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Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

businessinsider.com

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Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#211

Post by selectively »

xp84 wrote: post #152
selectively wrote: post #147

Smartphones are good and we shouldn't demonize them.

Judge the tree by its fruits. Children are showing very real signs of addiction, and unlike known quantities like video games, or TV in past generations, parents are being pressured into handing children a device, usually completely or effectively without any safety controls, a private screen with which everyone in the world, every corporation, foreign country, friend or foe, can pour propaganda, toxicity, lies, porn…

Smartphones are good. Addiction is physical compulsion. Nothing else is addiction.

You sound exactly like the people who were freaking out about comic books and video games. Moral panic, forever repeating.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#212

Post by quesera »

hermannj314 wrote: post #159
quesera wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is laughably unenforceable, and all the more ridiculous for it.

If a company puts unenforceable terms in their TOS, how likely are they to comply with the law in every other matter? No way would I give my kid a device made by these people for that reason.

Fair point, and totally agreed.

I literally LOLed at the idea that purchasing a consumer product, at retail, could include stipulations on my future employment. And at the hubris of any manufacturer for imagining they could get away with such an absurd idea.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#213

Post by jaywcarman »

testbjjl wrote: post #183
venusenvy47 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids are grown up, but my mom is worried about her AT&T service switching to VOIP. She didn't understand my description of Ooma, which I've been using for many years, but now I'm thinking that I should just bring over all the needed hardware and just call it a landline.

Landlines work when there is no power, which depending on where you live can happen more or less often but an important feature for an elderly family member especially if they live alone. For my situation, telling my mom her voip phone was a landline would be problematic. I do need some solution though, AT&T technicians tell me copper thieves are disrupting her service regularly.

I just setup a VOIP line at home and have it plugged into my UPS (along with my cable modem + network devices) to provide call service in the event of a power outage.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#214

Post by jaywcarman »

ralferoo wrote: post #196

I'm not sure if they're still available, but the PAP2T was a wonderful piece of kit - just an ethernet port and 2x RJ-45 jacks for old style phones. You can set up custom dial plans and use any VOIP SIP provider you like. You can trivially edit the dial plan to restrict certain number prefixes, and set up custom short numbers - so for instance my "landline" had 81 for my mum, 82 for brother, 83 for sister, etc. but y…

Grandstream currently has a line of Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA)[1] that fit this use case.

[1]: https://www.grandstream.com/products/gateways-and-atas/analo...

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#216

Post by wlesieutre »

apparent wrote: post #53
wlesieutre wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A monthly fee for a phone service sounds pretty normal to me?

In the age of FT audio calls and such, it seems out of place. I get paying for the hardware, and even a bit of a premium because the UI has so many parental controls. But charging a monthly fee seems surprising since the differentiation versus FT/GV/etc. is on the UI side, not the "you can talk to your friends" side. There is no monthly cost to a UI.

FT audio calls are in the same boat where if everyone you knows has an iPad you can make calls within that walled garden for free and don't need to be allocated a phone number. Admittedly more useful since so many people have an Apple product.

Anything where you want a phone number and to communicate with the rest of the phone network, I'd expect to pay money for it. Google Voice is the (only?) oddball here.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#217

Post by freetanga »

ripplefringe wrote: post #28

A year ago, I got my 8 y/o a landline (we used Ooma). It has been absolutely wonderful. By far the best thing is that he makes his own playdates. I'm not the middleman anymore. He just makes plans and asks me if it's ok. And if his friend doesn't have a landline, I let him call their parent. It surprises them, but when he leaves a message, they love it. He's definitely had more time with friends because of it. Anothe…

I bought two office phones for 30 euros each (Yealink) and set up a VOIP plan with voip.ms for my 8 and 9 YO kids.

I recently got divorced, so there is a phone at each house in case they want to reach out to the other parent directly. Ex and I did not want the kids to feel their right to reach the other parent needed to ask for permission

Family has Softphone in their mobiles, so the full family is a speed dial away.

I also whitelist numbers they can dial out.

So far it’s working like a charm, they love it.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#218

Post by sh4rks »

eloisant wrote: post #114
light_hue_1 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parents are aware. This is a horrible solution. What's going to happen immediately is that kids with equivalent phones will compare, realize that one has a lot of restrictions and the other doesn't, and it becomes a nightmare. They know that all you need to do is unlock it for them. It's the same mental distinction between "For $200 we'll install rear seat warmers in your Tesla" and "For $200 we'll 'unlock' the alrea…

That's why I'm thinking of getting my kid (who doesn't have a phone yet) a Unihertz Jelly Star. https://www.unihertz.com/fr-fr/products/jelly-star - Because it's small, it doesn't look like a regular smartphone - The small size would make it impractical for social media/scrolling/videos even if I were to unlock it ...but compared to a dumbphone, I can still allow Spotify and their school management software so they c…

That looks very ugly. Any kid above the age of 12 would reject that.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#219

Post by saltyoldman »

When I was 12 or so (might have been older)? I had convinced my parents to buy me a lantern battery (6v) and lots of wire. I connected all in series - two speakers and the battery connecting my room to my brother's room. Unfortunately only I could control which speaker was acting as a microphone (I had to swap the battery terminals the wires were connected.)

I guess that was my "tin can".

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#220

Post by christkv »

jaywcarman wrote: post #213
testbjjl wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Landlines work when there is no power, which depending on where you live can happen more or less often but an important feature for an elderly family member especially if they live alone. For my situation, telling my mom her voip phone was a landline would be problematic. I do need some solution though, AT&T technicians tell me copper thieves are disrupting her service regularly.

I just setup a VOIP line at home and have it plugged into my UPS (along with my cable modem + network devices) to provide call service in the event of a power outage.

In a big black out live we had in Spain the infrastructure all goes down. I was the only with data because i had star link and batteries in the house. Not that I could call anyone in Spain though.
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