[tor-talk] All I Want For X-mas: TorPhone

[Alexis Wattel]

The Black phone is a joke. It is a (very well run, no doubt) marketing job that targets executives who only seek something that looks expensive, exclusive and that on top of that they can brag about it being NSA-proof. 

And the Jolla phone can go fund himself. 
It's supposed to be the "people's phone".  Users then vote to suggest software features. 
And now for the split screen, they 'ask' for 750,000$ more ! Sounds more like a robbery or a scam? But as long as their promo clip has bokeh, Rainbow people and repeat the keywords, "open", "secure", "nianiania...", people will fall for it. 

Us, on another hand... 
The only platform that we will accept is of course a true open-source OS. 

- A stripped down Android : until now honestly, everyone that tried that failed. If you don't comply with their Handset Alliance terms, Google will deny access to their Play Services, whose API is essential for lots of apps because much easier for developers. 
The only solution would be to create a new whole ecosystem that defines a smartphone experience. Amazon and Samsung failed at that.
But there's huge difference : they all aimed at mass markets. 
So luckily (or sadly), we are not. 
We will accept to put security as the priority, if the cost is to lose much of the multimedia experience and such, then so be it. 
So now that we lose the Android apps ecosystem, we have also :

- Ubuntu OS and variants. THIS is very promising. I guess limiting the privacy issue on a phone will be much easier when the OS is first thought by a Linux major actor.
But they still miss the hardware partnerships that would give this OS at least a chance to take off. 


And then would the closed-firmware of every of our phone chips pose as a threat ? The Replicant project looks laborious. 


Lots, lots, lots of challenges for 2015! 

But this idea is so sound, it has to be done.