Soon (August 2020) it’ll not be possible anymore to play Pokémon Go on Fairphone 2 (armv7 architecture)
In an upcoming update to Pokémon GO at the beginning of August 2020, we will end support for 32-bit Android devices. By removing support for 32-bit Android devices, we will be able to streamline our development process and focus resources on supporting newer operating systems and technologies. Android users on 64-bit devices and iOS users are not affected and do not need to take any action. […]
What can we do against this type of planned obsolescence???
Shun the false gods of proprietary game development and embrace the gossamer radiance of FOSS! StreetComplete is essentially Pokémon Go but you’re actually contributing to an important project that benefits millions of people.
The points you get from StreetComplete may not buy you Pokémon eggs (or whatever it is that points buy you in that game) but they symbolise some actual good. And it helps you learn more about your own neighbourhood to boot - in the game of FOSS, there are no losers.
Several people have asked about certain games and whether they’re compatible with FP3 before buying the FP3 so I guess it is important. I think in general, software should stay compatible, like banking software and messaging software. I love how many people are still using their FP2 as durability is one of the pillars of Fairphone and it’s sad when factors beyond your control force you to buy a newer model. But can we also rejoice that the FP2 made good on its promise to be usable for up to five years? And let’s hope more vital apps will remain accessible for some time to come
Hardly planned, since Niantic is by no means related to Fairphone. This is technical progress. Just like Apple, which no longer supports 32-bit apps in MacOS Mojave
There is no such thing as a forever guaranteed backward compatibility. Maybe Fairphone should have designed their phones so that the SoC could be updated, too. But they have not.
Good point, and I imagine that SoC -being a central component- is much harder (or almost impossible??) to make modular compared to others peripheral modules like e.g. the camera…
To be clear, I’m just angry at Niantic for their decision! I’m really happy of my FP2 - Running LOS-Android 10; I upgraded my camera and even tried the experimental USB-C bottom module.
That brings me to a question: how much modular is the FP3 compared to the FP2? Could it be possible for example to upgrade the radio to be compatible with the new 5G data protocol?
The FP3 has the same level of modularity as the FP2. So you can’t upgrade the phone with a newer SoC or a 5G modem. However, 5G will be applied in parallel to 4G, so the missing 5G will not be a relevant problem in the near future.
The number of modules has increased by one (FP2: bottom module -> FP3: bottom module + speaker module). Apart from that, TobiasF has already said the necessary.
.
.
