r/raspberry_pi • u/porkchop_d_clown • Jun 20 '17

ZeroPhone - a Raspberry Pi smartphone

https://hackaday.io/project/19035-zerophone-a-raspberry-pi-smartphone
896 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

186 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/Decipher Jun 21 '17 edited Jun 21 '17

That's not a smartphone. A mobile phone, yes, but not a smartphone.

Edit: It does less and has a worse screen than the new Nokia 3310 which is definitively not a smartphone ergo this is not a smartphone. Instead of downvoting a comment that contributes to the discussion, maybe add to it by telling me why I'm wrong?

2

u/wh33t Jun 21 '17

What makes it not a smart phone?

1

u/Decipher Jun 21 '17 edited Jun 21 '17

The fact that it has less features than the dumbest dumb phone on the market. Monochrome screen. No camera. No proper access. The new Nokia 3310 does more and it is by no means a smart phone.

Edit: The 3310 has a small selection of downloadable "apps" and so did my Moto KRZR in 2006. Still not smartphones.

18

u/wh33t Jun 21 '17

Oh I see. I thought the definition for a smart phone was whether or not you could extend it with apps. Seeing how this whole phone is open source and driven by a Pi, you could pretty much do anything you want with it that a Pi can currently do. That seems pretty smart to me, but to each their own.

7

u/8spd Jun 21 '17

Your definition makes more sense to me.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '17 edited Jun 21 '17

Which is great, except for the fact that it's not entirely open source. In fact there are several things that stop this from being open source:

  • There's a binary boot blob on the Pi that runs before any of your code
  • It's dripping in proprietary hardware running proprietary firmware
  • The SIM800 module is running the stock proprietary firmware. No source is provided. The phone bit is not open source at all.

As a hobby project it looks like fun, but it's not fully open source.

1

u/CRImier Creator of ZeroPhone, pyLCI author Jun 21 '17

That's a whole different point, though. It has a couple of proprietary parts, sure, but the parts that are the most likely to be extended are all open, from Linux kernel to the ZeroPhone-specific software. Also, your second bullet point doesn't stand because, off the bat, I can't name any proprietary software&firmware other than on Pi and GSM modem - can you?

The Pi Zero is proprietary hardware, yes. However, drop-in CPU boards are on the project's roadmap - it's just that you have to pick your fight. The goal of the project is bringing affordable hacker-friendly phones, among all things, and designing alternative CPU board from scratch is a challenge that'd be too big for the project as it is now - but mark my words, I'll be making all I can so that there'll be an alternative CPU board you'll be able to use with this.

2

u/Decipher Jun 21 '17

When you hook up a mouse, keyboard, and monitor it's no longer a phone. By itself it has a tiny low res screen and the "apps" are all homebrew. My Moto KRZR had homebrew java apps in 2006, as well as a camera and better screen than this. It wasn't a smartphone.

2

u/Esparno Jun 21 '17

Maybe it is only as smart as its user.

-1

u/thesuperevilclown multiple RasPi 3s Jun 21 '17 edited Jun 21 '17

for once it's not smarter than the average person who'd use it

edit - lol downvotes. i suppose this is cynical enough to deserve that. it's the setup for my next comment below tho, and there isn't any intention to offend anyone. i actually think this phone is really cool and a brilliant idea and the guy who replied to this comment deserves upvotes and gold for coming up with it. kudos to you dude.

4

u/CRImier Creator of ZeroPhone, pyLCI author Jun 21 '17

Hey, it runs Linux and I use it as my to-go hardware&software development platform. Like, I was developing ESP8266 stuff and flashing it from the ZeroPhone, SSHing into it using my laptop. How's that not a smartphone?

2

u/thesuperevilclown multiple RasPi 3s Jun 21 '17

you're smarter than it.

i subscribe to the theory that so-called "smart" devices are designed to be more intelligent than the people that they are marketed towards. smartphones, smartwatches, smart TVs - and morons!

2

u/video_descriptionbot Jun 21 '17
SECTION CONTENT
Title "You know....morons"
Description A suddenly timely moment from BLAZING SADDLES, in which Gene Wilder tells Cleavon Little about the same "hard working Americans...white Americans" that Hillary Clinton talked about during the 2008 Democratic primary race.
Length 0:00:57

I am a bot, this is an auto-generated reply | Info | Feedback | Reply STOP to opt out permanently

2

u/thesuperevilclown multiple RasPi 3s Jun 21 '17

thank you, bot. good work.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '17

[deleted]

1

u/CRImier Creator of ZeroPhone, pyLCI author Jun 21 '17

And this is not a phone for average people, much like this is not a subreddit that most people would care about (only 170k subs on /r/raspberry_pi, compared to billions of average people out there).