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I wanted to punish my daughter with a no-frills phone but it didn't go to plan

mobile.abc.net.au

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Re: I wanted to punish my daughter with a no-frills phone but it didn't go to plan

#31

Post by fmpwizard »

Theodores wrote: post #2

Has anyone tried the user interface of a burner phone? Recently I tried exchanging numbers with a friend who has a burner phone - a replacement for a lost phone. Yes, good luck with dialling a number or storing a number in the contacts. Even sending a text is a trial of user experience, an intelligence test akin to solving a Rubik's Cube. So it is good to see that a 12 year old can work out some of these functions. I…

I think your definition of a burner phone is different than what the article describes. It's not supposed to have much in the way of navigation/UI. To place a call it should be just unlock it, open it (for flip kind), press the numbers and then press the green button :)

I bought one for my 8 yod, unknown brand "Plum" and works great, battery lasts like a week.

In my case, I got it for emergencies.

Re: I wanted to punish my daughter with a no-frills phone but it didn't go to plan

#32

Post by DonHopkins »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #22

Is "burner phone" Aussie slang or something? Anyway, I like it :)

If you've never heard "burner phone" before, you probably haven't watched Breaking Bad, which was an American cultural touch-stone she mentioned, and an excellent show you'll likely enjoy (and I envy you being able to binge watch it now, instead of waiting week after week for the next episode):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad

And then there's the "Breaking Phones" spin-off we really all wanted to see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNzS66iRcjw

The actual "Breaking Bad" spin-off "Better Call Saul" has a whole multi-episode sub-plot about burner phones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89wXeYOls7o

You can see how cool that burner phone must have made her daughter feel!

Re: I wanted to punish my daughter with a no-frills phone but it didn't go to plan

#33

Post by DonHopkins »

blahblahthrow wrote: post #3

This person sounds like an absolute control freak and terrible parent. Oh no, eating junk food in bed? Better... come up with a byzantine punishment?

No no, a Byzantine punishment would be to get her daughter an early Linux smartphone running a stripped down distribution of X-Windows and a primordial version of Netscape Navigator, without emacs or vi, so she has to look up her phone numbers using grep in xterm.

Re: I wanted to punish my daughter with a no-frills phone but it didn't go to plan

#35

Post by [deleted] »

lechienquipete wrote: post #4
Theodores wrote: post #2

Has anyone tried the user interface of a burner phone? Recently I tried exchanging numbers with a friend who has a burner phone - a replacement for a lost phone. Yes, good luck with dialling a number or storing a number in the contacts. Even sending a text is a trial of user experience, an intelligence test akin to solving a Rubik's Cube. So it is good to see that a 12 year old can work out some of these functions. I…

> good luck with dialling a number You literally unlock the phone, type the number and press the call button.

[deleted]

Re: I wanted to punish my daughter with a no-frills phone but it didn't go to plan

#36

Post by abathur »

duxup wrote: post #23
tannhaeuser wrote: post #22

Is "burner phone" Aussie slang or something? Anyway, I like it :)

It's a common term in the US in my experience, although as the article indicates it is usually a phrase related to crime.

The article suggests criminality, but I think use varies a little by context.

Buying a phone to do crimes? I imagine want to pay cash, get something that doesn't require a global account login, and is cheap enough to toss early and often.

Going through security points where you suspect they'll try to force you to log into accounts, dupe the device's contents, possibly install malware, etc? You might just be looking for something you can buy once you arrive that isn't prohibitively expensive and will be easy to re-sell for most of what you paid before you leave.

Re: I wanted to punish my daughter with a no-frills phone but it didn't go to plan

#37

Post by cm2187 »

mabbo wrote: post #18
austincheney wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Separating child from phone addiction is Byzantine?

The Byzantines were known to take their children's phones away. Monsters, the lot of them.

I remember reading Steve Jobs was doing that to his kids. But hey, it’s the golden rule of the trade, don’t get high on your own product.

Re: I wanted to punish my daughter with a no-frills phone but it didn't go to plan

#38

Post by [deleted] »

lechienquipete wrote: post #4
Theodores wrote: post #2

Has anyone tried the user interface of a burner phone? Recently I tried exchanging numbers with a friend who has a burner phone - a replacement for a lost phone. Yes, good luck with dialling a number or storing a number in the contacts. Even sending a text is a trial of user experience, an intelligence test akin to solving a Rubik's Cube. So it is good to see that a 12 year old can work out some of these functions. I…

> good luck with dialling a number You literally unlock the phone, type the number and press the call button.

[deleted]

Re: I wanted to punish my daughter with a no-frills phone but it didn't go to plan

#39

Post by cm2187 »

Theodores wrote: post #2

Has anyone tried the user interface of a burner phone? Recently I tried exchanging numbers with a friend who has a burner phone - a replacement for a lost phone. Yes, good luck with dialling a number or storing a number in the contacts. Even sending a text is a trial of user experience, an intelligence test akin to solving a Rubik's Cube. So it is good to see that a 12 year old can work out some of these functions. I…

I believe many are designed to be smuggled in certain orifices. It must affect their functionalities.

Re: I wanted to punish my daughter with a no-frills phone but it didn't go to plan

#40

Post by tomxor »

pkaye wrote: post #34

I honestly wouldn't mind a minimal feature super lightweight long battery life cell phone most of the time. Basically phone calls and SMS.

They never stopped making them, they got better and better in terms of battery and weight. But you are not very likely to find them in a brick n mortar shop (at least not good ones), they only want to sell smart phones because that's where the money is. Shop online and there is plenty of choice... just don't cheap out on the £10-20 phones because they will really piss you off with bad UX, they might do mainly calls and text but you will be surprised how bad they can make that experience.

I've got a £50 dumb nokia phone, it's lighter than any smartphone and last for 1-2 weeks on battery (it's about 5 years old), impossible to break, i never have to think about it or worry about it, it doesn't distract me until someone really needs to communicate with me... I love it, but then I never liked smart phones.

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