I believe implementing MMS is outside of ModemManager’s scope. However, if anyone would like to help with MMS support before we eventually get to it ourselves (which may take some time since it’s not the highest priority thing on our TODO list yet), I believe the best way to start would be to read and get familiar with mmsd source code: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/network/ofono/mmsd.git/ and then try to write a ModemManager-based plugin for it (from a quick glance it seems its oFono-specific code is pretty nicely separated, so it shouldn’t be hard). I think this should be a task that a reasonably motivated community member might be able to easily take and progress on, which should speed things up and put the UI support higher on our TODO lists 
It costs $700 because Librem invested so much time and money using blob free (as much as possible) hardware so essentially designed a phone from scratch. The pinephone from my understanding relied heavily on existing circuit blocks and hardware to cut costs. You’re comparing apples to oranges I’m afraid.
It is awesome to see all of the posts from all of the other members. It has been a long while since I checked to see what works and what still does not on the Librem 5. Does any member know or have a link to that list? I understand the MMS function is still a work in progress. How about connecting to LTE on a cell phone provider? How about 5ghz wifi? I would be curious. Six months is a long time to wait, but it we are a lot further along than in previous iterations, I may have to put my name back on the list for a Librem 5.
I wanted to let the group know I switched my Pinephone over to Mobian from UBPorts and it has a 100 times better performance. All things work outside of MMS. If it had double the processor speed and double the ram, while improving battery life, the device would be ready for Prime Time.
That really surprises me. I wonder if this is some optimization issue, because I doubt that GTK/Phosh is that much lighter than Qt/Ubuntu Touch. How much RAM and % of CPU is being consumed after boot and you haven’t opened any apps?
How’s the battery life on Mobian/Phosh? From what I read, UBports was the project that figured out how to get the cellular modem to wake up the rest of the system when there was a phone call, but it would take a while to get that code into the other PinePhone ports.
MemTotal: 1976244KB
MemFee 877504
MemAvailable: 1246584
I had expected the UBPorts to be more polished than the Mobian version. On the phone I received, there were tons of issues. I was thinking it was just the way it was going to be. I read up on how well the Mobian version was working out. I installed it and it has been night and day. Don’t get me wrong. There have been challenges with the text app all of sudden not working and needing me to restart the machine.
As far as battery life. I would have to guess around 4-5 active hours of use. I think for Mobian, that is its weakest link.
For me, on UBPorts, the phone call app was terrible. It would only allow me to call in 3G and only text in 4G. That was utter ridiculousness.
I have not had that issue on Mobian. I was running on an SD card for a day or so, then flashed over to Mobian. It would be super cool if both Teams shared info. Maybe they are, but average users are not told in the Pine forums.
I would be interested to hear how my experiences compare to Librem5 users. For me, if Pine could get a bigger battery, bit faster processor, and more RAM, this thing would be ready for Prime Time.
Do you mean by this
a) an LTE data call?
or
b) VoLTE?
Putting aside support in the software, this may also be dependent on support in the modem, and hence may depend on which modem (and hence which country).
As far as I know, LTE data calls work.
Since the price question was asked again, I’ll re-link to our Breaking Ground post that gives a great explanation for why the Librem 5 costs what it does and why it has taken the monumental effort it has taken to create:
Beyond that post, hopefully it’s easy to understand that a major part of any business’s cost is in its employees. If you aren’t building a phone from scratch, are using cheaper off-the-shelf hardware, and are only paying for some hardware engineers I imagine it’s a lot cheaper. But it’s also not enough to change the world in the way we all want to see.
I guess it would be enough if all someone is interested in is their having a phone that runs some sort of Linux while everyone else around them runs Android and iOS. But if that’s your goal why not just run Android (technically Linux kernel) or one of its forks?
For me, it’s not good enough to just have a Linux kernel, special mobile user space, and custom apps that have to be written from scratch or ported from existing projects. We already have that with the fragmented mess that is Android. We don’t need another fragmented mess with mobile Linux yet as young as this ecosystem is, we are already getting there!
What I want to see is the Linux ecosystem we are all used to and love on desktops and laptops, to extend to my pocket. This is why we didn’t write yet another mobile-only OS for the Librem 5. Instead we focused our efforts on making PureOS fit in a mobile form-factor. This means you don’t have to take a Linux application you love and rewrite/port it to run on our phone, all the existing apps in PureOS already run on the Librem 5, they just don’t fit in the same way that websites hardcoded to 1024x768 screens 15 years ago rendered on mobile browsers but didn’t fit.
Our convergent approach works better long-term because you don’t have to ask a developer to support yet another operating system (WIndows/MacOS/Linux/Android/iOS/) or port anything. You simply tell them to make sure their Linux desktop application works well when the window is resized down to a phone screen. Purism has invested in building the tools developers need to make that easy and the FOSS community in general is now starting to realize the importance in factoring in small screen sizes into their UI just like web developers did a decade ago.
Purism is paying not just for hardware development and all the engineers that go along with designing and building a phone from scratch, but also directly paying for software development (phosh/phoc/libhandy/chatty/PureOS itself/kernel/etc etc), and also paying for people to support the hardware and software for any customer who needs help using PureOS on our products. This is the approach you must take if you actually want to make a dent in the Android/iOS duopoly.
I wrote about the power of incentives in the current Mobile App ecosystem last week in this post:
I close the article with this statement:
Of course, the strongest way to change the current app ecosystem is by changing the financial incentive. That’s where you come in. Each technology choice you make is a vote for the future you want to see. Voting with your dollar to support companies like Purism that are building hardware and software that protect your privacy sends a message to other companies that privacy matters to you and if they want you as a customer, it should matter to them too.
Every technology choice is a vote for the future, if you believe in the future we are trying to build, please consider voting for it.
Kyle,
I was provided a similar rational earlier in the posting by Amosbatto. I understand. Please know, I am an avid supporter. I have a lIbrem 15 v4. I was on the list for a Librem5 for a while. I will be again. My point boils down to this. It ca be a challenge for some individuals to put down $600-$800 for a device. If I was not interested in privacy, security, as well as having devices you control, I would not have purchased the Librem15 or any other device. The Purism Team does exceptional work. My question originated around MMS on the LIbrem5. I was interested in seeing if it had been resolved. It would appear that it is still a work in progress, for not only Purism, but more Linux developers. I have been in the realm of Logistics for over 30 years. My recommendation to your Team is work on communication. Most Teams think that if their internal communicates and provides customers with possibly vague interpretive language, is communication. For openness, customers should know the good, bad, and ugly as it happens. I know Purism is not a super large company. If you were the Apple of the Linux World and one knew the products would be released every 12 months, then customers would understand the entire time waiting, their new device was on its way, for that particular month. That being said, I do have a better understand of your costs, but would caution your Team in raising prices when the device is still under work and evolution.
Back to MMS. I do not like it but some people send me MMS and I do not even see who the sender is … It is very annoying to have to go to the desktop computer and log in to the operator to download the MMS - and then it is just a text message ! I have of course switched MMS off in my Android phone. I would like Librem5 to send an automatic reply to the sender “I cannot receive MMS” as soon as it receives a MMS. Pictures can be sent to my email account.
I understand that it is very easy to send a photo directly with MMS but personally I do not want to receive those. What about automatically rerouting every MMS to the email ?
I would guess that that is very doable … but only after the L5 is capable of recognizing and receiving an MMS at all.
What’s your current verdict @Jt0, if I may ask? Has there been progress with PineTime? I came across a video [there must be better but couldn’t bother] from this summer and it seems to work. Was thinking if it could be paired with L5…
Unfortunately I’ve had exactly zero time to do any more work with the dev kit since I wrote that post, due to the aforementioned commitments that are still sucking up all of my time. It’s still sitting on the corner of my desk collecting dust right next to the Raspberry Pi I was using to program it. I’ve been so out of the loop on development that your idea of the development progress is as good as mine.
From the video, that looks significantly better than the last time I looked at the state of PineTime software though.