🇬🇧 Interesting links / news articles somehow related to Fairphone

Discuss The Industry
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Thanks. Fixed browsers -> OSes and the OpenGAPPS bullet point.
I also updated the text about Telegram (e.g. to make more clear that I’m not talking about the official client), which was suggesten by quite a few readers.
General blocking software will be added at a later date.
Thanks for the feedback. :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the article! I think it’s really a great and comprehensive reference! :+1:

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The April issue of Which? has a feature “The hidden cost of your smartphone” which mentions Fairphone 
 but this is all they have to say:

“Fairphone is the first smartphone brand to integrate conflict-free sourcing for all four minerals. We tested a Fairphone phone, but unfortunately it doesn’t compare well with other brands on performance.”

And that’s it. :frowning:

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Thanks for this information.
I just moved your posting to this thread, as I guess it fits here well.

The article is available online:
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/03/the-hidden-cost-of-your-smartphone/
And there is a video on this article:

The article online offers a tad bit more than those two lines cited by you.
E.g. Fairphone is leading the ranking on conflict free minerals and they state:

Unfortunately, it’s not likely to be a Best Buy any time soon. But if its ethical credentials are appealing and you’re willing to sacrifice functionality, head to our full to find out how it fared in our test lab.

The review of the Fairphone 2 on the other hand is available for paying readers only.

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4 posts were split to a new topic: Why might Fairphone have had such limited take-up in the UK

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“In this guide we investigate, score and rank the ethical and environmental record of 18 tablets and e-reader brands.”
Spoiler: best score is 9 out of 20 for Asus, Bookeen and Kurio.

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Nice finding.
Interesting that “Pocketbook” isn’t even listed here being the 3rd biggest manufacturer.
But considering that “Foxxconn” is the final manufacturer it probably would not score too well.

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When I click on a link, it says ‘access denied’. It is subscriber only. So it isn’t possible for me to verify the report. Sorry, but that makes it not very useful.

I like the Kobo series because it doesn’t use a large company like Amazon (who utilize DRM), and it allows for non-DRM stuff (I only read non-DRM books anyway).

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Just to make sure, with “a link” you mean this link Guide to Tablets and E-Readers | Ethical Consumer or a link on that page?

I’m not a subscriber but I didn’t get any “access denied” message, just checked again.

Maybe it has to do with my ad and script blocker extensions in Firefox (uBlock Origin and NoScript).

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Yes, that link. On the bottom, the score table. You cannot watch the details how they came to their conclusion; you can only see their conclusion. It is akin to a demo.

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Ah, ok, hadn’t checked any links on that page so far. You’re right, those point to an “access denied” error.

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(The title is a bit cliche with “iPhone” but the point stands.)

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In general, the problem with Linux on smartphones looks much like its problem on PCs. Many and various groups enjoy developing new versions of the operating system, which are all more or less doomed from birth. None of them have the skills, the interests or the money to create viable platforms that include the hardware, apps, services, packaging, marketing, advertising, distribution and support on the sort of scale needed to sustain a real product. Without those, they are unlikely to attract much interest beyond hobbyists and enthusiasts.

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The magic word is (backwards) compatibility. AFAIK only official Sailfish offers something like that with Alien Dalvik. But it does not have to be that way (see Anbox).

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The lifetime of an Android API vulnerability

This is about an old vulnerability in WebView/JavaScript allowing RCE via e.g. ads

[
] The fix required both the Android operating system, and all apps installed on the handset, to support at least Android API Level 17. Thus, the deployment of an effective solution for users was especially challenging.

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FP3 should be announced by the end of August (French link) #interestingarticles https://www.lesmobiles.com/actualite/26766-fairphone-annoncera-fin-aout-un-nouveau-produit.html

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Here’s another french article:


And they have a new posting on their facebook-page:

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Mozilla’s podcast IRL: Online Life Is Real Life (with transcript) explores de environmental impact of the internet in this chapter. It also mentions the Ecosia search engine.

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Hi all,
This post by Fairphone on Medium made me think: should we be expecting some movement in the direction of open source by Fairphone in the near future? For example, away from Android and towards some of the more open source, and free, OS projects which exist (e.g. /e/, Sailfish, UBports Touch, Plasma Mobile, etc)?
Personally, I would welcome this and anything that Fairphone can do to make this easier for the developers, like providing open source drivers or at least the binary blobs together with documented APIs for them.
Or am I expecting too much? :wink:
Cheers :smile: