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John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

johnsphones.com

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Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#51

Post by Synaesthesia »

jacobolus wrote: post #36
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?

Check out the ZTE S306. Although I'm not sure if it's South African only. http://www.techcentral.co.za/zte-s306-review-a-phone-for-gra...

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#52

Post by seshagiric »

Already? so soon? I think people need some more time with their smart phones.

I like it that my WinPhone7 pulls phone numbers from my Outlook (office email), Facebook or Windows live. Making an acquintance online and automatically having the number in my phonebook is natural and works.

I think we need some more time with smart before simple gets niche again.

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#53

Post by scott_s »

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.

I think you skipped the conclusion:

So is the John's Phone "The world's simplest cellphone." No. The fact that all three of the device's switches are so frustrating to use is simply unforgivable on such a basic cellphone that's supposedly rooted in "great design." We wish that the company had spent as much time on the phone's industrial design as it did on its slick promotional materials and cutesy graphics. Even then, you'd better be sure that the simplicity is worth the €70 - €100 price tag (depending upon model) -- for that you could take home a fully-loaded 3G featurephone from Nokia. A nod, perhaps, as to why the John's Phone exists.

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#54

Post by some1else »

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.

If you want simple SMS, albeit with a retarded UI, check out Motorola F3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_FONE_F3

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#55

Post by pbhjpbhj »

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.

An SMS fax machine ...

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#56

Post by FiddlerClamp »

retroguy wrote: post #18
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 think this is a good idea and has been executed pretty well, I don't think this is necessarily aimed at the HN crowd, but possibly at the HN crowd's grandparents. I'm sure there are some pretty switched on grand parents out there, but I don't fancy the idea of sending my grandmother an SMS. I'd need to call her and no doubt visit her to explain the whole SMS thing. I have a friend with a parent who is getting on in…

For older folks, larger buttons and some visual signaling would help. Also, greater amplification (that said, I don't know how loud the ringer or speaker on this thing is).

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#57

Post by pbhjpbhj »

jacquesm wrote: post #48
rubidium wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>SMS is no longer optional. False! Perhaps for your way of life, but there's the age-old 'you != everyone'. Once your friends know you don't text, they stop texting you. They may think you're a Luddite, but that's another issue. Even though you (and me for that matter) may want SMS on phones, I don't think it was a poor design choice to skip SMS on this phone.

> Once your friends know you don't text, they stop texting you. I really really tried, but apparently your friends respect you better than mine do me :) I don't mind being known as a Luddite ;)

On UK landlines now you can receive texts, they have a service that does text-to-speech and reads the text to you. With this then you would only lack a way to send texts, people wanting a simple phone probably don't want that.

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#58

Post by JonnieCache »

nadam wrote: post #42
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.

But in that case (if SMS is necessary), why is this phone a good idea at all? There are good old-fashioned simple and cheap phones on the market. For example: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Nokia_1100__Review_5583589 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_1100 If it had SMS capability and a small display how would this John's phone be better than for example Nokia 1100?

>If it had SMS capability and a small display how would this John's phone be better than for example Nokia 1100

The nokia wont make other pitchfork readers jealous down at the coffeeshop.

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#59

Post by pbhjpbhj »

spektom wrote: post #24

> John’s Phone is 10.5 centimetres in height, 6 centimetres in length and 1.5 centimetres in width (4.1”/2.4”/0.6”). Weight: 95 grams. If it wasn't too big and heavy, I'd order it right now!

If it wasn't big then you couldn't have oversized number keys. If it wasn't heavy then it wouldn't be suitable for people who need oversized number keys, light phones need more motor-skills to handle (up to a point).

Also hardening and a large battery would increase weight (though I don't know if this is how it's heavy).

Re: John's Phone: a minimalist cell phone

#60

Post by mseebach »

bambax wrote: post #45
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's also very expensive. Basic Nokia phones that don't do much more than calls and SMS and that are very simple to operate and very sturdy, can be found (new) for around EUR 20.

SMS-lifestyle or not, I'd take the Nokia (at 2/3 the price or less) for the 10+ years of industrial design that went into it.

To be honest, this doesn't seem to be a phone for children or the elderly (neither of which have some sort of cognitive short circuit that keeps them from grasping a simple Nokia while allowing them to embrace the idioms of this particular phone) -- but rather a phone for hipsters who need to very loudly announce that they don't have an iPhone.

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