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Buried Apple feature turns an iPhone into the perfect kids' dumb phone

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211–220 of 268 posts

Re: Buried Apple feature turns an iPhone into the perfect kids' dumb phone

#211

This is a great example of the curb cut effect -- a system designed for accessibility needs turns out to be useful in other contexts. Curb cuts were designed for people with disabilities, particularly veterans, and over time have become more and more standard. They help people who use wheelchairs, yes, but also people without disabilities like those with strollers, bikes, luggage, or small kids. We love to see access…

Dropped curbs also make progress more difficult for users using the pavement / sidewalk in a normal manner, since it introduces constrictions and trip hazards - which is a aspect of "curb cut effect" that is glossed over. Try going for a run along a pavement with frequent curb cuts, it's not pleasant. UK dropped curbs are somewhat less of a trip hazard but are so frequent in towns that you end up running with an ankl…

This just makes no sense whatsoever. You can just step over dropped curbs like you can step over normal curbs?

Even if this is not the case for some weird reason - don't you agree that making the world a little bit more accessible for people who have a really hard time getting around is worth making the world just a tiny little bit less accessible for you - the person who can litterally run around?

If you have a considerable problem with tripping often though, maybe look at how you do running.

Re: Buried Apple feature turns an iPhone into the perfect kids' dumb phone

#212
post #197

Is anyone who was in grade school in the 1990s reminded of Apple’s “simplified” MacOS shell called At Ease? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Ease

My favourite feature was using TTS to learn how to read very very long numbers …

TTS meaning...

Re: Buried Apple feature turns an iPhone into the perfect kids' dumb phone

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious about this, what did you do to make it dumb?

This might be how they did it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45171200 iPhone dumbphone 10 months ago 399 comments

Interesting. But the list of apps on there is huge! Is it really still a dumbphone? Tha just looks like the apps I already have on my phone, and I still feel like I use my phone too much. What other apps do people have that are so addictive? Games, socials?

Re: Buried Apple feature turns an iPhone into the perfect kids' dumb phone

#215

That's a bad use of a very expensive phone. Get an actual dumb phone that's vastly cheaper. > what if he gets lost? Then he can look at street signs, ask someone nearby for directions, or (and this is an option I didn't have as a kid)... call someone. On the phone. That he has.

A dumb phone wouldn't offer Find My (kid)

Re: Buried Apple feature turns an iPhone into the perfect kids' dumb phone

#216
post #73

This is actually a really great feature for everyone else trying to reduce their phone use without switching to different "dumbphone". But why mandatory lock by passcode? I agree, that adding more friction would prevent user to switch back to standard UI, but still - it should be optional.

Yeah I bailed out of this when it asked me to change my 8 digit passcode to a 4 to 6 digit passcode

Re: Buried Apple feature turns an iPhone into the perfect kids' dumb phone

#217
post #150
post #19

His kid doesn't need a phone and doesn't need to be tracked to walk to school. Get over it.

Give your kid some quarters so they can call you on a pay phone like the old days.

That'd be fine if there were any payphones still around...

Re: Buried Apple feature turns an iPhone into the perfect kids' dumb phone

#219

I like the feature, but I don't like the assumption at the beginning. > Come September, he will have to walk across town to school on his own. But if he's going to be walking around out in the world without me, then a tracking tag won't cut it. He is far too young to have unfettered access to the internet and social media platforms, but what if he gets lost? A classic Nokia, supplying just texts and calls, won't come…

Only issue is that kids going outside alone has become highly stigmatized in society to the point where doing so gets you jailed and charged[0]. The kid will grow up to almost always be able to contact most any human in the world. Knowing how and when to do that is probably going to be a more useful skill. 0: https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/is-it-a-crime-to-let-you... Side note: As above article states, after thi…

> has become highly stigmatized in society

When making claims like this, please remember that this is a very international group of people and scope your point appropriately: "has become highly stigmatized in the US"

This is not a problem in large parts of Europe (can't comment about elsewhere). The reason this scoping is important is because the solutions are different for "this is a problem in all of society" compared to "this is a problem in the US".

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