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Stardate: 20220119.2337 | |
Location: Kitchen | |
Input Device: 5th gen Amazon Kindle running LineageOS | |
Audio: Downstairs TV | |
Visual: termux, Kindle in repurposed, ill-fitting, bluetooth keyboard | |
case from Goodwill (wrong size, but works) | |
Emotional: Winding down. | |
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I made a visit this evening over at the midnight.pub[1] where tetris | |
phosted about, "chasing that elusive N900 successor."[2] I have been | |
on this quest as well. I was one of the early adopters of the N900 | |
and still have the device(s). It was one of my favorite phones. | |
Unfortunately, I could not use it as a cellular phone after AT&T | |
sunsetted their 2.5G network (sound familiar?) | |
After the N900, the next keyboard phone I used was the NEC Terrain[3], | |
which was a rugged phone that ran Android 4. The keyboard was below | |
the screen and was not a slider. Similar form factor to a blackberry. | |
Illuminated keys. Good enough for what I needed. | |
The next keyboard phone is the one I am currently using, the | |
unihertz titan[4], which runs Android 9 (10 might be available?) | |
I am still running it stock and could have possible AT&T sunsetting | |
issues with it as well, even though it is totally compatible with | |
their 4G network (AT&T, disco my phone again and buh-bye!) | |
The Pinephone[5] was mentioned as a successor to the N900. I have been | |
watching the development of this device as well. I have read about | |
the recent release of the external keyboard case on mastodon and | |
other haunts. It is an add on and looks like there are still some | |
quirks. Not sure if I want to go that route...but the community | |
support looks pretty hopeful. | |
My use of Android is not typical. I don't use gapps and just install | |
a few apps from f-droid or sideload stuff. I change the launcher to | |
t-ui (terminal user interface) and have 2-letter aliases to launch | |
my apps if I need to. Aside from phone and text messages, I mostly | |
live in termux, which has a repository for most apps that I need. | |
If it's not available, there is UserLAnd, which runs debian and | |
other distros. | |
I think this practice of living in the terminal on a mobile started | |
with my use of the N900, which ran maemo (modified debian.) The | |
N900 to me was more like a small computer that could make phone | |
calls, rather than a mobile that can do computer stuff. One of the | |
things I liked to do was plug the phone into the USB port on my | |
work laptop or PC at home, enable USB networking and ssh into | |
my phone and use the tools there. The community support[6] was | |
excellent as well and taught me many things about the phone and | |
general scripting in linux as well. I think I still pattern my | |
mobile use this way and look for features in phones similar to | |
the N900. | |
The unihertz titan has the keyboard and the tools that I need. I | |
still don't like touching screens with fingers and I still prefer | |
pressing hardware buttons. I miss the precision of the old stylus | |
on the resistive screens from the Palm days...N900 had a plastic | |
stylus and built in stylus silo too. At least the keyboard can | |
also be a touchpad and do scrolling on the titan. Good enough. | |
Now that I have ruminated on this some, I don't think I need to | |
further this quest for the N900 sucessor for the time being. The | |
titan (and Gemini PDA) is still able to provide me with the tools I | |
need as a mobile user. | |
[1] gopher://midnight.pub/1/ | |
[2] gopher://midnight.pub/0/posts/753 | |
[3] https://www.gsmarena.com/nec_terrain-5553.php | |
[4] https://www.unihertz.com/products/titan | |
[5] https://www.pine64.org/ | |
[6] http://maemo.org/ | |
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