[HN Gopher] New phone can make calls and send texts, but it cann...
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New phone can make calls and send texts, but it cannot access
social media
Author : prostoalex
Score : 24 points
Date : 2021-08-21 04:06 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wsj.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wsj.com)
| neonate wrote:
| https://archive.is/jVIE0
| ajay-b wrote:
| Wasn't there a comic The Joy of Tech where Johnny Ive's is
| showing a new iPhone to Steve, that just made calls?
| spansoa wrote:
| I enjoy mindlessly scrolling social media when waiting for the
| bus. It takes my mind off the banality of doing that. It also
| makes time go by quicker, which is what you want when waiting for
| _anything_.
|
| I don't agree with this current wave of demonisation of
| smartphones. If you want you can flash a Pixel with LineageOS and
| install a bunch of FOSS apps from F-Droid if you're concerned
| about privacy.
| avindroth wrote:
| It's because people demonise "wasting time".
|
| People take themselves too seriously.
| bdamm wrote:
| When it ends up consuming days or weeks on end then yes,
| something is wrong.
| pilsetnieks wrote:
| Does it end thus for you? In that case, indeed, something
| is wrong; help needs to be sought.
|
| I'd wager it is an extreme case, however. Most people don't
| seem to be consumed by consuming social media days or weeks
| on end without remit.
| MrJagil wrote:
| I only bring my apple watch when i go out and leave my phone.
| I want to look around, collect my thoughts, let my mind
| wander.
| pilsetnieks wrote:
| Max Weber had things to say about this Puritan ethic [1]
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_th
| e_S...
|
| Also:
|
| "No person, householder or other, shall spend his time idly
| or unprofitably, under pain of such punishment as the court
| shall think meet to inflict"
|
| -- Bay Colony General Court, 1633.
| foxpurple wrote:
| Problem is when you get addicted and end up spending over an
| hour scrolling content in a vegetable state and lack the
| energy to do anything else.
| perihelions wrote:
| Related: a 2018-era e-ink smartphone with no apps,
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18255904 ( _" Business card-
| sized Japanese phone bucks the giant-phone trend"_)
| narrator wrote:
| I think the dividing line for features on a minimal phone should
| be is the message that comes into the phone intended for the
| recipient and not for a mass audience. Feeds, nope. Podcasts,
| nope. Music, nope. Any sort of "News", Nope. Slack/Instant
| Messages/Tinder/Email Specifically Emailed to You OK.
| [deleted]
| ergot_vacation wrote:
| New? Can't you buy this for $80 at any CVS or Walgreens?
|
| "Companies including Nokia Corp. still manufacture "feature
| phones," devices that look, feel and operate like the cellphones
| of the '00s.
|
| But most feature phones still follow a design philosophy of
| abundance, cramming all the features they can into a limited
| operating system, said Petter Neby..."
|
| Bullshit. They can't get on the Internet, that's what matters.
| You can call, you can text (awkwardly) and that's pretty much it.
| Is it really worth $250+ to strip out the shitty version of Snake
| or whatever the Feature phone comes with? The whole issue is
| distraction, and I'm pretty sure a tiny monochrome display with
| no Internet poses little threat in that regard.
|
| Pure wankery, especially when you consider they could probably
| sell THIS phone for $80 too, if they wanted to. Buy a feature
| phone if this is what you want (and more power to you). Don't
| reward this nonsense.
| tyingq wrote:
| If you're in the US, $5 from Tracfone, though it's locked to
| them. $15/month for unlimited talk/text.
|
| https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/alcat...
| spicybright wrote:
| You can even get plans where you pay a small amount per year
| and get X amount of minutes and Y amount of texts per month
| if you don't use a phone that often.
|
| Great for an emergency phone to keep in your car.
| danirod wrote:
| Looking at the official website trying to understand what's the
| value of this mobile phone over any cheap feature phone from
| Nokia: https://mudita.com/products/pure/.
|
| The device has an e-ink display and claims to have a very good
| speaker. The operating system has a meditation app and an
| "inspirational quotes" app.
|
| I'm still curious about which kind of person would purchase a
| device like this instead of a feature phone, given that they are
| way cheaper.
| Gualdrapo wrote:
| > The operating system has a meditation app and an
| "inspirational quotes" app.
|
| > I'm still curious about which kind of person would purchase a
| device like this instead of a feature phone
|
| At uni we had a teacher that used to brag telling the story
| about how he bought his phone. Allegedly he went into the store
| and asked about the most basic phone.
|
| No, not the cheapest phone, but the basic. Because he didn't
| needed cameras and apps and stuff.
|
| I'm fairly positive that's the kind of people this phone is
| targeted at.
| crooked-v wrote:
| The E-ink display might be good for battery life... but if
| you're not obsessively using your battery life is going to be
| much better in the first place, since the majority of the
| battery drain on modern phones is the screen.
| jumelles wrote:
| The focus on radiation is... strange. It even shows up under
| the SIM card section:
|
| "Although we would have liked to only use 2G, the least harmful
| radio frequency, it is currently being phased out around the
| world. We spent a good amount of time trying to find a
| flexible, modern and global GSM module, which could be used for
| travelling anywhere in the world. With the user's health in
| mind, Pure always chooses the lowest spectrum available to
| limit radiation."
| gpas wrote:
| It's revealing of what segment of the market they are
| targeting...
| Rd6n6 wrote:
| You have to make minimalist things configurable sometimes so they
| each persons minimal set can work for them without adding bloat
| to somebody elses.
|
| I've been rewriting some logic for a writing prep app right now
| based on this idea. It's delaying the launch by about a week but
| it's really important. There is no such thing as the average
| person
|
| (Obviously, great defaults are critical too)
| yellow_lead wrote:
| Yeah I think this is better suited as an Android fork.
| dgarrett wrote:
| I think the trick is to be configurable, but with high
| friction. Otherwise it's too easy to reconfigure away from the
| minimalism on the fly.
|
| I've thought about using Parental Controls on iOS to do
| something similar. Set a very long password that can't be
| memorized easily, write it down somewhere accessible if needed,
| and you get a minimal phone that can be reconfigured if needed.
| Just with high friction (typing in a long password from a paper
| in your home).
|
| Of course, this assumes your goal is "avoiding a distracting
| environment" rather than "avoiding a bloated environment".
| Everyone has different goals with minimalism.
| p49k wrote:
| Pretty worthless without WhatsApp, which in many countries is the
| only way to actually make calls and send texts. They state in
| their FAQ that they have no intention to support it.
| diskzero wrote:
| Possibly ignorant question: Is there no way to create an app
| that works in the WhatsApp ecosystem?
| taylodl wrote:
| I keep all social media apps off of my phone. I _do_ have
| messaging apps on my phone, such as slack. I find it helps keep
| me from mindlessly staring at my screen.
| Raed667 wrote:
| I need a connected phone that isn't built for addiction.
|
| For example, I need Uber for the rare cases where I'm in a jam at
| 3 AM and need to get back home. I need maps for when I'm looking
| for directions. I need a web browser to access my bank and the
| occasional Google search.
|
| I can live with or without Whatsapp or Signal, that depends on
| how much you use it I guess.
|
| However, I don't need Facebook, Twitter or TikTok or any social
| app.
|
| I feel these "minimalist" phones fail to be useful.
| mmaunder wrote:
| Yeah I came here to say something similar. I feel like there's
| a middle ground, but this isn't it. Almost like a Firefox of
| phones that gets rid of the unethical, unhealthy and addictive
| junk and keeps the essential stuff. Maybe it's more of an
| operating mode that we can enable on existing phones.
|
| Stuff I absolutely need when AFK: Maps, slack, whatsapp, windy,
| tides, gmail, expensify and a few others. Stuff I don't need:
| Facebook, twitter, news apps that "ALERT!!!" me when it's
| nothing important, etc.
| neither_color wrote:
| I simply dont have facebook, twitter or tiktok installed on my
| phone.
| igetspam wrote:
| For subtracted difficulty (opposite of added?), I don't have
| accounts on any of those things anyway. I find the easiest
| way to win is not to play.
| Raed667 wrote:
| You have better self-control than me.
| new_guy wrote:
| This is the ultimate problem. It's a _human_ issue, not a
| technology issue.
| Raed667 wrote:
| It is a technology issue in the sense that these
| companies are paying 6 figures to top designers and
| developers to optimize for eyeball-time.
| johnchristopher wrote:
| To some degree it can be improved. Putting the phone
| physically out of reach works best for me. Strangely, being
| well rested helps me too.
| potatoman22 wrote:
| Perhaps this would be better as an Android ROM than its own
| phone?
| curiousgal wrote:
| You can probably achieve all of those things with Tasker.
| johnchristopher wrote:
| My sony z5c (4.6 inches) has this "ultra stamina" mode that
| basically turns it into a feature phone.
| foxpurple wrote:
| The Apple Watch is the right form factor for this. You can do
| almost anything but certain things are so annoying you wouldn't
| bother. Voice control is the best way to use it which makes it
| great for getting directions, making a call or etc. but you
| wouldn't consider scrolling reddit on it.
| throwawaygh wrote:
| _> However, I don 't need Facebook, Twitter or TikTok or any
| social app._
|
| So... don't install those apps?
|
| I guess that's easier said than done. I keep an `/etc/hosts`
| list of distracting websites (includes HN) and route them all
| back to my hobby trello task board. Message to myself being,
| "hey, distractions from work are fine, but wouldn't you rather
| be working on one of these things than screwing around in a
| comments section?" And I have a shell script that will wipe a
| given line of the /etc/hosts for 30 minutes in case I decide
| "nope, I really do want to screw around in the comments section
| this time."
|
| Maybe someone should build an app that does something similar
| -- redirects you when you try to either visit or install
| fb/twitter/tiktok... not sure if possible without jailbreaking
| or using an alt app store, though.
| prostoalex wrote:
| Cal Newport in "Digital minimalism" has a plan of attack for
| addictive loops.
|
| 1) force yourself to use the mobile web site vs the dedicated
| app
|
| 2) at the end of the session log out, increasing the friction
| of using the app mindlessly
| FairDune wrote:
| Is this etc/hosts on Android?
| seized wrote:
| So don't install those things? At some point it isn't the
| phones problem to limit a user from those things.
|
| I don't have Facebook, Twitter, etc on my phone.
| Raed667 wrote:
| It is like telling an alcoholic "simply don't drink".
| [deleted]
| Swizec wrote:
| My relationship with my phone greatly improved when I turned on
| DoNotDisturb mode and hid all of the red county icon widgets
| ... many years ago. It's the best.
|
| Your phone no longer distracts you. Can't.
|
| The temptation is still there in your pocket, but if you're
| doing stuff and mind isn't looking for distraction, you won't
| even notice your phone exists.
| diskzero wrote:
| Good advice. Now we just need to apply this type of thinking
| across the entire app and OS ecosystem. I never want to be
| prompted for any sort of permissions or accidentally grant
| some while clicking to dismiss the wave of prompts you
| sometime encounter.
| bamboozled wrote:
| What would be cool is if voice assistants get to the point
| where you can just talk to the phone to get an Uber etc.
| neom wrote:
| Couple other design++ "dumb phones" I've had my eye on:
|
| https://www.thelightphone.com/
|
| https://www.punkt.ch/en/products/mp02-4g-mobile-phone/
| PenguinCoder wrote:
| The light phone looks great and exactly what I want. But it
| won't work with my provider or choice, and I really don't want
| to be reliant on light phone the company for my SIM service.
| vaidhy wrote:
| Why is this $399? IIRC, Nokia 3310 was around $80..
| jeffbee wrote:
| Yeah but the Nokia 3310 had a Facebook app. On some carriers
| this phone _came with_ Facebook.
| superkuh wrote:
| My Nokia 6030 does this and is still going strong with a week
| between charges. I'm going to be sad when the 2G/3G base
| stations shut down in the next few years though.
|
| It'd be nice if there were more 4G/5G dumb phones with
| mechanical buttons, a minimal screen and physical size, no
| firmware or software update need or capability, and voice+text
| support.
| dang wrote:
| Recent and (somewhat) related:
|
| _Dumb Phone_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28246636 -
| Aug 2021 (150 comments)
|
| _The Light Phone: Minimal Smartphone_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28184006 - Aug 2021 (157
| comments)
| josephcsible wrote:
| All the functionality of a feature phone for the price of a
| smartphone! Wait a minute...
| throwawayboise wrote:
| There's a veblen value component to these....
| throwawayboise wrote:
| I'd buy one if it could do WiFi calling (I have very poor mobile
| signal at my house) and hotspot capability so I could use a cheap
| tablet for maps in the car.
| neom wrote:
| According to their promo video, it can "act as a data modem" -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58bJLakzVPo (but yeah, no wifi
| I guess)
| beezischillin wrote:
| You could call your phone provider and ask them if they offer a
| signal booster or something like that. I'm in Eastern Europe
| and if you nag Orange enough about the signal issues at your
| house they will actually send you a little device you plug into
| your router and power that provides 4G to nearby phones.
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(page generated 2021-08-21 23:01 UTC)