Re: Tor on the Nokia N900 (Mobile Tor stuff)

[7v5w7go9ub0o <7v5w7go9ub0o@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 02/19/10 20:09, Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
> 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:
>> On 02/18/10 20:07, Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
>>> The performance of Tor is similar to any other Tor client - this is our
>>> reference C implementation running on the N900.
>>>
>>> With that said - You may want to hold out and get an Android phone.
>>> We're looking to do a release of Tor on Android next week. We have some
>>> very promising alphas and it's quite exciting!
>>
>> Please correct me if I'm wrong, but am a little surprised at the
>> interest in TOR on Android  - Android seems a closed, phone-home "cloud"
>> computer with little/no regard for privacy or anonymity. I'd always
>> wonder about a nice little log somewhere on my phone and/or in the "cloud".
>>
>
> I think that Android offers us a new possibility for telephones. I also
> like the N900 but I feel that Nokia often screws their user community.
> It's good to have options and so the more Tor on the more devices, the
> better.
>

Understood/Agreed. Especially given the periodic political wars on
privacy and anonymity.

> You may be interested in hearing about the Guardian project:
> http://openideals.com/guardian/
>
> Additionally, you may also be interested in Noisedroid:
> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Noisedroid
>
> Or perhaps the more well known cyanogen firmware:
> http://www.cyanogenmod.com/
>
> All of those offer a possibility for an Android system built entirely
> from Free Software pieces. The big missing piece is the baseband and
> when last I checked there was not a single smart phone with a free
> baseband firmware. Harald Welte is currently working on on solving this
> problem for the Calypso chipset:
> http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2010/02/19/#20100219-announcing_osmocom_bb
>
> The future looks nice all around. Having Tor on as many of these devices
> will provide many people with options beyond what we can imagine.
>
>> OTOH, IIUC, The N900 can be configured as a traditional lap/desktop.
>> (Arguably, one may want to hold out for an entirely open-source meego
>> N900 with the new Intel chip)
>>

Thank you for the informative reply. I'm quite clueless about the
mobile/cell world and these are very useful links.

I presently carry a TracFone for emergencies, a small camera for photos,
and use a laptop at wifi hotspots for telephone and net use - a lot of
"stuff".

My goal is to consolidate all of that into a powerful, Linux
cell phone that I can maintain on my desktop (ubuntu or meego) - as I
maintain my laptop (Gentoo) now. The x86 moorestown seems a powerful
chip; meego is open source; I'm guessing that moorestown and meego will
go into the next high-end Nokia.

I'd look for an open(?) phone with a good camera and not use it for cell
phoning (or perhaps get a limited monthly T-mobile plan when I'm on the
road). Add micro or wireless-usb, and I could occasionally add a folding
keyboard.

(thoughts about the above welcomed)



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