161–170 of 204 posts
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My house still has phone wiring and my ISP still offers landline services, and I'm not in a primitive area.
Yes, but it’s probably not a landline in the way most people think. Almost all those services use voip backends now with only the last mile being copper.
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 ?
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…
But it is a real answer. Solution to being fat is not some miracle pill or miracle diet, but lower the food/calories consumption and more exercise/movement (which is both again self control), simple as that. Seems like people nowadays are so childish they can't even admit how stupid and lazy they are and they prefer to blame someone else for their own misfortune caused by themselves. No one forced you to become fat by excessive eating. You can always become slim, if you start eating reasonable amounts of food and start exercising, but of course you can ignore this and try each year new miracle diet, same as people moving away from smartphones to dumbphones to fix their self control issues.
> 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.
I think you are confusing smartphones with apps/sites. Smartphones themselves and their manufacturers (maybe besides Apple since they produce complete package) are certainly not using any of those methods to make them more addictive. People are addicted to social media apps, not the phones, phones are just tools. It's like blaming silverware producers for being fat, because you eat sugary/unhealthy food.
If you wanna blame someone blame companies developing/producing apps/services, your blame on smartphone companies is misdirected. I don't think Xiaomi or Samsung (these two have pretty much all Android market in Europe) produce many addicting apps, while I am certain Facebook, Bytedance, Twitter and other companies produce addictive services/apps.
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I'm in a similar boat. GPS, Camera, but also Telegram and a basic browser for reference. Dumbing down a smart phone doesn't fix the size and delicateness of the device either. I essentially want a tiny durable smartphone, ie size of an iPhone 3g. My biggest thing is I hate how important this device is while also being unwieldy and easy to break. The only entertainment I use on my phone is twitter and even then I find…
Try a smartwatch with cellular connectivity?
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…
> 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.
I use a Nokia 6030 phone; the old indestructible brick one. It still works where I am. But I don't use it because I want to get away from the internet. I just don't use smart phones because they're terrible computers. I use a computer for computing, a GPS for navigation, and a camera for photos. And each of these devices is better at it's job with fewer downsides than any general purpose device. Mostly the "smart pho…
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They should not be required for anything either.
Neither should a bank account, or a car, or weather-appropriate clothes, but they can be pretty damn handy.
I had researched dumb phones recently only to learn that the two most important functions of a smartphone (for me) is the GPS and having a decent camera, and these things are either crippled or missing entirely from dumb phones. It's simply easier to dumb down your existing smartphone, especially if you have an Android phone. In my case, I have a 2017 Pixel 2 XL running LineageOS, with a text only home screen launche…
I'm in a similar boat. GPS, Camera, but also Telegram and a basic browser for reference. Dumbing down a smart phone doesn't fix the size and delicateness of the device either. I essentially want a tiny durable smartphone, ie size of an iPhone 3g. My biggest thing is I hate how important this device is while also being unwieldy and easy to break. The only entertainment I use on my phone is twitter and even then I find…