The Pixel 3A was released in 2019 by Google as a cheaper alternative to the Pixel 4, and is powered by a Snapdragon 670 processor coupled with 4GB RAM, an OLED display, and a 3000mAh battery. Being somewhat popular among the developer community, it was two years ago that this | Continue reading
As a software developer on the go, one of the very first use cases that I started investigating after installing Linux on my first tablet was that of using a portable device as a secondary display for another Linux machine. Ideally, this would happen wirelessly (or wired, if that … | Continue reading
Our in-depth review is all about Purism's latest ultraportable: How does the king of libre hardware compete with the premium laptop market? | Continue reading
In the last year, we have seen an unexpected revival of handheld computers (or PDAs) with hardware keyboard, all of which based on Linux: the PinePhone with its keyboard case, the GPD series of mini-laptops and several others which we covered here last month. For those wondering, … | Continue reading
Our long-time followers will know how much we love PDAs, be them Linux evergreens, radical RISC-V experiments or somewhat exoteric Android/Linux hybrids. Not one, but two new homebrew PDAs were presented in these last weeks, the former based on a RISC-V design, the latter on the … | Continue reading
Much to the suprise of many people, Imagination created a merge request for an open source PowerVR vulkan driver to Mesa. | Continue reading
A deeper look in the new Tow-Boot firmware project for ARM devices. | Continue reading
With the start of the new year, we can see a new trend delineating Linux software. Phosh with its newbord libadwaita, KDE's Kirigami and Maui Shell show that – like it or not – the era of convergent Linux applications has just started. After all, even laptop screens are not too … | Continue reading
You have most likely heard of Fairphone, who iFixit claim to be "the world's most repairable phone", and certainly lives up to it. But now, there's a new kid on the block, and they have a different approach. SHIFT are a very small phone manufacturer based in Germany, they produce | Continue reading
IntroductionOver the last years, we have seen many Linux-powered tablets, all of which developed with different approaches to "openness". For instance, the PineTab trades performance and a somewhat conservative design for a very low selling price and full Linux support, which mad … | Continue reading
To spread awareness of the Linux ecosystem, the very first "Live CDs" played a crucial role: by taking away most of the fear of overwriting their hard drives, they allowed more people to test and effectively use any spin of the Operating System, and by keeping the filesystem in R … | Continue reading
If choosing a graphical environment for traditional Linux computers is already confusing for some users, deciding one for Linux phones is twice as hard. Most mobile interfaces still lack the maturity and usability of their traditional counterparts, also because integrating all ki … | Continue reading
The Pocket P.C., short for Pocket Popcorn Computer, is a handheld created by the independent hardware manufacturer Popcorn Computer, and originally announced in the fall of 2019. This PDA comes with an integrated keyboard, and runs a pure Linux OS based on the Allwinner A64 platf … | Continue reading
The RISC-V ISA is commonly divided into two architectures, namely RV32 and RV64, covering 32-bit and 64-bit register sizes respectively. And although the RV64 standard is not yet fully RV32-compatible, the two are, except from some minor divergences, closely associated products o … | Continue reading
A closer look at the smartphone advice from the Free Software Foundation | Continue reading
There have been some recent waves in the Pine64 community thanks to a new mod which can drastically improve eMMC speed! | Continue reading
Let's imagine that today you visited several places in a heavily video-surveilled city, while wearing a mask. Nobody knew your name or your real identity, but everyone knew what you did, in all its details. Given the unusual period, not a medical mask, but more of a full, old-sch … | Continue reading
In spite of being, technically, based on the Linux kernel, Chromebooks were traditionally seen as very difficult devices for the free operating system, since proprietary drivers for even basic components like keyboards were often designed to discourage any kind of modification of … | Continue reading
Prolonging the lifecycle of electronic devices is the driving force of most projects that work on mobile Linux - one of which, in fact, is particularly famous for having a "10-year life" for its devices as its slogan - and the Linux kernel has proved to be the de facto | Continue reading
The market share of "pure Linux" phones is still so small, that we may define its target as a small niche of enthusiasts and highly privacy-oriented market. No consumer chain sells Linux phones on the larger market, yet exclusive, luxury phone markers are turning to Linux as an a … | Continue reading
While our short holiday interrupted us for some weeks, we have become used to Pine64 launching some of the boldest mobile Linux devices ever seen. Still when, in their August update, PINE64 announced a new device, we remained particularly surprised. The PineNote, defined as a "hy … | Continue reading
This is the second part of our JingPad A1 DVT review. For the first part, click here.After our first review of the JingPad A1 DVT (developer alpha prototype), we will focus on the usability of single apps and various categories, to see how easy it is to actually use | Continue reading
This is an interesting year for the mobile Linux world. There is a new trend of companies starting to target the consumer market with Linux devices, alongside the usual "hobbyist" niche, be it to escape the Googleverse, or just to try and establish alternative OS standards. That … | Continue reading
The OnePlus 6 and 6T are quickly becoming among the most popular Linux phones around, thanks to near-full, stable mainline Linux support, active community and fast-evolving features. The latest improvement to be deployed by its main maintainer, Caleb Connolly, is full support, in … | Continue reading
Attempts to run Linux distributions on e-readers like the Amazon Kindle and Rakuten Kobo series date to many years ago, when hackers initially discovered the surprising flexibility of these devices, which are usually based on mostly open hardware and lack the advanced bootloader … | Continue reading
One of the projects that we often followed on our Twitter throughout the last months was Jingling's upcoming tablet and desktop environment. The Chinese start-up initially appeared in January 2021, promising an openly iPadOS-like operating system and releasing a bootable ISO whic … | Continue reading
The MIPS silicon manufacturer is one of the oldest RISC chip manufacturers, used in several systems since the late 80s. Characterized by clean and efficient designs, allowing adaption in varied applications, this company has been considered one of the most innovative in the marke … | Continue reading
A week or so after the launch of the extremely ambitious FXTec Pro-1 Android/Linux phone, sporting a hardware QWERTY keyboard and the highest-end specifications seen on a Linux phone yet, "Bunnie Studios", pseudonym for Singapore hardware hacker and digital right activist Sutajio … | Continue reading
One of the main objectives of Linux is to give new life to older devices, and many projects are proving this by running (somewhat) modern UIs even on ancient smartphones like the Nokia N900. However, specifications increased very quickly in the subsequent years (2011-2013), bring … | Continue reading
Let us face it: six months ago, nobody would realistically have expected a proprietary Apple iOS device to become a Linux smartphone. However, as we have seen in the previous weeks, the seventh generation of Apple smartphones has seen successful efforts of reverse engineering by … | Continue reading
Some months after a failed Kickstarter campaign with an ambitious €350k goal, German startup Volla has managed to raise more than €20k in a new campaign (still open for the next few hours) for their first Volla Phone. Volla Phone in German woods.This new smartphone aims at severa … | Continue reading
Mobile-oriented Linux UIs and window managers are still rare, and a fair share of them happens to be based on old technologies or look understaffed, or even abandoned. However, we might soon have a new contender in this niche: the primarily tablet and Raspberry Pi-oriented CutieP … | Continue reading
With the delivery of the first, developer-oriented Librem 5 and PinePhone prototypes to the bravest backers, we can now officially state that modern Linux smartphones are a thing. But, as we know, a smartphone without proper apps is basically a wide-screen dumb-phone, and a Linux … | Continue reading
Let's start off with mentioning that both these new phones are great steps forward for Linux. While they will probably not beat Android and iOS in popularity, they will at least give Linux power users a device that can be called a Linux phone instead of the usual "technically it' … | Continue reading
Since the first iPhone in 2007, the whole mobile industry has moved to the"smartphone" form factor: minimal hardware keys, touch screen navigation,desktop-like Internet capabilities. However, while the revolution was more thanwelcome for most aspects, things like battery life and … | Continue reading