Emacs on the phone

A simple solution is to get an extra phone just for #emacs. An aged Android will do fine. Pop an updated LineageOS on there. Then run Emacs one of two ways:

  • get UserLAnd (not a typo) and run emacs
  • use Emacs for F-Droid as a native Android app

Use a Bluetooth keyboard, obviously. Keep the initfiles in sync with Syncthing. Done.

The screen is small, so you have to pick between cholera and the plague: either hurt your vision using this for long, or upscale the text far past practical limits.

It doesn't sound super useful, but an example legit use case is flashcards, if you prefer fully in-Emacs solutions like org-fc/org-drill/pamparam.

You can get more legit use cases if you depend on an elisp solution for something, e.g. RSS reading or a home-rolled incremental reading system. By ignoring the whole concept of a phone-specific operating system, you save effort on figuring out your infrastructure.

Ingredients:

  • Old Android phone
  • Phone-mount or holder of some kind
  • Bluetooth keyboard (maybe learn to use a one-handed keeb like the FrogPad)
  • LineageOS or postmarketOS
Created (2 years ago)