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The Quest for a Dumber Phone

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Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#111

Post by godshatter »

I think trying to avoid all apps is unnecessary, just the ones designed to addict you which is almost all social media and a lot of mobile games. My weather app doesn't try to get me to doomscroll :) I have been against social media for a long time, though I do have a FB account I log into once yearly or so. I block ads because I don't like the distractions. I stopped logging in to YT because I didn't like how everything changes to try to draw me farther and farther in. Now I keep a separate list of bookmarks to content owners and decide what I want to watch on my terms.

I don't know how to get others there, though. Things feel so obviously designed to grab my attention and keep me there and I can't stand it, I don't get how others don't seem to care and jump in with both feet.

But then again I can't look a donut in the eye and not fall victim to them. So who am I to talk?

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#112

Post by guidoism »

jackfischer wrote: post #105

I tried the Light Phone II but found it too limiting. While they did an admirable job trying to get functionality like maps usable it wasn't practical enough overall. Currently using the Unihertz Titan Pocket with the minimalist phone launcher as my daily driver.

I actually ordered a Light Phone II a few days ago. I'm not looking to completely replace my iPhone 11 — It works great and I use it all the time and I don't feel like I need to limit myself.

What sent me on a quest for a dumb(er) phone was to be able to leave the house without my main phone because I didn't want to be contacted unless it was an emergency (by either my wife or my kids).

It sucks that the phone has essentially become the main way for all communication — From emergency texts to please remember the milk to hey how is it going to happy birthday to our child from the kids' orthodontist! My wife and I lament about this merging of priorities into phone form all the time. We've been experimenting with basically being in Do Not Disturb mode all the time and yes, people get annoyed when it takes hours to respond, but our lives are better.

What I really want though, it is be just about completely disconnected. So, I'm going to experiment with using a second phone number for when I'm out and about for a few hours. I plan on using a dumb(er) phone with this phone number.

I really wanted to the Punkt or the Mutida but they don't have GPS which to me is a feature I don't think I can live without and they have problems with some of the carriers in the US which I didn't want to have to deal with. I hope we can end up with different feature sets on phones going forward.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#113

Post by zinekeller »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #61
red-iron-pine wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally tried to upgrade my Pixel 2 XL to Lineage and it failed repeatedly. Reddit says, no joke, it's the cable that's the problem. Sigh. Same computer didn't have issues flashing old Galaxy and Nexus phones. Bought a dumb phone but found it lacking for your exact reasons -- no GPS, crappy camera, and texting using the number pad was tedious as all hell. Gave up, got a Pixel 7, might think about flashing it.

> Reddit says, no joke, it's the cable that's the problem. Not surprising. My experience across a few different Android devices over the years is just about all USB-related functionality is a flaky mess, and that includes things like ADB and installing new ROMs. How it's flaky varies from device to device which makes it extra fun.

Not knowing anything about Pixel 2's USB functionality, but I have encountered cases where new cables have solved the problem I was encountering. One time was when I've tried to transfer files from my phone to the desktop and the speeds were ludicrously slow, like ~2Mbps where normally it would be 80-100 Mbps. The cable was rather old at that point and I bit the bullet and bought a new one and at that point I've realised that cables can worn out eventually.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#114

Post by anenefan »

andrew-dc wrote: post #69

Having not used a smart phone for ~5 years now, I can say that it is totally a workable solution - however, there are, of course trade-offs, and several persistent annoyances. Rather than get into a list, I will present the one thing that I find the most frustrating: Our society expects you to have and use a smart phone for nearly everything. This might be less annoying if it meant only new functions or supplemented…

Yes the idea a number of business have that everyone has a smart phone and can install an app ... or they have decent internet in the first place, I find maddening, not for the resulting situation but for the picture of what sad standards must exist, either the big wigs are deaf to the developers, or they've hired in technical people who are one trick ponies / low over skill set. I have a simple rule: If the business doesn't have a functioning web site, why should I trust some fly by night app, sorry, no can do. Turning off (or more quietly breaking them) non data phone access services won't work on me either.

After being given a few years ago an old, pre google raising its ugly head samsung, which I loved, I went on to purchase four more cheap phones on sale, the last two were merely to install apps that needed a much newer OS. My experience with the newer and cheaper phones were not the best. The last being damn right nasty with poor ability to properly clean up the phone's limited amount of storage, and permissions set that no app (I use) could write to the sd card. Sadly if that was the only small issue I might have considered it worthwhile to root the device. Reset ultimately freed up the internal storage space and it's now an excellent hotspot device and phone ... if I think to change the settings back to accept calls.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#115

Post by chazeon »

After COVID especially, NYC restaurants start to ask customers to scan QR code to get menu, not sure about other places. These penetrations into the real lives are making living with dumb phone more and more difficult. Of course, China has been like this years ago.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#116

Post by Hbruz0 »

patchorang wrote: post #8

I've posted this here before, but I've figured out a way that makes an iPhone work as a semi-smart phone for me. I delete all app that I waste time in, but keep one that are useful. (I won't blow two hours scrolling Lyft, and it's very helpful sometimes) I then set screentime permissions to block websites I don't want to use (like reddit), and prevent app downloads. I set a screentime password and give it to my partn…

How can you set screentime permissions for specific websites ?

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#117

Post by fortran77 »

I'd be happy to see the interface of phones from 20 years ago return, so my 89 year old mother can deal with it. Even the few current models of "flip phones" have too many features, and the phones specifically designed for old people are terrible.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#118

Post by jamiek88 »

trekkie1024 wrote: post #64
hcal wrote: post #22

I've been using my Samsung smartwatch with LTE as a smartphone that's hard to abuse. Thursday through Sunday I only carry it and leave my "real" phone at home. It's pretty nice because I still have Bluetooth calls in my car and navigation in a pinch. I can still stream music and ask Google to look things up for me. Actual calls on the watch are fine, but I do keep a pair of bluetooth headphones on me so I don't have…

Likewise, with an Apple Watch. Works great but only issue is the battery life < a day when it’s being used that way.

The Apple Watch Ultra battery is much better in those circumstances. I used to struggle to last a day now I charge every other day and still have 20% ish left.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#119

Post by n2dasun »

I used a Sonim XP5 for about 2 years. My criteria were just that (besides regular phone and text uses) it function as an mp3 player and be able to connect it to my vehicle with Bluetooth. Starting to get the itch to switch to it again.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#120

Post by barbazoo »

ekianjo wrote: post #99
parker_mountain wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> luxury item (and an expensive monthly service bill) Before applying any subsidies for low income people, you can get a perfectly usable smartphone for under $40 and unlimited data cell service (slow but usable for basic tasks) for $10/month. An iPhone, with service, can be had for a total of under $50/month. These aren't luxury items anymore.

They should not be required for anything either.

Interesting. It's easy to focus on public life catching up to technology, but we're also pretty good I'd say to stay backwards compatible. But who defines what should be minimally required anyway?

Pen and paper? Obviously. Smartphone? Internet? Phone?

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