Posts by Choux

Punkt: A minimalist Android for the paranoid

Re: IP52

The Cat B35 is already out, thankfully! £99 direct from Cat, probably slightly more elsewhere.

It has a certain bulky charm to it, plus a scratch resistant screen, which is a big plus over the HMD 8110 4G. Given the pricepoint I'll probably end up getting one, to serve as a backup/featurephone w. hotspot and email. It covers most bases, and everything else is just residual habit from smartphone use (and the kind of thing that I don't mind not having if I, say, run out of juice on the android behemoth that lives in my trousers.

I do have some minor reservations about KaiOS, since I don't know how much information is able to be slurped from it via the inevitable google bloat. Possibly also worth considering that while whatsapp is available on the platform it's currently only available for Jio devices, and neither KaiOS/Whatsapp haven't made a statement of intent re:broader availability which might be an issue for some.

Google's 'other' phone platform turns up in post-apocalyptic mobe

I don't give a hoot about Google's added bloat, but 4G enabled hotspot devices that also make phone calls and don't come bundled with facebook as an unremovable tumor on the memory are the kind of thing that make me slightly less cynical about the state of phones.

I held off on getting an 8110 4G after it's lukewarm reception (I can deal with reviews that slammed it for not being a smartphone replacement, but the ease with which the screen can be marred, and the softness of the buttons, coupled with very 'meh' reports of its usability) but this might be worth getting.

I remain confident that a hotspot device plus other, scenario specific, wifi enabled dodads is the way to go (venerable phone for gps+music in-car, hotspot to update maps, etc., traffic updates, small laptop plus wifi hotspot for working on the go, and for everything else I'm at my desk...), and this might say it for me.

Possibly. KaiOS needs whatsapp before I can be pried away from my clunking android device though, as sadly it's my family and social circle's primary communication service.

It's a phone with a peel, but you'll have to wait a bit more for retro Nokia

re: a good idea strangled at birth

As far as I can tell the google services are gmail, assistant, search, and maps. That and (probably) WhatsApp in the future, plus twitter and facebook.

Given the limitations of the platform I presume that the data being slurped were one to use this as a primary device would be slightly less rich than, say, an android phone that comes bundled with all of those things as well?

Look how modern we are! UK network Three to kill off 3G-only phones

My (long, and now over expensive) contract with 3 is almost at a close - for which I'm profoundly grateful.

I've been looking at Virgin Mobile as an alternative - piggybacking on EE's monster network without having to deal with EE is looking mighty tempting. Granted, my slightly-too-much broadband bill is subsidising it, but at least my bank balance will look healthier...

I've got way too much cash, thinks Jeff Bezos. Hmmm, pay more tax? Pay staff more? Nah, let's just go into space

Re: Alternatives needed

If you're after second hand books then a *really* good alternative to amazon is Abe Books (other 2nd hand book sellers are available). Lots of British second hand sellers list books there, alongside a great many American ones too.

I've bought old out of print books from there many a time, and often for a tiny sum. If you don't mind waiting a couple of days for postage it's reet good.

As for tech goods, generally you can get stuff (even your 400GB SDXC card) with a little dilligence. You might pay the 'not amazon' tax, but I suspect that it's probably not something that's going to trouble you if you're dead set on denying Bezos your hard earned dollar/pound/euro/etc.

Pasties in SPAAAAACE: Cornwall hopes for slice of £50m spaceport cash

Re: Remind me

Jam spreads nicely on cream, provided that the cream is clotted cream and the jam is proper jam - slightly viscous, not that solid gelatinous stuff.

Trying to spread clotted cream on jam (of either kind) is actually much harder than it is to dump jam onto clotted cream as it lubricates the surface onto which you're trying to spread cream and leaves you without a nice surface (spaceship or scone) for the clotted cream to adhere.

My Cornish grandfather (a physicist from Fowey), perhaps to his countrymen's disgust, taught me this way, and I remain convinced that it is the only way to construct a cream tea.