Sidephone: A minimalist Android phone with swappable USB keypads(www.sidephone.com)
22 pointsby phantomathkg9 hours ago3 comments
  • coreyoconnoran hour ago
    I'd love to try these new phones. My current phone (Google Fold) is terrible. However

    1. google pixels are the best android devices AFAICT. Not a high bar, but that's that.

    2. due to the prevalence of spam and scam calls: Not having an AI call filtering is a no-go. google pixel's have a really nice call screen.

    Course we could have a competent government that would do something about scams (besides encouraging and supporting them). Then small business could actually compete. But the best we get is a rapist and scam artist.

  • Neywiny2 hours ago
    Not having support for messaging apps is a bit much considering it's still Android based. Why is it WIP? What's the P to W? Play services?
    • a2128an hour ago
      They mention in several places that the phone is degoogled and that certain apps won't work due to lack of Play services. They also probably can't redistribute popular messaging apps without a special agreement with the developer, or risking it with Aurora Store or similar. Unfortunately Google is leading a fight to close Android that so far no big entity is really resisting anymore (Epic now having settled their lawsuit and agreeing to never badmouth Android again), with efforts such as Play Integrity API, automatic protection that they're pushing developers to activate, etc. Unless something changes, in the near future "it's Android" won't mean much for app compatibility...
      • zx80808 minutes ago
        Seems we all need to actively invest into forking Android or creating a separate mobile OS from scratch. Google will try for sure to boil us all slowly from open Android to the very much closed ios-like state of their OS.
    • ftchdan hour ago
      Apps:

      - Whatsapp

      - Proton VPN, Drive, Mail

      - Signal

      - Obtainium

      - Uber

      - Podcast player

      - etc

      • Neywinyan hour ago
        Yes but why are they WIP? On a regular Android phone you just install them.
  • raw_anon_11112 hours ago
    Or I can just use my cellular Apple Watch (like I do now) for my “side phone”…