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The Quest for a Dumber Phone

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Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#91

Post by fleddr »

em500 wrote: post #20

Focusing on the phone seems like missing the mark. The addictive thing is not the phone, but the internet. Even with a dumbphone you can easily waste as much time on your laptop's web-browser (and people did: FB and Youtube were already big before the iPhone was a thing). Conversely, if you turn off data, there are not many possibilities to spend huge amounts of time on your phone. (And yes, there are still plenty of…

Definitely a key insight: every attempt to be less addicted to your smartphone will fail if you do not fill up that void of newly available time with something more productive, healthy, etc.

The good news is that you don't need to set a very high bar for a better use of this free time. Read a book. Go on a small walk around the block. Take care of your garden, if you have one. Do simple chores. Do nothing at all. Almost anything is better than smartphone usage.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#92

Post by parker_mountain »

andrew-dc wrote: post #69

Having not used a smart phone for ~5 years now, I can say that it is totally a workable solution - however, there are, of course trade-offs, and several persistent annoyances. Rather than get into a list, I will present the one thing that I find the most frustrating: Our society expects you to have and use a smart phone for nearly everything. This might be less annoying if it meant only new functions or supplemented…

> luxury item (and an expensive monthly service bill)

Before applying any subsidies for low income people, you can get a perfectly usable smartphone for under $40 and unlimited data cell service (slow but usable for basic tasks) for $10/month. An iPhone, with service, can be had for a total of under $50/month.

These aren't luxury items anymore.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#93

Post by QuercusMax »

wheelerof4te wrote: post #70

I really wish that the world gravitated towards more hardware-related gadgety future. I was quite fond of the Japanese vision of future, where there is an item/gadget/accessory for everything. That way, people could choose to which degree they want to interact with their technology. But here we are, stuck in the IoT software-focused world.

Or even the Star Trek (TNG-era) future - people put things on PADDs which seem to generally be for individual purposes / projects. They're cheap / disposable (replicable?), and are treated more like physical paper notebooks than expensive smart tablets.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#94

Post by krunck »

ttthomas wrote: post #24

I too have quested for a Dumber Phone. As an easily distracted engineer who values my time, I enjoy being on a dumb device, particularly one without Maps. Things hat I've tried: - Punkt MP02 (Pigeon): small black & white Android phone with a non-standard launcher. Doesn't support MMS on Google Fi, which is needed to participate with friends & family (USA), so it sits on a shelf. - Unihertz Atom: tiny Android phone, s…

I've got a Punkt MP01. I love it. I charge it every two weeks. It's durable. And it works. There is a problem with it not working with group SMS. The MP02(current version) fixes this I think.

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#95

Post by tut-urut-utut »

extr0pian wrote: post #43
devoutsalsa wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being about to use various instant messaging platforms, especially WhatsApp, is also nice.

I had Signal installed for a while, but ultimately removed it because it's mostly friends sending stupid memes, breaking whatever I was concentrating on seemingly at random. I do have it running on my laptop.

You know you can mute notifications and ignore until you decide to look into it?

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#96

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

andrew-dc wrote: post #69

Having not used a smart phone for ~5 years now, I can say that it is totally a workable solution - however, there are, of course trade-offs, and several persistent annoyances. Rather than get into a list, I will present the one thing that I find the most frustrating: Our society expects you to have and use a smart phone for nearly everything. This might be less annoying if it meant only new functions or supplemented…

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2021/02/15/91-of-u...

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#97

Post by college_physics »

It takes only a tiny fraction of a smartphone's capabilities to make us dumb.

The endless scrolling and liking on social (which is now a pandemic) could arguably be served by a much slimmed down device. NB: Maybe thats something Meta should build and offer "for free".

I dont know how we could ever get immunized against big tech dumbness and start really using smartphones in smart ways. They pack exceptional hardware. Mine even has an FM radio (thats something to do with electromagnetic waves).

Its just a matter of software. Which is a matter of mindsets, control and economics. I like to think that a society that manages to truly use smartphones as smart devices will get to the next level of civilization

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#98

Post by ajsnigrutin »

sparrish wrote: post #14
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here's an example of living with the light phone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7G1pWYVtBg That's expensive for a phone with basically zero features... Why not just buy a nokia 3310 (the new one) for around 60eur, where you get a better, faster phone, with basically the same limitations as any other of the dumbphones, but it's cheaper and works faster and has a better screen? Also, the ergonomics are better, dua…

Because texting on a Nokia touchpad is terrible plus I'd like to have driving directions and prompts.

It's not a touchpad, it's physical keys, and texting on the phone from the video seems horrible too.... nokia+t9 is quite efficient and was never an issue back then.

I agree about the driving thing... maybe nokia n95 needs a new release too :)

Re: The Quest for a Dumber Phone

#99

Post by ekianjo »

parker_mountain wrote: post #92
andrew-dc wrote: post #69

Having not used a smart phone for ~5 years now, I can say that it is totally a workable solution - however, there are, of course trade-offs, and several persistent annoyances. Rather than get into a list, I will present the one thing that I find the most frustrating: Our society expects you to have and use a smart phone for nearly everything. This might be less annoying if it meant only new functions or supplemented…

> luxury item (and an expensive monthly service bill) Before applying any subsidies for low income people, you can get a perfectly usable smartphone for under $40 and unlimited data cell service (slow but usable for basic tasks) for $10/month. An iPhone, with service, can be had for a total of under $50/month. These aren't luxury items anymore.

They should not be required for anything either.
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