Is there a term for faux retro products? Modern tech used to emulate past hardware?
Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit
11–20 of 73 posts
Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit
#12Is there a term for faux retro products? Modern tech used to emulate past hardware?
It's like skeuomorphism, a bit... Wikipedia summarizes the big pieces at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph
Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit
#13Honestly some great ideas (better antenna, e-ink display for basic SMSing, quick dial, probably huge battery life), but they can't be serious about the rotary dial. > Previously, phones with physical keys required a clamshell (flip) form-factor to prevent unintended dialing. Rotary dials are naturally resistant to butt dialing. You can solve butt dialing with a number of ways, like another hardware switch. This solut…
From my perspective it's a feature, if I were to switch to a phone like this it would be because I wanted my phone to only do one thing handle important communication. No apps, no internet, no texting, phone calls only. That said, I could see having both a regular smartphone and a phone like this. In that case I would treat this phone as a private line only given out to a small number of people. That would allow me to leave my regular smartphone off or at home if I felt like disconnecting for a while but I would still be reachable by phone call through a distraction free device.
Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit
#14Honestly some great ideas (better antenna, e-ink display for basic SMSing, quick dial, probably huge battery life), but they can't be serious about the rotary dial. > Previously, phones with physical keys required a clamshell (flip) form-factor to prevent unintended dialing. Rotary dials are naturally resistant to butt dialing. You can solve butt dialing with a number of ways, like another hardware switch. This solut…
As I see it, the rotary dial is the main feature, the rest are just nice things to have (that you can get elsewhere from many dumb phones).
It's an extremely cool project and I can't wait to get one!
Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit
#15I always fancied making an old TV or Radio dial with some preset channels that my grandmother could use to view news or see funny youtube videos, rather than use a keyboard.
I might have a hack now after seeing this.
Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit
#16For me, a minimalist alternative phone would need to be able to hotspot a more flexible device (tablet, laptop) for when other tasks are required. Else, I’d need a second mobile account.
Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit
#17Is there a term for faux retro products? Modern tech used to emulate past hardware?
I was about to reply "steampunk"...but, no, that's not the right term either. Now, i'm curious myself.
Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit
#18Still has the baseband in it though, right, or am I missing something?
Well yeah. Usually the "smart" in smartphone refers to the application processor and user facing OS. I don't think you can connect to an LTE network without a baseband processor. If your threat model includes the firmware on the baseband processor, best not to use a smartphone at all. Or leave your cave in the mountains of Pakistan.
True, just wondering...
Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit
#19Honestly some great ideas (better antenna, e-ink display for basic SMSing, quick dial, probably huge battery life), but they can't be serious about the rotary dial. > Previously, phones with physical keys required a clamshell (flip) form-factor to prevent unintended dialing. Rotary dials are naturally resistant to butt dialing. You can solve butt dialing with a number of ways, like another hardware switch. This solut…
As I see it, the rotary dial is the main feature, the rest are just nice things to have (that you can get elsewhere from many dumb phones). It's an extremely cool project and I can't wait to get one!
You know you can just get a vintage one for a song, real beauties, heavy enough to clobber a would be assassin.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/182098/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=rotary...
Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit
#20Honestly some great ideas (better antenna, e-ink display for basic SMSing, quick dial, probably huge battery life), but they can't be serious about the rotary dial. > Previously, phones with physical keys required a clamshell (flip) form-factor to prevent unintended dialing. Rotary dials are naturally resistant to butt dialing. You can solve butt dialing with a number of ways, like another hardware switch. This solut…
This particular kind of novelty is kind of appealing to people who want to be conspicuously, obstreperously Luddite, while still carrying a mobile phone. I admit I kind of want one of these novel bits of tech just to show off how Luddite I am.