The Future of Mobile Phone?
by enorbet from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5NDAW)
I know most, or at least many, people either need or at least desire quite a number of mobile apps as well as mobile access almost everywhere. Bandwidth needs have made 5G or something like it spawn but though 5G has increased bandwidth it also is hampered by shorter range which necessitates many more towers and that's going to take substantial time and money to accomplish. I'm wondering if many users can get by with wifi as the number of wifi hotspots increases, especially near major metropolitan areas where tower building can be problematic.
In my case, though in a rural area, most times I'm mobile is going to or from some town or city where wifi is already quite ubiquitous. If I miss a call, let alone a text, by even 15 minutes, that's not a huge deal. Currently, since I let my flipphone lapse, my only phone is Vonage VOIP and I like it a lot. It's cheap and effective.
I've been considering a Pine 64 phone for quite some time and at first was concerned about it's base ability to handle just the main basics - voice and text. Now I'm seeing it can do pretty well at those but it lacks powerful hardware and the current and ongoing chip shortage may extend that issue for quite some time.
Maybe it's just that I'm really excited for Gaming on Linux to get such a massive boost, but considering the importance in modern gaming for connectivity with low latency, and the power required for serious multimedia, Valve's new SteamDeck which runs a FULL customized version of Arch AND can substitute or multiboot any distro, is looking REALLY interesting to me and possibly anyone else that has common access to wifi.
The specs on this device and it's price are both nothing short of revolutionary. The only downside I can see for mobile phone replacement is size but how long will it be before that much power exists in any remotely pocket sized device? I don't care if I have to resort to some sort of scaled down "fanny pack", if I can have so much power in so cheap and effective a device as the SteamDeck can possibly be.
I'm seriously considering this given my use case. Any thoughts or comments are welcome. This could get really big AND powerfully promote real Linux in a global way!
Let the (Linux) games (and phones) begin!
In my case, though in a rural area, most times I'm mobile is going to or from some town or city where wifi is already quite ubiquitous. If I miss a call, let alone a text, by even 15 minutes, that's not a huge deal. Currently, since I let my flipphone lapse, my only phone is Vonage VOIP and I like it a lot. It's cheap and effective.
I've been considering a Pine 64 phone for quite some time and at first was concerned about it's base ability to handle just the main basics - voice and text. Now I'm seeing it can do pretty well at those but it lacks powerful hardware and the current and ongoing chip shortage may extend that issue for quite some time.
Maybe it's just that I'm really excited for Gaming on Linux to get such a massive boost, but considering the importance in modern gaming for connectivity with low latency, and the power required for serious multimedia, Valve's new SteamDeck which runs a FULL customized version of Arch AND can substitute or multiboot any distro, is looking REALLY interesting to me and possibly anyone else that has common access to wifi.
The specs on this device and it's price are both nothing short of revolutionary. The only downside I can see for mobile phone replacement is size but how long will it be before that much power exists in any remotely pocket sized device? I don't care if I have to resort to some sort of scaled down "fanny pack", if I can have so much power in so cheap and effective a device as the SteamDeck can possibly be.
I'm seriously considering this given my use case. Any thoughts or comments are welcome. This could get really big AND powerfully promote real Linux in a global way!
Let the (Linux) games (and phones) begin!