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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: suicidal_orange on Thu, 11 March 2021, 05:55:30

Title: LG Wing phone
Post by: suicidal_orange on Thu, 11 March 2021, 05:55:30
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How have I not come across this device in six months of searching for a phone?  It looks great, apart from the lack of rooting/ROMs.  Not as good as a real keyboard but way better than covering half (if not more) of the stupidly wide screen with a keyboard.
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 11 March 2021, 06:34:37
prolly get lower battery from that UI
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: suicidal_orange on Thu, 11 March 2021, 07:11:28
True, but it has 4000mAH and the review suggests it will easily be enough for two days of my usage.  Unsurprisingly expensive for an (as yet) unfixable google tracker and it's not new anymore so guess that's unlikely to change.  Unless modders wait for the warranty to expire?
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: yui on Thu, 11 March 2021, 07:21:08
i do not really understand the point of it, it has the mechanical linkage issues of a physical keyboard and the lack of feedback of a touch screen keyboard, to me it looks like the worst of both world? what did i miss?
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: Leslieann on Thu, 11 March 2021, 07:23:55
Unless modders wait for the warranty to expire?
No, we most certainly do not.
Most of mine were checked for problems then rooted and rom'd (or worse) within hours of getting them.
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 11 March 2021, 07:34:46
No, we most certainly do not.
Most of mine were checked for problems then rooted and rom'd (or worse) within hours of getting them.

But how do we TRUST these roms, rom sources are sketchy.
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: suicidal_orange on Thu, 11 March 2021, 07:37:43
Unless modders wait for the warranty to expire?
No, we most certainly do not.
Most of mine were checked for problems then rooted and rom'd (or worse) within hours of getting them.
This is the correct and expected answer :thumb:  I've never bought a new phone to mod let alone been the person making the ROMs so couldn't be sure I was 'normal'.

i do not really understand the point of it, it has the mechanical linkage issues of a physical keyboard and the lack of feedback of a touch screen keyboard, to me it looks like the worst of both world? what did i miss?

Can you look at a pic of a broken PCB at the same time as writing about it?  Yes.  Therefore it's better than 99% of phones available today, for my usage.
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: yui on Thu, 11 March 2021, 07:55:06
Can you look at a pic of a broken PCB at the same time as writing about it?  Yes.  Therefore it's better than 99% of phones available today, for my usage.
i may be a bit too used to my PC :) but i still think that the blackberry key series and HTC G series (i know both are dead after 2 phones) were a better idea, dunno.
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: Darthbaggins on Thu, 11 March 2021, 08:37:06
No, we most certainly do not.
Most of mine were checked for problems then rooted and rom'd (or worse) within hours of getting them.

But how do we TRUST these roms, rom sources are sketchy.

Not all are sketchy when it comes to phones, I know when I have I've only used reliable verified sources for phone roms/de-bloated OS's.
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 11 March 2021, 10:28:16
No, we most certainly do not.
Most of mine were checked for problems then rooted and rom'd (or worse) within hours of getting them.

But how do we TRUST these roms, rom sources are sketchy.

Not all are sketchy when it comes to phones, I know when I have I've only used reliable verified sources for phone roms/de-bloated OS's.


Verified by whom,  have we met his parents ? How do we know de-bloat was all that was done.

IT SEEMS LIKE,  If some nation state, say NK or Rus,  would want to conduct espionage, they'd infiltrate by spreading tainted OSes and buying up VPN companies ?
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: Findecanor on Thu, 11 March 2021, 12:11:20
BTW, I didn't remember that you'd play Prince of Persia by typing ...
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: suicidal_orange on Thu, 11 March 2021, 13:23:07
No, we most certainly do not.
Most of mine were checked for problems then rooted and rom'd (or worse) within hours of getting them.

But how do we TRUST these roms, rom sources are sketchy.

There is a small group of idealists who are intent on getting the standard Linux kernel running on phones, they would love open source drivers for the actual chipset but currently have to make do with binaries from the manufacturer.  Stage one is installing AOSP (open source version of android, you can compile it yourself if you're paranoid) and this phone hasn't got there yet.


i still think that the blackberry key series and HTC G series (i know both are dead after 2 phones) were a better idea, dunno.
They are, as is the f(x)tec Pro1 that should have been sent to me in March but after they got screwed by the chip supplier it's been downgraded and delayed until at least August, while my current phone gets more annoying by the day.
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: noisyturtle on Thu, 11 March 2021, 13:50:17
BTW, I didn't remember that you'd play Prince of Persia by typing ...

It's got a really neat development history, one of the few older indie games that actually kept a sort of log on development. The designer, Jordan Mechner, actually manually rotoscoped all the Prince's and enemy movements using pictures he took of his brother in their backyard. He then traced every single frame by hand, scanned them into files, and edited them all together. This was in 1987/88 he was working on it too, the sheer amount of effort to get that fluid animation in those days is boggling.

Also this reminds me how bummed I am modular phones never became a consumer reality. Instead phones have steadily gotten less modular, most you cannot even change batteries anymore.
https://www.androidauthority.com/modular-phones-hype-851085/ (https://www.androidauthority.com/modular-phones-hype-851085/)
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: Leslieann on Thu, 11 March 2021, 21:55:42
No, we most certainly do not.
Most of mine were checked for problems then rooted and rom'd (or worse) within hours of getting them.

But how do we TRUST these roms, rom sources are sketchy.

Not all are sketchy when it comes to phones, I know when I have I've only used reliable verified sources for phone roms/de-bloated OS's.
Verified by whom,  have we met his parents ? How do we know de-bloat was all that was done.

IT SEEMS LIKE,  If some nation state, say NK or Rus,  would want to conduct espionage, they'd infiltrate by spreading tainted OSes and buying up VPN companies ?

Many of these are open source and some forums insist you post the code but how any actually check (same problem Linux has) but you don't need to do that to see what something is doing. Personally, if you don't know how to check what software is doing, either through packet sniffing or package inspection tools, you shouldn't really be doing this or you should wait for others who have or can do it, we all tear each others roms apart to see how they did things so we can adopt that stuff into our own so yeah, they really do often get pretty scrutinized particularly if you did something interesting or you're first on a device.

Don't forget roms take a LOT of work, you build it, then you have to backup, install it, test it, upload it for a few others to test (preferably), then open it up to others. Even a minor update can take hours of work and entire roms can take days, and then it can completely flop. As a new user it can also take a long time before people trust you and your rom, particularly if there's already tons available. Remember, they are extremely device specific, even minor (usually undocumented!) hardware changes will cause it to be rejected or have issues (thanks LG) so trying to make a rom built for spying just to try an trick the community is a lot of work that WILL come crashing down on you pretty fast. You might get a few hundred installs, half will ditch it pretty fast (they're just experimenting), so now you have 50-150 people using it at best and for how long? How much ad revenue and data can you scrap from 150 people before they realize you did shady things or move onto the next rom they find?

Don't forget you ideally need the phone for testing and that will easily blow that budget, it can be done without the phone, I've done it, but it's more difficult and you really need experience and a user base willing to trust you before you can really get away with that. Being first to develop a rom gives a massive advantage, but for that you pretty much absolutely need the device, and you will probably be the one to crack it, all of that takes even higher skills and you will probably brick it and have to figure out how to unbrick or buy another, that's all more time and money.

If you have the skills to make a rom and do this you have more than enough skills to make an app (or copy, steal, modify an existing app) and that can be loaded onto thousands or hundreds of thousands of phones and it takes a fraction of the time. It just doesn't make sense from a malicious behavior sense or a monetary sense because your user base is just too small to make it worth your time.


By the way, I've seen roms get ditched quickly by people after they found out it used something without permission and I've seen roms get dumped through no part of their own because they simply included software (usually a launcher) was later was found to have malicious code. The community actually self regulates pretty well as far as malicious code and they will run off anyone they feel is dishonest pretty fast. Unfortunately there are massive egos involved and they can also be a bit over-zealous, I've seen them chase off a lot of good developers to other websites with the largest rom forum being the worst for this behavior, there are sections of that site that are just straight up toxic.
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: DELLA KEY on Wed, 14 April 2021, 00:48:16
It's a bit off the topic, but it's said that LG doesn't make phones anymore...
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: Leslieann on Wed, 14 April 2021, 01:43:01
Absolutely, I don't think people understand how big a loss this was.

They were a major innovator, sometimes they got it right, sometimes it was rushed or they got it wrong but they pushed the envelope. They also kept Samsung and Apple in check, look at what happened to prices on flagships as LG's influence waned.
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: yui on Wed, 14 April 2021, 03:02:33
i agree that LG was a leader at one point, they made the best android phones around the time of the Pixel 4 but they seemed to have lost their way and let samsung take the crown, and now are throwing the rug because their latest project is not a success, if it would have been a physical keyboard a la HTC G1/blackberry i would have gone for it but seemed a bit cumbersome for a tactile board.
Title: Re: LG Wing phone
Post by: suicidal_orange on Tue, 20 April 2021, 03:05:30
It's a bit off the topic, but it's said that LG doesn't make phones anymore...

Not at all, actually it probably answers my original question - I hadn't heard of it because they were doing badly so didn't have the money to advertise it.  Sad.

Less competition is never good for consumers, the wait for the downgraded Pro1 continues...