[Chicago] WiPhone, a phone you can program in Python

Sun Apr 21 03:35:04 EDT 2019

Rob: As someone who's still kind of grumpy about Python 3, I hear what
you're saying. But at the same time, taking on this project has made clear
to me a few things that weren't apparent when I only worked on the
engineering side of things. One of those is people only click on simple,
easily understood headlines. Another is no matter what you do, someone will
be unhappy about your methods.

At least part of the reason I don't say MicroPython everywhere is because
we actually still haven't made a decision on:

   - MicroPython
   - CircuitPython
   - fork one of them and make our own stable code base (possibly named
   something else)

Including all of that in the marketing materials, as factual and
informative as it is, would drown in details or at least confuse probably
90% of the people interested in our project.

Some other topics that seem to irritate people are the lack of cellular
radio (I've lost count of how many times I've had to argue semantics on
what's allowed to be called a phone), and using the phrase "open source".
BTW, if you ever make a hardware project that doesn't plan to release the
source until the hardware ships, be prepared to withstand the spanish
inquisition, questions about your moral character, and a general inability
to have a conversation about anything remotely related to the project
itself if a certain type of personality finds your project and decides it's
not allowed to be called open source until the source is actually released.

If I included disclaimers to fully inform all of those kinds of people in
the headline, just the name of the phone would be a couple paragraphs :).

Raspberry Pi: From a hardware manufacturing standpoint it's an evolutionary
dead end. The hardware is subsidized for the general public. If you want to
make a commercial product based around the same design, you're stuck with
this weird manufacturing-to-retail-back-to-manufacturing supply chain that
really only works for projects at the hobby level. However, the WiPhone is
the first step along a set of plans that increase in complexity, so stay
tuned.

Cellular Modem: We have a list of add-on modules that we'll make available
once the base design ships, and LTE is at the top of the list. Rather than
build it into the phone (which would greatly increase cost, complexity, and
make it overall much less of a device you can control and secure), we
decided to limit the scope and design something we could deliver in a
reasonable time frame. Plus, if you want to use phones to hack into *other*
stuff, you don't necessarily need or want the radio, you just want the
durable, easy to understand form factor of a phone. Another big one people
are asking for is security features, like encryption, so we'll be working
on both of those once the present work involved in shipping the phone
itself calms down.

On Sat, Apr 20, 2019 at 9:19 PM Rob Kapteyn <robkapteyn at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Randy, good to "see" you too.  You back in Texas ?
>
> I do not have a Makerphone yet.
> The people making it are young and in Croatia.
> They seem to have their act together, but they have been swamped by the
> huge response they got when it started in November.
> It seems like lots of people are interested in a cellphone that does only
> what you want, and can't be easily hacked to spy on you ;)
>
> Their FAQ page answers most of those questions:
> makerphone faqs
> <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/albertgajsak/makerphone-an-educational-diy-mobile-phone/faqs>
>
> I don't know how US carriers will deal with the lack of 911 location, etc.
>
> I'll let you know how it goes, but I'm not sure when I'll have time to
> mess with it.
>
> - Rob
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 20, 2019 at 9:43 PM Randy Baxley <randy7771026 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Good to 'see' you Rob.
>>
>> This thread is very interesting to me.  Would service providers like AT&T
>> still provide a SIM card and standard plans?
>>
>> Randy
>>
>> On Sat, Apr 20, 2019 at 7:56 PM Rob Kapteyn <robkapteyn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I am actually a backer on a similar Kickstarter, a phone that DOES come
>>> with a cellular modem (either 2G or 4G):
>>>
>>>
>>> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/albertgajsak/makerphone-an-educational-diy-mobile-phone
>>>
>>> I am still waiting for it, but it is supposed to ship any day now.
>>>
>>> I do have a complaint however  ---
>>> DO NOT ADVERTISE "MICROPYTHON" as "PYTHON"  -- it is not the same thing.
>>> Micropython is a very nice way to program an ESP32 microcontroller --
>>> but -- to me -- the name "Python" implies a level of of-the-shelf
>>> functionality that Micropython simply does not have.
>>>
>>> I have to admit when I jumped on the Kickstarter of the Makerphone, I
>>> was misled in exactly this way.
>>>
>>> Why don't you make a phone with a Raspberry Pi Zero ?
>>> THAT would run REAL PYTHON, and THAT I would jump on as a backer.
>>>
>>> Hope you appreciate the criticism ;)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 11:32 PM Joshua Herman <zitterbewegung at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Could you add support for a cellular modem from that expansion slot?
>>>>
>>>> You are taking an esp32 and adding a keypad and a screen . I would be
>>>> expecting a cellular modem to be honest as a part of it. I have seen
>>>> similar builds with that feature . Why did you decide to only support WiFi ?
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>> On Apr 14, 2019, at 11:14 AM, Ben Wilson <ben at wiphone.io> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hey all... I'm making a VoIP mobile phone that runs Python apps. The
>>>> firmware will be open. Wanted to share and get the word out.
>>>>
>>>> I wanted a phone that lets hackers do what they want (instead of
>>>> trapping you in a walled garden, huge IDE, non-serviceable design, etc.).
>>>> The hardware is also meant to be easily expandable: the back of the phone
>>>> is a PCB that can be swapped out for custom modules. Sort of like project
>>>> Ara, except it's just a PCB. any hobby-level electrical designer should be
>>>> able to make their own custom module.
>>>>
>>>> Kickstarter link:
>>>>
>>>> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2103809433/wiphone-a-phone-for-hackers-and-makers?ref=1jz5jk
>>>> <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2103809433/wiphone-a-phone-for-hackers-and-makers/>
>>>>
>>>> recent Reddit discussion:
>>>>
>>>> https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/bagyxv/wiphone_a_phone_you_can_program_in_python/project
>>>>
>>>> build logs: https://hackaday.io/project/159811-esp32-wiphone
>>>>
>>>> Happy to answer questions here or on Reddit.
>>>>
>>>> -Ben
>>>>
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