Fairphone novelty (novelties?) to come on 30 September 2021

As someoneelse said, e/ is planing on announcement as well so I’m optimistic it will be on the FP4.
It’s possible to run normal appstore apps on it isn’t it?
Like some I bought on the playstore?

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… or /e/ OS does it? I mean, they already proposed Fairphones 3 and Fairphones 3+ with /e/ preinstalled…

I’d say it’s easy to install any of the normal apps that you can find on F-Droid, which is 90% of the apps.
Now, some complex ones, that specifically rely on Google functions, may not work. For my use this may cover some banking apps, for instance.

Right, for me it is Threema, finance apps, streaming apps, apps for work and so on…
I did test F-Droid but PlayStore is necessary for me, hope that will be possible.

you can always use Aurora Store to install all apps from play store, still some apps refuse to work on custom roms…

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There are ways to install Apps from the Play Store, but you will not have the Play Store in /e/.

Always tricky on Custom ROMs.
Check beforehand and be aware they can fail at any time depending on the kind of security checks they run to ensure a secure phone environment (hint: they don’t like Custom ROMs much).

Not guaranteed to work or at least not guaranteed to work continuously in /e/, if they are dependent on Google services (aka GSF).
You can check for this dependency by searching for the Apps in question in Aurora Store (an Open Source client for the Play Store).
Using a Custom ROM for work-related stuff should be considered really well beforehand.

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Thanks to both of you that helps. Will check the Aurora Store.

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I personally don’t like /e/, so I’m going to wait for a community LOS port.

Edit: I also just realised that it doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor on the back. Depending on if it is located underneath the display I might not buy the phone at all since I and many others really really really don’t want to use them.

Maybe Fairphone introduce unlock by face recognition…

During these pandemic times where we frequently have to cover our face, it would not be a very strategic choice…

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I hope the phone will last longer, then the pandemic time :stuck_out_tongue: Even though I wouldn’t use it at all.

But the fingerprint sensor would be cool.
@Stanzi so the is no difference on the FP4 dose not have one or it’s under the screen and you are not using it - is there?

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Apple made it work with a mask as far as I know. But I hope FP4 won’t use it. Google gave up on face unlock after the Pixel 4 as well. And I don’t see FP develop and improve the technique by themselves. It’s not as advanced in Android as on iOS yet. And they then have to support the technology for 5 years.

I hope it’s underneath the screen. But that would make modularity kinda hard as well I guess. Fingerprint reader malfunctioning? Replace the whole screen module? Just speculating here of course.

I wouldn’t be much surprised if FP is using the dark circle on the camera island at the back of the phone for fingerprint unlock :see_no_evil:

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Oh yeah, I forgot about aging…

Aging wouldn’t be a problem. If it works like iOS it will learn your face better with every face unlock. What I mean is that Google’s Pixel 4 will be end-of-life next year. And with that their commitment for face unlock in stock Android. Face unlock is hard to maintain and improve. I base that on the fact how much Google struggles/struggled with it.

@TheDeckie yes there is, because it would very likely still collect my fingerprint even if it’s not using it and I couldn’t cover it with a sticker. Also the notch makes it much more annoying to cover the front camera since you need to very accurately cut a piece of duct tape or it would look very ugly, although covering the camera isn’t as important for me as covering the sensor.

@UPPERCASE I’m hoping for modulatiry here, since then I hopefully could just remove the sensor from the phone entirely.

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No, they didn’t. Only the requester for the unlock PIN comes quicker, when a mask is recognized. Or if you are wearing an Apple watch, which is unlocked, it will unlock the phone too.

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I think collecting biometric data without having this feature activated would be highly criminal. Even though I do not trust Google at all - I wouldn’t assume, they’d do that. Especially with /e/ or liniage OS I would say the sensor won’t work, if the feature is deactivated.

But I get your point, as I would not feel comfortable with face recognition for the very same reason.

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It wouldn’t be the first time these companies would be doing stuff that’s highly criminal. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if all this data would secretly be shared with some US agencies. I’m not saying that it is, just that it might as well be and we don’t know it (yet).

Edit: I use Linux on my laptop and even though there are no Linux drivers for its fingerprint reader - so it’s literally impossible that it works - I still cover it up, just to be extra sure. The is nothing better than physically blocking hardware.

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I think it could become available on /e/ OS one day, too, but not within the next five years or so…

While I am - in a way - totally in agreement, that the best prevention against data collection is physically switching sensors/cameras off, this - just for me - seems to be a bit far fetched.

Regarding the pain it is to register one’s fingerprint with a sensor, I can hardly see any use in collecting random touches of the sensor and making a pattern out of those. Even more so, as there might be lots of people handling the phone. They might be “noticed”, but collected would mean storing them and that should fill up the memory really fast or at least it should be recognizeable, or do I get something wrong there?
So, while I don’t use the fingerprint sensor on the FP3 and did not register my fingerprints, I never thought of covering that sensor.
The camera is a totally different piece of cake of course.

But that’s obviously just my personal opinion.
And regarding the pictures I have my doubts, that there is a fingerprint sensor on the front side. If any, than I would guess it’s on the back next to the two camera lenses.

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