I think the current and growing interests in privacy and security as we delve deeper into the modern age would lend well to a project like Google's project Ara. Having a phone that you could remove the networking hardware and be truly airgapped would be excellent. Maybe a removable camera/microphone array to go silent when desired? Remove the processor and memory to power off. --
Sure, physical switches is the economical design decision, and closed source software switches is the shitty design decision most people actually get. It's nice to dream!
@design_RG some of the thoughts that lead me to jot down the post. I have hope that privacy will become a feature in a certain niche of the market. Removable batteries, hardware switches for radios. I think it's happening (albeit not smoothly) with the new Librem 5 from purism. I also have hope that developments continue with RISC-V to have the chance to shut down some of those backdoors that manufacturers and state actors can/may manipulate.
@teknonomicon You probably watched and remember the excellent film "Enemy of the State"?
A little harder to find those days. The IT person in it stated the only secure phone was one with the battery fully removed.
It's worrisome that many or most of newer devices are all glued together, not allowing that. There's an interest of State actors in keeping people under watch if they deem needed.
Scary times. "1984" lives on.