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[–] 56 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Google’s recent decision to omit Pixel device trees and compress the Pixel kernel source history has made our work in this area even more important. Going forward, Fairphone devices can be used as potential β€œreference devices” for open-source ROMs.

Nice. Going to have to get a fairphone, now.

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  • [–] 20 points 11 months ago

    Nice. Wish them continued luck

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    I'm excited to see what people do with the Moments button, because at the moment I barely use it. It'd be great to find an imaginative use for it

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I'm using it for the phone torch. I'd love to try integrating it with home assistant to control my room lights.

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  • [+] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    I agree that USB 2.0 isn’t acceptable anymore, but it is what most phones are shipping, even at the highest end. I can see it being difficult for Fairphone to include faster ports, especially when most consumers don’t care too much about it. Are you using a phone with USB 3.0??

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  • [–] 17 points 11 months ago* (14 children)

    Does anyone know if Fairphone supports tap-to-pay options? I tried GrapheneOS and although most of it was fine, the inability to use Google wallet for tap to pay was a deal-breaker.

    My local credit Union doesn't have an app that supports NFC, and since I'm based in the US, my options are relatively limited.

    Oh, and I don't want to buy a smartwatch just so I can put Google wallet on that instead.

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  • [–] 43 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    Just use the card your bank gives you?

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  • [–] 26 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    For real. Trading convenience for security is how we got here though so I really shouldn't be surprised.

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  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Cards on smartphones are more secure than the real cards. You need a pin on your phone to pay, with a card you can pay up to 50€ without any approval.

    Also, should a transaction be intercepted, the pirate would only acquire a Digital Account Number (DAN), which can be invalidated to disable the virtual card on the phone. You can still use the physical card and you can add another virtual card on the same, or on a different device.

    If a payment made with your physical card is intercepted, the pirate gets the Primary Account Number (PAN) instead. It means that you must disable the real card as well as any virtual card relying on it, and requires you to await a replacement from your bank, and switch all your payments to this new card.

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

    Just because a higher level of security exists doesn't completely invalidate the lower levels.

    That, and the physical card your phone uses for funding tap-to-pay is still vulnerable to that same attack, and not everywhere supports tap, and tap only works if you have a functioning device. Not carrying a backup form of payment is asinine.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    "trading convenience for security" was what my comment responded to. Using your phone to pay is not compromising security in any way, quite the contrary actually, and I explained why.

    In France, everybody (barring most gas stations, even if I have seen some with tap-to-pay nowadays) can take tap-to-pay, even the remote mountain refuges I have been hiking to. You can even pay tolls and parking with it now.

    And somebody even more old-school than you would think you're a fool not taking cash or checks with you as a backup for your card. I've been paying with my phone for years without any problem, I just take my card when I need to refuel my car or traveling, and most of the time I have to check my card pin code anyway on my phone because I never use it.

    And if my phone is off for some reason, well I have my watch.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago

    You know fair enough on the counter point to my post. I didn't specify this initially but what I was actually thinking is how one would stick with stock android out of convenience (needing tap pay, banking apps, etc) instead of switching to graphene and such.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago

    Fairphone has variant with classic Android, which I have, so paying over NFC with Google wallet worked. I tried it, but do not use anymore by choice. Have you looked for alternatives? I heard about some, but since I do not use it, haven't searched for them.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    I bet Fairphone is the GrapheneOS partner

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    26 comments in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk view that post
    [–] 47 points 11 months ago (9 children)

    This is nice - I've been using Fairphones for a while: I started with a Fairphone 2 and used it for 7 years until the OS end-of-life, and now I'm on the Fairphone 5. Maybe with things being more open it can keep going for longer this time

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    Can you give more details about using it? What can you say about the picture quality? I have been eyeing it for quite some time now. At the moment I have a pixel 7 pro

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  • [–] 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

    Well, in normal operation, it's a very standard Android phone. The OS out of the box is vanilla android (although it's easy to put a custom ROM on if you want). The camera is fine but not spectacular - I still use a dedicated camera if I care about a picture, but it's fine for random snapshots. Basically, if it came in a white box that just said "phone" on it, it's what you'd expect to be inside, except for the fact you can take it apart and put it back together.

    After using the 5 for a couple of years, I don't really have any complaints other than it's a bit too easy to double-tap the power button. The battery life has held up, and I still don't feel the need to swap it out yet.

    On my FP2, I had to replace the screen. The way it happened was a good example for why repairable phones are good. It was broken but still usable, so I ordered the new screen, then swapped it out in a minute or so after it arrived; basically no downtime.

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  • [–] 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

    I switched from pixel (originally a nexus user, then most models up to 6) to FP6. After using google phones for well over a decade, I won't be going back. Anecdotally:

    • FP 6 camera is decidedly inferior to pixel 7 pro. Not just the image quality, but also the pre- and post- processing abilities you have in the pixel simply don't exist on the FP. Native camera app is fully functional but somewhat limited in options.
    • Every. Single. Google. App. can be uninstalled. Simply can't do that on the pixel. FP comes with a single lightweight manufacturer app that seems to provide only functionality / drivers.
    • machine learning on the FP is less capable that the pixel series. For illustration,the 'predictive apps' that you see on your pixel is just not available on the FP. In short, Pixel has a strong but invisible range of predictive outcomes that you (I) didn't recognise until I switched to vanilla android.
    • phone is a lot more location dependent. For illustration: I'm in North America and the October android patch forced my device into a boot cycle. Had to disable precise location as a short-term fix. Turns out that FP 6 isn't sold by FP in North America (Murena is a reseller, no shade) so it's a bit unsurprising that the patch isn't robust worldwide. However. The issue was raised in the FP forums, the manufacturer ACTUALLY CONTACTED AFFECTED USERS seeking logs, and a month later shipped the next patch which resolved the problem (I've had tickets open with google for 3 bloody years without resolution).

    To summarise my experience, I was unconsciously dependent on certain Pixel functionality, and the switch was a little shock. But I feel much more capable with this phone and I certainly feel more control.

    Good luck with the choice!

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago* (1 child)

    Do you worry about sourcing replacement parts since you're not in the companies "actual" market?

    That's the main thing holding me back. A repairable phone doesn't bring much if you can't get parts

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago*

    I have a spare device at home (an old nexus 5). If I ever render the FP 6 unusable, I can fall back to that while I wait for parts to be shipped from Europe.

    Ultimately the shipping cost and wait time is the only real hurdle to being outside Europe.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    With the Pixel, was that straight Android or something like Lineage?

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  • [–] 32 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    That's awesome. Does that also mean projects like UBPorts will have an easier time porting Ubuntu touch to the fp6?

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  • [–] 19 points 11 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 15 points 11 months ago

    From what we have seen, there are not a lot of brands currently who offer the necessary resources for smartphone users to develop and run their own custom Android builds on their devices. One is Sony, who lets you play with their Xperia devices. Another one, we are happy to report, is Fairphone.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    maybe iodΓ©OS can now implement the moment switch as well :)

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Tell me about its 3.5mm jack. From this canary I learn what's truly important to a company, customers or profits.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    Good maybe someone can now fix the half broken mess that is the Fairphone 5. After two Fairphones with buggy software, I am so done with them.

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    What's the problem with it? I'm using the FP5 with Calyx custom ROM (yes, I know ...) and I'm super happy with it.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Phone calls are broken on both the Fairphone 4 and 5. The Fairphone 4 has some issue where the microphone has really low gain so I had to almost scream and after the last update in April I just couldn't make or receive calls any longer. It worked once I rebooted but after a few hours it stopped again. The Fairphone 5 developed a similar issue after the upgrade to Android 15, phone calls just stop working after a while.

    Another ridiculous issue is that the background image of the Fairphone 5 keeps resetting to the default blue image.

    I switched to a Pixel with GrapheneOS instead. This has its own little issues but at least phone calls work reliably on my phone.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    Oh good. I really wanted moments but you can't buy a Fairphone with it in the US.

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago*

    Still waiting on a secure device from them that actually receives security updates.

    Also nice company yeeting the headphone jack to sell their shitty TWS earbuds. Such environmentalism, much wow...

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  • 6 comments in c/linuxphones@lemmy.ca view that post
    [–] 4 points 11 months ago (5 children)

    When can I buy one in Canada (without being forced to jump through some grey-market hoops)?

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    Recently got one via Clove from the UK https://www.clove.co.uk/

    I was pretty nervous getting it cause did not really know how it was gonna go, and they asked for a photo of my credit card (without the secrets of course) and proof of residence, which was a bit spooky, but it's their attempt (or so they say) at pushing back against potential scalpers.

    Do check Fairphone's community form about owning one this way though, cause there's been other Canadians who have gotten the phone, and they have tidbits to share about. We also don't get warranty cause we're outside the EU AFAIK.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    Just use something like ebay and you'll find enough offers.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    I'm not spending that much money with a shady ebay seller.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    Yeah, I just spent it with a non-shady seller. If that thing isn't fine, I'll return it. For up to 24 months in this country. Then I'll either get the money back, replacement or a repair. Law is there for a reason. No idea about the consumer protection law you can leverage, but I'm not worried about the offer I chose yesterday.

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