The Light Phone • Hacker News Board

Re: The Light Phone

#121

Post by kpmcc » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 4:48 AM UTC

I just received my light phone and while I haven't used it much yet I'm mostly a fan. I used the Punkt MP01 for a while and it's still pretty much my favorite phone ever. We'll see how I feel about the E-ink display on this thing after some real use. The blinking and ghosting is kind of annoying, but not a deal-breaker. Honestly though I think the main reason I liked the Punkt phone so much was the buttons. Buttons are seriously underrated. I've noticed this already with entering text on the light phone. The screen is purposefully small and trying to cram a full keyboard onto a tiny touchpad is a little iffy. I'm not so concerned about the lack of features at this point. I'd already though about coding up my own little text bot with Twilio to call rides through lyft or uber's APIs so maybe this will give me some incentive.

Edit: Yeah the flipping back and forth between landscape and portrait mode is pretty annoying. Devs if you're reading this please address in a future update.

Re: The Light Phone

#122

Post by 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 5:04 AM UTC

I always wondered why no major phone manufacturers thought to stick an e-ink display on the back of the phone.

I’d love to leave it docked on my desk while it scrolled through useful displays, such as calendar, time, weather etc.

Re: The Light Phone

#123

Post by abjKT26nO8 » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 5:13 AM UTC

This website is so light it doesn't work in any capacity without third-party JavaScript and XHR. Ironic.

Re: The Light Phone

#124

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 5:13 AM UTC

Aloha wrote: post #115

paxys wrote: post #114

It's like the world collectively decided to forget that basic feature phones and cheap prepaid plans have always existed and continue to exist.

I strongly suspect the people funding this don't know anyone who don't buy a flagship phone.

[deleted]

Re: The Light Phone

#125

Post by dehrmann » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 5:14 AM UTC

paxys wrote: post #114

It's like the world collectively decided to forget that basic feature phones and cheap prepaid plans have always existed and continue to exist.

I have a $3 per month prepaid plan with T-Mobile that I use when I need to give a number companies that will likely sell it.

Re: The Light Phone

#126

Post by dehrmann » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 5:17 AM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #69

You can do exactly that kind of things with your regular smartphone by not installing tons of apps that disturb you all the time. As far as I know the user is pretty much in control of what apps they choose to add.

You must not have a Samsung.

Re: The Light Phone

#127

Post by lozaning » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 5:19 AM UTC

hinkley wrote: post #74

lozaning wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A little google voice magic, or any number of other SIP providers and apps will have you making calls to POTS numbers over just a data connection very easily.

No. I and 98% of the world just want to make calls, not start a project. There's a reason Linux is not ruling the desktop, and that there is it.

Turns out that such functionality is actually supported natively by the watch. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203032 as long as as you have any of these carriers: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204039

Though to your point it did take me a bit of ducking to figure this out. Seems extremely straightforward once you know it exists.

Re: The Light Phone

#128

Post by samstave » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 5:25 AM UTC

ip26 wrote: post #119

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the whole point of this phone was to NOT have those things.

Nobody bought the Light Phone to escape the dopamine drip of Calculator.

Calculator dopamine release really starts to add up once you get to the root of the problem...

Re: The Light Phone

#129

Post by dehrmann » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 5:25 AM UTC

nisse72 wrote: post #106

troymc wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see this phone being a great fit for certain markets, such as senior citizens who like to talk on the phone, but who get baffled by the complexity of modern smartphones.

For about $50 you can (still) get a Nokia 3310.

Be careful with this. AT&T shut down its GSM network 3 years ago. The ~only unlocked LTE feature phone I could find a year or two ago for my grandma (who wouldn't be able to learn how to use a smartphone) was an Alcatel Flip 2.

Re: The Light Phone

#130

Post by wyre » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 5:30 AM UTC

foobarian wrote: post #54

graeme wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you just deal with having typos in a long reply? You can’t edit watch dictation, so a lot of my replies including some form of “damned apple watch” so people I’m replying to know what’s up. That said I quite like the combo in general. A big reason I went with apple music is the streaming. It is baffling to me that spotify hasn’t enabled lte streaming on the watch now that watchos 6 lets them.

I am a spelling perfectionist too but oddly enough I'm starting to notice I don't respect people who write perfect messages as much as those who let an occasional error through. Maybe it's because I know they waste time, or that they are not confident enough to skip the editing - and related, that they are probably low on the totem pole. It's a weird effect, and yet I still can't bring myself not to overedit.

As someone who hasn't entered the world of big business, this is an interesting perspective I haven't thought about. Thanks