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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on Fairphone (Gen. 6) is a sustainable, repairable 6.31-inch Android 15 smartphone with Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 SoC

Fairphone (Gen. 6) is a sustainable, repairable 6.31-inch Android 15 smartphone with Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 SoC

Fairphone gen 6

The Fairphone (Gen. 6) is a 6.31-inch Android 15 smartphone powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 SoC designed to be sustainable and repairable with eight years of software updates, a 5-year warranty, a modular design, and the use of recycled materials. The Fairphone (Gen. 6) – not sure why it was not just called Fairphone 6 – offers mid-range features with an octa-core processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB UFS and microSD card storage, a 6.31-inch touch screen display,  two rear cameras, a front-facing camera, 5G, WiFi 6, and Bluetooth 5.4 LE connectivity, as well as support for NFC for payment, and a USB-C port for charging and expansion. Fairphone (Gen.6) specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 Mobile Platform CPU – Octa-core Kryo CPU with 1x Prime core @ 2.5 GHz, 3x Performance cores @ 2.4 GHz, 4x Efficient cores @ up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Adreno […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Citronics built a router based on the Fairphone 2 mainboard

Citronics built a router based on the Fairphone 2 mainboard

Destore Citronics Fairphone 2 industrial gateway

Belgium-company Citronics has designed a router based on the mainboard of the Fairphone 2 smartphone, connecting the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 “system-on-module” to a carrier board with Ethernet, USB ports, and other connectors, while leveraging 4G LTE, WiFi, and Bluetooth connectivity from the phone’s core board. Citronics calls this type of hardware “Circular Microcomputers,” which refers to small computers focusing on sustainability and circular economy principles using parts from discarded devices like old smartphones. There’s actually more than one router, as Citronics designed its own development kit, and also partnered with other companies to design custom gateways based on the Fairphone 2 mainboard. Let’s have a look at the devkit first. Citronics devkit: Fairphone 2 mainboard SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AB) quad core Krait 400 processor @ up to 2.26 GHz with Adreno 330 GPU System Memory – 2 GB LPDDR3 Storage – 32GB eMMC flash Connectivity – 2G/3G/4G LTE, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on /e/OS v2 privacy-focused, Google-free Android mobile OS released with improved UI, Android Auto support, etc..

/e/OS v2 privacy-focused, Google-free Android mobile OS released with improved UI, Android Auto support, etc..

/e/os v2 release

The e Foundation has just announced the release of the /e/OS v2 Android-based Google-free open-source mobile operating system with an improved launcher, support for Android Auto, a “Wall of Shame” to identify the most leaking apps and tracker, QR Code scanning support in the camera app, and more. Most Android smartphones come with Google services which may be convenient (and help keep Android free), but come at the loss of the users’ privacy. That’s why the e Foundation started offering e/OS over five years ago to offer a privacy-focused version of Android without Google services on specific phones. The project has evolved over the years, over 200 mobile devices are supported officially and unofficially, and Murena, a for-profit company, has also been established to sell e/OS smartphones and cloud services. /e/OS v2 highlights and changes: Based on LineageOS 20 with the latest bug fixes and security updates (itself based on […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Linux 6.9 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.9 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.9 release

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.9 on LKML: So Thorsten is still reporting a few regression fixes that haven’t made it to me yet, but none of them look big or worrisome enough to delay the release for another week. We’ll have to backport them when they get resolved and hit upstream. So 6.9 is now out, and last week has looked quite stable (and the whole release has felt pretty normal). Below is the shortlog for the last week, with the changes mostly being dominated by some driver updates (gpu and networking being the big ones, but “big” is still pretty small, and there’s various other driver noise in there too). Outside of drivers, it’s some filesystem fixes (bcachefs still stands out, but ksmbd shows up too), some late selftest fixes, and some core networking fixes. And I now have a more powerful arm64 machine […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-3 release adds support for PinePhone and PineTab devices

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-3 release adds support for PinePhone and PineTab devices

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA 3 PinePhone Pro

UBPorts has just released Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-3 based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with the latest security updates and beta support for PinePhone, PinePhone Pro, PineTab, and PineTab 2, adding to the smartphones already supported by Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-2. As a reminder, Ubuntu Touch was initially handled by Canonical for desktop/mobile convergence, but it was dropped when the company decided to refocus its efforts on cloud and IoT, and the UBPorts community took over and eventually outed the first stable Ubuntu Touch release in June 2017. The developers kept on improving the OS since then with new releases from time to time, but note that it should still be considered experimental only for most devices, and will not be suitable as a daily driver for the majority of people. The PinePhone and PineTab have been supported by Ubuntu Touch for a few years, but they had their own branch […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments on Fairphone 5 smartphone comes with 8 years of software updates thanks to Qualcomm QCM6490 industrial IoT processor

Fairphone 5 smartphone comes with 8 years of software updates thanks to Qualcomm QCM6490 industrial IoT processor

Fairphone 5

The Fairphone 5 is the latest version of the ethical, repairable, and sustainable smartphone, with the company promising 8 years of software updates thanks to the use of a Qualcomm QCM6490 industrial IoT processor that benefits from a longer life cycle than consumer-grade processors typically found in phones. The phone comes with 8GB RAM, a 256GB flash, a replaceable 6.46-inch display, 50 MP front-facing and rear cameras, both of which are replaceable, 5G, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, GNSS, and NFC connectivity, as well as a replaceable battery. Fairphone 5 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QCM6490 CPU – Octa-core Kryo 670 with 1x Gold Plus core (Cortex-A78) @ 2.7 GHz, 3x Gold cores (Cortex-A78) @ 2.4 GHz, 4x Silver cores (Cortex-A55) @ up to 1.9 GHz GPU – Adreno 642L GPU @ 812MHz DSP – Hexagon DSP for AI workloads up to 12 TOPS Built-in 5G Modem System Memory – 8GB RAM […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-2 adds support for Fairphone 3, Volla Phone X23, F(x)tec Pro1 X smartphones

Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-2 adds support for Fairphone 3, Volla Phone X23, F(x)tec Pro1 X smartphones

Ubuntu Smartphone with physical keyboard

UBPorts has just released Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-2 based on Ubuntu 20.04 with three new phones supported namely the Fairphone 3, the Volla Phone X23, and F(x)tec Pro1 X with the latter being introduced in 2020 in a crowdfunding campaign claiming Ubuntu Touch support. Ubuntu Touch was initially an initiative by Canonical for desktop/mobile convergence, but when the company decided to refocus its efforts on cloud and IoT, the UBPorts community took over and eventually outed the first stable Ubuntu Touch release in June 2017. Work has continued since then and with the Ubuntu Touch 20.04 OTA-2 release, the community-supported distribution now supports 15 smartphones with the Fairphone 4, Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL, Oneplus 5 and 5T, OnePlus 6 and 6T, Vollaphone and Vollaphone X, Vollaphone 22, Xiaomi Mi A2, Xiaomi Poco M3, Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 and 7 Pro, besides the three new mobile devices added to […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments on Fairphone 4 repairable Android smartphone comes with a 5-year warranty

Fairphone 4 repairable Android smartphone comes with a 5-year warranty

Fairphone 4

The Fairphone is a socially responsible repairable, modular Android smartphone that aims to last longer than most other phones. The latest iteration is the Fairphone 4, which follows the Fairphone 3 released in August 2019. The Fairphone 4 runs Android 11 on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G octa-core processor coupled with up to 8GB RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display. The smartphone comes with a 5-year warranty by default, and software updates are guaranteed until at least 2025. Fairphone 4 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G (SM7225) octa-core Kryo 570 processor with 2x Cortex-A77 cores @ 2.2GHz, 6x Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8GHz, Adreno 619 GPU System Memory & Storage options 6GB RAM, 128GB internal storeage, MicroSD card socket up to 2TB 8GB RAM, 256GB internal storage, MicroSD card socket up to 2TB Display – 6.3-inch Full HD+ (2340×1080) IPS touchscreen display with Gorilla Glass 5 Cameras Primary […]