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Volla Successfully Crowdfunds a Privacy-Focused Tablet on Kickstarter (kickstarter.com) 35

Posted by EditorDavid from the voila dept.
It's "the new generation of Tablet for simplicity and privacy..." according to its Kickstarter page. "Top-tier performance, lightweight design and completely Google-free." And it's already reached its funding goal of $53,312 — climbing to over $75,000 from 115 backers with another 26 days still to go. 9to5Linux reports: Volla, the maker of the Volla Phone smartphones, has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for their first tablet device, the Volla Tablet, which will also support the Ubuntu Touch mobile OS.

Featuring a 12.3-inch Quad HD display with 2650Ã--1600 pixel resolution, the Volla Tablet uses a powerful MediaTek Gaming G99 8-core processor, 12 GB RAM, and 256 GB internal storage. It also comes with a long-lasting 10,000 mAh battery, 2G/3G/4G cellular network support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a 13+5 MP main camera.

By default, Volla Tablet ships with Volla OS 13, Volla's in-house operating system based on the free Android Open Source Project (AOSP), but users will be able to buy the tablet with Ubuntu Touch featuring built-in convergence and support for Android apps with WayDroid container.
"Users will also be able to use desktop apps like Firefox or LibreOffice thanks to the help of the Libertine container," according to the article. ("Volla says that Volla Tablet with Ubuntu Touch is ideal for Linux enthusiasts and minimalists seeking a simplified, efficient, and familiar operating system experience.")

Its Kickstarter page points out the tablet even offers options like "hide.me VPN" and private speech recognition that's "cloud-independent for secure, confidential interactions."

("For U.S. users, please note that only roaming SIM cards from abroad can be used.")
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Volla Successfully Crowdfunds a Privacy-Focused Tablet on Kickstarter More

Volla Successfully Crowdfunds a Privacy-Focused Tablet on Kickstarter

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  • $53,000 goal? (Score:3)

    by ThumpBzztZoom ( 6976422 ) on Saturday April 20, 2024 @08:49PM (#64411256)

    The Kickstarter goal was $53,000, it is over $75,000 now. I'm definitely not an expert, but that sounds like 1% of the money I would expect is needed to manufacture a tablet.

    I guess they already make a phone, so maybe I'm wrong, but that's a suspiciously low number in my mind.

    • It is likely based on an already-created reference design that is ready to go, and they are mostly focused on the software/OS, loading, docs, packaging, distribution, etc. It is pretty common.

      They don't say what type of screen; so that, unfortunately, probably means it is LCD and not LED. Also says "2G/3G/4G" in an era when there is no 2G or 3G anymore, and lacks 5G (of course if you are using WiFi, it doesn't matter... but they don't say which WiFi). Also, no mention of SD card or headphone jack.

      Still,

      • There's a world of difference between a reference design and an actual finished hardware product manufactured at scale. I'm not up to date on factory pricing but I expect that reserving a production slot at some factory like foxconn would cost on the order of a million, so their funding so far is off by a factor of at least 10, since they also have to pay their employees for at least a year etc.

        Kickstarter is full of startups that don't understand hardware manufacturing.

        • In this case, we can probably give them the benefit of the doubt they know what they're doing. This isn't their first time launching hardware via Kickstarter. The software is the standout feature of this tablet. The hardware appears to basically be a Doogee T30 Max [kimovil.com] (although the camera isn't as good as the T30, so perhaps a T20 Ultra, or any of a number of similar devices [kimovil.com]) so don't expect high overheads for branding on generic hardware.

          However, their software goal is the feature that folks would be lookin
    • One phone review: The Volla Phone X23 seems expensive for its mediocre hardware. It's quite clunky and the chipset weakens with daily use. The springboard, a start screen for shortcuts, takes some getting used to.

      • Re:$53,000 goal? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by doc1623 ( 7109263 ) on Sunday April 21, 2024 @10:36AM (#64412088)

        I still have an Teracube One. I really enjoyed it. I wish Fairphone was supported in the U.S. These more open phones (towards FOSS mentality, more or less) , don't compete with the big manufacturers, as directly. They are a more niche market for those that like more control (e.g. admin rights, replaceable battery, unlocked, little to no bloatware, less tracking) on their devices. I still want a phone that is rooted, but has frequent security updates that don't break root; I've never found that. The Teracube was the closest, as they provided root instructions, but didn't provided updates for rooted phones.

        To me, these are another example of what principles can I afford. Without regulations, those of us that want all or, at least some, of what I mentioned above, have to pay more to these niche manufacturers because they can't compete with the big companies. Sometimes, like the original Teracube One, and the Fairphone, when the new phone or edition comes out, it's somewhat competative, but these phones can't afford to put out a new phone every year, so they loose hardware cost/benefit every year.

        I haven't kept up, but if anyone has a list of these type of niche phones and/or information links, I would really appreciate it.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's very likely just an OEM tablet, already designed and built for several other brands in China. All they need to do is tell the factory to put a different case and logo on it, how much RAM and storage to fit, and a couple of months later they have working samples to approve.

      The privacy bit will be the software, but the only reason to trust and pay them well over the odds is if you can't install LineageOS yourself.

    • I think your estimate is off by several orders of magnitude. I would guess billions, minimum, to spin up manufacture of something like this.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      The Kickstarter goal was $53,000, it is over $75,000 now. I'm definitely not an expert, but that sounds like 1% of the money I would expect is needed to manufacture a tablet.

      I guess they already make a phone, so maybe I'm wrong, but that's a suspiciously low number in my mind.

      The tablet is already manufactured. You can probably buy it off AliExpress today.

      Most of the hardware kickstarters you'll find are simple repackaging of AliExpress. For example, there was a walkman with Bluetooth - it already existed i

  • only roaming SIM cards from abroad can be used (Score:3)

    by itsme1234 ( 199680 ) on Saturday April 20, 2024 @08:57PM (#64411266)

    What the heck does that mean? Can't do national roaming? Can't do any SIM from the US so you need to use a card from abroad in roaming all the time in the US? Can't do roaming on a US SIM so you need a foreign one when you leave US?

    • Probably but the world doesn't revolve solely around the US
    • It's a certification issue. It hasn't yet been through the PTCRB certification [ptcrb.com] process which - especially since it's just been funded - would not have had either the time or funds to do so. Presumably due to interoperability agreements, US networks have to agree to work with roaming devices from abroad even if they haven't been certified for use in the US. Volla do say they're aiming to getting the certification done, so given time this won't likely be an issue, but it's just a heads up for early adopters.
      • Further to this, I've tried to look up the protocol handshake to see if a network could actually determine if the device is certified or not, and haven't been able to verify. So consider, it may simply be a matter that it's illegal as a user to use a US SIM in a non-certified device within the US, but it's legal to use a roaming non-US SIM due to the aforementioned required interoperability. It may be that a US SIM would work, but they've had to tell people they need to use roaming international SIMs for le

      • Iinm, there are several providers in the UK that don't charge extra for roaming in the USA. Three and O2 are ones too look into, and there are probably others.
        I'm not sure how viable such options are for long term usage, but it's something.

    • German made.

  • Not really interested, sorry.

  • Who is going to buy this and how many of them will be sold?

  • We Focused On Privacy But That Didn't Work Out. (Score:3)

    by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Saturday April 20, 2024 @10:36PM (#64411380)

    Since the government and all corps can see your information anyway. Legally. Enjoy.

  • seems like a marketing angle (Score:3)

    by Big Hairy Gorilla ( 9839972 ) on Sunday April 21, 2024 @07:28AM (#64411802)
    No Google? ... Ubuntu Touch? hmmm... correct me if I'm wrong, but the hardware isn't where the privacy issues are. If you remove system level services , most specifically GMS (google mobile services) from android and use a VPN you are where these guys think they'll be next year.

    I've customized quite a few android devices and you can verify this with tcpdump. You also want to remove just about anything the manufacturer puts on, I've specialized on Samsung hardware, and found that 100% of samsung software is a horrifying privacy nightmare. Weird apps with innocuous names like "forest" and, i don't recall... some kind of electronic coupon client... OMG they gather and exfiltrate so much information...it appears to me that internal departments at samsung are competing to slurp up your data.... unless you look at the pkg manifest and start testing (and removing) you wouldn't even know they are there.

    Also, you have to run your own private VPN which routes your DNS queries to an encrypted lookup service like dnscrypt-proxy, or you're just handing your data to a different thief. (thieves)

    I'd be checking to see if these guys have just taken samsung's place on the data gathering ladder.

    • AOSP-based, meaning it relies on libhybris to boot into a Linux environment. Given Mediatek isn't even that well supported by LineageOS, I can't see any future, OS-wise.

      c.f. Pinetab 2. The specs aren't nearly as fancy but there's a community of volunteers porting bare metal mainline Linux 6.x to it.

      https://pine64.org/devices/pin... [pine64.org]

  • Dogpile on a kickstarter attempting to launch into GOOGspace

    BUT Volla has set a low bar for a nice spec tablet for use as a browser-centric device

    That’s sufficient for anything pulled up online and packaged in handsome OS

    The toys that come along with this thing and integration with Volla phone are key

    Tablets will pad Volla userbase at the precise moment iDevices are un-vogue

    It will be a first foot in door to the GOOG/AAPL duopoly, serving edge and corner markets

    Long term its a bet to place. Volla will

  • Haven't bought a tablet for quite a few years, do they normally use SIM cards now?

    (If so, what makes it a tablet vs. a "big phone"?)

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