Nice to see mention of the Palm Pre. I had one and absolutely loved it. WebOS was an amazing platform and Palm encouraged using developer mode and modifying the OS. As you note, it’s a real shame it didn’t take off.
Prior to the Pre I’d had a T-Mobile G1 which was awful, partly because early Android was awful but as a device it got frustrating to keep having to physically rotate the device to use the keyboard (Android had no virtual keyboard then). I quickly grew tired of the G1 and went back to my Nokia E51 until the Pre came out.
I held out until the iPhone 4 before switching to Apple. Prior iPhones seemed inferior to the Pre - and Apple eventually “borrowed” the webOS task switcher. I’ve tried Android a couple of times since and never got on with it.
I too would like to see other than Apple and Google in the ecosystem again.
Interesting to see the late Sony Xperia 10 at the end, still running Android. The last paragraphs about alternative OS reminded me that SailfishOS runs pretty well on this device.
My phone memories include Motorola Linux phones.. specifically, trying to write a package manager for that in shell. Testing the removal function resulted in rm -rf / which wiped some unique security partition that hard bricked the phone. Yep, this is like the efivarfs read-write issue but on a phone and years before that :D
Mine are: Nokia 6150, Siemens ME45, Nokia 6230, HTC Tattoo, HTC Desire Z, KingZone N1, Nexus 5X - that’s 18.5 years and 7 phones (but I only count the N1 halfway because it stopped working reliably after 1 year and I still use it as a dedicated mp3 player..)
It did seem like a lot, but when I actually list them, I have a lot, too: LG 8370?, Motorola V275? (contract upgrade), LG Chocolate (upgrade), iPhone 4 (got damp), HTC One X? (traded in), my brother’s iPhone 4, Nokia C2 (carrier issue), LG E970? (another carrier issue), iPhone 6 (replaced screen, gave to mom), iPhone 7. I miss the Chocolate, but iPhones are generally great to me. On phone #10 since ~’06.
Hmmmm, let’s see, I can remember owning at least these:
Nokia 1610, 3210, 8810, 8210, 8250, 8850 (I still have one somewhere I think), and my last Nokia was an n95, I think.
Towards the end of the Nokia run there were a couple of KRZRs - my favourite dumb phone, with a neat little external OLED display when that was a very rare thing, and an excellent form factor and general hand-feel. It was superior to the big flat awkward RZR in every way, IMO.
Since then I’ve been on the iTrain, upgrading yearly until recently, when I’ve started skipping a year as the form factors get worse and the actual feature upgrades less significant.
The best phone we’ve ever had was the 5s. Perfect size, thick enough to not have a retarded lump sticking out where the camera is, and just a physically beautiful object. It was too pretty to put in a case, and at the same time not made out of soapy wet teflon, so you could actually hold the fucking thing.
I shouldn’t have to choose between “comfortable size and no stupid wobble” XOR “modern performance”. The insides of a modern smartphone are almost entirely battery, there’s absolutely nothing stopping them releasing a thicker model with a screen you can actually use without being Shaq or using two hands.
So, I guess it’s the end of the 5s form factor. I can imagine that they want to get rid of that screen size. However, it’s interesting that the iPod still sports the old 4” (pre-iPhone 5) screen size. Maybe iPod users primarily use it for playing music?
It worked on everything except that Z1C. Every other Sony I could unlock, but that one was from an Irish carrier that required Sony to lock the bootloader for them to be sold in their stores.
Nice to see mention of the Palm Pre. I had one and absolutely loved it. WebOS was an amazing platform and Palm encouraged using developer mode and modifying the OS. As you note, it’s a real shame it didn’t take off.
Prior to the Pre I’d had a T-Mobile G1 which was awful, partly because early Android was awful but as a device it got frustrating to keep having to physically rotate the device to use the keyboard (Android had no virtual keyboard then). I quickly grew tired of the G1 and went back to my Nokia E51 until the Pre came out.
I held out until the iPhone 4 before switching to Apple. Prior iPhones seemed inferior to the Pre - and Apple eventually “borrowed” the webOS task switcher. I’ve tried Android a couple of times since and never got on with it.
I too would like to see other than Apple and Google in the ecosystem again.
Fond memories of my G1. I really used and abused that phone. The keyboard was super annoying for sure.
pray tell do you still have that E51 laying around?
I do!
Interesting to see the late Sony Xperia 10 at the end, still running Android. The last paragraphs about alternative OS reminded me that SailfishOS runs pretty well on this device.
My phone memories include Motorola Linux phones.. specifically, trying to write a package manager for that in shell. Testing the removal function resulted in
rm -rf /which wiped some unique security partition that hard bricked the phone. Yep, this is like the efivarfs read-write issue but on a phone and years before that :DIs it me or is that a lot of phones?
Mine are: Nokia 6150, Siemens ME45, Nokia 6230, HTC Tattoo, HTC Desire Z, KingZone N1, Nexus 5X - that’s 18.5 years and 7 phones (but I only count the N1 halfway because it stopped working reliably after 1 year and I still use it as a dedicated mp3 player..)
It did seem like a lot, but when I actually list them, I have a lot, too: LG 8370?, Motorola V275? (contract upgrade), LG Chocolate (upgrade), iPhone 4 (got damp), HTC One X? (traded in), my brother’s iPhone 4, Nokia C2 (carrier issue), LG E970? (another carrier issue), iPhone 6 (replaced screen, gave to mom), iPhone 7. I miss the Chocolate, but iPhones are generally great to me. On phone #10 since ~’06.
Very neat and always a nice surprise to see Auckland mentioned in a blog post :’)
The Razr design is still so fresh. Possibly the best looking phone of all time.
He could install SailfishOS on his Xperia 10 and finally enjoy a different cellphone OS.
Hmmmm, let’s see, I can remember owning at least these:
Nokia 1610, 3210, 8810, 8210, 8250, 8850 (I still have one somewhere I think), and my last Nokia was an n95, I think. Towards the end of the Nokia run there were a couple of KRZRs - my favourite dumb phone, with a neat little external OLED display when that was a very rare thing, and an excellent form factor and general hand-feel. It was superior to the big flat awkward RZR in every way, IMO. Since then I’ve been on the iTrain, upgrading yearly until recently, when I’ve started skipping a year as the form factors get worse and the actual feature upgrades less significant.
The best phone we’ve ever had was the 5s. Perfect size, thick enough to not have a retarded lump sticking out where the camera is, and just a physically beautiful object. It was too pretty to put in a case, and at the same time not made out of soapy wet teflon, so you could actually hold the fucking thing.
Maybe iPhone se2 resembles the 5s
I shouldn’t have to choose between “comfortable size and no stupid wobble” XOR “modern performance”. The insides of a modern smartphone are almost entirely battery, there’s absolutely nothing stopping them releasing a thicker model with a screen you can actually use without being Shaq or using two hands.
The (probably fairly reliable) rumors say it uses the iPhone 8 enclosure with the A13 (iPhone 11) SoC:
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/01/02/apple-may-launch-two-iphone-se-2-models-2020/
So, I guess it’s the end of the 5s form factor. I can imagine that they want to get rid of that screen size. However, it’s interesting that the iPod still sports the old 4” (pre-iPhone 5) screen size. Maybe iPod users primarily use it for playing music?
From what I know, you can unlock Sony’s bootloader: https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/get-started/unlock-bootloader
(Well, worked for my Xperia Z1 at least :P)
It worked on everything except that Z1C. Every other Sony I could unlock, but that one was from an Irish carrier that required Sony to lock the bootloader for them to be sold in their stores.