Developers for two different smartphone Linux distributions have announced updates in the past few days that make it easier to install and/or try out new features on the PinePhone. PostmarketOS Installer One of my favorite things about the PinePhone is how easy it is to try out different operating systems. Just download the latest build […]
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PinePhone news roundup (1-24-2021)
It’s been a busy week for PinePhone hardware and software developers. If you’ve been following LinuxSmartphone on Twitter you may have noticed that developers have made progress in making several different Linux distributions more usable, while other developers have been working to bring open source firmware to the PinePhone’s modem. The PinePhone KDE Community Edition […]
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$1 PinePhone pogo pin breakout board lets you connect add-ons without removing the back cover ($8 microSD card extender too)
There are a lot of things that make the PinePhone different than most smartphones. It’s designed to run GNU/Linux-based operating systems. It has physical switches that can disable the camera, mic, and wireless features. And it has a set of pogo pins that make it possible to connect add-ons like a keyboard, fingerprint reader, or […]
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First postmarketOS service pack brings major PinePhone improvements
PostmarketOS is a smartphone operating system that grew out of a dream of providing a 10-year lifecycle to smartphones. So it’s probably not a surprise that the developers focus on stability, with major new releases coming to the stable channel every six months. But with the rapid pace of development in the Linux smartphone space […]
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PinePhone Mobian Community Edition is available for preorder
The next version of the PinePhone to ship will be the PinePhone Mobian Community Edition. It goes up for pre-order from the Pine64 Store January 18. Update: Its available for preorder now from the Pine64 Store. It’ll sell for $150 and up and the phone will ship with the Debian-based Mobian operating system pre-installed. The […]
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Genode OS Framework is adding PinePhone support
There are more than a dozen different operating systems that can run on the PinePhone at the moment, and most of them have one thing in common: a Linux kernel. But later this year you may be able to install something a little different. Genode is a free and open source, security-focused operating system framework […]
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Crowdfunded Astro Slide 5G smartphone ships in June, has a physical keyboard, and promises Linux support
The Astro Slide is a 5G smartphone with a 6.5 inch display and a physical keyboard that slides out from behind the screen, allowing you to use the phone like a tiny laptop computer. It will ship with Android, but the plan is to also make GNU/Linux distributions including Debian and Ubuntu Touch available for […]
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Can a Linux phone replace my iPhone or Android device?
Google and Apple have come to dominate the smartphone space in recent years, but there are a small (but growing) number of phones that ship with GNU/Linux-based operating systems instead. At the same time, there a growing number of Linux distributions designed to run on smartphones. There are currently at least 17 different software releases […]
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There’s a new Manjaro ARM Lomiri dev build for the PinePhone
Manjaro is one of the most popular desktop Linux operating systems, and it’s increasingly becoming one of the most versatile GNU/Linux distributions for smartphones as well. The PinePhone Manjaro Community Edition smartphone that shipped a few months ago came with Manjaro ARM software featuring the phosh user interface pre-installed. The PinePhone KDE Community Edition phone […]
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Linux phone news roundup (1-06-2020)
The next community edition of the PinePhone is set to ship soon. The PinePhone KDE Community Edition has been up for pre-order since last month, and it will begin shipping in mid-January with Manjaro Linux and the KDE Neon user interface pre-installed. While the PinePhone is designed to run free and open source operating systems […]