John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone • Hacker News Board

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#31

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 12:31 PM UTC

rubidium wrote: post #21

jacquesm wrote: post #14

This is a very good idea executed poorly. SMS has become a way of life and you'll be receiving messages that you can not read, also a paper phonebook requires that you carry a pen with you. Play it again, John, this time with a pager sized (text) display and I'll buy one. edit: added the (text), it does have a display but can't display text messages.

Agreed. Anyone who texts shouldn't buy this phone. However, I would say that it's not aimed at SMS'ers and as such is not executed poorly. Strikes me to have two major markets: (1) people who only want to talk to people via phones (e.g. some of the elderly) and (2) as a fashionable item. The gold one would be a head-turner and topic of conversation. Some people want to get rid of SMS from their way of life (or never…

> hark back for simpler times.

When it comes to phones I go through alternating phases of high-tech and as simple as it gets, mostly because I get frustrated at how bad high tech phones usually work as phones (they're great little computers, but I mostly use my phone to call).

SMS is no longer optional, even if you want to get rid of it, typically service messages are only sent using SMS, not voice and people will simply assume that even if you didn't respond that you still read their SMS message saying they'll be an hour late.

It's like with businesses and FAX, you may never send one but people pretty much used to assume that you were at least capable of receiving them.

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#32

Post by dreyfiz » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 12:32 PM UTC

antihero wrote: post #20

More expensive than a phone that can do more? Laughable pretentious rubbish.

Simplicity is a feature. "Can do more" sometimes means "can't do anything because it's too complicated".

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#33

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 12:33 PM UTC

martinc wrote: post #30

jacquesm wrote: post #14

This is a very good idea executed poorly. SMS has become a way of life and you'll be receiving messages that you can not read, also a paper phonebook requires that you carry a pen with you. Play it again, John, this time with a pager sized (text) display and I'll buy one. edit: added the (text), it does have a display but can't display text messages.

The display is pager-sized.

But it does not do a phone book or text messages as far as I understand, just caller ID. Or is there more than meets the eye here?

According to the specs it's just callerid / outgoing call

http://www.johnsphones.com/about/specifications/item49

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#34

Post by jacobolus » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 12:33 PM UTC

rdouble wrote: post #17

It did not get a very good review from Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/06/johns-phone-review-the-wo...

Seems like an okay review to me, if the purpose in buying the phone is to get something that can make phone calls:

> So, how did it work? Well, to make and receive calls it worked fine. The ringer was suitably loud and the vibration was strong enough to get noticed in a pocket. The audio quality during calls was also decent -- not spectacular but not awful either.

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#35

Post by robin_reala » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 12:35 PM UTC

dagw wrote: post #10

scrrr wrote: post #6

It's good for old people and aggressive people that frequently like to throw their phones away, because they are cheap. Nobody else will buy it just because its got a "minimalist design". The iPhone has only one button.. seems even more minimalist.

Although I won't buy that phone, I would be interested in a solid, beautifully designed phone that simple focuses on being a phone and doing that really really well. Think Vertu, but not crap and designed by someone with actual taste and not stupidly priced and...OK, so perhaps not Vertu.

If you can find one in good condition a Nokia 8910 might be for you. Titanium casing, well built, and old enough (2002) that it doesn’t have much beyond calling and txting.

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#36

Post by jacobolus » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 12:37 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #14

This is a very good idea executed poorly. SMS has become a way of life and you'll be receiving messages that you can not read, also a paper phonebook requires that you carry a pen with you. Play it again, John, this time with a pager sized (text) display and I'll buy one. edit: added the (text), it does have a display but can't display text messages.

> SMS has become a way of life

Not for everyone. For example, I send one text message every two or three months. I could easily live without the ability to send or receive texts.

The thing I don’t like about this phone is the silly pen-and-paper address book. Are there any phones out there that just make phone calls, and nothing else?

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#37

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 12:41 PM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #23

jacquesm wrote: post #14

This is a very good idea executed poorly. SMS has become a way of life and you'll be receiving messages that you can not read, also a paper phonebook requires that you carry a pen with you. Play it again, John, this time with a pager sized (text) display and I'll buy one. edit: added the (text), it does have a display but can't display text messages.

I would love it if it would print out the SMS on small slips of paper. Maybe it could have a scanner, too, so that you could write SMS on paper and feed it to the phone.

I know you're joking but someone actually took out a patent on something pretty close to that:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Mobile-Phone-with-a-Built...

Wasn't there a James Bond movie where a strip of paper came out of the side of a wristwatch?

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#38

Post by timrobinson » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 12:44 PM UTC

jacobolus wrote: post #34

rdouble wrote: post #17

It did not get a very good review from Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/06/johns-phone-review-the-wo...

Seems like an okay review to me, if the purpose in buying the phone is to get something that can make phone calls: > So, how did it work? Well, to make and receive calls it worked fine. The ringer was suitably loud and the vibration was strong enough to get noticed in a pocket. The audio quality during calls was also decent -- not spectacular but not awful either.

"Both these switches deserve a special place in Gadget Hell for the very worst in industrial design. Not only do they require a fingernail to operate, they also don't work most of the time."

Even if the only thing you want to do with your phone is make phone calls, you still need to:

1. Turn the phone on when you want to make a call

2. Turn the phone off, or lock it, when you don't want to make any more calls

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#39

Post by wakeup » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 12:47 PM UTC

This sucks balls, and is expensive as hell. I can get something more stylish, more functional for 30 bucks.

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#40

Post by daniel02216 » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 12:48 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #14

This is a very good idea executed poorly. SMS has become a way of life and you'll be receiving messages that you can not read, also a paper phonebook requires that you carry a pen with you. Play it again, John, this time with a pager sized (text) display and I'll buy one. edit: added the (text), it does have a display but can't display text messages.

It has an integrated pen, like the integrated stylus on a Palm:

The back of each John’s Phone features a flap with an address book behind it. The left of the flap contains an opening with a small pen: these two unique accessories allow you to update your address file at any time, even when your phone is switched off.

http://www.johnsphones.com/about/specifications/item49