Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids • Hacker News Board

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#221

Post by pricees » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:13 PM UTC

We bought a Tincan after a company parent-erg conversation led to a coworker discussing her experience with the product.

Is it the game changer we thought it would be? No. We thought my daughter would want to call her friends as much as she wants us to call their friends' parents to have them come over. We thought my son would use it as much as he texts on his gizmo.

Having said this, they are getting experience, albeit infrequent, with saying "Hello.... I love you. Goodbye."

And, yeah, when it rings, there is a mad-dash to pick it up. There is something uniquely pre cell phone ("reminds me of the 80s") about the joy and wonder of "Who could be calling me (at this hour)?"

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#222

Post by rotaryfan2024 » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:17 PM UTC

I built a DIY system like this using Asterisk, Raspberry Pi, and a Grandstream ATA: https://github.com/cancio/rotary

I based it on the instructions provided by this Show HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39801991

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#223

Post by magiclaw » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:31 PM UTC

"If parents consent [...] we collect [...] serial number and battery level [...] who called and call time and length [...] and Voicemails (messages and greetings)"

If you're going to get this product, make sure you pay attention when you set it up, and opt out if you are privacy minded.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#224

Post by M95D » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #132

choo-t wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, you got it for yourself, so you chose to use a jukebox (or in other words : restrict your listening to specific titles on physical media) instead to impose it to other, which make a big difference in what people see as a restrictions(instead of a choice, which is self inflicted). Chosing a Tin Can is obviously to restrict your kid usage of communication, it's the nature of the purchase of the device.

Choosing a Tin Can for a child that doesn't have a phone isn't restricting them, it's empowering them with a new form of communication to chat to their friends. Getting my 10 year old a bicycle instead of a car isn't a restriction.

It's no use having an argument with thig guy. He simply has a more modern* definition of what "restricted" means.

*I don't know what to call it. It's like those people that buy a car with heated seats locked down by subscription and calling it "a feature" because some cars don't have them at all.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#225

Post by kstrauser » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 5:06 PM UTC

freetanga wrote: post #217

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.…

That’s beautiful and I respect your and your ex’s commitment to be good co-parents.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#226

Post by apparent » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 5:14 PM UTC

MiddleEndian wrote: post #143

apparent wrote: post #38

> There's also a free plan where Tin Can users can call only other Tin Can users. So you have to pay a monthly subscription for this, in addition to $75 for each phone, if you want to talk with anyone outside of their walled garden?

>walled garden Makes sense to me. Ideally, people outside of my friends and family would not be able to call me on my regular phone either.

You don't want to be able to communicate with your doctor, kid's teacher, someone who is coming to repair your home, a neighbor who just moved in, etc.?

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#227

Post by schwartzworld » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #69

bit_logic wrote: post #68

Why does it seem like many parents are unaware that a hand me down iPhone can be heavily locked down with screen time settings? A list of things you can do: - allowed list of apps, can reduce it to just phone, imessage, and utilities like weather app - effectively permanent downtime, just set the end time less than start time such as 3:00 am to 2:59 am (technically 1 minute of non downtime). This blocks apps except f…

I mean, a landline + phone is way cheaper to be fair

Or a MagicJack

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#228

Post by ninalanyon » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 5:48 PM UTC

jkestner wrote: post #61

mememememememo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we think a dumb phone Nokia and calls only SIM is just as good (to avoid all the drilling etc. of installing landlines in each kids room?)

I dug out an old Motofone (the $40 eink candybar) for this reason, only to discover that it’s 2G, which has been decommissioned. Too bad, would’ve been fun to watch the kid learn T9.

Nokia 105 has 4G version.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#229

Post by sparrc » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 6:07 PM UTC

bit_logic wrote: post #68

Why does it seem like many parents are unaware that a hand me down iPhone can be heavily locked down with screen time settings? A list of things you can do: - allowed list of apps, can reduce it to just phone, imessage, and utilities like weather app - effectively permanent downtime, just set the end time less than start time such as 3:00 am to 2:59 am (technically 1 minute of non downtime). This blocks apps except f…

As a parent, two reasons:

1. The admin work of parental controls in Apple is non-trivial and obscure. I would guess there are something like 300 different knobs and settings you can control for each kid individually. The UX is terrible and there are features missing that seem extremely basic and fundamental. For example, I can't see how much time left my kids currently have, nor can I block any app "now".

2. "the phone is so locked down they don't really have any interest in it." This has not been my experience at all. My kids know that less-locked-down devices exist and frequently complain about the restrictions.

Re: Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids

#230

Post by Dan_- » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 6:11 PM UTC

I did this but using Twilio, a Grandstream HT802v2, and a basic AT&T wall phone. Caller ID sorta works. I really tried to find a phone that would make a satisfying sound when slammed down, but I found that no one makes good, solid corded wallphones any longer.

The toughest part was figuring out which set of wires (my house had like 5 lines somehow) went to that particular jack in the kitchen.