Linux phones are still behind android and iPhone, but the gap shrank a surprising amount while I wasn’t looking. These are damn near usable day to day phones now! But there are still a few things that need done and I was wondering what everyone’s thoughts on these were:
1 - tap to pay. I don’t see how this can practically be done. Like, at all.
2 - android auto/apple CarPlay emulation. A Linux phones could theoretically emulate one of these protocols and display a separate session on the head unit of a car. But I dont see any kind of project out there that already does this in an open-source kind of way. The closest I can find are some shady dongles on amazon that give wireless CarPlay to head units that normally require USB cables. It can be done, but I don't see it being done in our community.
3 - voice assistants. wether done on device or phoning into our home servers and having requests processed there, this should be doable and integrated with convenient shortcuts. Home assistant has some things like this, and there’s good-old Mycroft blowing around out there still. Siri is used every day by plenty of people and she sucks. If that’s the benchmark I think our community can easily meet that.
I started looking at Linux phones again because I loathe what apple is doing to this UI now and android has some interesting foldables but now that google is forcing Gemini into everything and you can’t turn it off, killing third party ROMS, and getting somehow even MORE invasive, that whole ecosystem seems like it’s about to march right off a cliff so its not an option anymore for me.
Ive heard hood things about the FLX1 but I havent tried it myself.
Im very tempted.
Likewise, I think I'm just about to buy one for myself. I've never used tap-to-pay with my phone, nor a voice assistant, and I don't really want to. My phone is a web browser that can send text messages, make phone calls, and take pictures. My phone carrier is VoLTE-only for calls, and the FLX1 says that it has VoLTE now. I also need to use one specific Android app for work, but the FLX1 has some type of Android emulation which hopefully will make that usable.
The FLX1 is also the only one that claims to have a working camera. I'm not sure how good the pictures look, but every other Linux phone always just says "partial support" for the camera on the PostmarketOS wiki. The FLX1, with the stock OS, should take adequate pictures from what I understand.
Good reviews. Unfortunately the device is 18x10x4mm larger than my already gigantic Pixel 9
I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't 1 April... seriously, it's called the ~~furry phone~~ furiphone?...
Ha, if that's your first association, I think that might say more about you than about the phone :P
(Which is not a bad thing.)
Wouldn't it be pronounced like fury not furry?
yeah they even specify that in the FAQ section
It's a Linux phone. That's going to turn away exactly zero people, and turn on at least a few...