Purism, a company best known for selling laptops that run free and open source, Linux-based software, is now shipping its first smartphone. The Purism Librem 5 phone has been under development for several years, and it’s still a bit of a work in progress. The first set of phones to ship are part of the […]
First batch of Purism Librem 5 Linux smartphones ships in late September
The Purism Librem 5 is a smartphone designed to run free and open source, Linux-based software and offer privacy and security features including hardware kill switches for disabling the wireless components, camera, and microphone. It’s been under development for several years, and it’s finally set to begin shipping soon. Purism has been promising to deliver […]
Purism finalizes specs for the Librem 5 Linux smartphone (shipping in Q3, 2019)
Linux laptop company Purism is getting ready to ship its first Linux smartphone. The Purism Librem 5 was first announced in mid-2017, raised over $1.5 million through a crowdfunding campaign a few months later, and has been under development ever since. But some details have been in flux. Now that Purism says the phone is […]
Purism’s upcoming Librem 5 Linux phone inches closer to being able to do what phones do
The upcoming Librem 5 smartphone doesn’t have the fastest processor, the most RAM, the highest-res display, the most cameras, or any of the other superlatives that phone makers are using to one-up each other these days. But what it does have going for it is an emphasis on privacy, security, and open source software. Purism […]
Purism’s Librem 5 smartphone’s Lockdown Mode will shut off all sensors
Purim’s upcoming Librem 5 smartphone has two key selling points. First, it will ship with free and open source GNU/Linux software featuring as little proprietary code as possible. And second, it features three hardware hardware kill switches that can disconnect: The mic and cameras WiFi and Bluetooth Cellular baseband In other words, it’s a phone […]
Purism Librem 5 Linux phone release date pushed back to Q3, 2019
There are a couple of efforts underway to develop smartphones that run GNU/Linux software. But Purism’s Librem 5 might be the most ambitious. It’s been under development for a few years, the company raised more than $1.5 million for the project during a crowdfunding campaign in 2017, and Purism started sending out development kits a […]
Lilbits 347: Xposed Framework for Android Pie (unofficial)
While I was kind of excited this week to see that it’s possible to unlock the bootloader and root the latest Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet, that’s because the Fire tablet lineup is unusual: they’re dirt cheap, Android-based tablets that run a highly customized version of Android that’s not to everyone’s tastes. Hacking them to […]
Dev kits for Purism’s Librem 5 Linux smartphone are now shipping
Purism hopes to ship its first smartphone in the first half of 2019 which wouldn’t be all that unusual if Purism weren’t a rather unusual company. Actually company’s not even the right word — Purism is a “social purpose corporation” that prioritizes software and hardware freedom, privacy, and security over profit. All of the laptops […]
Lilbits 344: Winter… I mean Black Friday is coming
Singles Day has come and gone (although some sales live on). But Black Friday is just under two weeks away. Best Buy, Walmart, HP, and Samsung have revealed some of their sale prices over the past few days, and I’m continually updating Liliputing’s Black Friday mobile tech deals page with the latest bargains. There are […]
Purism’s Librem 5 Linux smartphone to ship in April, 2019
Purism has been building and selling computers with free and open source GNU/Linux software for the past few years, and last year the corporation announced plans to build its first smartphone. When Purism launched a crowdfunding campaign for the upcoming Librem 5 smartphone, the goal was to ship the phone in January, 2019. Now Purism […]
Lilbits 331: Non-IFA news edition
The IFA show in Berlin technically begins on Thursday, but Intel, Acer, and Dell have already kicked things off with a series of announcements related to new processors and a whole bunch of new laptops. But not all the news this week is coming out of IFA. The Information reports that Amazon is getting ready […]
Purism wants to create a GNOME mobile shell for Linux smartphones (and other Librem 5 phone update)
Linux computer maker Purism hopes to ship their smartphone in January, and the corporation has been providing updates about development of the upcoming Librem 5 smartphone periodically since launching a crowdfunding campaign last September (that campaign eventually raised more than $1.5 million through pre-orders). We know that the phone will feature an NXP i.MX8 processor, that it […]
Librem 5 Linux smartphone will support Ubuntu Touch, PureOS, or PureOS with KDE Plasma Mobile
After raising more than $2 million last year to build a Linux-powered smartphone with a focus on privacy and open source software, Purism hopes to deliver the first Librem 5 smartphones early next year. The phone is expected to ship with an NXP i.MX8M 64-bit, ARM Cortex-A53 processor, feature 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a […]
Librem 5 smartphone hits its $1.5 million crowfunding goal
This summer the folks at Purism announced they wanted to raise $1.5 million to create a smartphone that runs free and open source GNU/Linux software and includes hardware kill switches to give users more control over their privacy and security settings. The Librem 5 crowdfunding campaign got off to a slow start and looked like […]