Pine phone Junior, message phone ?

[nelstomlinson]

I would really like to be able to buy a flip phone that just did VoLTE calls and SMS/MMS, didn't spy, and didn't require administering a Linux computer.

[ryo]

A lot of the cheap ones are using KaiOS now so perhaps too googley for you.

I recently found there's a GerdaOS when reading here (Tor required to access), which runs on exactly 5 phones according to that article.
Can be found on: https://gerda.tech/ (no Tor required)

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I would really like to be able to buy a flip phone that just did VoLTE calls and SMS/MMS, didn't spy, and didn't require administering a Linux computer.

Doing VoLTE calls and SMS/MMS and doesn't spy at the same time is literally impossible.
You will need to cut out the ISP somehow to stop the spying in this case, which you need in order to make calls and send SMS to begin with.
Even if you somehow manage to do so, you'd still need to somehow get around government-owned cell towers.

[wibble]

A lot of the cheap ones are using KaiOS now so perhaps too googley for you.

I recently found there's a GerdaOS when reading here (Tor required to access), which runs on exactly 5 phones according to that article.
Can be found on: https://gerda.tech/ (no Tor required)

Thanks - hadn't spotted that one. Unfortunately it seems abandoned - https://gitlab.com/project-pris/system hasn't seen any commits in a year.

[Zebulon Walton]

Thanks - hadn't spotted that one. Unfortunately it seems abandoned - https://gitlab.com/project-pris/system hasn't seen any commits in a year.

Looks interesting but as you say there's been no activity for quite a while. Also nothing there yet for those of us in the US.

[nelstomlinson]

Doing VoLTE calls and SMS/MMS and doesn't spy at the same time is literally impossible.
You will need to cut out the ISP somehow to stop the spying in this case, which you need in order to make calls and send SMS to begin with.
Even if you somehow manage to do so, you'd still need to somehow get around government-owned cell towers.

Doesn't spy was stating the case way too strongly. As you say, merely using the cell towers means giving away your location at the least.

VoLTE will apparently be the only way to use the cell towers at some time in the future. It would be nice to use the cell towers without using Google or Apple.

Digital communications are inherently insecure, and broadcast communications are inherently insecure, but it would be nice to cut the commercial spies out of the loop.

[wibble]

Thanks - hadn't spotted that one. Unfortunately it seems abandoned - https://gitlab.com/project-pris/system hasn't seen any commits in a year.

Looks interesting but as you say there's been no activity for quite a while. Also nothing there yet for those of us in the US.

bananahackers.net has more info on KaiOS based phones and how to get more control over them. It seems you can root them, then edit the manifest files to make the built-on apps from Google, Facebook etc. removable instead of permanent. After that you can remove them through its normal app manager. There's other stuff there too, but the intractable problem seems to be that running a browser-based OS on a slow processor makes for a very laggy user experience.

[Zebulon Walton]

Unfortunately from what I could find on bananahackers it appears that the "Cingular Flip IV" (made by Alcatel) running KaiOS that AT&T sent me is one that has not been successfully rooted. I've been thinking it might be nice to have one of the easily-rooted KaiOS models as a backup phone.

[bcnaz]

KaiOS,
I put that in my browser's search window, ... of the many choices returned, one states it is from a large multi-national Chinese company,
... while a a few choices down the same page it says it is from a U.S. based company.

Hmm, they cannot both be accurate...?
A post I saw a while back here on the forum said it was released/supported by Google.

[Zebulon Walton]

KaiOS is derived from the old Firefox OS and is supposed to be open source. Google does have their fangs into it but I expect a rooted phone that you can uninstall the "Google Assistant" and other such crapware/spyware from would be OK as a backup phone. (So would a second pinephone but even if they are currently available money is too tight right now for me to buy another.)

[biketool]

Doesn't spy was stating the case way too strongly. As you say, merely using the cell towers means giving away your location at the least.

VoLTE will apparently be the only way to use the cell towers at some time in the future.  It would be nice to use the cell towers without using Google or Apple.

Digital communications are inherently insecure, and broadcast communications are inherently insecure, but it would be nice to cut the commercial spies out of the loop.

In the 90s when I didn't have the money for full service cellular I took incoming calls through a pager which either sent me a SMS like message or a callback number and voicemail.  I then had the choice of using my mobile phone(I had 60 min a month) and timing my calls with a stopwatch and writing my usage in a call log or calling back on an amateur radio repeater where every ham in the area would hear the call.  It was totally private in both modes to location and truthfully as private to snoop-able content as using AMPS(1G) which was analog audio on 900mhz band at the time and just slightly obfuscated duplex.
I guess it is also about learning radio(and radio-telephone) discipline, I learned to keep over the air communications brief, on topic, and vague toward personal information from military, aviation, and emergency services radio usage.