@rogerh113 Horrible example.
It doesn’t compare with car modding, since you’re not changing hardware parts on it. Android is being used how it was built to be used, AOSP has no app store it relies on side-loading by default.
The only thing that should be at owner’s risk is Rooting the device, where you can actually mod the system to make changes that are risky and can brick your device.
I was under the impression Kompakt runs a highly modified android OS. If you know how Android was modified for Kompakt, then possibly you know ‘how it was built to be used’.
There seem to be a number of posts on the forum on side loaded apps that do not run, crash, or do not run as intended. Perhaps I was misinterpreting these posts, or perhaps these were user error.
Highly modified it’s a stretch.
It’s AOSP 12 with a skinned UI, which most of the cases includes:
Android is quite feature rich so the fragments that they didn’t have time to finish or thought people won’t use they just disabled or hid them. And that broke some core Android functionality like Accessibility Permission, Bluetooth History, Manual Network.
While I do appreciate their work on skinning the android settings, I do not appreciate their approach in “re-thinking” default apps like SMS and Phone which lack basic features that even 20 dollar feature phone have.
There seem to be a number of posts on the forum on side loaded apps that do not run, crash, or do not run as intended. Perhaps I was misinterpreting these posts, or perhaps these were user error.
Sideloaded Apps not running as intended is mostly due to:
Google Play Services which are required for pretty much any finance/banking app, or e-commerce apps. These won’t work in any other AOSP phone so it’s not Mudita’s fault. Users knew from start this phone doesn’t support Google Play Services.
Or they simply don’t look good, because most Android apps use the Material Design framework which has these pastel shades and shadows that don’t look good on an E-ink phone. Or that the phone resolution is a bit low, so modern apps made for let’s say a 6.7 inch Pixel phone won’t look here obviously.
I haven’t seen reports of side-loaded apps crashing tbh, and I’ve tested hundreds of apps for people who have asked if it works. The only app that I can remember people saying is crashing is the default SMS app since last update it crashed or became laggy for people with a lot/long conversations.
The whole problem of this conversation begging from calling it sideloading, which makes it sound like you’re hacking and doing something illegal. It is simply installing an app on a platform that supports those apps.
People that want a better text formatting software in Windows than Notepad don’t say that they’re sideloading Microsoft Office, they simply install it.
What could be called highly modified Android? For example the case of Huawei that after US sanctions went ahead and created their own OS that used the Android kernel, and recently they’ve moved into their own Kernel and it’s no longer Android, it only emulates android apps.
Whatever level of modified you might want to call the OS, even by your own assessment some set of side loaded apps are not running properly. I am not disputing the fundamental usefulness of any of the apps. Whatever floats your boat.
If the intent of the user was to end, or ease, their addiction to smart phones, then making the Kompakt into a smart phone is not going to address the problem.
Whatever level of modified you might want to call the OS, even by your own assessment some set of side loaded apps are not running properly. I am not disputing the fundamental usefulness of any of the apps. Whatever floats your boat.
My boat is floated by actually researching and knowing specifically which apps will work on this phone before I bought it. Those that don’t work or I don’t like how they look, I’m trying to learn how to build them myself.
This is where you and all people that think this phone’s target audience is a single template of users are wrong. I didn’t buy this phone because I was told by minimalist reviewers on YouTube that have a shelf of 20 phones they received for free that it changed their life in 10 days.
Some people are not suffering from social media use they just want a phone that doesn’t hurt their eyes. Or a phone that is not a 7 inch slab of glass.
Telling people how to use a phone, or preaching them about ethos is the Apple cult kind of brainwashing. It’s up there with Steve Jobs telling you what can you install on your device or how to hold your iPhone for it not to lose signal.
The content and position of the original poster, and several other responders, was what I was responding to. Their stated issues, which are apparently wrapped around social media use.
Apparently your postings in this thread address your issues, findings, and fine works, which are not necessarily in alignment with their issues or concerns.
You might reflect on who is preaching and who is responding to the questions or issues initiated in the original post. My perspectives are not always correct, but I do try to focus on the topic of discussion and add a bit of value.
I’ve read the OG post like 3 times and can’t see where the user wanted to make this phone a “smart phone”. The whole discussion was related to OP not being happy with the default apps lacking basic functionality, there was no talk of smartphone functionality.
The mention of apps like Signal and Whatsapp has nothing to do with Socialmedia, these are literally Phone/SMS replacement apps in many countries where sms is not used. Which is most of the world.
Your focus on the discussion deviated too much when you compared side-loading to modding a car and “losing the warranty”.
The user wasn’t asking to add a the equivalent of a turbo to their phone, they’re not asking to add a spoiler either or turn it into a low-rider.
Complaining about the Lack of group messaging, missing sms, clear call history, proper vibration management, voicemail shortcut,it’s not asking to turn a dumbphone in a smartphone.
If I see what I want to see, and think what I want to think, I will not understand what others are concerned about.
@gezimos This is what I did when I got my first car (a long time ago). The trend was to have these blue-hued halogen type front lights, so I bought some after-market ones that were almost the shade of my eyes (don’t judge me, I was 20) and as a result, I almost voided my warranty. The electric system of my Dodge Neon (yes, it was that long ago) was not equipped to handle the load & it kept shorting. Fortunately, the nice guy at the dealership thought I was cute & just wrote it up as a faulty bulb and told me to NEVER do that again.
I hate blue lights!!
The equivalent of this on the Kompakt would be for me to disassemble the e-ink display and attempt to change the white LEDs to something warmer.
Or desoldering the ram and upgrading the chip to something higher.
I think installing apps on an android based device should be never compared to hardware modding the device or software modding the device (rooting).
One of the reasons I cancelled the LightPhone 3 was their vague warranty and telling users that they will loose their warranty if they access Android in their Android Device which was one keyboard click away.
Yeah one of the reasons I went with mudita was that lightphone are a bit too tight on what you can do with your own phone once you have it! I do love the way it looks though!
I love the MK. My sole issue is the missed text messages. I can’t discern a rhyme or reason to it anymore, it seems to happen randomly. Otherwise, I really truly appreciate it so much – it’s perfect for me! Please investigate this issue more actively. Please!
Seconding the issue with missed text messages. Hard to say what’s going on except it seems to just randomly not receive messages at all, despite them showing sent by the other party. I don’t even know how many I am missing at this point, or how many people I am seeming to ignore.
I agree with a lot of points.
Coming after 5 years with a Punkt MP02, my attempts where not so high. When time to change came I choose the MK for the e-ink display and the long life battery it helps to have, the camera (having not to take my iPad mini each time I know I had pics to take), ability to type SMS without T9 and that I’ve read here and there that contacts sync could come.
That’s all.
In the real life, it’s different.
Phone:
SMS
They don’t group in a conversation.
The first send stay appart.
Alarm
Vibrate without the ability to disconnect the vibration. No need to have cool sounds if you wake up with the vibrating sound.
Center
So, for a device claimed to give us peace of mind, it’s quite away from the target.
It cost me lot of time, on the forum, on the computer to find solutions and to try making it suit my needs.
I love the device for its size, its screen but
there’s still a lot to do but the most is in Mudita’s hands.
Here a big thanks again to gezimos that makes a lot for the community.
Having had an iPhone that at times had trouble sending or receiving messages, I feel like this could happen to anyone. When I got my Kompakt at the end of May, my wife and I also experienced some missed texts. I realized it was not Mudita’s fault but Google (my phone number was still partially connected to RCS servers). Since June 2nd, I have not missed a single text message from her or from anyone else (and yes, early on I was contacting people that texted me often and verifying with them the number of messages sent and received). I cannot blame Mudita for a problem that Google caused. It’s crazy that it took the OP 12 weeks to realize he was missing messages! My wife and I figured it out within 24 hours.
On another note, only once in 16 weeks of daily use have I accidentally switched into Offline+ mode. However, there is a vibration, and I noticed that and switched it back.
I cannot remember ever deleting the call list, even on a dumbphone.
If a single call entry in the DB is around 100 B, 10 calls a day all year round would produce 365 kB (roughly) a year.
But I’m down for call list clearing just for comfort of mind.
Yeah it’s not something I’ve ever done, nor has it ever occurred to me!
Could be automatic, all 100 calls for example.
To me using MK improved my focus at work. Reduced my anxiety levels (due to checking the iPhone for notifications often). Reduced the impulsive online purchases. Coming to google maps to go to new places, I dump my iPhone in the car and use MK as wifi tethering device to connect to google maps on iPhone.
My wife knows that I’m using MK and does a normal phone call whenever needed. No more text or WhatsApp messages from her.