ARMbook and ARMphone

The new PinePhone with Linux seems to be based on similar hardware as the “ARMbook” so could it be made available with RISC OS as “ARMphone”? Certainly touch may have issues and “phone” would not work at all at first. But it could be initially of use as a small tablet and be really interesting.

“phone” would not work at all at first.

The phone part of a mobile phone is most of the time a separate and independent circuit, that you can manage as a serial modem. This is the case for this one, that you can address with simple AT commands :)

And we have even ControlCenter for data support. The only problem will be photo.
So, yes, it would be a fantastic idea. Especially with Organizer.

Here’s a link to the product info https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

And to the store page. https://store.pine64.org/?product=pinephone-community-edition-ubports-limited-edition-linux-smartphone

Looks very interesting, I’d love to see RISC OS on something like that.

I hope to get rid of both Windows AND Android soon.
I need integrated Unix for some apps (coming), I need browsers (coming), I need a phone (???). So yes, I vote for it too.

> This is the case for this one, that you can address with simple AT commands

With simple AT commands you could possibly send an SMS. But to even make a phone call you should need a driver. There is a closed-source driver for Android and it seems they made an open-source driver for Linux, but this may not be usable for RISC OS because of GPL. On some other forum post there was a discussion if a GPL driver made into a RISC OS module, soft-loaded after boot, would be considered kernel-independent software, but no result so far.

You can make calls too. The Quectel EC25 manages everything (even the SIM cards). And you can use AT commands to monitor the calls.

https://www.quectel.com/product/ec25.htm
https://www.quectel.com/support/faq.htm

All the commands are documented here:
https://www.quectel.com/UploadImage/Downlad/Quectel_EC25&EC21_AT_Commands_Manual_V1.3.pdf

Nota: for voice call, nothing to manage, but for data call, information is passed as data. I don’t know if LTE voice call is managed as voice call or data call.

ComCentre can handle GSM/UMTS datatransfer. There is a very rudimental “voice call” support and a also rudimental LTE support. If anyone port RISC OS to this phone, I think Thomas will work on to support this.

Yes, and now PPP is available officially (again).

Other subject:
I was searching for a working 4G USB key.
Is the D-Link Dwm-222 4G supported?

There is a watch as well – but I suspect the amount of RAM (64K?) might be a bit of an issue.

Maybe a (very) cut down version could display the time in VDU font? :)