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That looks good! It's an interesting way around the problem, just put an Alexa/G Assistant terminal in and you can interact via voice and avoid the phone all to

by joshvm 7y ago

That looks good! It's an interesting way around the problem, just put an Alexa/G Assistant terminal in and you can interact via voice and avoid the phone all together. But that thing runs YouTube too?? Dual SIM is nice. If it could tether I'd buy that next time I go on a long holiday (edit - it does!). Non removable battery is a pity too, but I've never actually needed that. I've been tempted by the CAT S60/61 though. I wonder, would it be worth making a service that works over voice calls, not the Internet? For example have a phone at home that automatically picks up and relays your call into an Alexa or something, then you can hear the response. Minutes are so cheap it might actually work.

Fnoord 7y ago
There are cheaper CAT (smart|dumb)phones which get less attention and fame, and have less functionality than the S60/S61 but which are also a lot cheaper. The interesting conceptual design of the Light Phone is that it is a dedicated dumbphone with e-ink, like a Kobo reader is a dedicated e-reader with e-ink. E-ink works if the page stays static, as you read a book. A smartphone, and dumbphone to lesser extend, have higher screen refreshes. The trend on smartphones is that the screen Hz is going up from 60 to 90/120 and higher. Which has battery impact, but as long as the battery is empty each day, it is acceptable for a lot of people. Now, if my device (be it smartphone, smartwatch, whatever) is empty every day then I hook it up every day. If it is empty every week I hook it up weekly (e.g. on Sunday) but every 3 days is kinda inconvenient. Just sharing some random thoughts...
- joshvm 7y ago
  I'm mostly interested in the CAT as my job (research) involves a lot thermal imaging, so there's a nerd factor (the lepton on its own is about £3-400 with a capture setup). I know there's also the FLIR One, but eh, for field work the CAT looks handy with the extra sensors. The light phone looks good, but I do actually want some of the smartphone features. I was very unhappy when Amazon nerfed 3G on Kindle, I used to use it for paper like maps when traveling in foreign cities. Google Maps worked very well.
  - Fnoord 7y ago
    I got a stand-alone FLIR for that purpose. Though there's also some which you can connect under a camera via USB-C/microUSB/lightning. Everything on the same physical device has its own pros/cons.
    - joshvm 7y ago
      Yes, at work we've got a variety of standalone FLIR cameras (Taus, Bosons, Duos, the One and Leptons) - pretty much the entire camera core range. I work in ecology and occasionally for outreach or when working with non tech people, they're interested in seeing what thermal footage looks like. And for field work it's handy to have environmental measurements in case we want to correct for atmospheric conditions (rarely tbh). The FLIR One comes in a USB C model, I've played with that on my Pixel. Works great although I think you have to use the sdk to get any kind of useful information out of the camera (eg if you want raw data). My group specialises in drone imaging and often it's useful to have ground footage so you can compare simultaneously, for example during biodiversity surveys. The problem with the plug in solution is the risk of it getting lost in the field, and it's not rugged enough. We recently did some surveys on a lake, so an IP rated phone with everything integrated would be ideal.

by joshvm 7y ago

Fnoord 7y ago

There are cheaper CAT (smart|dumb)phones which get less attention and fame, and have less functionality than the S60/S61 but which are also a lot cheaper. The interesting conceptual design of the Light Phone is that it is a dedicated dumbphone with e-ink, like a Kobo reader is a dedicated e-reader with e-ink. E-ink works if the page stays static, as you read a book. A smartphone, and dumbphone to lesser extend, have higher screen refreshes. The trend on smartphones is that the screen Hz is going up from 60 to 90/120 and higher. Which has battery impact, but as long as the battery is empty each day, it is acceptable for a lot of people. Now, if my device (be it smartphone, smartwatch, whatever) is empty every day then I hook it up every day. If it is empty every week I hook it up weekly (e.g. on Sunday) but every 3 days is kinda inconvenient. Just sharing some random thoughts...

joshvm 7y ago
I'm mostly interested in the CAT as my job (research) involves a lot thermal imaging, so there's a nerd factor (the lepton on its own is about £3-400 with a capture setup). I know there's also the FLIR One, but eh, for field work the CAT looks handy with the extra sensors. The light phone looks good, but I do actually want some of the smartphone features. I was very unhappy when Amazon nerfed 3G on Kindle, I used to use it for paper like maps when traveling in foreign cities. Google Maps worked very well.
- Fnoord 7y ago
  I got a stand-alone FLIR for that purpose. Though there's also some which you can connect under a camera via USB-C/microUSB/lightning. Everything on the same physical device has its own pros/cons.
  - joshvm 7y ago
    Yes, at work we've got a variety of standalone FLIR cameras (Taus, Bosons, Duos, the One and Leptons) - pretty much the entire camera core range. I work in ecology and occasionally for outreach or when working with non tech people, they're interested in seeing what thermal footage looks like. And for field work it's handy to have environmental measurements in case we want to correct for atmospheric conditions (rarely tbh). The FLIR One comes in a USB C model, I've played with that on my Pixel. Works great although I think you have to use the sdk to get any kind of useful information out of the camera (eg if you want raw data). My group specialises in drone imaging and often it's useful to have ground footage so you can compare simultaneously, for example during biodiversity surveys. The problem with the plug in solution is the risk of it getting lost in the field, and it's not rugged enough. We recently did some surveys on a lake, so an IP rated phone with everything integrated would be ideal.