Admiral Patrick

Copy/pasting a comment I wrote the other day on a post about OneDrive stealing and deleting your files:

I knew back when Windows 10 came out and the lead of their cloud division replaced Ballmer that Windows was gonna turn into a shit show, but in my wildest nightmares I wouldn’t have predicted what they’re doing now.

Let me first say that I love the idea of this phone and it breaking free of the “tall, skinny rectangle” form factor. The physical keyboard is a huge draw for me as well. However, there are some things on the software side that are definitely making me wary.

While it offers a screen for viewing and responding to messages, the Communicator doesn’t provide access to addictive social media apps or games. Instead, the company partnered with the maker of an Android launcher, Niagara Launcher, to provide access to messaging apps and productivity tools like Gmail, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Slack.

I don’t understand why it would limit apps. $499 is a lot to spend on a secondary device, and I don’t know that I’d want to EDC two devices. That’s a lie. I know I wouldn’t want to everyday carry two phones because I did that for work and absolutely hated it.

Most apps work fine on smaller screens. I’ve been daily driving a Cat S22 Flip with a portrait-oriented 480x640 screen for over a year, and most apps scale just fine.

I’ve at least heard of Niagara Launcher. Is that saying the only way to use those apps is through the launcher’s integration? That sounds shitty.

The company is teasing the possibility of integrating AI applications with this button

Dear god, no.

The phone’s standout feature is its Signal Light, a light-up button on the side of the device that can be customized with different colors and light patterns to indicate when you’ve received messages from certain people, groups, or app

So, a feature that has existed for years but was taken away from us? My old OnePlus had a customizable RGB light which could be configured the same way. It was really handy, and I hated the “always on” display that replaced it. I could tell from the color and pattern what kind of notification it was without having to preview it which was nice as it didn’t stress me out with a need to reply.

I want to like this, but it seems like they’re being very opinionated on how you actually use it. Maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll be bootloader unlockable and LineageOS can save it from the shitty decisions of the manufacturer.

Edit: Submitted a question/ticket to ask support. Every time a promising-looking device is announced, I always ask. The answer is usually either “What? What do you mean?” or “No”. One of these days, there will hopefully be a manufacturer that doesn’t equate Android with Google.

The real crime is that rag existing at all.

At best. And it’s probably gonna be a <= $2 Google Play Store gift card.

Honestly, I prefer A11 and agree it’s gotten worse sense. Thinking mostly along the lines of security patches and the like.

The GSI ROM I’m running on my secondary one is LineageOS on top of the stock system (basically how GSI images work). There’s no official LineageOS support, but I’m honestly not sure what the limitation is; may just be no one willing to maintain it.

Unfortunately they don’t make them anymore, and they’re stuck on Android 11. I have two, and one of them is running a GSI ROM for Android 13 but it’s got issues with VoLTE so it’s not my daily driver.

I don’t say this lightly, but completely on par with a classic Nokia with the exception of the touch screen. Not that I’ve damaged it, but touch screens are the weak point in all modern phones.

Yeah, I dunno how accurate, let alone comprehensive, this repo of shame is.

From: https://github.com/zenfyrdev/bootloader-unlock-wall-of-shame/blob/main/brands/cat/README.md

Cat’s phones have the OEM Unlock option in the settings app, but the typical fastboot flashing unlock/fastboot oem unlock just returns an unknown command error.

They didn’t bother to list what model they tested before deeming the entire brand “Terrible”. I have two CAT S22 Flips (still daily driving one of them), and both of them unlocked immediately with the fastboot command and without requiring an unlock key.

Mostly moot, though. You can still get CAT phones on the secondhand market but Bullit Group (the manufacturer of their branded phones) went out of business in April 2024.

I’m honestly not sure why you’d buy a phone from a tractor company anyways.

Because their phones are rugged AF and nearly indestructible.

I don’t know much about Moondrop’s line of phones, but I do love that Apple removed the headphone jack, Samsung naturally copied them, and Moondrop comes along and says “you know what? We’ll add two headphone jacks”.

Respect.

(I absolutely still use the 3.5mm jack)