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The Quest for a Dumber Phone

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141–150 of 204 posts

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#141

Post by epolanski »

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…

I think you can have a smartphone for those things and a dumb phone for the rest.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#142

Post by pasc1878 »

barbazoo wrote: post #120
ekianjo wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Why is pen and paper required?

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#143

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

petodo wrote: post #132

the problem is not smartphone but people without self control you can use smartphone exactly same way as dumbphone and still have smart features available when needed problem with dumbphones is mainly horrible camera, so you would need to carry camera if you wanna capture something, smartphone with self control solves this issue, nobody forces you to use anything but Phone and Messages apps and you will still have gr…

Hmm. I don't automatically disagree, but the same argument is put forth for excessive food, drink, drugs intake and self-control is, by itself, not a real answer, but a diversion of sorts typically given by the item's manufacturer/seller. As in, it is both true, but also misleading -- especially so in the case of cellphones.

By their very design these days, smart phones are created with a singular goal of keeping the attention of the user. Incessant A/B testing, analytics and dark patterns use make them more addictive than an average willpower can handle. It can be done, but that individual is officially fighting off efforts of companies with budgets sometimes rivaling those of nation states.

I can agree that the problem is people, but I think we disagree on the exact nature of the problem.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#144

Post by domh »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #135
chefkoch wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in Germany you get a Smartphone for way less than 100€ and a call + SMS + 4GB data flat for 5€. If that is luxury what is going to the cinema for 20€ (movie and popcorn) for 2 hours?

5 EUR per month for service? That is crazy cheap in a highly developed country. Which provider?

In the UK I get a sim-only deal with unlimited calls and 4GB of data for £6 with Smarty: https://smarty.co.uk/plans/4gb-data

Recently moved and didn't have internet service setup yet. I got an unlimited data bundle from them for £17 for 30 days. Felt like a pretty good deal, and it didn't get throttled at all. Latency was a slight issue with zoom calls though.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#146

Post by xvector »

barbazoo wrote: post #120
ekianjo wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I would much rather a smartphone be required than pen and paper.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#147

Post by 4ggr0 »

marttt wrote: post #83

I've intentionally never owned a smartphone. Dumb phones abandoned by my family have been serving me very well for years (strategy: use them until they stop working; get next one; repeat). My daily work is in forestry, as a brush cutter -- occasionally, GPS would be necessary (unavoidable even). For 95% of the cases, though, I've found a workaround by postponing the map-related tasks (e.g. making sure I understand th…

Hope you don't mind me asking - How come that a brush cutter is on HN? Did you use to work in IT or are you a hobbyist/part-timer?

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#149

Post by pigsty »

4ggr0 wrote: post #147
marttt wrote: post #83

I've intentionally never owned a smartphone. Dumb phones abandoned by my family have been serving me very well for years (strategy: use them until they stop working; get next one; repeat). My daily work is in forestry, as a brush cutter -- occasionally, GPS would be necessary (unavoidable even). For 95% of the cases, though, I've found a workaround by postponing the map-related tasks (e.g. making sure I understand th…

Hope you don't mind me asking - How come that a brush cutter is on HN? Did you use to work in IT or are you a hobbyist/part-timer?

HN attracts people who have interest in tech or simply came across a news aggregator that isn’t full of political spam and endless dread.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#150

Post by rtontic »

throwaway4aday wrote: post #79
SoftTalker wrote: post #76

You don't need a dumb phone, you just need decide who's in charge. I used to want a dumb phone, but there are a few things (mainly maps/navigation) that I find genuinely useful that dumb phones can't do. So I decided that it's my phone and I'm the one who decides how to use it. I have a reasonably new iPhone. I spend maybe 15 minutes a day on it (excluding navigation), total. I have removed apps I don't use. I disabl…

I'm glad you're able to resist temptation so well. For others it can be more of a problem. For some it is equivalent to an alcoholic carrying around a pint of vodka that also happens to make phone calls.

Wow that is actually a good startup idea.
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