@xekuta747 said in "Desktop" should be background-picture + Icons:

frame

Barring further explanation, I think that's exactly the design goal: to reserve the lower-right ~90% of the screen for pet pictures.

@josele13 Hey, thanks for bumping this thread -- I'd missed it the first time around last fall.

Big thanks for Ruben for the boot logos! I feel so much cleaner when I boot my OPO now.

@applee @Kunai Kodi is available for SFOS, and source is available so porting it to Ubuntu Touch should at least be a possibility.

https://openrepos.net/content/krnlyng/kodi

It's nice, and it supported media formats that the default media player couldn't, as well as being SMB friendly so I could browse my home media collection in bed without waking up the kids by watching a movie in the living room on the repurposed PC kodi box/TV/stereo system. For my use case, a raspberry pi isn't really a good fit.

@totalsonic Looks like I've got about 12 days left before SFOS and Ubuntu Touch stop working for voice calling due to 3G phaseout by my US MVNO. Last Spring I was hoping one project would have beat the deadline, but that's not gonna happen. Really don't want to use Android.

@moem

The OPO can use LTE for data, but without VOLTE support in UBPorts, voice calls will still be carried on 2G or 3G (when and where these services still exist).

If you're using the OPO with UBPorts somewhere/sometime that 3G and 4G are coexisting, you can watch it happen: Pull up a web page using mobile data, and you'll see the "L" icon in the status bar on the top. Now, place a voice call and see the "L" replaced with "3G". This is the device falling back to 3G since there's no OS support for VOLTE. End the call and "L" comes back.

T-mobile's announcement of 2G and 3G sunset for their US networks says the T-Mo 3G service ends July 1 2022, and this is the one we care about for the OPO. On that date -- unless you're somewhere T-Mo is still supporting 2G for legacy hardware -- you won't be able to make calls. But depending on where you are, you may get cut off sooner since Big Pink is decommissioning 3G stations as we type and you'll be out of luck . . .

This has already happened to me with an AT&T reseller. 3G service on that network ended Feb 22, but had been degrading before that date. OPO now sits in a drawer unless I need to play Tux Racer.

BTW, UBPorts (and other alternative OSs like Sailfish) will work -- kinda -- for VOLTE-only networks on the Pinephone since that device has VOLTE implemented in hardware in the modem.

@totalrando HD calling is indeed a marketing thing, as you say. And like you, I find the voice performance on the OPO to be completely satisfactory. It's a perfectly acceptable daily driver, other than MMS annoyances like iPhone people sending pics in weird apple-only formats -- what's with that?

But, try this interesting experiment: Look at the notification tray at the top of the screen while your device is unlocked and idle. You probably see the "L" since you're on 4G/LTE and in a good coverage area. (And if not, try it when you are . . .) Now, make a voice call and watch the network indicator while call is in progress and then immediately after hanging up. (I just call voicemail, but humans are acceptable, too for this test.)

@totalrando And when you say "optimized," it's optimized for the carrier to be more bandwidth efficient to save them money, at the expense of not being channel agnostic like plain ordinary VOIP (packet-switched voice) would be. So the phone's h/w and s/w has got to dive deeper in the ISO stack for benefit of the phone company, and to the detriment of smaller players like, well, every phone OS other than the Big 2.

It might be a good time for everyone facing a 3G phase-out to consider a plan B, e.g. a VOIP service that provides a local phone number.

@moem

My monkeys are on strike due to 3G sunset . . .

@mongoose
The OnePlus One has the hardware for 4G, but UBPorts doesn't have VOLTE support in the OS, so voice calls will not be carried on 4G (LTE). Perhaps it'd still work with the stock firmware, updated as much as possible, of course, but I'd feel too dirty if I tried that.

@moem

The OPO can use LTE for data, but without VOLTE support in UBPorts, voice calls will still be carried on 2G or 3G (when and where these services still exist).

If you're using the OPO with UBPorts somewhere/sometime that 3G and 4G are coexisting, you can watch it happen: Pull up a web page using mobile data, and you'll see the "L" icon in the status bar on the top. Now, place a voice call and see the "L" replaced with "3G". This is the device falling back to 3G since there's no OS support for VOLTE. End the call and "L" comes back.

T-mobile's announcement of 2G and 3G sunset for their US networks says the T-Mo 3G service ends July 1 2022, and this is the one we care about for the OPO. On that date -- unless you're somewhere T-Mo is still supporting 2G for legacy hardware -- you won't be able to make calls. But depending on where you are, you may get cut off sooner since Big Pink is decommissioning 3G stations as we type and you'll be out of luck . . .

This has already happened to me with an AT&T reseller. 3G service on that network ended Feb 22, but had been degrading before that date. OPO now sits in a drawer unless I need to play Tux Racer.

BTW, UBPorts (and other alternative OSs like Sailfish) will work -- kinda -- for VOLTE-only networks on the Pinephone since that device has VOLTE implemented in hardware in the modem.

@totalsonic Looks like I've got about 12 days left before SFOS and Ubuntu Touch stop working for voice calling due to 3G phaseout by my US MVNO. Last Spring I was hoping one project would have beat the deadline, but that's not gonna happen. Really don't want to use Android.

@xekuta747 said in "Desktop" should be background-picture + Icons:

frame

Barring further explanation, I think that's exactly the design goal: to reserve the lower-right ~90% of the screen for pet pictures.

@applee @Kunai Kodi is available for SFOS, and source is available so porting it to Ubuntu Touch should at least be a possibility.

https://openrepos.net/content/krnlyng/kodi

It's nice, and it supported media formats that the default media player couldn't, as well as being SMB friendly so I could browse my home media collection in bed without waking up the kids by watching a movie in the living room on the repurposed PC kodi box/TV/stereo system. For my use case, a raspberry pi isn't really a good fit.

@josele13 Hey, thanks for bumping this thread -- I'd missed it the first time around last fall.

Big thanks for Ruben for the boot logos! I feel so much cleaner when I boot my OPO now.

@rogue_ronin said in Thinking to buy an F8132, can it daily drive?:

@robthebold said in Thinking to buy an F8132, can it daily drive?:
One thought is just to give up phone calls altogether and move to ip calling or whatever the term is. I really only talk to maybe 10 people, I can set up amazing peer-to-peer calls using vdo.ninja, or whatever I want to do that involves speech, including simple voice connections up to 256Kbps. Maybe something like Matrix?

I'd like to, but unfortunately for me, that just won't work. I don't have that many people I talk to regularly either, but they're my wife and sister, my elderly Mom and Aunt, my doctor, my dog's vet and veterinary dermatologist, the two pharmacies that handle prescriptions for the above people and animals, the school district that occasionally needs to tell me my kids are sick or need lunch money, the various parents of the kids' friends, and a few neighbors that warn me when travelling salesmen are headed my way. I can only think of zero of those that I could convince to contact me on a VOIP service. Not even my wife.

If 3G goes away without a voice alternative on one of my favorite non-iPhone and non-Android OSs, it's flip phone or back to the land line for me. A sad way to end the smartphone era.

@totalrando It's fine, and it works great, but only until the local carrier drops 3G completely (HSPA is a 3G upgrade to extend its lifespan). Although it's gotten pushed back a few times here, now it looks like sometime early in 2022 3G will disappear and I'll be SOL on UBPorts, SFOS, or any other small player that doesn't have VoLTE working. YMMV with your carrier's timeline, of course, but it's a question of when, not whether.

So data will still work on our "alternative" phone OSs, but not normal voice calling. This is what's got me nervous and unhappy.

@mario-ch I got myself mixed up with program names earlier: I meant to type that the official "Emma" tool is the cranky one sometimes about unlocked bootloaders and finding the right firmware. The free apps XperiFirm and newflasher are sometimes needed for reverting a Sony device successfully to stock. With an XA2 Ultra, I never got Emma to work, and had to use the combo I mentioned to do that revert step from the zendesk page.