phone is basically a choice between google (any android phone unless you jailbreak and de-goog it, which is a PITA) and apple. Who is less offensive surveilling you? Can you really predict that will still be true in 5 years?
So you're right - Apple could always go down a bad path. But because of their respective business models, I'm more confident in Apple than Google.
Google doesn't have any products that are similar. Google mostly only answers similarly to shareholders if ad revenue is down. It would potentially take a lot to change in the world for any product to rival Google's ad revenue in prominence on shareholder reports.
Ok, on second thought, that's an infinitesimally small risk.
Pinephone (should be early next year, somewhere around $150) https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/
Librem 5 (should be Q3 2019, $650) https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/
* Kernel, drivers and userland I can compile on my own if I want to
* 4-8 GB RAM
* 4 core Cortex A72 or better wide out-of-order core (no A53, A55 or similar crap, unless it's a big-little configuration)
* Good 64-128 GB low latency high IOPS eMMC. Too many devices penny pinch here creating a slow user experience.
* 4G (600 Mbps+) or preferably 5G
* Good OLED screen, 1080x1920 is probably enough. Although I do like S9+ 1440x2960 screen
* Stereo speakers, front and back camera, GPS (+ glonass, etc.), standard set of sensors.
* USB-C and headphone jack
* MicroSD slot that can actually read & write over 100 megabytes per second.
* NO ability for baseband to read and write memory arbitrarily; embedded USB connection or something.
* Price below $1000
I have a Gemini and have been very pleased with it and have supported the Cosmo too because I want to support them. I'm hoping that if they continue to make sales they'll continue to develop newer devices.
These projects aren't quite delivering your complete feature set but they're making the best go of it out of anyone I've seen.
What we really need though is a replacement for all Google Play Services that is free software, including push notifications.
It tries very hard to hide any non-portable components from you. The base platform is a virtual machine where you have zero access to any Linux API. They even indent their own API for things Linux already has! (Binder, ashmem, power management...) About the one Linux API you have access to is sockets, if you're writing native code, and there mostly a POSIX subset. (No, you do not really have access to file system directly.)
It could run on Minix or Windows or Darwin for all Google cares about - but hardware manufacturers preferred Linux for the price.
I look at a map before I leave when on foot and in the car I have a navigator.
- Mobile Banking
Nothing that can't wait until I'm behind a desk.
- IM because nobody sends text messages anymore
Nobody sends me IM messages because I never used it in the first place.
- Calendar
Could be useful, once every month or so, but on the whole it is easy enough to do this stuff once I'm back behind my desk, worst case the other side has access and they can send me an invite. This really only comes up when someone on the phone wants to book some kind of appointment when I'm on the road, and in that case I'm actually really happy I am not going to be tempted to look at my phone, it is annoying enough that people expect your phone to be answered at all hours.
- quick web searches
I do a ton of those, but not when I'm out of the office or meeting people, I've had a case come up once or twice but usually I just make a mental note to check up on something.
- a decent camera I'll always carry
That's a good one, another one which would work for me would be to have something good to read wherever I go.
But those two can be solved quite easily: my dumb phone has a reasonably good camera and there's always a book in my bag.
That problem is on your end I'm afraid, no judgment call on other lifestyles was implied or intended, I merely documented how I do stuff without commenting on how you do stuff or how I feel you should do stuff.
In a nutshell: I'm susceptible to being distracted with an ease that makes toddlers jealous and because of that I have to seriously restrict the kind of effect my environment has on me or I'll happily burn up my whole life without achieving anything. In order to do that I've decided that smartphones - besides being a security risk and a tracking device - are not for me.
In my experience, unless I do an inordinate amount of prior planning (printing out map directions, itineraries, hotel reservations, etc.) it is very easy to have navigation difficulties in unfamiliar cities with street signs in foreign languages....or no street signs at all. Where do you get an accurate map when you are trying to meet people at a newly-opened cafe in Hanoi's old French Quarter?
Nobody can send you an IM? So if you strike up a conversation with a Shenzhen entrepreneur, he wants to stay in contact to talk business and suggests WeChat, your only response is [US phone number] or [email]?
No web searches when out of the office? So if your next course of action is contingent upon a piece of information you don't currently have access to, you can't proceed with a decision on-the-spot because you possess no ability to access remote data while you are mobile?
I dunno, seems like a lot of potential inefficiencies and lost opportunities compared to dropping $150 on a dual-SIM rugged Android phone from China, and then installing a few apps on it. But hey, if it works for you.....
I took a family trip back to America recently and my jaw dropped watching my (74yo) father and his wife use a paper map to navigate to DisneyWorld. They complained that Google was giving them "bad directions". My older brother and I just looked at each other and shook our heads. PICNIC (Problem in chair, not in computer).
Not the parent, but in my personal case I only listen to music in my car, and have my MP3 library synced to a device in my car. It doesn't cost me data and works in the middle of nowhere.
To counter this issue of distraction, I managed to get my app selection down to about 10-12 essentials, all heavily curated so there's nothing that will 'keep me scrolling'. It basically consists of Email, Messaging, Duolingo, edx, Instagram (only following about 200 close friends so my feed is at most 5-8 pictures a day), Uber, Spotify, MyFitnessPal, Audible, and the apps for the aforementioned uses.
After removing the "continuous distraction" apps from my phone it's gone from a procrastination machine, back to being the worlds most valuable tool.
P.S. People often made fun of me for carrying the dumb phone. I'd always quip, "I'm too smart to use a smart phone." Feel free to use that quote when defending yourself ;)
I've wiped my phone and put LineageOS on it a few weeks ago and I've had no problems whatsoever. (To be fair I should say that my device was officially supported and I don't use any apps that depend on the GSF.)
We've lost the App War. I need multiple Apps that "need" Location Services and Push Notifications just to get what used to be hole punches or stamps on business cards for buy 10 get 1 free sandwiches in 2019.
Options like LineageOS and going without Google Play Services might as well be a "dumb phone" in current culture. It's an hilarious joke. Google realized all the real control in Android was in controlling Google Play Services, and as soon as that got locked down people should have been worried. Google wouldn't have had as much power to "kill" Windows Phone that they had if apps didn't matter.
(Fwiw, I went back to Apple as that unfortunately seemed the only sane choice to have Apps and some semblance of maybe Privacy.)
Actually, since I've ditched WhatsApp a few days ago, I'm running 100% FOSS (sans some proprietary blobs and all the network services) on my phone.