Last Updated on November 3, 2026 by pg@petergamma.org
I often used my phone as a writer. My first devices I used for this purpose wasHTC Universal Dopod 900 Qtek 9000 i-mate JASJAR O2 Xda Exec Orange SPV M5000 E-Plus PDA IV
I loved this device. I could write to an SD card, and then stick it into my computer to continue writing there. I used this device all the time for very personal stuff.
The Qtek 9000 was announced in August 2005 and officially released in November 2005.
Manufacturer: Produced by HTC under the Qtek brand.
Platform: Runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 PocketPC.
Key Specs: Features a 3.6-inch display, Intel XScale 520 MHz processor, and 64 MB RAM.
Then I used the Nokia – 9500 Communicator
And the last phone I used as a writes was an Samsung Galaxy s 8 with Android 4.4.
This was the last device I was happy with. I could write to the external SD card.
OR I could connect my Galaxy S 8 over usb to my PC and write to the SD card of my Galaxy S 9 from thre. And then I used the Galaxy s 8 with Anrdoid 4.4. until I found it is time to find a new solution.
To synchronize my private data to Google Drive was an absolute no go for me personally.
I will not synchronize my data out of the house.
And I know why
This year I found an old friend of mine on an electronic advertisement board at the mainstation in Zurich. And it was absolutely clear for me personally that she hat information I receivce from the Beobachter e mail service about legal advices I received from them. This old friend of mine seemet to know the content of this e mail and made publicity for a legal insurance comapany. This was an absolute shock to me personally.
My e mails where read read and the content is published at the main station in Zurich on an
on electronic advertisement board?
A was looking since a long time for a solution. I was very attracted by the Pinephone:
I bought a Pinephone. And it took me a month to install LibreOffice on the Pinephone with the Pine 64 support
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=16614&page=6&highlight=libreoffice
It took me time from the 05-06-2022, 12:16 PM to the 06-16-2022, 10:14 PM which is about a month every day work a little bit to install LibreOffice on the Pinephone with the support of the Pine 64 community.
Only to find out at the end that LibreOffice is not adapted to the Pinephone screen.
I hardly ever felt more cheated than that in my life. I am an absolutely greenhorn as far as Linux and coding is concerned. I thought installing LibreOffice on the Pinephone would solve this problem I have discussed her. I hated Pine64 afte that completely. They made such a big story about the Pinephone. And then it was me wo installed LibreOffice on the Pinephone only to find out that it cannot be used.
Is now someone left who still uses the Pinephne? I hardly ever hated a devcie more than the Pinephone. The expecation people have risen. Only to find out that no one hardly is using it anymore.
Then I started doing experiments with adapters. I finally became interested in NextcloudPi. A cloud solution which can run on a Raspberry PI.
With adapters it is also possible to write to an SD card with newer Android phones. But then I found out that this is not practical. Even with a very small micro SD card sticked into a Google 6 phone. This solution always broke.
So I decided to start using NextCloudPi as my solution to sync files from my Android phone to my PC.
There are tons of installation instructions for NextCloudPI.
But all the images for it seem to be gone. And they try to force people to buy a Raspbyerry pi 5
which I will not do. Since who want to spend 300 USD for a singe board computers, as the Pi 4 was during the Raspberry Pi shortage?
This is the only solution which I currently found for the Raspberry Pi 4 which works.
Here is an easier way to install NextCloudPi on a Raspberry Pi 4:
I previously did not find the download Images anymore for the Raspberry Pi 4. But on the above link, you can find it again.
I currently use two hard drives as backup on my Linux PC. At the beginning of the year 2025 I switched to Linux. Buying new PCs because of Windows 11 was a no go for me personally. My old machines where still good enough.
But when I started using Linux with external hard drives, I killed drive after drive. Several drives where not readable anymore. Linux seems to be very sensitive as fas as external hard drives is concerned.
I now disconnect my external Hds from Linux. Because they always broke.
And now I decided to use NextCloudPi and OpenMediavault and a router to connect these drives to my Linux PC. And also over a wired connection ethernet to my PC over a cable adapbt
Is ist no possible to snychronize my hole 2 TB NextCloudPi hard drive to my Google Pixel 6? I searched for it on Brave search only to find out that Google has removed the internal SD cards from Google phones.
Are these the two big lyes of Google Inc?
First around the year after Android 4.4 they said the removed the option to write to SD cards of Anrdoid phones for security phones.
And the next big lye of Google.
They removed the internal SD card from Google Phones completely. To make the smartphones more handy. Is this not a big lye, too?
Since is it not the truth, that tha Google Inc. want all people to sync their data to Goolge Drives?
And since there is no internal SD card with Google Pixel Phones anymore, that is definitefely the end between Google Phones and me.
Looking for an alternative, I found out that the Fairphone 4 has an SD card slot, which offers SD card storage capacity up to 2 TB:
which means that it is possilbe to sync a 2 TB NextCloudPi hard drive to a Fairphone with an internal SD card, which is great.
And then I found that the Fairphone 4 can be used to mount the internal SD card as a drive which can be accessed from a PC, as in the good old times.
I spent such a long time to solve this problem. I will no not go back to a solution where I depend on Fairphone. Since it is only possible. It is a nice feature worth mentioning.
And another nice feature of Fairphones is that they are the only option I currently see for
iodéOS as a privacy oriented OS on smartphone which is interesting for me personally. If i studied the devices in the list, it is the only devive which remains.
iodéOS is for me personally the best solution, as a privacy phone OS. It is not as restricted as Graphene OS, but still private enough for my purpose:
This is my choice for a Privacy Phone & for a device for personal use – iodéOS, the Fairphone & NextCloudPi – devices without a Big Brother who is watching you.