Apple may make the highest performance smartphone chips, but they’re only used in Apple’s phones, tablets, and PCs which means they have a limited market share. Meanwhile rivals including Qualcomm and MediaTek (and to some degree Samsung) sell their chips to multiple phone makers, which has helped them ship a lot of processors. With a product […]
Tag: librem 5
Lilbits: ARM computers, Linux phones, and the Pixel 2 rides off into the sunset
After rocking a Google Pixel 2 as my primary smartphone for the past three years, I took advantage of a Google Fi Black Friday promotion and traded in my phone for a brand new Pixel 4a 5G for $298 after trade-in. There were two reasons I decided the time was right to upgrade. First, my […]
Lilbits: Single board PCs, under-display cameras, and YouTube angers… everyone
It’s been a few years since Asus launched its first Raspberry Pi-like single-board computer aimed at makers, and the Asus Tinker Board platform hasn’t exactly exploded since then. But the company has made a few updates to the series over the years, with a Tinker Board S, Tinker Board R and Tinker Edge T, and […]
Lilbits: Porting apps to ARM
The list of companies jumping on the Apple Silicon bandwagon is growing. Google just released a version of Chrome for Apple’s new computers with M1 processors, and Mozilla is developing a version of Firefox that will support the new chips as well. Meanwhile, Adobe’s recent move to release a beta version of Photoshop for both […]
Lilbits: Smartphones that respect your privacy
Google’s Android is the world’s most popular smartphone operating system, partly because Google makes it available for free to phone makers. The company can afford to do that because Google makes most of its money from advertising — and the more people who are using apps and services including Chrome, Google Search, Google Maps, and […]
Lilbits: Xiaomi’s telescopic smartphone camera, Purism’s Linux phone that’s also a PC
In order to keep smartphones thin while still offering versatile camera features, smartphone makers have largely taken the same approach in recent years – instead of using cameras with lots of moving parts, throw a bunch of different stationary cameras on a phone. That way you can have different focal lengths to mimic the kind […]
Lilbits: Deeper dives into Intel’s discrete GPU, Raspberry Pi’s PC-in-a-keyboard
Over the weekend Intel officially introduced its new discrete graphics solution for laptops. The first notebook with an Intel Iris Xe MAX GPU is now available for purchase, and at least two more are on the way in the coming months. But the GPU is based on the same Intel Iris Xe technology Intel uses […]
Lilbits: PinePhone unboxing, Purism launches an MVNO, and more Pixel and Chromecast details
11 Comments on Lilbits: PinePhone unboxing, Purism launches an MVNO, and more Pixel and Chromecast detailsThe PinePhone is one of the first smartphones designed specifically for open source software enthusiasts. It’s an affordable phone with a starting price of $150 that ships with a GNU/Linux distribution pre-installed, but which can also boot from a microSD card if you want to try a different operating system (or 13) before deciding whether […]
Lilbits: Android apps on Linux phones, Android-like features on iPhones
Ready or not, iOS 14 is here. Some developers are annoyed that Apple only gave them a 1-day heads up that the update would begin rolling out, so it’s possible that some apps might not fully support all the new features yet. But iPhone users can now take advantage of picture-in-picture video, more compact notifications, […]
Lilbits: Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 leaks, Intel’s reorg, and Apple’s $129 Thunderbolt 3 cable
1 Comment on Lilbits: Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 leaks, Intel’s reorg, and Apple’s $129 Thunderbolt 3 cableSamsung is holding an event on August 5th, where the company is expected to officially introduce the Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Z Fold 2, and several other products including new earbuds, a new smartwatch, and two new tablets. But thanks to a series of leaks, it’s not like we don’t already know most of the […]
Lilbits: Computing convergence, another streaming platform, and DDR5
It’s been 7 years since Canonical failed to raise meet its crowdfunding goals for the Ubuntu Edge smartphone that was supposed to be a phone you could also use as a desktop computer thanks to “convergence,” which is a fancy way of saying you could plug in a keyboard, mouse, and display and use it like […]
Lilbits 7-10-2020: More OneGx1 mini laptop performance notes
It’s been nearly two weeks since I published a preview of the upcoming One Netbook OneGx1 mini laptop with the design of a gaming PC and optional support for 4G and/or 5G networks. But I’ve continued running tests since that article was published, and so now I’ve upgraded the article from “preview” to “review” status. […]