How I daily-drive [updated]
#1
Hello,

I received my first PinePhone a couple of weeks ago. I transplanted my only SIM card from my iPhone SE (2nd gen) to the PP a couple of days ago and there is no way back for me. After the last Apple announcements I am pretty much done with them and Google is a no-go for me as well.
I am very happy with how useable and stable the PP is - at least for my kinda modest requirements.
I just felt like writing up the setup I currently arrived at; I somewhat doubt I will try many more other distros any time soon.

Here is my setup:
PinePhone model: Beta Edition 3 GB / 32 GB
Distro: Arch (Gnome v. 40.4)
DE: phosh (Wayland)
I installed Arch (build 2021/09/08 from here) on the eMMC via JumpDrive (see here)

Calling someone: Works.
Caveat: Surrounding noises can be (very) annoying for the person being called -- will try a cable headset soon.

Getting called: Works.
Caveat: When the PP is in deep sleep, the caller hears 6 rings while the PP wakes up. Then my provider informs the caller I am not available and that I will receive an SMS / text messages about the call.
My thoughts: I consider this a feature - I do not have to answer the phone when it sleeps which will be the case when a) I am on the road and am not using the phone or b) I am sleeping myself.
In any case I get the SMS and can then call back when/if it suits me - works for me Smile

Receiving SMS / text messages: Works.

Sending SMS / text messages: Works.
Caveat: I manually set mobile to '2G only' beforehand. This may be an issue when 2G gets obsolete.

Battery duration: Should be ok - for me.
It lasts for at least 2 hours of normal use. I will better bring my charger/ power bank/ replacement battery for longer trips..

Camera: Not useful for taking pictures of important memories.
The image quality is just a joke to me. I disabled the front camera via the kill switch. I keep the rear camera for documentation purposes.
Workaround: I will carry my real camera more often now - works for me.


Apps

I regularly use these apps, sorted from hard-to-setup to alread-installed:


Spot (for Spotify)
- see https://flathub.org/apps/details/dev.alextren.Spot

Signal Desktop client
- see https://privacyshark.zero-credibility.net/#packages
- I gave up on Axolotl for now

Lollypop (mp3 player)
- came pre-installed; the work here was to copy music files onto the PinePhone. I did that by connecting my usb disk to the PP via the usb-c dock that came with it. The copying I did using the good old Midnight commander:
sudo pacman -S mc

PureMaps + OSM Scout Server (GPS Navigation)
- Performance + UX is 10 times as good as with the pre-installed 'Maps'
- Offline map data for my region only ate up about 2 GB of disk space
- In-car test: A complete failure. Short version: GPS on the PinePhone is not yet working in real life.
- see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=puremaps
- see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php...coutserver

Shortwave (Internet radio)
- see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=shortwave
- best internet radio app on any platform (fast + no ads ...)
- Caveat: when adding a station be careful not to freeze all of phosh (requires a phone restart for me - but the station gets added)

Weather
- Came pre-installed (I think); otherwise see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=weather

KTrip (Public transport)
- Came pre-installed; otherwise see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=ktrip
- Does the job, also tested it on-the-go, shows slightly less information than similar iOS/Android apps

Calendar.
- Instead of using 'evolution' (I prefer a calender-only app) I installed 'Calendar for GNOME': https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.gnome.Calendar
- I only had to do this:
Code:
scale-tofit gnome-calendar on
as per https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php...ted-tweaks

E-Mail
- I use the pre-installed Geary
- as a bonus, this app asks me to unlock my keyring which I need to do anyway for Spotify: this results in me checking my emails everytime before starting spotify, nice Smile

Video Player with hardware acceleration
I use Clapper to play up-to-1080p videos from a 200 GB microSD card perfectly. This guide helped me to have the sd card auto-mounted always: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/fstab#External_devices


Apps I will never get (I think):

Slack
- Flathub failed me here so far.

Spotify client that can remote-control my stereo. The official iOS Spotify app can do that.

Threema. (rather unimportant)

WhatsApp. (good riddance - finally!)

A Browser that supports e.g. the spotify web player (seems to require proprietary codecs / DRM) -- any chance here sooner or later?


Thanks for reading!
  Reply
#2
Wow! you are using your phone way harder than I do. Calls and texts and occasional web browsing only, here.
I agree about the camera. It just isn't useful yet. @megi, could we maybe get a manual slider for focus, while we wait patiently for autofocus? I believe I'm using your megapixels 1.3
Pinephone beta edition, convergence model, Mobian Bookworm with Phosh.
  Reply
#3
Last time I checked you could invoke autofocus in Megapixels by tapping the screen image.
  Reply
#4
(10-09-2021, 04:53 PM)Zebulon Walton Wrote: Last time I checked you could invoke autofocus in Megapixels by tapping the screen image.

The other day I saw a picture taken with v 1.3 that looked really good.
But to me - sorry megi! - improving the software no matter how much will make no difference.
I am used to the image quality of the 16 MP cameras of Pixel 1 / iPhone SE 2nd. gen which sadly can never be achieved by the PP's 5 MP camera.
Also in my mind 16 MP has been the industry standard (or minimum) for at least a decade Blush

(10-09-2021, 12:19 PM)nelstomlinson Wrote: Wow! you are using your phone way harder than I do. Calls and texts and occasional web browsing only, here.

My goal is to never take an iOS or Android device on the road again.
Being a developer myself I - better late than never - recently decided that I cannot trust either company with e.g. my private photos. In Apple's case it is especially bad: I have to assume from now on that they will look at any data on -my- iOS device whenever they please and this is unacceptable. If I want someone to do that, I would just install some malware.
  Reply
#5
Zeb is right! Autofocus does work. Last time I tried to use it was outside, with the wrong glasses and way too bright, so I guess I just couldn't tell.

Thanks, @megi. It would still be nice to have a manual focus slider, if that's not going to hold up serious stuff.
Pinephone beta edition, convergence model, Mobian Bookworm with Phosh.
  Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Are you using the Pinephone as your daily driver? jro 157 105,168 02-18-2024, 11:33 PM
Last Post: aular
  Can the Pine Phone be serviced and updated remotely? profileyourcity 3 992 10-02-2023, 05:19 PM
Last Post: Zebulon Walton
  US Cell Phone Service Providers with prices and phone numbers - UPDATED jovval 0 680 07-01-2023, 01:25 AM
Last Post: jovval
  UPDATED (June 2021): 17-distro multi-boot image for Pinephone (incl. 3GiB variant) megous 182 240,309 03-05-2023, 11:04 AM
Last Post: Eugo
  are you still using pinephone as a daily driver? zetabeta 29 9,112 02-09-2023, 11:48 AM
Last Post: silverwing
  Replacement drive LeeLee 1 1,031 06-15-2022, 02:07 AM
Last Post: fxc
  tried it as a daily driver nelstomlinson 18 10,135 01-04-2022, 09:51 AM
Last Post: Zebulon Walton
  8 Months of Daily Driving keg0death 3 3,019 12-07-2021, 06:10 AM
Last Post: wibble
  updated now phone won't start techariah 3 2,511 10-17-2021, 11:41 PM
Last Post: bcnaz
  For those of us that need a working daily driver Nutmeg 6 5,197 07-13-2021, 03:33 PM
Last Post: Nutmeg

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)