MuditaOS Suggestions

Can the phone have GPS and Podcasts App?

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Hi @JOEL_DIPU, Mudita Pure won’t have GPS or an app specifically for podcasts.

Hey @anon32618512 I’ve been wondering what are some of the reasons as to why the phone will not have community ideas implemented? Whilst I agree with the minimalism concept, I also can see certain usage cases where maps, GPS, podcasts, are beneficial for the user. Have y’all considered trying to send a survey. I know myself would benefit from podcasts and maps. Moreover, I’d be willing to pay for such, just in case it’s a resources issue.

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We have taken all of these ideas into consideration but Mudita Pure will only have the features stated on our website. No new features will be added. There might be other devices in future which could be more suitable for people who require slightly more applications.

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Thanks for the reply @anon32618512
I personally find that very inflexible, but I am excited to see if the device lives up to the expectations. Hope that all features work and I’ll find workarounds for the other tools.

Also, are you talking about future mudita devices or other devices altogether?

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If I can butt in; adding major features like this is not just the press of a magic button. I suppose we could ask that the phone should also change channels on every model of TV (technically possible, if we had an IR blaster on the phone). I would love screwing around with my neighbour’s TV or the one at the bar. Samsung had a few Android phones with IR and Nokia had some good ones too back in the day too.

From what I know, Mudita has developed their hardware and software package from the ground up. That means built in Poland, not using commodity hardware from China or software from Google. There’s a reason we can buy cheap, disposable Android phones: they come printed on template circuit boards by the millions with as much features as possible integrated onto as few circuits as possible. Hence the miniaturisation of all modern electronics thanks to ICs – integrated circuits, where one chip can handle multiple tasks (CPU, memory, video, audio, radio), rather than having specific chips for each task category.

Mudita’s antenna and circuitry is their own design. GPS needs a separate antenna, additional hardware, and additional software. Developing this one feature alone could take a full year of work, maybe more considering all the additional certifications and patents that might be required – just look at the development timeline of the existing Mudita hardware to gain an understanding of how long it took develop this platform (lot’s of work! I hope there will be more than just one model coming to market).

Considering the volume of phones being sold, GPS could easily add $100+ to the phone price tag (yeah, it’s already not cheap, and even at this price point I doubt Mudita is banking much – the cost here covers R&D, marketing, limited quantity production, profits, future investments, novelty/premium aspect of “limited” features, gaudy exec level bonuses; anyway that’s not an exhaustive list). GPS would increase physical phone size, complexity of circuitry, possibly increased EMF emissions, decrease battery life, and require additional software, never mind all the additional testing and integration required along the way.

And then how is GPS applied? Maybe a custom app could be built to use maps in greyscale, say from OpenStreetMap API, but how long would that take to dev, and at what additional cost? And what if users aren’t satisfied with just street maps, how many other apps might be requested? It’s a big can of worms that would require an additional software team. Maybe once this phone is successful, there will be a Mudita “Phone Plus” that has some more common features to bridge the gap between dumb/feature phones and smart phones. Or, maybe not.

As for podcasts: perhaps that’s a fairly simple upgrade in the future (I imagine something like “playlist management” in the desktop manager), but what is the most standard, user friendly way of managing podcasts? Can you describe your idea of UI/UX?

e.g. I just group my audio files by folders so when using a dumb digital audio player lacking advanced capabilities, I just browse folders and skip tracks as required. Sure it takes 2-5 seconds more to find the track I want, but I’m okay with that. Otherwise I would buy a device with a different interface.

As an aside, it was befuddling to see “whilst” and “y’all” being used together in one post. One word is so British, the other quite Southern USA. haha. Good variety of vocabulary. =)

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@daniel Fair enough on the GPS part. I acknowledge that this is rather difficult, and there are ways to circumvent the challenges for sure (text directions, stand-alone device, etc)

Podcasts. Good idea. A playlist manager would definitely do or a feature that lets you download podcasts to the PC software (like iTunes used to do).

As far as Vocab, I learned British English in school and now I live in the South of the US hehe.

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So, no Signal communicator will be there?

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Thanks for your question @Daniel_Walesiak, Mudita Pure will not include Signal.

Hey everyone,

thank you for all your questions!

There won’t be any dedicated podcast app anytime soon, but you can always transfer audio files to the device via our desktop app and listen to them using native music player. Do you think it’s a sufficient solution?

Have a great weekend,
Lukasz

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Hi Lukasz,
It is sufficient solution. If the mobile is offline, then it is offline. You just cant go halfway.

But, have you considered adding some ebook reader? I would love to read books in .epub on mudita, I believe it would do great job with this e-ink display.
Cheers,
Lukáš

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epub reader is a cool idea. epub is fairly standard, shouldn’t be too complicated I think. Especially with an e-ink display, that’s what it’s for!

Personally I don’t mind a very simple music/podcast navigation. I generally use a directory structure to arrange files without any playlists. However, having playlist support would be nice, at least that way it’s possible to set up a playlist with the desktop app (or even edit the playlist with a text editor) to make whatever customisations necessary.

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@daniel, @Lukas_Calda
No offence, but I honestly don’t really understand why people read “e-ink display” and instantly think about adding an e-book reader. This device will have a 2.8 inch display!
It is neither enjoyable nor healthy for your eyes to stare at a small display for prolonged activities like reading a book.

Mudita promotes more offline time and also less device usage. So my recommendation would be to get an old-school paper book instead of the epub format. (Or a dedicated, large-screen e-book reader)

Furthermore, reading in a real book makes you much more sociable than burying your eyes in your phone. Don’t be a “smombie” ! :wink:

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@lukasz.anwajler That is enough. Could you add a RSS pull inside the desktop app in order to make it a bit easier to pull podcasts on a daily basis?

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I do not agree here. I read a lot, a read paper books as well as ebooks. I have started to read ebooks on symbian and those days nokias had even smaller displays with less resolution. It had some advantages over classic books then as well as it has now. I am talking about portability.

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I’d suggest a chronometer and, if possible, a unit converter. In example, I know the correct air pressure of my car’s tires in BAR units. But sometimes at some gas stations, the air pump shows only PSI units and it always makes me turn on the internet and waste more time than needed.

A small selection of simple wallpapers would be really nice and calming to have on the display. Can also feel more personal. I’ve mentioned it in other places because of how important it is to me, but predictive text. Even if it wasn’t from the get-go if I knew it would be in the first few updates I would be sold. I cannot stand the 3tap T9 method and I know a lot of people don’t either.

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Will you consider implementing a manual command for triggering screen refresh to remove the ghosting effect?
As an owner of e-ink book reader for several years I am used to the ghosting effect of such screens and find it tolerable.
Only recently, imagining how I would use Mudita Pure, I came to realize the implication of using the e-ink technology to display personal/sensitive information and the importance of being able to, sometimes, immediately clear remnants of recent activity.
I suppose that recent display technology may have advanced enough to not leave such obvious traces and/or Mudita engineers were able to devise a strategy to work around this unintended effect.
Neverthless, I am glad being able to share this suggestion with the team and the community and appreciate the efforts for being respectful of user’s privacy.
I hope production plans go well and we finally have Mudita Pure land in our hands.

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Thank you for this idea. Currently, we’re not using the partial refresh to avoid ghosting and flashing of the screen to avoid the risk of seizures among users. I passed it on to the dev team and perhaps we’ll come out with a key combo that would trigger instant screen refresh :crossed_fingers:t2:

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Different people have different opinions. While I would not mind having non-big-tech maps app, I would not want to have any podcasts app. I would consider that to be bloatware because I can’t care less for podcasts.

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