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Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

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Re: Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

#81

Post by seam_carver »

MBCook wrote: post #76
seam_carver wrote: post #32

I recorded a video of another e ink phone running many common Android apps really well (in direct sunlight)! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvO9ScTdwz8 It's the Hisense A9 with a beautiful and fast Carta 1200 e ink display. It's very capable, I would have preferred a phone more like that instead. It's biggest drawback is terrible USA cell reception. This company was initially going to make a phone like this but appa…

Unfortunately this confirms my fear. I think I’d want to throw an e-ink phone against a wall after a while from frustration with the lag. E-ink screen refreshes are just far too slow for something interactive. That’s one of the reasons they work great on e-readers. I wondered if they were doing something special or had a different kind of e-ink screen that was faster in trade for some other property but at least the…

Out of curiosity which part of the video makes you think the lag is unacceptable? It’s more like a low refresh rate. Sure scrolling is a bit slow so it’s much better to fixed length “page turn” with the volume buttons instead but I’ve really gotten used to it. If you are talking about me missing the tap zones on the touchscreen to scroll that’s user error :P

Re: Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

#83

Post by daxfohl »

SoftTalker wrote: post #36
mrbombastic wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly what you want but how about this setup: keep your minimal phone as your default phone with cell service. Whenever you head out use that. Your second distracting regular smartphone has no cell service. If you want to use that one either use wifi or bring both along and tether to your minimal phone.

The reality is that most people do not want to carry multiple devices around. Carrying some kind of minimalist phone for text and voice, and a tablet or other device for "apps" isn't really a great experience.

Yeah, or charge every night, or look for when you're in a hurry to get out the door, etc. Or buy, for that matter.

Probably what I'd rather have is a phone that has a low power low function mode, that I can configure what apps are available, and then a regular mode where everything is available. But to get to it, I need to convince a LLM equivalent of Seinfeld's soup nazi why I need it.

Re: Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

#84

Post by steelframe »

electroly wrote: post #51
steelframe wrote: post #25

We need to reverse the trend of most people having a phone that's wired in with Google or Apple. I don't, and I can't tell you how often I try to do something only to be told, "Okay, now download our app and..." It happened just last week when I was buying a car. The sales rep kept insisting that I install the car company's app while I was trying to just write a check, grab the keys, and drive off the lot. "You can u…

I think car salesmen are particularly pushy about it because car manufacturers are starting to sell monthly subscriptions for things in the app. They can't sell it to you if you won't install the app. For instance, my Toyota came with some kind of trial subscription for a remote unlock/lock and GPS location service. Served, of course, through the Toyota app. They have an incentive to get you to install the app that g…

The car I bought last week is a Toyota. Upon getting home I immediately followed the instructions on the sticker near the center console to hit the "SOS" button and request deactivation of their telematics services. The rep on the phone mentioned something about how she needed to create an account for me or something before she was able to process the opt-out and then, I guess, did so.

Of course I have no idea what this opt-out does. The skeptical part of me suspects that the system still collects and transmits my location and such, but then they simply don't trivially attach that telemetry to my account.

I'm also going to try pulling the DCM fuse that's supposed to cut the cut the gateway/telematics antenna. I also plan to wrap the transmitter in a Faraday cage.

Re: Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

#85

Post by dotancohen »

seam_carver wrote: post #32

I recorded a video of another e ink phone running many common Android apps really well (in direct sunlight)! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvO9ScTdwz8 It's the Hisense A9 with a beautiful and fast Carta 1200 e ink display. It's very capable, I would have preferred a phone more like that instead. It's biggest drawback is terrible USA cell reception. This company was initially going to make a phone like this but appa…

How is the camera? I don't really care how the photos look on the device, but I would be sending them to family via Telegram and of course later on the desktop.

I do have other E-Ink devices (Boox, Nook) and I love them, so I'd love to get an E-Ink phone. But I don't want to carry a separate camera.

Re: Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

#86

Post by dotancohen »

bengale wrote: post #46

You can do a lot of this on an iPhone if you use focus modes and automations. I have a deep work mode that sets a blank Home Screen, turns off always on display, sets the phone to greyscale and only allows notifications from my wife. It feels like something like this gets you most of the way there and you can then have different focus levels that ramp up potential distractions. All without carrying two devices or giv…

I've been experimenting with greyscale on my Android phone, it is nowhere near the comfort level of real E-Ink.

Re: Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

#87

Post by steelframe »

Syonyk wrote: post #48
steelframe wrote: post #25

We need to reverse the trend of most people having a phone that's wired in with Google or Apple. I don't, and I can't tell you how often I try to do something only to be told, "Okay, now download our app and..." It happened just last week when I was buying a car. The sales rep kept insisting that I install the car company's app while I was trying to just write a check, grab the keys, and drive off the lot. "You can u…

This is a big part of the reason I carry a flip phone. Instead of explaining that your "otherwise smartphone looking thing" can't run Apple or Android apps, I just have to whip out the flip phone, flip it open, flip it closed, and say "Sorry, my phone doesn't have apps." ... even though it's running Android 11 Go and I can sideload stuff, it doesn't matter because the number of apps that work on a 320x240 screen with…

Yup, that works too. Not a bad idea!

By the way, the dimmers are working great. And I finally found BR30s that don't sing. It's amazing to me how many of them do. Have you tried Syncthing yet?

Re: Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

#88

Post by DANmode »

xrd wrote: post #57
noah91734 wrote: post #42

> Can I use apps on Minimal? > Yes, Minimal runs on Android, allowing you to download and use essential apps. However, the e-ink display and device optimization are geared towards minimizing unnecessary distractions. That answers the only question I had about this. You still get full access to every app you need, it just increases the friction (via the low refresh rate and the lack of colors) so you can't doomscroll.…

The article mentioned Android Auto. I assume it must have Bluetooth.

Android Auto and Apple CarPlay both have wired functionality.

Re: Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

#89

Post by drekipus »

The problem with eink phones is that they're largely unsupported / using some OS that I don't trust.

I tried using my phone in grayscale mode for a while, but the complete lack of colours makes it difficult to use.

I'm working on making a "desaturated" mode that changes the android renderer to not go fully grayscale, but only a little, so there's still some colour information.

Re: Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

#90

Post by barbs »

noah91734 wrote: post #42

> Can I use apps on Minimal? > Yes, Minimal runs on Android, allowing you to download and use essential apps. However, the e-ink display and device optimization are geared towards minimizing unnecessary distractions. That answers the only question I had about this. You still get full access to every app you need, it just increases the friction (via the low refresh rate and the lack of colors) so you can't doomscroll.…

> Entertainment will be kept simple as well, "focusing on relaxation and mindfulness." The handset will feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with 5G currently being explored,
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