
/e/ plans to sell refurbished smartphones with Google-free Android - mmastrac
https://liliputing.com/2019/05/e-plans-to-sell-refurbished-smartphones-with-google-free-android.html?ut
======
nexuist
Odd brand name. I thought it was a 4chan forum.

That said, I'm glad someone is taking the baton on this challenge, and I wish
them the best.

~~~
ve55
Naming themselves e.foundation is one thing, but explicitly naming it "/e/"
does seem a bit odd.

For reference for those unaware (likely many of you), /e/ is the 4chan board
dedicated to 'ecchi' content, where ecchi is loosely defined as a 'slang term
in the Japanese language for playfully sexual actions'
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecchi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecchi)).

Apart from the name, will be interesting to see how well they can succeed with
a "Google-free Android", which is much easier said than done.

~~~
userbinator
Perhaps it's a reference to the type of content you're intended to consume
using this phone... somewhat like how the private browsing mode of browsers
has been called "porn mode".

~~~
segfaultbuserr
Aha! ...Surely enough, seeing creative memes and jokes like this is part of
the reason for me to be online... Now some 4chan denizens have already started
making NSFW memes about this project, and I genuinely believed it was a just a
meme initially.

But what an unfortunate name it is... You absolutely cannot be associated with
these things if you don't want your project to be the next victim of some
trolls' plans for the post-modern performance arts or drama, e.g. [0], [1], or
[2]. I hope they'll pick up a better name soon.

[0] Don’t be fooled by Apple ads that tell you to bend your iPhone 6

[https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/4chan-iphone-6-bend-
prank/...](https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/4chan-iphone-6-bend-prank/?tw=dd)

[1] 4chan is at It Again With Their Trolling of iPhone Users

[https://cheezburger.com/316165/4chan-is-at-it-again-with-
the...](https://cheezburger.com/316165/4chan-is-at-it-again-with-their-
trolling-of-iphone-users)

[2] A split within the Tox project

[https://lwn.net/Articles/651003/](https://lwn.net/Articles/651003/)

> _" The Tox project was started in mid-2013 by users on the 4chan message
> board."_

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lone_haxx0r
Google-free Android already exists, it's called Lineage OS

So, What's the difference between this and LineageOS?

~~~
geokon
One thing I noticed is that Lineage OS (and others) pings Google servers to
check that the internet connection works. Which was hilarious to find out in
China, where I'd connect to Wifi and it'd tell me I have no internet.

You can disable this check through ADB and then go manually into Firefox and
go to [http://detectportal.firefox.com/](http://detectportal.firefox.com/) to
open up wifi login portals. It's a bit of drag - but it works

It's crazy to think Google knows when every Android user logs into a wifi..
I'm not sure how much info can be inferred from the ping - but still

~~~
kekebo
You can also keep the check enabled but change the pinged URL via adb[0]. The
check expects a HTTP 204 response which can be easily set up on a personal vps
using apache or nginx.

[0]
[https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/186993/captive-p...](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/186993/captive-
portal-parameters)

------
m52go
I love the idea of this, but what's the market?

Wouldn't the people interested in this kind of thing mostly be capable of
doing this themselves, i.e., not willing to pay the premium?

~~~
mises
As people (including geek types) age, they tend to wish for simpler, more
functional technology. They may still care about privacy, but may prefer more
support and ease-of-use. That is likely there market.

Unfortunately, I think it is the current generation of geek types that will
care most about privacy, and so they may be a good bit ahead of their market.

------
Krasnol
The cheapest model is 279€...I think they are missing the point here. The
audience which is ready to pay those prices, won't buy refurbished phones...

[https://e.foundation/e-pre-installed-
smartphones/](https://e.foundation/e-pre-installed-smartphones/)

~~~
em-bee
i'd love if they get brand new midlevel phones and re-sell them for a premium
with /e/ preinstalled.

~~~
thaumasiotes
Is that not what they're doing? If they did follow your plan, the phones they
sold would be "refurbished phones".

------
e2le
Is the proprietary parts of the phone (such as the cellular modem) still
supported with firmware updates?

------
fjsolwmv
When you buy a refurbished phone from a third party, you are usually buying a
broken phone that a customer returned under warranty or traded in. These
phones tend to boot up OK and pass startuo health checks, and then crash or
have component failures (battery, mic, etc) within a few hours or if the
weather gets hit or humid.

~~~
lightbulbjim
On the flip side a refurbished item was inspected by a human and deemed to be
functional. A new item was probably last touched by a robot.

~~~
dragonwriter
And manual testing is so much more reliable than automated testing, right?

~~~
Wowfunhappy
For _hardware_? I'd say it probably is, yeah.

~~~
theamk
There are lots of functions in the modern cellphone. I am sure they are
checked on the factory (or by parts manufacturer), and I don't think people
who refurbish phones test them all. Examples I can think of:

\- Microphone and button on your 3.5mm jack

\- Both Bluetooth data rates

\- Every special function of MicroUSB connector (like MHT and whatever else
you might have there)

\- Second microphone (used for noise cancellation)

\- Low-light camera performance

\- Flash memory spare cells

\- Thermal stability (does it overheat?)

\- Battery capacity

\- Every frequency band works

I can believe that manufacturer-refurbished phones are probably tested fairly
comprehensively -- after all, the same people designed the original testing
procedures.

But would an unrelated store do a comprehensive cell phone test? Or are they
just going to turn the phone on, make sure that the screen looks fine, make a
single call (in the nice, quiet office not far from the cell phone tower) and
call it done? Somehow I suspect the latter.

~~~
robocat
I have bought a few used phones, and there is always something quirky that
makes you wonder if you got a lemon. Sometimes it is just existing
manufacturing faults, but how can you know?

An example: the WiFi connectivity is unexpectedly poor on a second hand phone,
which could be caused by dozens of different issues, and some of those issues
could be due to being dropped, liquid damage, poor remanufacturing, or
component drift...

We bought a refurbished PC recently, and while upgrading the SSD, I noticed a
shield around the CPU was completely misfitted: manufacturing fault or
refurbishment error?

------
zoom6628
I use a Xiaomi Redmi S2 purchased in China. Simplest way to run G-free and its
damn fine equipment. #justsaying

~~~
askvictor
Hmm; would I rather Google have access to my data, or the Chinese Government?

~~~
acct1771
Also, the American government/5E.

~~~
ajxs
I know for sure that world politics is truly a very grim state of affairs when
I view the American government as less of a threat than Google or China.

------
CameronNemo
How is this better than buying a refurbished phone yourself and flashing
microG+lineageOS on it?

~~~
atdt
How is Dropbox better than rsync+vps? A lot of innovation in tech consists of
making things that are straightforward for a technical person to do and making
them trivial for an ordinary person to do.

------
rchaud
I wish they included models with removable batteries, but I think the last
Samsung phone to have it was the Galaxy Note 4 in 2014.

------
kristianp
Why don't they support the Samsung S8, when they support the S7 and S9? How
odd.

~~~
jammygit
I own a s8. There are no working custom ROMs for it, samsung decided to make
that particular phone unusable without their stock build. I will not buy
Samsung again.

~~~
voltagex_
Hey, do you know what the technical problem is? And thereby also what the
change in the S9 is that allowed it to happen again?

Edit: Good old XDA, it never changes. From a thread about an unofficial
Lineage build:

"/* What’s working _/

Audio

Bootanimation

Brightness Level

Bluetooth

Microphone

MTP

Wi-Fi

LED

All sensors except fingerprint reader

SD Card

Capacitive buttons

/_ What’s not working _/

Bluetooth audio

RIL (calls, sms, microphone, data) _works only in first boot

NFC

Camera

Fingerprint reader

Torch

Wi-Fi Hotspot"

