Housekeeping

As many of you have probably noticed the forum has gotten an update. We’re still tweaking things now that the new layout and features are live, and we’ll continue to monitor your feedback and update things on a need-be basis. With the webpage and forum done, the chats and Wiki are next on our agenda. Both of these undertakings present their own set of challenges, hence may take some time to complete. If any of you wish to volunteer your time, especially with regards to improving the Wiki, then please let me know in the comments section below or the forum. Thanks!

PinePhone

Last month I began with (and spent most time on) the Pinebook Pro, so it’s just fair that I open this month’s update with the PinePhone news section. A lot has happened in the short period of one month, so the best I can do is to try to summarize the most important aspects pertaining to hardware and software progress. I’ll pay more attention to hardware developments in this post, simply because I am not competent in providing an up-to-date report on every projects’ software status (you can reach all the devs in the chat and follow the progress live using the chat log if you wish to stay up-to-date). For what it’s worth, I am happy to give you a short resume of my experience with the few OS images I’ve tested at the end of this section.

Let’s start with the end-user PinePhone developments. With the case selected and approved, the phone’s PCB was commissioned a couple of weeks ago and submitted to the design house with detailed instructions on the required feature set. The first of the things we settled on was the battery capacity and physical dimensions; the battery will be the same capacity as the Samsung J7 SM-J700H/ BJ700BU (3000-3400 mAh), which can be had for under $10 from amazon and eBay. So in the event you need replacement or spare batteries, getting hold of them will be easy and affordable. We also settled on the number, and the implementation of, privacy switches on the phone – there will be 4 switches in total: for the i) BT/Wifi module, ii) the modem, iii) cameras (front/back) and iv) lastly for the microphone. They will be located on the PCB, under the back-cover, to prevent them from being toggled by accident, e.g. in your pocket or purse.

After a chat with developers, we also came up with a way to expose I2C using 6 pogo pins. These pogo pins will be located directly on the PCB. The idea behind this implementation is that entire back-covers with add-on components can be created (even 3D-printed) with additional functionality to enrich the phone’s functionality. The implementation only requires that the custom back-cover with additional hardware has the same dimensions and position of plastic latches as the original – and obviously that the component in question uses I2C (contact pads). I expect that a back-cover with a keyboard – perhaps one similar to that found on the Nokia N900 – will be something a considerable number of people may be interested in creating. To this end, we’ll make sure to have detailed documentation on this feature. I really hope that the hackers and tinkerers among you will embrace and make use of I2C for new cool implementations.