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Commodore Releases Flip Phone
71–80 of 139 posts
Re: Commodore Releases Flip Phone
#72Some scepticism here I see, but personally I think this is spot-on. I've been keen on a dumber phone for a while, but losing whatsapp & maps makes it a non-starter for any real use. This is an excellent middle ground. The aesthetic is cool, and building this on Sailfish but with Android compatibility is awesome. Big fan of the concept.
maps exist, you must have missed that... as for whatsapp, I have never used it once, and yet my phone provides "real use" (whatever that means).
Many countries don't use SMS, they use WhatsApp, for almost everything, from chatting with family and friends, to business contacts, to talking with your bank manager, to medical appointments, to 2FA, and even to transfer money.
That's what prevents most people on those countries from having a dumb phone, and forces even the most illiterate of 90yo great-grandmothers to learn how to navigate around Android or iOS, all the while placing uncountable many calls to their great-grandchildren because they opened up some random app by accident and don't remember how to get back to the only thing that matters: WhatsApp (talking from experience here).
A WhatsApp-capable quasi-dumb-phone would be a godsend for such places, provided it's cheap enough. At $500 this one definitely isn't, not when an ultra-cheap Android smartphone capable of running WhatsApp costs $90. But if this one sells well, cheaper ones may become viable down the line due to economies of scale. I surely hope that happens.
Re: Commodore Releases Flip Phone
#73$120 max and I’m feeling generous. If it had an option to install a messenger of choice (Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp etc) then maybe $140-150. The whole "people want their data and privacy and all" is becoming the next premium service and/or product and I don’t like that at all.
I saw the "Get $50 off!" and thought "Oh cool, maybe I could get this for $150!" then checked the actual page and saw $499... absolutely not. Also the whole store page just feels off. The weird mix of "beige" and furtiger-aero-esque imagery is confusing, and my gut hunch is that there's some AI images here. I understand they're trying to appeal to 2 different nostalgias, but it just doesn't mix. And for something all…
Sheesh. $500 is a hard pass from me. Too bad because I was psyched to try this.
Re: Commodore Releases Flip Phone
#74[deleted]
Re: Commodore Releases Flip Phone
#75Retrocomputing Roundtable has talked about the new Commodore company over the course of a couple episodes, and I thought they brought up a good point about “what is it that people actually want from Commodore,” and the best answer they came up with is “to be 12 again.” A new C64 with modern video output, a disk emulator, a SID chip replacement so you don’t need an original… that’s all good, but beyond that, it’s hard…
> I don’t think anyone saw that coming
Perifractic (the CEO of Commodore.net, and a prominent YouTuber) has made a few videos that describe his anti-smartphone stance. It's not that big of a surprise.
Re: Commodore Releases Flip Phone
#76Retrocomputing Roundtable has talked about the new Commodore company over the course of a couple episodes, and I thought they brought up a good point about “what is it that people actually want from Commodore,” and the best answer they came up with is “to be 12 again.” A new C64 with modern video output, a disk emulator, a SID chip replacement so you don’t need an original… that’s all good, but beyond that, it’s hard…
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Re: Commodore Releases Flip Phone
#77This is interesting to me for a few different reasons, but one of the bigger ones is that it appears to be a Sailfish device that’s readily available in the US, which to date has been oddly rare. As a dev, Sailfish has caught my eye a few times over the years but no US availability has meant I’ve never had the chance to play with it.
It seems that way, marketing page claims broad support incl. VoLTE which bodes well for US compatibility, however I noticed this in the FAQ:
Q: What network bands are supported?
A: Please see the Network Specifications section above this FAQ for supported bands and carrier compatibility.
But there is no "Network Specificiations" section on the page that I can find. It would be really nice to know which specific bands the modem supports.
Re: Commodore Releases Flip Phone
#78I like the idea, but I have major problems with their inclusion of Meta-owned WhatsApp. Any company which cares about privacy should throw WhatsApp into a volcano. That said, I understand why they include it as much of the world uses it as the default for some reason I still can't understand.
~~Anyway, I love the idea and would use something like this if it allowed me to choose a configuration at order time which could include or not include a set of available apps which are curated by the manufacturer. That way, the apps are immutable and the mission of the phone is preserved. Also, a real keyboard is an absolute must for apps like maps, telegram, and SMS.~~
Looks like you can indeed uninstall and install apps as you like.
Re: Commodore Releases Flip Phone
#79Re: Commodore Releases Flip Phone
#80Nice, but a little bit too thin on details to read this as more than "we ordered a Commodore-branded Sailfish-OS phone from an ODM". If it would be more "considerate" from hardware (or even software) perspective it could be compelling, but from the infos on that page it sounds more like a "memberberry" product (like e.g. a phone from Kodak, Sega, Atari,... built on the business decision of [product-cost] + [branding]…
> we ordered a Commodore-branded Sailfish-OS phone from an ODM Is this true? I did some research on flip phones the other week and I didn't turn up anything running Sailfish. Options seemed limited to * custom AOSP derivatives (Punkt, Sunbeam, Kyocera, others - most common) * older KaiOS devices (Nokia 2780 and friends) * Nokia S30+ devices (traditional proprietary feature-phone firmware, somehow Nokia is still produ…
Not in North America, no but that's what people are saying; they simply imported the structure of SailfishOS that's used in other parts of the world.