Pyra Phone

[Hồng Thất Công]

I hate rooting/jail breaking my phone and my relatives' phone because once the new firmware is out, you have to redo it.  What a hassle.

The Pandora is the ultimate open-source handheld UMPC and so will its successor, the Pyra, be.

Now I want to have an open-source phone so I don't  have to root/reroot.  I know the Pyra will not have phone capability, but will Pyra team be interested in creating an open-source phone after the Pyra?  So I can have a PYRA UMPC and Pyraphone

 

[WizardStan]

Who said the Pyra absolutely won't have phone capability? ED said he's interested, and the components are already available modularized so you can choose the radio suitable for your region or simply opt out entirely and save $100 on the cost, all* he would have to do is run the appropriate lines from the OMAP5 to the appropriate connector.

(*)actually not a simple task, involving sacrifice and some work making things fit where they need to, but within the realm of possibility.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

OOh!  Then that's even better than a separate open-source Pyra phone

 

[MarTinazzI]

http://neo900.org/

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

http://neo900.org/

Very nice.  I'm sure will grab one when it's released.

 

[rohezal]

Allready avaible same hardware as the pandora: http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GTA04

 

[comradekingu]

GTA04 is not the same hardware wise as NEO900, the latter is the one you want

 

[N3Cr0]

Maybe not as interesting as the Neo900, but there is another open solution:

http://jolla.com/

 

[ekianjo]

Who said the Pyra absolutely won't have phone capability? ED said he's interested, and the components are already available modularized so you can choose the radio suitable for your region or simply opt out entirely and save $100 on the cost, all* he would have to do is run the appropriate lines from the OMAP5 to the appropriate connector.

and what software will you use for the phone part then ? As far as I know there's nothing available on Linux. So it would have to be Android.

And you can say goodbye about privacy if you integrate a phone capability, since phone modules run their own secret OS in the background, and who knows what they do.

but will Pyra team be interested in creating an open-source phone after the Pyra?

Creating one device is complicated enough, let's not ask for tons of variants. Plus, the day you have a phone module in the Pyra, the machine will become subject to a truckload of GSM regulations and standards it has to comply to. In other words, exporting it is going to be very difficult.

 

[WizardStan]

And you can say goodbye about privacy if you integrate a phone capability, since phone modules run their own secret OS in the background, and who knows what they do.

First, some people are ok with that. If you're seriously that paranoid just don't get it. Modular means optional. Hundreds of millions (possibly billions?) of people around the world already own a cell phone, so for us whatever privacy concerns you might have are already present: if our phone is spying on us then it's spying on us, and another device which may or may not be spying on us in the same way is of little concern.Second... wut? These modules have no microphone or speaker of their own, they depend entirely on the connected device to handle sound. If the Pyra isn't actively sending audio data then there isn't any way for them to broadcast audio data. If position data is a concern, GPS uses a lot of power and since the Pyra would be in full control of the power going to the module these signature power spikes would be very obvious, there'd be no way to hide the fact that the cell module has turned on its GPS without your permission. So the only information anyone could secretly gather is cell based location. This is unlike existing mobile phones where the system does not have to actively provide audio data, and cannot monitor power spikes; if you already own a cell phone, there is a significantly higher possibility of your privacy being secretly compromised than there would be if you were using a theoretical cell module in a Pyra.

And finally, if privacy is really a concern but you still need a cell phone, and you're so very paranoid about privacy that you have it turned completely off when not in use and only activate it when you absolutely have to, unlike current cell phones where you can tell them to put it into airplane mode but you aren't really sure if it's really killed all power to the radios or if they can't reactivate themselves somehow secretly, the Pyra will be in full control of the power supply so you should feel secure knowing that cutting the power really means the power has been cut, completely severed, no chance of a "secret OS" being used to spy on you.

 

[comradekingu]

I would say modems having control of SoC is an argument to get the NEO900, rather than doing away with gsm phones alltogether. Its modem sends just serial data in the clear as any other device, no shared memory.

The broadest accusation you could make against phones is that its possible to locate you if you have your phone turned on and the modem up. Its may be possible to spoof this somewhat using a directional antenna and targeting a different antenna, but at that point its easier to just use someones wifi for communication.

 

[ekianjo]

GPS uses a lot of power

Ever heard of signal triangulation for positionning ? You don't need GPS for that at all.

 

[Granitehead]

GPS uses a lot of power

 Ever heard of signal triangulation for positionning ? You don't need GPS for that at all.

Did you actually read on after your quote?

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

but will Pyra team be interested in creating an open-source phone after the Pyra?

Creating one device is complicated enough, let's not ask for tons of variants. Plus, the day you have a phone module in the Pyra, the machine will become subject to a truckload of GSM regulations and standards it has to comply to. In other words, exporting it is going to be very difficult.

My original post was to create a separate phone after the Pyra and not integrate phone capability into the Pyra.  So the Pyra is a separate device from the phone.

 

[ekianjo]

The regulation issues will still apply even iits a separate machine so im not sure what is your point.

 

[ekianjo]

GPS uses a lot of power

 Ever heard of signal triangulation for positionning ? You don't need GPS for that at all.

Did you actually read on after your quote?

Yeah, so what? If your phone module is on, which is why you want to have a phone module in the first place, of course it will leak info on your location.

 

[WizardStan]

So instead of having a single device which is potentially giving off a small amount of information but is otherwise completely under your control, you would opt to have two devices, one of which you have no control over and could be transmitting an unknown amount of information?

 

[ekianjo]

So instead of having a single device which is potentially giving off a small amount of information but is otherwise completely under your control, you would opt to have two devices, one of which you have no control over and could be transmitting an unknown amount of information?

Im not saying that, but where is the phone software we need on linux?

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Super Zaxxon MiniMenu

 

[b_o_b]

and what software will you use for the phone part then ? As far as I know there's nothing available on Linux. So it would have to be Android.

And you can say goodbye about privacy if you integrate a phone capability, since phone modules run their own secret OS in the background, and who knows what they do.

For the OpenMoko phone there are quite a few Linux distros available e.g. http://qtmoko.sourceforge.net/screenshots/

Also available is the Replicant OS that is Android without the closed source parts.

Not sure about binary blobs due to closed source drivers though.