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Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

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Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

#41

Post by drewzero1 »

recuter wrote: post #19
enriquto wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I have a couple of those around. I had to learn to dial them as a kid when we moved to a house that still had them hard-wired to the wall.

Someday I'd like to try to use them as an intercom/hotline between the house and workshop, but I haven't figured out how to power the circuit and (especially) the ring signal. (Grandpa always did his own phone wiring and told me you really didn't want to be touching the terminal when a call came through, something like 100V AC!)

Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

#42

Post by dleslie »

spockz wrote: post #21

Recently call quality on our normal mobile phone connections have severely degraded. (At least in the places I visit in NL and especially while in a moving vehicle.) I switched to using FaceTime audio and with the noise cancellation the audio quality is superb and I would t want to go back. So although I would love to use a minimal phone like this I would want to keep all the benefits of modern day audio connections.

It's shocking to me how terrible regular cellular call quality is, when on the same network and device I access superior quality through WhatsApp.

Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

#43

Post by mplanchard »

I’d love something like this that I could just dock my phone into when I get home, rather than needing a separate SIM. Especially if it had a nice receiver. Trying to actually talk on a cell phone is so much harder than it used to be when you could cradle the receiver in your shoulder.

Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

#44

Post by hoffspot »

JasonFruit wrote: post #20
toper-centage wrote: post #8

Honestly 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.

I think there are shades of gray to be recognized between obstreperously "Retro" and obstreperously Luddite. There are still a significant cohort of people alive that grew up in the era where the rotary phone interface was the only phone interface. Using this device in public could be merely a nod and a wink to others in the same cohort and a nice conversation starter rather than a position against the advancement of technology. You will pry my smartphone out of my cold, dead hands but I think it would be fun to have this device around to occasionally sport out in public for the laughs. And in a nod to yourself and the other comment, thank you for teaching me a new word (obstreperously).

Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

#45

Post by stavros »

Syonyk wrote: post #37
JasonFruit wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Indeed... I want one too! Pocketable rotary dial phone? Just, $400 can cover a lot of other things. I consider carrying something like this (I carry an AT&T Flip IV at the moment if I remember the thing) to serve as a reminder to other people that not everyone has, nor wants, smartphone-type capabilities. At the local farmer's market last weekend, a number of various political booths (on all sides of the spectrum) ha…

This is just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I love my phone, even though I don't use social media, or play predatory games, or whatever. It lets me talk to my friends all day, doesn't distract me unless I want to be distracted (all notifications are off), and entertains me when I'm bored.

Your post seems a bit "I couldn't use my phone responsibly so I got rid of it", which is fine (I can't have sweets in the house, as I'll eat them too often), but you shouldn't generalize your lack of self-control to everyone. Some people have a perfectly fine relationship with their smartphone.

Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

#46

Post by egypturnash »

toper-centage wrote: post #8

Honestly 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…

I suspect the main point of this whole phone is “having a big rotary dial on a cel phone would be funny”. “Naturally resistant to butt dialing” is a bit of deadpan humor.

Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

#48

Post by 300bps »

mplanchard wrote: post #43

I’d love something like this that I could just dock my phone into when I get home, rather than needing a separate SIM. Especially if it had a nice receiver. Trying to actually talk on a cell phone is so much harder than it used to be when you could cradle the receiver in your shoulder.

Trying to actually talk on a cell phone is so much harder than it used to be when you could cradle the receiver in your shoulder.

If this was tongue-in-cheek, you got me! I would never go back to holding a physical phone up to my ear after using wireless airpods or equivalent.

Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

#49

Post by JasonFruit »

stavros wrote: post #45
Syonyk wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed... I want one too! Pocketable rotary dial phone? Just, $400 can cover a lot of other things. I consider carrying something like this (I carry an AT&T Flip IV at the moment if I remember the thing) to serve as a reminder to other people that not everyone has, nor wants, smartphone-type capabilities. At the local farmer's market last weekend, a number of various political booths (on all sides of the spectrum) ha…

This is just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I love my phone, even though I don't use social media, or play predatory games, or whatever. It lets me talk to my friends all day, doesn't distract me unless I want to be distracted (all notifications are off), and entertains me when I'm bored. Your post seems a bit "I couldn't use my phone responsibly so I got rid of it", which is fine (I can't have sweets in t…

The parent post even says, "I'm at the point in my life," which doesn't sound like they're saying it's for everyone.

Further, are you sure that "entertains me when I'm bored" represents a benefit? I think boredom serves a useful purpose, and quelling it with empty activity might defeat that purpose.

Re: Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

#50

Post by ChrisClark »

mwexler wrote: post #12
schwartzworld wrote: post #11

Is 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

Maybe we need a new word, anachromorphism.
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