Comment on Fairphone 5 - release date and US support??
Polymath@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago(Not trying to be combative/pedantic/“devil’s advocate”)
What kind of phone do you personally use, and/or prefer, that’s more user-friendly, as opposed to user-hostile?
I’m not necessarily opposed to anything specifically, and trying to find less-corporate alternatives that are, ideally, more eco-friendly or whatnot, but obviously “no ethical consumption under capitalism” and all. Fairphone is just the least corporate and eco-fucked thing I’ve found thus far that’s reasonable with current technology and interoperability.
Thoughts? Suggestions??
jet@hackertalks.com 1 year ago
Pixel 5a - has a headphone jack.
I want to believe in the fair phone mission, they’re talking my kind of crazy. But removing the headphone jack and at the exact moment pushing their own Bluetooth earbuds felt extremely disingenuous to their mission.
Removing choices from users, to put them into your sales funnel for some other device, might be a good business decision, but it is user hostile. It increases e-waste, because people cannot use their previous equipment.
Somewhat off topic, I still use my headphone jack. I plug in my headphones into the phone when I’m on conference calls, or if I’m in a loud environment and I need to isolate the sound better. Headphones just work, I can carry a wired headphone in my backpack, and if I need to take a conference call I can always do it. And the audio quality never gets interrupted. It’s simple. Simple works.
Let’s also talk about security, the more services you have available to the outside world, the larger your risk surfaces. For a secure phone that runs graphene, you would turn Bluetooth off if you don’t need to use it. So removing the option of a headphone jack forces people to use Bluetooth when they’re using headphones, out in public maybe, which means the phone has more attack surfaces available. Which is antithetical to the mission of a security hardened device.
I honestly would have respected fairphone more if they simply said nobody else is offering a headphone jack, and we intend to support our business through the sale of Bluetooth earbuds, so removing the headphone jack makes our ecosystem more sustainable. I would not have liked it but I would have respected it. But the mealy mouthed water rating excuses a lie. And if you’re lying to me I don’t think you’re being fair to me.