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Dumber phone

nomasters.io

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Re: Dumber phone

#141

Post by cimmanom »

adhambadr wrote: post #122

Checkout our phone www.blloc.com . I think its exactly what we thought of, dumbing down the smartphone to the bare essentials without missing out too much. we don't have it perfectly communicated (working on it), but we're trying to find the middle between a "smartphone" and full blown detox. We got inspired from some of our friends who went "dark" and didn't work out; we were as product designers sick of snapchat, g…

This is an amazing idea!

Are the actual apps it runs just Android apps with their default interfaces, or is each one something you've custom-built internally, or what?

Re: Dumber phone

#142

Post by cimmanom »

hawski wrote: post #44

For me it's the browser. What I did yesterday on Firefox for Android: - installed uBlock Origin (also First Party Isolation and HTTPS Everywhere), - disabled JavaScript via about:config javascript.enabled, - and added .css| rule to uBlock Origin (I would still like to disable CSS entirely, this only half works). Basically I would like to have "links2 -g" [0] for Android. There is also an extension for Firefox to auto…

The browser is the time-sink for me too. Unfortunately, iOS makes it difficult to get Safari out of your life. My dream is a content blocker that requires you to unlock it in order to browse the time-sink sites you choose to greylist; and each time you unlock it, unlocking gets more arduous.

Re: Dumber phone

#143

Post by nixme »

wpietri wrote: post #77
yosito wrote: post #27

Personally, I find my smartphone addiction gets worse when I turn off all notifications. Because then FOMO takes over and I spend tons of time digging into apps to make sure I didn't "miss anything". For me, it works much better to intentionally choose the notifications I get to be the things I really want to be interrupted by. I wish there were an AI or human secretary who could make those judgements on a per-notifi…

Let me ask the crowd. Would you use a browser plugin that eliminates newsfeeds? One of the things I struggle with is the endless novelty of a newsfeed. I can always scroll and get more. And then I can reload for another chance at finding something interesting. There are extensions that do this for Facebook alone, but I was thinking something more general. And something that's also clever about eliminating the way com…

HabitLab for Chrome has this as a nudge.

Re: Dumber phone

#144

Post by seddinbad »

innocentoldguy wrote: post #33
josefresco wrote: post #29

Does anyone with an Apple watch (or other smartwatch ) feel it helps them leave their smartphone behind and/or reduce their smartphone usage?

I do. I have an Apple Watch with a SIM chip in it and I leave my phone at home all the time. I still get text messages and emails, so I know if something urgent is going on, but it is also a bit of a pain to reply, so I find, more often than not, I don't. It helps me to plan my responses to specific times during the day.

Can you install apps like a simple web browser, Google maps or whatsapp/telegram on it ?

Re: Dumber phone

#145

Post by gukov »

On my Android phone I have no app icons on the home screen. The apps list is eight pages long and the extra few seconds it takes to find anything is a good deterrent.

Another good trick for those that absolutely need to keep social media on their phone: use the accessibility settings to make the phone's screen black and white.

Re: Dumber phone

#146

Post by rthomas6 »

ad7024 wrote: post #100
mkaziz wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the idea but it needs way too many permissions. How do you guys make money?

We know :( Our next release ( The app is currently free while in beta. We are in the process of building the UI for a Pay What You Can subscription model, which we feel aligns well with the movement away from an attention economy towards a user value economy, makes it more accessible, etc.

Will there possibly be a way to just buy the app?

Re: Dumber phone

#147

Post by driverdan »

yosito wrote: post #27

Personally, I find my smartphone addiction gets worse when I turn off all notifications. Because then FOMO takes over and I spend tons of time digging into apps to make sure I didn't "miss anything". For me, it works much better to intentionally choose the notifications I get to be the things I really want to be interrupted by. I wish there were an AI or human secretary who could make those judgements on a per-notifi…

> Because then FOMO takes over

This is the real problem, not the phone or its apps. You need to eliminate FOMO from your life. You'll be much happier for it.

I don't have a recommendation on how to do that. For me I came to the realization and acceptance that there is always more. More work, more knowledge, more news, more parties, more potential friends, more opportunities, etc. It never ends and it's impossible to know or participate in it all.

If you find yourself having anxiety from that thought you might want to see a psychologist.

Re: Dumber phone

#148

Post by jehlakj »

Does anybody else prefer iOS over android for this reason? I started out with an android device but none of the main apps ever felt native other than the settings app. Even sms seemed like a third party, and it didn’t feel as direct as an iPhone. It’s a very minor detail, but enough to give an edge to the iPhone in this matter.

Re: Dumber phone

#149

Post by adhambadr »

david-cako wrote: post #133
adhambadr wrote: post #122

Checkout our phone www.blloc.com . I think its exactly what we thought of, dumbing down the smartphone to the bare essentials without missing out too much. we don't have it perfectly communicated (working on it), but we're trying to find the middle between a "smartphone" and full blown detox. We got inspired from some of our friends who went "dark" and didn't work out; we were as product designers sick of snapchat, g…

I am in love with this. The home screen design is so obvious it hurts -- flip phone UX for a smartphone. "Open and dial". What's the story with the display? Do you have an actual proof of concept where you have a black and white mode that largely decreases battery life? Is there anything special about it, or does it just play into how OLED displays are locally lit?

yes we initially used OLED and our phones after testing managed to use on average around 65% of the energy with our ui. We're dropping it unfortunately as its a supply-chain nightmare.. (for now). Black and white mainly increases your focus sharply, but u can always disable it to colours.

Re: Dumber phone

#150

Post by codq »

Skylled wrote: post #121
yosito wrote: post #27

Personally, I find my smartphone addiction gets worse when I turn off all notifications. Because then FOMO takes over and I spend tons of time digging into apps to make sure I didn't "miss anything". For me, it works much better to intentionally choose the notifications I get to be the things I really want to be interrupted by. I wish there were an AI or human secretary who could make those judgements on a per-notifi…

I started on this path recently with email by using the Astro app, and only getting notifications for "Priority Emails" which are intelligently chosen.

Inbox by Gmail does this, too. It's fantastic.
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