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iPhone dumbphone

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Re: iPhone dumbphone

#311

Post by SwtCyber »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #130

Before installing all those apps the author listed, I'd recommend this exercise: Let the battery die on your phone, and live one week without it. Cold turkey. Tell people in advance if you need to, give them an alternate way to reach you. Replace your phone for that week with a small notebook that fits in your pocket. During that week, every time you want to do something that requires a smartphone, jot it down in you…

I bet most people would be surprised by how little they actually need their phones once they break the autopilot

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#312

Post by SwtCyber »

neya wrote: post #303

I took an easier path. I carry two phones - a smartphone and a dumb phone. The smartphone is usually turned off, and is only charged once every 3-4 days. It holds its charge. The dumbphone is actually a second-hand Sony Ericsson Walkman phone which I really love. It has basic web browsing, some very basic utility apps and excellent sound quality, which I care a lot about and bluetooth too. This physical, non-software…

Really like how you've drawn clear lines between personal and work life

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#314

Post by Timpy »

I think this guide is nice, and having a variety of articles like this is great so everybody can look at the different ideas and find what's right for them.

I would urge people to consider going a little bit further than this guide, consider not using your phone as a reading device. Imagine deciding to sit down with a physical book, but keeping your phone nestled on the opposite page as you read. It would be a lot nicer to read without interruption, without being exposed to notifications at all times. Sure there are going to be use cases where the phone is more convenient, but I think sacrificing convenience is worth it.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#315

Post by _Algernon_ »

jdthedisciple wrote: post #70

I never really quite got the motivation for this: The much more apparent issue is surely the lack of self-control, right? Which we all do at times. I'd rather feel confident I'm improving along that metric than to build guardrails for myself everywhere ...

Say you want to quit sugar or smoking. Would you still buy cigarettes or chocolate and carry it around in your pocket everywhere you go because you should rely on willpower to beat the addiction? Very few people do that because you become vulnerable when your willpower is at it's weakest.

Usually it works better to exercise willpower to constrain your future self's available actions. For example, by not buying chocolate or cigarettes when you are at the store.

The same principle applies to your phone. Use your willpower to constrain what your future self can do with it.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#317

Post by RandomBacon »

codethief wrote: post #199
dwedge wrote: post #165

> Consider email. I still need to have access to email, and I want to have notifications enabled so I don’t miss something truly important. But 90% of the emails I get aren’t important. I was at a talk at FOSDEM this year and they were talking about how most emails now (over 90%) are transactional in nature and not personal. Things like password resets, offers, 2fa, shipping confirmations. This was a lightbulb moment…

Agreed. Many years ago I set up a personal email address for that very reason, i.e. one through which I only expect personal 1-to-1 correspondence, and which I only hand out to family & friends, never to companies (which easily get hacked and/or one day decide to reuse your email address for their newsletter).

I have one of those personal correspondence email addresses, but someone got "hacked" and their address list was scraped, and now I get spam to that address.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#318

Post by blokey »

Nextgrid wrote: post #316

One thing to keep in mind is that supervising via Apple Configurator (without a hosted MDM server) means you lose Activation Lock protection.

You can create and install a profile to (re)-enable it. Just by default unless a profile (or MDM) solution allows "User Linked" activation lock (via Find My), the default is only to allow "Org Linked" activation.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/deployment/depf4ab94ef...

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#320

Post by piperswe »

jonfromsf wrote: post #233
pmarreck wrote: post #230

My idea to give my son a dumbed-down phone one day was to only install a terminal on it, and maybe chatgpt. And give him access to a server via tailscale. Then he could do whatever a terminal could do, except without the audiovisual or socialnetworking dopamine fixes. And retain all the basic phone functionality.

He needs uber. He needs google maps. Mostly it's not just about looking up information, it's about functionality.

Who "needs" Uber or Google Maps? Especially a kid?
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