161–170 of 291 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For about $50 you can (still) get a Nokia 3310.
Be careful with this. AT&T shut down its GSM network 3 years ago. The ~only unlocked LTE feature phone I could find a year or two ago for my grandma (who wouldn't be able to learn how to use a smartphone) was an Alcatel Flip 2.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's in the zeitgeist a bit now. Some people (I'm certainly one) are looking to unhook from their phones - get away from convenience and immediacy and... the internet in general (typing this from Emacs, so it seems more forgivable!). I know at least 5 people - a large percentage of my close network ;) - who would be interested in this device. I'm sure there's a big enough market for it if the execution is rig…
But you can just buy a feature phone now? There are decent ones from Nokia.
Feels like a solution looking for a problem to me. Not only are phones trending away from being "phones" (rather portable internet terminals) but I'd wager the largest portion of smartphone use is content consumption, rather than content creation/collaboration. Both of which would suggest this device is a long, long way from product-market fit.
I can see this phone being a great fit for certain markets, such as senior citizens who like to talk on the phone, but who get baffled by the complexity of modern smartphones.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't really have that choice. Many social apps (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) aren't possible to uninstall unless you use a custom ROM. You can only "disable" the apps. It's still perfectly possible to just not open them/log in, obviously.
Are you sure about that? On an iPhone I can delete three of those apps (just verified). Android doesn’t allow the same?
Typically, "uninstallable" apps can be disabled via adb commands if you don't want to (or can't) flash a custom ROM. Sometimes they can't however - for example, Amazon sells subsidized phones that display advertisements on the lock screen.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't really have that choice. Many social apps (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) aren't possible to uninstall unless you use a custom ROM. You can only "disable" the apps. It's still perfectly possible to just not open them/log in, obviously.
Are you sure about that? On an iPhone I can delete three of those apps (just verified). Android doesn’t allow the same?
This isn't a problem if you have a rooted device, but root is difficult/impossible to obtain on certain devices (like Samsung's Galaxy 8 onward) due to enterprise level tamper-proofing.
Having said all that, I just got an unlocked Pixel 4 and it has zero of that bloat. If you happen to consider the Google services themselves bloat/tracking (they often are), rooting is fully supported which allows you to install an Android distribution without any Google services.
Do the makers think that there's a sizeable portion of people that hate their iPhones or Galaxies and want to spend $350 on a phone that doesn't do things? Doesn't do social media, doesn't do email, doesn't do news. Most consumers would at this point ask "What's the fucking point?" Smartphones are popular because people want to do the things that they enable. You probably need to live in some sort of a niche social c…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's in the zeitgeist a bit now. Some people (I'm certainly one) are looking to unhook from their phones - get away from convenience and immediacy and... the internet in general (typing this from Emacs, so it seems more forgivable!). I know at least 5 people - a large percentage of my close network ;) - who would be interested in this device. I'm sure there's a big enough market for it if the execution is rig…
Here's the main problem: I am the target market and I can easily just make my Android phone behave in this manner. I rarely touch it except to read on the Kindle app and cast to the TVs.
Not saying that's a large market, but I do think it exists. At the 350$ price point though it seems more like it would be for wealthier people looking to signal that they're part of a sort of "offline" movement.