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World's First Modular Smart Phone Hits the Market
An anonymous reader writes: Out before the much anticipated Google Modular Phone Project ARA, is a new phone from Fairphone: The Fairphone 2. This phone is claimed to be the the worlds first real modular phone. Fairphone is more than just a phone manufaturer but a social justice movement . Fairphone is a project of Waag Society, Action Aid and Schrijf-Schrijf to raise awareness about conflict minerals in consumer electronics and the wars that the mining of these minerals is fueling in the DR Congo. The Fairphone 2 build consists of 5-inch Full HD LCD screen, Android 5.1 Lollipop,Dual SIM, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Qualcomm quad core processor.
bark less.
I use my Fairphone in my hugcircle in my safe space. Where do you use yours?
The entire thing is a joke. The phone is made in China in the same factories and suppliers as other phones. The difference is that their suppliers say "sure, we only use tungsten from Colorado, not from the Congo". And the hipsters fly home happy.
They are trying to do what we wish all manufacturers would do, make devices repairable, upgradeable, and built of sustainable raw materials.
I truly hope they will succeed, but they have to make something competitive with manufacturers that don't tie a hand behind their backs, because cheaper phones make more profits, and more profits make better phones. I trade with the Good Enough Markets (Africa, South America, Asia) and the buyers of used phones want whatever is the best phone for the least cost. The minute they make some compromise that reduces quality and value, they will lose scaleability and traction. To achieve value, you must achieve scale of production, and that requires a wee bit of ruthlessness.
Good Luck, Fair Phone Guys. Don't try to be perfect, just be better.
Gently reply
"Sure, boss, we are willing to work on social end environmental performance with you. When is the check coming, gweilo?"
Swapping out internal components is one thing, but when I think of a modular phone I envision one of the modules being a full hardware QUERTY keyboard.
Sigh... nope.
I couldn't care less about all of the "fair trade minerals" or "conflict free tungsten" or whatever. Not that I'm for using slave labor in mines or against having livable wages at factories that aren't deathtraps, but I think promoting that through buying an expensive phone is a useless feel-good measure best left for hipsters trying to assuage their 1st world guilt.
That said, I really hate how the current phone market is trying to make phones into fashion accessories that you throw out after you get tired of them in 6 months. I build my own PCs to last through several upgrades before they get to the point where I feel the need to scrap the entire thing and get a new one. My current motherboard and case are bordering on 6 years old, ram was 4 years old when I last upgraded, I'm on my 2nd CPU, 3rd video card, and 4th primary hdd. I upgrade often enough that almost all of the parts that didn't flat out fail have filtered down to other systems (and often other systems after that). I see no reason why cell phones can't work the same way, and think it's great that fairphone is attempting to make something that's modular and easily fixable/upgradable. Hopefully it'll take off enough that it encourages other manufacturers to do similar things with modular phone design.
A further initiative these guys are taking that I fully endorse: and end to the so-called "land-fill Android" syndrome:
Extending the lifespan of your mobile phone
That's pretty great really. What's not to like about that?
Just in case anyone in the US or elsewhere in the Americas is considering one of these, know that you won't get any LTE reception, and in the US, you'll only get 3G reception on the 1900 band used by AT&T or (in some places) by T-Mobile. It doesn't support AT&T's 850 band and or T-Mobile's 1700 (AWS) band.
In short, this is designed by Europeans, for Europeans.
www.gaiageek.com
Because manufacturing doesn't work that way. Their Chinese supplier makes their phone. The supplier supplies the electronics and the raw materials. It isn't like Fairphone sends them a shipment of tungsten saying "hey use this to make our phone". It is just a bunch of hipsters with a gimmick.
You can do replace individual components with an iPhone too with parts off of ebay. Oh and why isn't the Fairphone2 available as an "upgrade" for the Fairphone1? You just need to "plug in" the upgrade, right?
Two points:
1. Several commentators elsewhere have noted that "blood minerals", like "blood diamonds", are not the root cause of the problem of violence and slavery in such countries. Social and governmental upheaval and disorder are the root issue, that will not be solved just by banning these commodities. Take away blood minerals, and the people of the regions affected by these problems will still have conflicts, just around some other valuable materials. The commodities for phones merely serve as the current vehicle for the conflict to be manifested. Much as college students want that to be the quick fix, by boycotting one thing, that will not solve the problem.
2. The second point is that frequently the best thing that can be done to control and regulate the impacts of a commodity / mining / illicit trading / etc is that the sourcing of it is more concentrated, responsible in fewer entities or companies, who can be clearly identified. Apple in this regard has done more as the responsible party for sourcing hundreds of millions of iPhones and documenting their environmental / social impact than any other small phone maker. In fact, I might suggest that the more you incentivize small, local shops to make their own special version of a phone, the more opportunity there is for exploitation and inconsistency from your humanitarian vision.
There are lots of downsides to the commodities and technologies needed to supply our gadgets, but given that demand is not going to be the level to be pulled here, I don't buy that this movement will solve them.
You can do replace individual components with an iPhone too with parts off of ebay.
Oh, really?
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Yes you can. You can replace the same number of components on the iPhone as you can the Fairphone. How do you think the hundreds of iphone repair shops do it? I can't believe people fall for this kind of stuff.
I want my phone to do messaging, read email, browse the web, call people, I want it as a portable gps and basic camera and maybe a calculator and a flashlight. All these have been available on very old phones, all of these do not tax the processor even back to Snapdragon 800.
There has been zero reason to upgrade a phone for the last three years at least. Of course, as soon as phones become capable of actual computing (running real applications, running multiple displays, interfacing with external storage, burn blu ray disks, and print to generic printers) I will upgrade. Until then... why?
You suck at reading bullshit. There is nothing concrete in that quote.
Goals are something you'd like to reach. They aren't things you're currently doing. You never need to reach a goal.
Willingness to work on something means nothing. I'm willing to give everyone in the world a million dollars, but I'll never do so.
A commitment to transparency isn't a plan. It's a 'we'll make a committee and never let anything useful come out of the meetings'.
"production partners we engage with directly" means no one. They can define "engage with directly" however they want.
Identifying areas that needs improvement doesn't mean improving them.
They're going to create worthless assessments as the first step in a process to create a policy of creating more worthless assessments before making changes that might have an impact on something.
They're going to look at each step of the production line, ignoring how it fits in with all the other steps, and see how they can make that step more profitable by itself. Then they might actually make a change to make it more profitable. "Investigate" has no promise of action and they don't even say what they're investigating for. You will assume they're investigating what you want them to investigate and someone with different ideals will read the same paragraph and believe they're investigating what that person wants investigating.
You shouldn't read anything released by a corporation. It's all meaningless and will damage your brain.
Just what I want and desperately need, more militantly dysfunctional subjectivist Marxist bullshit in my objectively functional technology.
Before I know it my pull requests are going to be totally triaged by feels and privilege checks, my render times will be doubled due to mid-bucketing RGB diversity checks, and my login password will have to include an entire freaking ASCII table so none of it feels unfairly excluded by the Literaryarchy.
The new iteration of the phone has upgraded almost every component. If you want the specs of the new phone, it makes no sense to upgrade the old one since almost the entire phone would be changed. "[T]he stupidity never ends"...
I rather like mine, although unfortunately just like the Fairphone 2 here, it doesn't support the frequencies my wireless carrier uses and as such is completely useless to me as a cellphone. Alas!
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
Correct. Nexus brand is for phones that are co-developed with new Android releases. I've worked on Nexus products before and essentially it gives OEMs and chip vendors several months head start on preparing a for a new Android.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Because it is silly in practice.
We've never had a modular phone "in practice".
I can get iPhone parts on ebay and "repair" my phone.
Problem is, usually requires some specialty tools, depending on the phone.
And think about it: if the phone is upgradable, why isn't the Fairphone 2 upgradeable from the Fairphone 1???
Because this version is modular, do you understand what that word means?
Christ, the stupidity never ends.
Yes, and if you'd shut up there'd be less of it.
Because manufacturing doesn't work that way. Their Chinese supplier makes their phone. The supplier supplies the electronics and the raw materials. It isn't like Fairphone sends them a shipment of tungsten saying "hey use this to make our phone".
Citation needed, again.
How the fuck do you know how their setup works? You haven't provided a single link to support your bullshit; you probably haven't even looked at their site.
Put up a link or shut up. Fairphone has put up claims, feel free to debunk them if you have anything other than bullshit:
It is just a bunch of hipsters with a gimmick.
No, it's a bunch of whiny, cynical assholes bitching because someone is making an effort to provide consumers choice - a choice that whiny, cynical assholes don't want to look into in the slightest, never mind a choice they'd make.
Fine, if you don't want one no one cares. But just because someone shat in your cereal, don't have a whinefest about someone else making an effort.
Yes you can. You can replace the same number of components on the iPhone as you can the Fairphone. How do you think the hundreds of iphone repair shops do it? I can't believe people fall for this kind of stuff.
I saw what you did there. You're moving the goalposts.
Obviously a legitimate, Apple-approved repair shop can fix your phone without bricking it.
Per the article I linked to -- which you ignored -- repair shops that use unapproved Apple parts can permanently brick an iPhone.
And you're saying a consumer can fix their iPhone with parts they just buy off eBay? Yeah, good luck with that.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Apple released a fix for this issue days after it made the media.
Apple released a fix for this issue days after it made the media.
Oh dear ... AC, it appears you're right:
http://www.techtimes.com/artic...
http://www.techtimes.com/artic...
Sorry, 110010001000.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
I'm *still* using my N900 due to the slide-out keyboard. Does this thing have such a feature as an available module? Couldn't find the info at least on product's page...
You realize you are using an 8-bit CPU in an Arduino to communicate to a 32-bit RISC inside the cell module you bought?
I also would like to call BS on there being any such thing as a "open source hardware" for a cell radio.
The goal of fairphone is not to sell many phones. Instead their primary goals are to make the production process of phones transparent, show how things can be improved for humans and environment in all steps from resources to assembly, and they have encourage you to use your phone longer. Exactly what you want. The fp2 should even last longer than the first.
This exactly what FP promotes. The best what you can do for laborer and the environment, use the phone as long as possible.
A further initiative these guys are taking that I fully endorse: and end to the so-called "land-fill Android" syndrome
I don't see anything about the other big cause of land-fill Android syndrome: software updates. Are they also going to update the phone to new OS versions for a decade or so?