

I think a lot of the boot process is just hardware initialization, same as on older particularly computers. The speed of booting into Linux/Windows hasn't really changed that much between my '06/'07 hardware PC and my current '14/'15 hardware PC. Or at least not compared to the SSD I put in back in 2010. The real difference is that now it gets started actually starting the OS within 5-10 seconds, which used to take probably more than twice as long. So now I've got a fully operational PC within about half a minute, which used to be closer to a minute.

The above is provided I disable fastboot in Windows. I used to think Windows 10 took a small eternity to boot — several minutes. Then I found out that disabling "fast"boot made it boot almost as fast as Linux.

Anyway, I have no doubt that a purer Linux that only exposed certain hardware over USB would boot faster. I just wonder by how much. I suppose that once I fully retire my Zenfone 2 I'll go ahead and find out. The Google Play services may well add some 5-10 seconds.

Okay, I decided to create a few quick sample pictures.

This is the Sailfish stock camera, afaict all set to auto. It's oddly awful. Perhaps the JPEG quality or resolution defaults to low (the output is only 1.6 MB) but that's obviously not the whole story. Using a lower resolution doesn't make a picture shitty except for specific use cases like print. (And forgoing on print to save some space would be absurdly stupid, but that aside.)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Frans/Random/n-6nZJF/i-82DS68t/0/1547499e/X2/i-82DS68t-X2.jpg) (https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-82DS68t/0/1547499e/O/i-82DS68t.jpg)

This is a picture in auto-mode in Open Camera (saved as JPEG+RAW):

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Frans/Random/n-6nZJF/i-75HTWDZ/0/1fb182a4/1864x1440/i-75HTWDZ-1864x1440.jpg) (https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-75HTWDZ/0/1fb182a4/4K/i-75HTWDZ-4K.jpg)

And this is the same picture with minimal processing in DarkTable, of the type that could be auto-applied by default to all pictures from this device. It's using a Sony Alpha-like base curve, which is pretty neutral, plus the default shadows & highlights and filmic filters:

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Frans/Random/n-6nZJF/i-N5GJ5z3/0/3fcfaa5d/1864x1440/i-N5GJ5z3-1864x1440.jpg) (https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-N5GJ5z3/0/3fcfaa5d/4K/i-N5GJ5z3-4K.jpg)

For comparison, here's a Nokia-like base curve, which adds inaccurate but possibly pleasant saturation:

(https://photos.smugmug.com/Frans/Random/n-6nZJF/i-v3zkjSS/0/135f6544/1864x1440/i-v3zkjSS-1864x1440.jpg) (https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-v3zkjSS/0/135f6544/4K/i-v3zkjSS-4K.jpg)

As you can see the results from simple off-device processing can be significantly superior.

The downside is that these RAW images are some 40 MB. By itself that's not too significant, but apparently on my phone that takes a few seconds to write/process, which confuses me. Perhaps it'd be less of an issue in pure RAW.

Of course more or less requiring RAW is a definite downside, but it could be worse. My Zenfone 2 doesn't do RAW.

My Sony Alpha 200 (real DSLR) from 2008 can do RAW or JPEG+RAW, but I don't typically use it because it creates nice JPEGs. But it sure doesn't have any issues writing those 40 MB files. Of course it uses nice, speedy CompactFlash but I'd expect a 2018 phone to match or exceed those speeds. It's just that it has a comparatively shitty lens and sensor, a simple insurmountable matter of physics. No small phone camera will ever be able to beat a proper camera. But they come disturbingly/excitingly close these days (i.e., you can actually take pictures for print), and for many situations that's all that matters.

Perhaps the JPEG quality or resolution defaults to low (the output is only 1.6 MB)

Resolution is set to 16:9 (16Mpix). The only alternative is 4:3 (13Mpix).

This is kind of odd because in Android apps the max res is 5984 x 339x (187:106, 20.3 MP).

There are no JPEG quality settings in the Sailfish photo app, nor an option for RAW.

A lack of settings can certainly be defended to some degree. Is there any point to being able to select 160 x 120? Or really almost any of the lower settings? Presumably those modes are there to save apps like Skype some processing power when they have to limit the resolution to something like 1280 x 720 for bandwidth reasons but they really have no place in photos. My SE T630 took pictures in 320x200 (or some such). I haven't the slightest desire to replicate that. Curious sidenote, my Zenfone 2 offers 2M as the lowest option, which is basically the smallest resolution that isn't completely hopeless.^[1]

By contrast, there's certainly something to be said for recording in 720p or perhaps even lower if you don't need higher quality video.

Anyway, conclusion being that regardless whether you use RAW, the results show that you require an Android photo app because the stock Sailfish one is worthless. Luckily Open Camera and FreeDCam are pretty decent, probably others as well.

The Linux (Ubuntu) phone Librem 5 is sold with "a compatible 30-inch monitor, keyboard, and mouse," implying that it is designed as a potential desktop replacement https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5-30-inch-kit/

If the monitor, keyboard, and mouse all work while the phone is charging at the same time, it surely serves its purpose. I have managed to connect my Galaxy Note 4 to external monitors with a connectivity adapter. When put in landscape mode, it fills up 16:9 space and is okay for watching videos or pic slideshows, and tolerable for a short typing session. The nags are that there is just one output resolution and that the keyboard at that time must use bluetooth. If Librem can output more resolutions and connect with all kinds of keyboards, it might be worth buying.

Samsung also has something called DeX these days, which sounds interesting. I don't buy Samsung anymore since pretty much anything Samsung I ever owned died prematurely in my eyes. (A TV, two monitors, several DVD player/writers…) My current Dell monitor is about to surpass the longevity of most previous monitors I've owned, fingers crossed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_DeX

Samsung also has something called DeX these days, which sounds interesting.

As much as I have looked into it, it is not interesting enough, because it does not properly resize all apps. Moreover, for some dumb reason dual-screen (a.k.a. split windows, a very well implemented feature already in Galaxy Note 4) view is not available (but manual resizing with mouse is). So it is not a solid window manager. As a result, there are only mixed benefits to it compared to simply landscaping the Android. 

I don't buy Samsung anymore since pretty much anything Samsung I ever owned died prematurely in my eyes. (A TV, two monitors, several DVD player/writers…)

I cannot quite corroborate that, but looks like you have bought more Samsung stuff altogether, so you know better.

It's also outdated though, perhaps they've improved.