What about keyboard and mouse? Better if they’re made by Purism than other brands to use with Librem devices. Who know what’s planted into either keyboard or mouse made by other companies. Since it was revealed that Microsoft have been spying on Window 10 users then what stops them from spying Microsoft keyboard users regardless of what OS they’re using? Also some big brand mouses like Corsair, some of their models don’t work with Linux.
That would be difficult if the keyboard presents a standard interface i.e. no driver required, and only presents a keyboard (no additional endpoints - I’m assuming USB here), and you are using Linux.
The keyboard might well come with bloatware but that bloatware will probably be Windows-only software. So it doesn’t really matter if the bloatware is also spyware.
I think that spying on mouse events is generally fairly unproductive. A mouse would have some of the same considerations as a keyboard, again assuming USB.
It is not impossible to compromise a system with a keyboard. That might be factory default or it might reflect a keyboard that has had its firmware compromised “after market”. I suspect that if Microsoft keyboards came pre-compromised someone would have noticed by now.
There’s no way I would use a Microsoft keyboard or mouse if it required any additional software, even if that software were available for Linux (which is unlikely).
Not trying to derail this thread, just curious as to what keyboard brand/model is known to be fairly safe/without bloatware or spyware? Asking because I happen to be on the outlook to buy a new multi media keyboard, currently using Logitech K400R with touchpad which has served me very well.
<3 i still miss my Nokia E5
Keyboard could run malicious firmware afaik so i think it’s a lot relevant topic, i read somwhere in the web from a security guy about it, should be nice if someone know if there is a keyboard without firmware and which keyb is it. If is not possible to make a keyb without a firmware than i will add a keyb with mechanical keys to my purism product wish list
You can at least improve the situation if you have: a keyboard with firmware but the firmware cannot be updated via USB or cannot be updated unless the user takes some specific physical action (like changing the position of a switch on the keyboard) or cannot be updated period.
The paper from K. Chen makes the observation that
For a device as simple in design as a keyboard, it is hard to imagine why a firmware update mechanism is even required.
In fact the paper itself answers that question
Apple released the update to address complaints from users about keys repeating unexpectedly while typing and other issues.
So there are trade-offs. Free lunch is not free.
As a thought experiment, I’d even go a step further: use the exact same PCB. It would be very, very, very economic (development, manufacturing, revisions)
Only advantage of a slightly modified (larger) PCB would be a thinner tablet.
To my knowledge, no. The modems are pre-approved components. I don’t think Purism had to do anything with that.
Except SAR measurement.
My point was: to sell a phone, you have to ask the user where they are / sell the right model with the right M.2 modem in it - and a whole world of pain with different carriers and worse still different countries, and potentially ongoing and changing regulatory requirements.
If your tablet offers mobile broadband capability then you import that pain into the tablet.
If you offer a tablet without mobile broadband capability - which may suit some customers - then you avoid all that (as well as reducing the cost). A person with only occasional need for mobile broadband connectivity on their tablet can tether their L5 to their L10/L11.
100% I agree about the design and manufacturing costs.
The other side of the coin is: what design compromises were made in order to work with the phone form factor and is it worth revisiting those for a tablet form factor (particularly, say, a 10" or 11" tablet that was requested above)? That may go well beyond thickness.
For example,
Better options for heat dissipation may allow a more capable CPU.
Straight off the bat, with a 10"+ tablet, you may want a higher res screen than the L5 but that may have flow on effects with the rest of the unit.
To me this isn’t just a straightforward decision to repackage the L5 with a physically larger screen but otherwise identical.
However let’s speculate all we like about an L10/L11 when we don’t even have the L5 yet.
Seeing as Purism is maintaining PureBrowser, and Epiphany (Gnome-web) is also using the Firefox sync as sync service, it would be interesting for Purism to add their own Firefox sync server to Librem One.
I can’t find any measurements online of how much power the i.MX 8 QuadMax consumes. We will have to wait for more boards to appear, but it wasn’t designed for mobile devices.
No probably not. More likely, inspired by.
It would be pretty cool to be able to borrow or swap the modem from a Librem 5. It wouldn’t bother me if it didn’t have it though.
I agree it does makes a lot of sense but I hope they will instead improve things that can be improved from what they learn from the phone. There may possibly still be some cost benefits if they use a similar design.
That’s what I was thinking but I wasn’t sure.
I think it could and likely would be optional because not everyone will want it. And I think sharing the same modems with the phone will take a lot of the hassle out of it.
I seriously hope they don’t make it too much thicker than 15mm. Assuming they will have a keyboard attachment like they advertised originally, that would make it a pretty chunky package.
The i.MX 8M Quad wasn’t either was it? So I guess the phone will give some indication of power usage in the i.MX 8 range. And it looks like we’ll find out soon since the shipping was just announced!
That would be kind of cool but if you are going to do that then you really want the modem to be able to be slid in and plugged in, and the reverse, and I think there may not be enough space in the L5 to do that. I’m thinking that it could work a bit like PCMCIA cards in ancient laptops.
That’s why I am suggesting that the L5 be able to be tethered - but this would mean that you have to take both devices with you.
The tablet itself could offer three options:
- comes with empty M.2 slot so that you can upgrade to the next option later on if you ever want to
- comes with populated M.2 slot where you order the modem at the time of ordering the tablet
- comes with no M.2 slot (would never have built-in mobile broadband - would have to use tethering) but the space that is freed up is used productively for a better spec on some other aspect
At this time the third option is highly speculative since we are just throwing around ideas.
The intention was the reverse … the tablet could be thinner than the phone because there is more real estate to play with. That’s what @Caliga said and I agreed with that as a possibility.
It would be nice if they could be swapped as easy as PCMCIA cards though I don’t think it will be too much more difficult (I hope ). It’s always going to be a bit fiddly with an exposed circuit board. It would be a nice option to have even if it isn’t really user friendly.
Ok. Sorry about that. I didn’t understand that from what you had written.
personal-computer-moded-by-CIA
It is not very well known why Bunnie Huang really started the Novena Laptop project. He does not talk about it publicly. Given that he does a lot of reverse engineering, of products that are profitable and developed by cartels allow me to leave it to your imagination as to what happened.
The EOMA68 Laptop that I designed uses an STM32F072 to perform keyboard matrix scanning. It is not difficult.
The STM32F is very deliberately connected to the EOMA68 GPIO, giving Cards FULL hard reset and power and reflash control over the STM32F.
At boot time it becomes possible to erase and reflash the firmware, making the probability of running compromised keyboard firmware precisely zero.
The same EC also runs a capacitive touchpad with an LCD, that acts as a programmable mouse trackpad.
Someone requesting a printer
Maybe a 3D printer too.
and requesting a fitness tracker
and requesting a smartwatch that would be paired with (in more than one sense) the Librem 5.
It looks like purism already is selling keyboard, mouse, plus 24 and 30 inch monitors that hooks up with L5 phone. $700-1000 extra for monitors, keyboard, and mouse? Maybe headphone included as shown in picture. No spec details or why they cost way too much.
This periferals sound like standards, not privacy minded
I found this that could be interesting to someone, maybe purism too
You’re paying for a convenient package, guaranteed to work nicely together, and to support the company that made it all possible.
Watch the GUADEC 2019 talk on adaptive apps.
But of course you don’t have to. It’s your choice.