When wireless carriers began rolling out 5G networks they promised faster speeds, reduced congestion, and lower latency. The idea was to build on 4G and enable billions of internet connected devices including phones, computers, cars, and appliances to get online and talk to one another. But so far it’s honestly pretty hard to see much […]
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6 Comments on Lilbits: Psion 5MX meets a Raspberry Pi Zero, EU court overturns Qualcomm’s €1 billion antitrust fine
Lilbits: Psion 5MX meets a Raspberry Pi Zero, EU court overturns Qualcomm’s €1 billion antitrust fine
6 Comments on Lilbits: Psion 5MX meets a Raspberry Pi Zero, EU court overturns Qualcomm’s €1 billion antitrust fineThe Psion Series 5 line of PDAs released in the late 90s looked like tiny laptop computers, complete with QWERTY keyboards laid out in a way that even let you touch-type on a device small enough to fold in half and put in your pocket. While they never really became as popular as the smartphones, […]
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News roundup: Updates for JingOS and Phosh, notes on PinePhone keyboard hacking
Developers at Purism have released a new version of the Phosh user interface for Linux phones, bringing bug fixes, usability improvements, and several other changes to this phone shell used by multiple smartphone Linux distributions including some versions of postmarketOS (which recently celebrated its fourth birthday, by the way). Meanwhile, the folks at Jingling have […]
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Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon modem M.2 card reference designs could bring 5G to more devices
Comments Off on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon modem M.2 card reference designs could bring 5G to more devicesMost modern flagship smartphones and many upper mid-range models are now shipping with support for 5G networks. But Qualcomm wants to make it easier for device makers to bring 5G support to laptops, desktops, virtual reality hardware, professional equipment, and other products. So the chip maker is launching a pair of M.2 card reference designs […]
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Lilbits: Remembering the Eee PC, meeting the Fitbit Luxe, and saying goodbye to FTP in Firefox
23 Comments on Lilbits: Remembering the Eee PC, meeting the Fitbit Luxe, and saying goodbye to FTP in FirefoxThe year was 2007. Asus had already released the first Eee PC mini-laptop with a 7 inch display and a custom Linux distribution in Taiwan, and now it was available for purchase in the United States. Living in New York City at the time, I was able to run down to the (now defunct) J&R […]
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Open source PinePhone modem firmware now supports audio, GPS, and power management
Most modern smartphones actually run two different operating systems – there’s the one you interact with directly and there’s the firmware running on the modem system-on-a-chip, which is basically like its own little computer. So even a phone like the PinePhone that’s designed to run free and open source (usually Linux-based) operating systems might ship […]
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Future PinePhones will ship with Manjaro and Plasma Mobile (and other updates on the keyboard, modem firmware, and more)
1 Comment on Future PinePhones will ship with Manjaro and Plasma Mobile (and other updates on the keyboard, modem firmware, and more)After shipping five different PinePhone Community Edition models, each with a different operating system and/or user interface pre-installed, Pine64 ended the Community Edition program this month. So what’s next? A few things: Pine64 has announced that future PinePhones will ship with Manjaro Linux and the KDE Plasma Mobile user interface pre-installed. If you already have […]
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Qualcomm Snapdragon X65 is the first 10 Gigabit 5G modem (burn through data caps in seconds)
Comments Off on Qualcomm Snapdragon X65 is the first 10 Gigabit 5G modem (burn through data caps in seconds)Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X65 5G modem is the first modem that promises to deliver 10 Gigabit speeds over 5G networks. With theoretical top speed of 10 Gigabits Per Second (Gbps) or 1.25 Gigabytes per second (GB/s), you could download the equivalent of an hour of Netflix HD video every second. Of course, real-world speeds will likely be […]
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Hackers develop open source firmware for the PinePhone modem, use it to make phone calls
Comments Off on Hackers develop open source firmware for the PinePhone modem, use it to make phone callsThe PinePhone is an inexpensive smartphone designed to run free and open source operating systems like Manjaro, postmarketOS, Mobian, or Ubuntu Touch. But the phone isn’t 100-percent open hardware: its modem ships relies on proprietary, closed-source firmware. A team of independent developers are working to provide an alternative – and it looks like they’re getting […]
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Linux phone news roundup (1-06-2020)
The next community edition of the PinePhone is set to ship soon. The PinePhone KDE Community Edition has been up for pre-order since last month, and it will begin shipping in mid-January with Manjaro Linux and the KDE Neon user interface pre-installed. While the PinePhone is designed to run free and open source operating systems […]