Well, yes and no. The other day, I had to use the Official AussweisApp in Germany for a very complicated bit of identify me circus (to interact with several ministries at once). That app runs on linux. It would run on Sailfish if NFC would work for the Android layer. It’s a native linux and mac-os client and has ios and android versions. It’s built with QT, I believe. The system I’m running on has a custom kernel (some realtime patches, plus other low latency hacks for a custom audio driver).
I was able to do all identify me foo in as secure a way as is possible. With a network involved.
Wouldn’t be better to use the space for some other things? Some of us would like to have a quality DAC and a 3.5 minijack too, but all that audio extras would be useful for very few people.
Thats just a dreaming: Why to limit to only one TOH. Tohs could be configured for purposes. So to have for instance two. One for example for traveling: photo tools, good gps, satelite communication, or larger battery
the other profiled for med use: infra thermometer to measure body temp, and pulsoximeter.
Depending on the task or activity I coukd exchange the TOH.
Another use case. Toh which you open up, flip so it connects by edge with front screen and extend front screen to have a larger tablet version.
Meshtastic/LoRa radio+antenna → Access to the local Meshtastic network, for out-of–band communication → Low-power/long-range side channels for news and discussion → Be the first phone that makes it easy to directly monitor IoT, and chat even if the cell network is down, and without satellite use.
Best of all – This is a low-hanging fruit! The hardware is quite cheap, and the power requirements are low!
Possible downsides: Antenna placement might be difficult, and would probably require a dedicated app.
Expanding on this: Didn’t know it til now but something called the “Nokia Magic Max 5G” has a small screen at the back. Looks cool and got me thinking:
How about we have a TOH, (or even built into the actual J2 phone) which is capable of running AsteroidOS?
It could use a small OLED on the back to display stuff, and it’s
Technically it could be a separate module capable of driving AsteroidOS, or some kind of containerized software solution on the phone OS itself which uses the screen at the back for display, and the main phone ui for set up etc.
Does someone know if there is a small SOC that can run Asteroid OS but is not encased in a smartwatch case?
A FM radio with a 3,5 mm audio jack would solve two issues, preferably with some internal antenna in TOH so radio could be listened on the speaker without the headphones being connected (like in some Nokia/HMD phones).
A more niche version could have Silicon Labs Si4734 DSP, for AM and shortwave radio, and amateur radio listening, with an antenna connector.
I’m afraid you may be right about the EU Commission’s fondness for Big Tech, but there is no technical reason for this to be the only possible outcome. It is just the result of lacking separation of concerns - a phone is not an identity “card”. The identity part can be segregated such that the computer and operating system where it is used doesn’t matter.
N900 was a good experience with it’s keyboard. Only the upper row was too close to the screen.
The F(X)tec Pro1 keyboard was lovely to use. No downsides there, besides that my Pro1 died a bit too early.
And there was TOHKBD — The Other Half Keyboard for J1.
And it was horrible to use. This was not, because build quality was bad - even though it was not on the same level like the N900 or the Pro1. The main problem was the balance. There is a complete phone with all it’s weight and that of the battery and it sits above a quite light weight keyboard. It was simply very uncomfortable to use and I just used it for two weeks. And I don’t see how this problem should be solved.
Since, it was proposed to dream about the outcome, and without any figures in head, why not thinking of an other half which would replace the main battery when attached ? This other half should obviously provide a battery by itself, and combined with a tilting mechanism like on the N950 or the pro1 (it had one, had it not ?), the weight balance may be less defavorable than it is with a simple push keybord in the other half.
3D-scanner or laser/structural light addition to provide high-resolution 3D scanning capacity for the phone camera. Resolution 10 microns (or better) would make it a winner.
