Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Light Phone

thelightphone.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 291 posts

Re: The Light Phone

#251

Post by npongratz »

ekianjo wrote: post #228
mumblemumble wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can, but, IMO, smartphones are starting to feel like a money pit, too, not just a time pit. You spend $500 - $1500 on a device that can't be expected to last more than 4 years (presumably a fair bit less if you cut too close to the $500 end of the range), and will have an annoyingly short battery life in 2 years. You have to constantly be careful with it, because if you drop it or it gets scratched by a key or so…

> ou spend $500 - $1500 on a device that can't be expected no, you just buy a model 2 years after its on the market and you pay a fraction of the initial price.

The downside is you get only a year or two of security updates.

Re: The Light Phone

#252

Post by mumblemumble »

bityard wrote: post #239
Hamuko wrote: post #156

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…

Mark my words, "I don't even have Facebook" is going to be the new "I don't even have a TV" in 2020.

Was not having a TV super trendy somewhere? I know plenty of people who don't have a Facebook account, but we're the only household I know of that's committed to watching their Netflix on a 13" laptop screen.

Re: The Light Phone

#253

Post by scarface74 »

I already own a device that does just the basics, the cellular Apple Watch:

- make calls

- text messages

- calculator

- navigation

- plays music and podcasts

- and can track my heart rate and speed when I am running.

It lets me leave my phone when I don’t want distractions. When I need something more full featured, I have my phone. When I want something full featured with a larger screen, I have an iPad. Calls and text messages go to all three devices and things are synced where appropriate.

Re: The Light Phone

#255

Post by arkades »

scarface74 wrote: post #253

I already own a device that does just the basics, the cellular Apple Watch: - make calls - text messages - calculator - navigation - plays music and podcasts - and can track my heart rate and speed when I am running. It lets me leave my phone when I don’t want distractions. When I need something more full featured, I have my phone. When I want something full featured with a larger screen, I have an iPad. Calls and te…

Very true. I got the watch for exactly those features,

Re: The Light Phone

#256

Post by em-bee »

lvturner wrote: post #192
Hamuko wrote: post #156

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…

I actually really want a stripped down phone - but without some of the popular messenging apps it's effectively a non-starter for daily use, both from a business and a personal perspective.

that's what i thought. i don't use phone and sms anymore. a phone without messaging would be useless.

Re: The Light Phone

#257

Post by giraffe333 »

mesozoic wrote: post #85
_hhff wrote: post #83

My team built the OS on a custom fork of Android ( https://www.sanctuary.computer ). I would say ask me anything but I’m in the middle of the Australian outback with virtually no mobile signal...! What I can say is that working with Eink is rudimentary - we had to build everything from a custom kernel driver all the way up to the view layouts and UX. We expected Eink would give us sophisticated SDKs, but unfortunatel…

The battery life must be immense right? AT least one advantage there? How long does it last.

About a day and a half, making a few calls and texting a bit. So effectively I have to charge it every night.

Re: The Light Phone

#258

Post by dangus »

HumanReadable wrote: post #211
dangus wrote: post #120

Modern smartphones already give you the tools to stop abusing your phone’s dominance of your attention. Screen time and other similar controls let you limit your usage of distracting apps. Or just don’t install them and learn some self control. Put your phone in your bag instead of your pocket, or maybe leave it at home sometimes. A black and white phone missing basic features compared to a modern Nokia feature phone…

I've installed and uninstalled reddit maybe 7 times in the last year, and even when I don't have it installed I still visit it from my browser. For my Firefox desktop I have written 5 extensions that blocks websites in various ways so to help me control my bad urges, but even then I just open up safari and use it from there. Fact is just I can't control it, and I am willing to pay thousands of dollars for any solutio…

I also mentioned that you could get a feature phone. Heck, a cellular Apple Watch could be purchased for cheaper than this phone, and it’s arguably a more convenient form factor.

From what I’m reading it seems like this Light Phone is missing basics that you’d get in a standard flip phone.

Re: The Light Phone

#259

Post by shawndrost »

How to make your iphone a light phone:

1. Make it black and white. https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-make-your-iphone-bla...

1b. If you're like me, and you like colors when looking at pics people send you, set up your phone to toggle to full-color mode when you triple-tap. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/accessibility-shortcu...

2. Delete the apps that aren't "basic functionality", then break your app store and browser. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304

Step 2 involves setting up a passcode. I recommend getting a friend to enter this passcode, then hide it away from you, since you obviously can't trust your junkie brain.

I did this and it is RAD. I still use a subset of communication-oriented social media, but my phone is kind of boring now, in a good way.

Re: The Light Phone

#260

Post by giraffe333 »

Hamuko wrote: post #156

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…

I backed the Light Phone 2 with the thought that it's kind of like being an early Tesla buyer. People buy the Tesla to look cool, sure, but some also buy it because they want to see a world where cars become something they weren't before, and solve problems with existing cars (pollution, etc).

I'd love to see a world where people talk to each other again rather than sit at lunch, dinner, watching TV, whatever, with their phones out and ignoring each other. There aren't a lot of phones in this space so backing something like this may help create the market I want to see. I don't want to "live disconnected", but I do want to limit my behaviors like "hey let me interrupt this conversation so you can watch while I google that random thing we'll forget about in a minute".

Previously I had an LG slider phone with a physical qwerty keyboard for 5-6 years before buying the Light Phone 2.

I also hate the size of current smart phones, they're just so big. I'm weird I know, but I actually liked the size of my iphone 3G.

As a software engineer I'm hoping they get the custom "tools" available soon so I can tinker with that. I'd like to experiment with making a 2FA tool like Authy or some kind of push notification.

All in all, the Light Phone 2 is kind of slow to use, but it works, and it's not red like my LG was, so it starts less conversations when I use it.

Post reply on HN