That concept doesn’t seem to appeal to anyone beyond the stereotypical “gadget geek” influencers on YouTube, who in some cases aren’t even paying for these devices. Most people don’t work on their phones, nor do they want to. Most people also don’t have the time or the need for a larger screen that they can carry around everywhere. If they want to use a larger touchscreen device, for common use cases like watching videos or drawing, they want to be doing it for longer periods in a relaxed environment. In which case, there is no reason to buy one of these expensive folding phones over a tablet with a usable aspect ratio and a vastly superior screen that doesn’t have a giant crease down the middle.

What hardware (other than 5G antenna) changed since the first/second one?

Everything would have changed. Smartphones are not desktop computers, they are not designed to be iterated on piece-by-piece over a long period of time. Fairphone has been trying to convince Qualcomm to develop a modular chipset that can be swapped out like a desktop CPU, but it is just one small European company in an industry filled with global giants. It doesn’t have a lot of bargaining power, unfortunately. The same can be said for its negotiations with suppliers, which is why Fairphones tend to have very middle-of-the-road specs and don’t lead the industry in any area. It is designing and sourcing with long-term availability in mind, because it knows it doesn’t have the market power to go out and demand things.

Since Fairphone is unable to create a truly modular phone, it is forced to release newer models to keep afloat as a business. It releases one phone every two years, less than most manufacturers, and has a very low profit margin. Less than 0.1% in 2022, for example. It’s also a bit of a misconception that Fairphone is solely focused on modularity or e-waste, because it is also doing a lot of work behind the scenes on industry working conditions and pay rates throughout its supply chain and is taking on an advocacy role within the industry to push for change. For example, in 2020 it launched the Fair Cobalt Alliance which now has over 20 members, including major tech companies like Google and Tesla.

Aren’t they big in Africa as well?

Which bit do you disagree with? People have been saying this about the price for 6 years now. “Oh the price will come down when the technology stabilises”. Yet book style foldables in the West have had very little.in the way of innovation now for several generations and they’re still the most expensive phones by far.

As you point out, all phones are large now. So is there really a sizeable corner of the market out there for an even bigger (but not as big as a tablet and in a weird aspect ratio) phone? Compact devices are niche, true, but niches sell because they are catering to a small corner of the market. Book-style foldables don’t even appear to have a niche audience after 6 years.

Nobook, which was shared here last month. Very clean and lightweight app with a much nicer interface than the app I was previously using (Friendly). Thanks to @Blaze@piefed.social for recommending it! It’s not on an app store so I wouldn’t have found it without you sharing it here.

I’m not sure why some journalists are still conflating the two styles of folding phones after so many years, particularly when it comes to their issues. Flip phones are much cheaper and more durable (relative to the larger book-style foldables) and it’s no surprise that they are selling better. They also offer a solution to the market problem of phones increasing significantly in size whilst also decreasing significantly in size variety. The larger book-style foldables are really the ones we should be questioning, considering their price, durability issues and lack of a clear reason to exist.

Probably books lol

Has anyone recommended Laya’s Horizon before? It’s a Netflix-exclusive game where you wingsuit fly around a big island with different biomes. There are a lots of different activities to do and as you complete achievements you unlock new magical capes (the game’s equivalent of wingsuits) that change how you fly. The gameplay really fits mobile devices because there’s no real story or main objective and you can complete a single run down the mountain in just a minute or two, which makes it perfect as a “time waster” type game. The controls are very fun and intuitive and it runs quite well on modern mid-tier devices (Snapdragon 7 Gen 1) and above.

Not sure when that would have been. I’ve also had an account for close to a decade and the registration process was the same as it is now.

It’s a normal forum, registration is just an automated verification thing like anywhere else. You can download the Mobilism app without registering, although I can’t remember if you need to sign in to download through it.

And yet, if you look them up you’ll find many of them have tens of millions of downloads. It’s crazy the types of random shit people thoughtlessly download from the Play Store. The North Korean spy agency also had spyware apps on there until recently, targeting South Korean users.

I’m a similar age and it was the same for me when I first deactivated my Facebook account, and still is with Messenger. After a few months of vainly trying to get people to switch to something else (like Signal), I just gave up and started using Messenger again. For me, the self-imposed social isolation was not worth the privacy gains.

Worst phone back ever? That is hideous.

It is, yes. After certain system updates these apps can sometimes be reinstalled/reactivated without the user’s knowledge. Samsung is notorious for this.

Privacy isn’t necessarily about risk for everyone. For some it’s more about their individual right to privacy, and to uphold that right they need to be aware of ways in which it may be breached. So this is probably not practical information for most people (I certainly don’t care) but it’s useful to share nonetheless.

This is specifically about Gmail, Android has had this feature for a long time (though I’m not sure if it was before iOS).

Very cute setup!

Have you remembered Charles’ present?

Android version upgrades haven’t felt meaningful to me for a long time. I’m surprised people still get so excited about them (and angry when their manufacturer is slow to push the upgrade out).

So are just going to ignore the bit where your own argument/opinion is based on even less evidence and scrutiny?

EDIT: Also, what does any of this have to do with Proton’s privacy policy? If your argument has any relevance, it’s in relation to a moral objection to the CEO’s political statements. Proton AG is a Swiss company, none of this actually matters in reality.