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 […]
Tag: pinephone
Lilbits: Chromebook explosion, Huawei’s respite, and PinePhone KDE Community Edition
The global pandemic has been hard on everyone… except maybe for PC makers. With more people working and schooling from home, a lot of people have been looking for laptops, tablets, and other devices capable of handling your daily Zoom quota. That’s been enough to reverse a trend in recent years that’s seen PC shipments […]
Lilbits: Internet at the speed of light
Delivering high-speed internet usually requires running cables across long distances. But that can get tricky when you’re trying to bring connectivity to a place where there isn’t already a lot of infrastructure for it… so recently we’ve seen solutions ranging from satellites to balloons. Now Google’s parent company Alphabet is partnering with internet service providers […]
Lilbits: Would you pay $4,000 for this phone?
Smartphone prices have crept up over the past few years, so it’s not unusual to see phones that sell for $1,000 and up. Some models with features like foldable displays may even cost twice as much. But you usually get some pretty stellar features for phones in that price range. And then there’s the luxury […]
Lilbits: Open mobile hardware, Surface Pro 8 leak, and Apple’s ARM-based Macs
In September hardware hacker bunnie Huang unveiled a new open mobile hardware device called Precursor. Now it’s up for pre-order through a crowdfunding campaign at Crowd Supply. The early bird $450 rewards are sold out, but you can reserve one for a pledge of $512 or more and if everything goes according to plan, a […]
Lilbits: LG’s rollable phone, Apple One, and PinePhone updates
LG’s on a roll with weird phones. Last month the company introduced the LG Wing dual-screen smartphone with a swivel that lets you arrange the screens in a T-shape. And at the end of the presentation the company teased its next weird phone – one with a rollable display that would allow you to literally stretch […]
Lilbits: AMD gets serious about gaming, Microsoft is giving Windows 10 a makeover
Microsoft has taken to pushing out two major Windows 10 releases a year… but major may be in the eye of the beholder, because the last few updates have mostly brought a bunch of small changes to the operating system. That could change next year – according to a report from Windows Central, Microsoft is […]
Lilbits: Cloud gaming, Windows 10X and using your phone as a desktop PC
Facebook is the latest company to get into the cloud gaming business… although the company’s offering is a little underwhelming when compared with Google’s Stadia, NVIDIA’s GeForce Now, or Microsoft’s xCloud/Game Pass Ultimae. So far you can stream free-to-play mobile games like Asphalt 9 or PGA Tour Golf Shootout without downloading them, but you won’t get […]
Lilbits: Google Hangouts, Pocket P.C., and Pine64’s modular Linux phone
About a year after introducing a concept for a handheld Linux computer priced at $199, Popcorn Computer is getting closer to actually being able to deliver that little PC to customers. It’s up for pre-order for $199 and according to the latest progress update, production is on track to begin next month and if everything […]
Lilbits: iPhone 12, Windows 10, and Google Workspace
Apple usually introduces new iPhones in September, but this year the company used its September event to unveil an 8th-gen iPad and a 4th-gen iPad Air (which is the first device to ship with an Apple A14 Bionic processor). But there was no iPhone in sight. It looks like we don’t have long to wait […]
Lilbits: DSL conundrum, Pixel 2 EOL, and a $6K Android camera
My first broadband internet connection was DSL. After years of dialup, the ability to surf the web with speeds measured in MB rather than KB per second felt like living in the future. But these days DSL is aging technology that’s been largely left behind by the proliferation of cable, fiber, and cellular technologies that […]
Lilbits: PinePhone unboxing, Purism launches an MVNO, and more Pixel and Chromecast details
The 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 […]