
Palm Phone for Minimalists - gullyfur
https://palm.com/
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qilo
This is not a new device, it was released 17 months ago (November 2018).

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jccalhoun
This looks like the same phone they came out with late in 2018 and it was not
reviewed well: [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/12/palm-phone-review-
fu...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/12/palm-phone-review-fun-
endearing-and-bad-at-everything/)

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Brajeshwar
Around the time, just before the COVID Pandemic in India, I was reaching home
(Feb 26) in Bangalore and the founder of Sunblaze[1] was flying out. We were
able to have an hour of dinner-meeting before he leave for Japan. We were to
discuss the opportunity of partnering and helping Indians farmers with a phone
that can be sold at the cost price of ₹2,500 (roughly $33 at today's
conversion). It runs a modified variant of a prior version of Android.

This phone can be a really cheap minimal phone with some "Smartphone"
features. I have a piece with me but I have not yet used it and will be given
to the engineering team to play around test our apps for it.

1\. [https://www.sunblaze.jp](https://www.sunblaze.jp)

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exikyut
This is cool.

I often wonder how much additional bang for buck these sorts of inexpensively-
priced phones could get by also aiming at the tinkerer/maker market. Ecosystem
fragmentation and staggering hardware competition doesn't really provide
anyone the foundation to stably provide an Android-based, market-resilient
hackable device akin to the Raspberry Pi, but different vendors have found
interesting ways to differentiate what are ultimately low-end devices by
providing hacker-friendly features. The general leading example is the
PinePhone
([https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/](https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/)).

\- The simplest thing would be unlocking the bootloader and documenting your
support (warranty etc) position on the use of custom firmware.

\- Next in complexity would be periodically releasing driver blobs for
progressively newer Linux versions - this would enable the community to keep
their devices on recent(ish) Android releases with slightly less effort on
your end. Given your market positioning, I don't think it would be
unreasonable to release firmware on a "it shouldn't brick anything but it is
untested" basis - ie, the community is the QC :)

\- [Resists making unrealistic source code noises :D]

\- What would probably go down nicely is supplying your own high-res shots to
iFixit. Bonus points if the device (or version 2... or 3) is actually easy to
disassemble - probably a practical consideration given your market (and the
fact that local labor may be cheaper than a new ~$35 device).

\- This will probably wind up on the website sooner or later anyways, but in
line with the previous point, a list of what's in the phone (ie, chip model
numbers) would be nice to know. Right now I have no idea if the device has
host-side USB, for example.

You might decide that the effort associated with pursuing all or any of these
may mean straying from your current price targets. That's fine; I just have a
bit of a penchant for hacker-enabling really inexpensive Android devices :)

NB. I can't see the yellow header text at the top of the page.

~~~
Brajeshwar
Here are my learnings from my brief interaction with the founder.

\- He was very clear on an immediate goal. His current intention is not to
make money from the sale of the phones.

\- Viable Revenue streams are from a collaboration with third parties who wish
to leverage his platform to plug in mostly educational material for farmers.

\- He wants to work with other Startups, Companies, in AgTech and others
working for farmers.

\- He is not competing in a 'cheaper-phone' category but more of a 'content-
platform' for farmers.

\- We, at Sagri[1], give loans to farmers, who do not have access to
institutional lenders (which is more than 50% of Indian Farmers). We rely on
our (WIP) credit-score for farmers to disburse loans. We fast-track and doing
a lot of manual (spreadsheet + pen-paper) to give loans to farmers, during
this epidemic, when it is needed most.

\- Our idea is to partner with Sunblaze and give the phones for free to
farmers. Farmers, then, payback in installments along with our loan
repayments.

\- The phone is also not about anything nerdy cool stuff. They don't even care
much about being cool but more on optimizing it to able to run at the most
optimal way for the resource they have.

\- Thanks for the website feedback. I believe they have it just for the sake
of it. Once we partner, maybe, we will help them out with that. :-)

1\. [https://sagri.co](https://sagri.co)

[Edit: What's with Hackernews Markdown!]

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conception
Unihertz Atom, The Smallest 4G Rugged Smartphone in The World, Android 9.0 Pre
Unlocked Smart Phone with 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KP8J8YN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ZA...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KP8J8YN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ZAuIEbG7QW690)

I have one of these and it actually works pretty well. It’s my “phone break”
phone as it’s small enough that you don’t want to use it a lot but you can use
it if you need to for Spotify, maps or whatever.

~~~
RandomBacon
Looks good. How are updates for it, or can it be flashed with a stock ROM?

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theturtletalks
Price point is kind of high for something like this. Would rather spend $60-70
and get a iPhone 5SE and that comes with a headphone jack.

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bontaq
Is this actually new? With that said, bring back the Palm Pre

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numpad0
People running this new “PALM” company probably never even had experiences
with Palm products

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clSTophEjUdRanu
I remember my father's palm Vx

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hackeraccount
Thank you. That makes me feel ancient.

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loosescrews
Android 8.1 seems pretty old. It doesn't matter how great the hardware is
without good software support.

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adenta
I own one of these, and am a big fan. I bought it a year ago, for $100. Happy
to answer any questions.

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saagarjha
Where did you find it for $100? It seems to be $300 here.

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adenta
I bought it used on [https://swappa.com](https://swappa.com). Looks like there
available on Verizon right now.

[https://swappa.com/mobile/buy/palm-companion-
phone/verizon](https://swappa.com/mobile/buy/palm-companion-phone/verizon)

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RandomBacon
All those apps? I guess my definition of minimalism is different.

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truebosko
Yup, I dig this and I hope we see more of this as we enter another phase of
mobile devices.

My iPhone 11, although a great phone, is unnecessary for me. I love its camera
(for photos/FaceTime), everything else is superfluous. I am also terrified
with dropping it.

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mushufasa
... yet you bought it.

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truebosko
Not saying I don't like it. :)

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ip26
It was so close to exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately good battery life was
missing- a dealbreaker.

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xrd
Stand by time of 3 days isn't enough?

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anoncareer0212
I have one and that's...very optimistic, even for standby. Lasts 3-4 hours if
you're streaming music/podcasts

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pram
Why even bother including a camera?

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kevingadd
Taking photos is an essential part of what these devices need to do,
regardless of how small or inexpensive they are.

