[Tinkerphones] unPhone

[Paul Boddie]

Hello,

It has been quiet on this list, but I recently became aware of another phone-
like project when perusing a popular maker/gadget retailer's site:

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/unphone

It appears to be an ESP32-based (XTensa LX7) gadget that emphasises LoRa-based 
communication for Internet of Things applications, but it has a touchscreen 
alongside the various sensors one might expect from an IoT product.

Since the ESP32 also has WiFi and Bluetooth, it is perhaps more like a 
conventional tablet in terms of connectivity than a phone, and there seems to 
be an acknowledgement that it "isn’t a phone alternative", making the naming a 
bit counterintuitive. Still, it intentionally looks a bit like a phone.

What is a bit more interesting about this effort, compared to numerous others 
over the years, is that it is connected to a university course and has its own 
Web site and text book:

https://unphone.net/
https://iot.unphone.net/

It does make me wonder what could be done if they didn't use a 
microcontroller, even one with 8MB of RAM, and moved up to something more 
powerful, maybe even adding support for conventional mobile telephony.

But the fact that it is an open hardware/software product that will presumably 
be sold at some point by an actual producer of gadgetry makes it worth a 
mention, I think.

Paul