Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone?

#61

Post by samwalrus » Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:07 PM UTC

I now only use a huawei watch 2 with LTE as my only phone. I do not pair it with a smart phone.

It allows me to use google maps, call an uber and see my upcoming appointments by syncing with google.

But I can't check my email, facebook or the news, or other websites.

This means it is not distracting, but I have the really useful bits from a smart phone.

The only problem is battery life, and the fact that sometimes it needs to talk to a synced device (I use my zte projector -the os thinks its a phone)

Re: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone?

#62

Post by aurailious » Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:08 PM UTC

phil248 wrote: post #23

The article uses the word "phone" about 40 times. Based on my own usage patterns, I don't even have a phone. I have a portable computer. I happen to use it to make phone calls a few times every week. I use my desktop to make video calls a few times a month, but I don't call that a phone. We all know a smartphone is a computer, and I'm not trying to be pedantic about the words we use, but I think our insistence that t…

I think other languages call "phones" different things. In German I think it's a "handy". While like most German words its a bit awkward, it does seem closer to the truth.

Re: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone?

#63

Post by alistairSH » Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:08 PM UTC

$400? Ouch.

Cost aside, I can see the benefit for consumers who are prone to "social media addiction." Or children, where a slightly-smart phone has some benefits to a 100% dumb phone and many benefits over an actual smart phone.

I'm trying to wean myself off most social media. Removing the FB app from all but one device (and removing favorites/bookmarks from all browsers) was great.

Re: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone?

#64

Post by striking » Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:08 PM UTC

ken wrote: post #53

This is a nearly perfect PR hit. Controversial question in the title, about a product category nearly everyone uses, with the product name in the first sentence, for an indie-funded startup, challenging Apple and Google and social media, published in the NYTimes in the middle of the week. Short of an endorsement from Barack Obama, I don't know how this could have been any better for them. Well done.

We all live in pg's submarine: http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

Re: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone?

#65

Post by BlackDeath3 » Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:12 PM UTC

I really love all of the things that I can do with my smartphone these days that I'd never have been able to do with an older device (trying to even browse the Internet on a phone that I owned as recently as five years ago was painful), but I do miss a certain amount of reliability and hardiness of the older devices. Maybe nostalgia plays in a bit here, but I think that the move away from embedded device to general-purpose computer brought with it a lot of the downsides of the latter, along with the upsides.

As nice as it is to be able to watch an HD video stream on my pocket-sized computer on a stretch of rural highway halfway from nowhere, I don't always trust my phone to be able to, like, dial 911 when it really counts, and that's a little scary.

Re: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone?

#66

Post by mrweasel » Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:13 PM UTC

blueseasky wrote: post #47

I bought my first smartphone a couple of months ago - always preferred small cheap dumb phones. They did fine for calling and texting, which was all I wanted. But the world changed on me! I noticed that over time people were sending me longer and longer texts, and it was becoming difficult to communicate with thumb-button texting. If things reverted to how they should be (anything over 5 words should be an email or a…

It's not only the communication part of it. Increasingly there's a tendency towards an "app first" thinking, where the primary thinking is that something could just be a app on our phones. How this thing is suppose to work for people without smartphone is an afterthought.

I do have a smartphone, but I strongly dislike the "Just download our app"... are you really sure you need an app?

Re: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone?

#67

Post by cglouch » Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:14 PM UTC

I'm still using my "dumb phone" from 2010. I like it cause it has a physical keyboard, a long battery life, and I can drop it without worrying about breaking the screen. Plus I don't have to worry about the privacy issues that come from apps collecting data.

Honestly the only feature I feel like I'm missing out on is GPS. But I've actually found that not having GPS improves my sense of direction, since I force myself to actually learn the map of my surroundings instead of just always relying on the phone.

Re: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone?

#68

Post by hawski » Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:14 PM UTC

dman wrote: post #8

alchemism wrote: post #6

I've just abandoned using a smartphone in favor of a $20 dumb Alcatel phone that can only do three things: calls, alarms, and an FM radio. It doesn't even vibrate. I offloaded every other functional use into my tablet, in this case an iPad Pro. The phone battery lasts for days on standby; I can drain my tablet battery without concern. I can leave the tablet at home if I want to stay light or if I want to stay focused…

What do you do for navigation? (Thats literally the only feature keeping me with a smart phone right now).

I find it funny how I was approached several times, by people with a smartphone in one hand asking me for directions. Most of the time I don't know answer either, because I suck with street names and my German is still spotty. But I can help those people by orienting myself with a map on my own phone.

I like to use my phone to navigation. Especially public transport in Berlin, however as I start to learn routes I don't need it as much as two years ago.

Recently my wife tried to get to a place on Streetname 65A, but Google Maps showed her only Streetname 65 (without A) and it was a wrong place. I found it on OpenStreetMap - it was a building on the other side of the street. That was a lesson for me and installed Maps from F-Droid (an ad-less fork of mobile Maps.Me). It is an amazingly detailed map and offline one as well.

So even with smartphone one has to be always prepared to ask around or plan in advance, so maybe after all it's not as good as we like to think.

Re: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone?

#69

Post by alistairSH » Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:16 PM UTC

samwalrus wrote: post #61

I now only use a huawei watch 2 with LTE as my only phone. I do not pair it with a smart phone. It allows me to use google maps, call an uber and see my upcoming appointments by syncing with google. But I can't check my email, facebook or the news, or other websites. This means it is not distracting, but I have the really useful bits from a smart phone. The only problem is battery life, and the fact that sometimes it…

How does that work for cellular plans? Are you in the US?

In the US, most carriers won't enable a portable without a linked phone. And you pay an extra monthly fee for the portable ($15-$20, I think).

Re: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone?

#70

Post by mentos » Thu, May 17, 2018, 7:17 PM UTC

I would love to see Apple create an iPod with a 10Tb SSD and e-ink display pre-loaded with virtually every song from iTunes.

The biggest issue is that it would just be a matter of time before someone cracked the music library encryption.. Would a solution where the device uniquely encrypts every song for the user's account and requires a cellular network to retrieve a per-song key work?