A 'screenless smartphone'

This article is clearly a paid advertisement, as you can see at the end. It’s also maybe the worst tech writing I’ve ever read, so bad it’s almost funny. Some of the best worst lines:<p>&gt; “Visuals may be half the fun of technology, but there are pros of owning a screenless smartphone, such as giving your eyes a break, saving moolah on high-roaming phone charges, and avoiding germs on screens”<p>&gt; “… an adjustable base memory cable for your neck, and is charged through an A type C-USB cable pod“

Screenless smartphones could totally be viable as a product, especially for visually impaired folks.<p>The problem is only one: PROPRIETARY APPLICATIONS<p>Could you write a custom and simplified Facebook Messenger client that would allow clear and complete navigation through hardware buttons or vocal commands? Abso-fucking-lutely!<p>Can you do it without Facebook&#x27;s approval which will never come? Abso-fucking-lutely not!

What makes a phone a smart phone? I don&#x27;t think many would argue that the Motorola flip phone I had in the early 2000s was a smart phone, but it had games, a (primitive) web browser, and of course could text and make calls. When the iPhone came out it was clearly something different from my flip phone. It had a relatively large screen, fast processor, usable web browser, and importantly a flourishing app ecosystem.<p>To me this device resembles my Motorola flip a lot more than it resembles Apple&#x27;s iPhone. And that&#x27;s fine, but let&#x27;s not try to stretch an already nebulous term beyond all recognition.

I think there is still alot of very interesting and uderexplored territory in the area of audio user interfaces, and I hope there is more interest in this now that the novelty of screens is finally wearing off.<p>For example there are spatial audio libraries that can make sounds apparently originate from any location for a user wearing headphones. Why not use that to create a spatial user interface?<p>Speech-based interfaces are of course very important, but i feel like there could be much faster ways of doing &quot;window management&quot; or diving through standard menus by using synthesized sounds for feedback. This would be attempting to go a step beyond just playing a sample or sound effect, and conveying more detailed information with different aspects of sound texture.<p>One of the biggest advantages of screens is that they also act like short-term memory. I don&#x27;t need to remember where I am in a document because the scroll bar holds that information, for example. I feel like it should be possible to do an equivalent thing with audio-only without it becoming overwhelming. Our ears can take in about as much information as our eyes, and we can also &quot;switch focus&quot; and ignore background sounds when not immediately relevant. I don&#x27;t know of any projects that seriously attempt to do this, unfortunately.

&gt; A SIM stands for security information management<p>Subscriber Identity Module?

If you want a smartphone with a screen but without all the distracting crap, maybe try a light phone (no relationship, just considering one for myself)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thelightphone.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thelightphone.com&#x2F;</a>

Now make this but a smart watch, and use the small screen as another way to access features. The current smart watches are either too complicated trying to add all features of a regular phone, or need a phone to be paired with. I thought this wearable tech would go in the direction away from smart phones like this one.

The first Apple Watch that came with a cellular chip (gen 4?) got me excited to basically do just this. Except 1) the battery life was 1 hour for phone calls 2) charging meant not wearing it 3) voice-to-text is still very spotty for me 4) still needed a smartphone with a cellular plan associated with the Watch.<p>I just want a wearable that allows me to communicate with people, and get basic info from the web like weather. And that has better battery life. Here’s hoping…

For a screenless smartphone turn on voiceover[1] and enable screen curtain[2] and you’re there. It’s better than anything that some newcomer is going to be able to cook up.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=qDm7GiKra28" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=qDm7GiKra28</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.apple.com&#x2F;en-au&#x2F;guide&#x2F;iphone&#x2F;iph3e2e415f&#x2F;ios" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.apple.com&#x2F;en-au&#x2F;guide&#x2F;iphone&#x2F;iph3e2e415f&#x2F;ios</a> [2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.apple.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;HT201443" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.apple.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;HT201443</a>

This reminds me of some of the systems that Thad Starner and Steve Mann came up with at MIT Media Lab in the early days of wearables. Audio first was attractive because the displays were bulky, expensive, and lo-res.

EarPods (or other Bluetooth earbuds) + Siri can do most of what this wants to do. Sure, you need the phone in your pocket… but I don’t think I would go anywhere without it anyway. I always need Google maps or something. I also like to use Siri to add tasks to my ToDoist. Unless this thing adds third party apps at a remarkable speed, iOS&#x2F;Android are always going to be in prime position to dominate this use case. This is likely going to be a niche “kickstarter”-like product that’s never going to cross the chasm.

I like this! I feel like there are a lot of HCI challenges to make a screen less phone that is useful and intuitive though.<p>Pebble tried something similar with the pebble core, not sure what happened to it: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techradar.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;wearables&#x2F;pebble-core-everything-you-need-to-know-1322135" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techradar.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;wearables&#x2F;pebble-core-everyth...</a>

Want a screenless iPhone?<p>1. Triple press the side button if you have Face ID or the home button if not. This will turn on VoiceOver. 2. Tap the screen three times with three fingers to enable screen curtain. This will disable your screen with the exception of VoiceOver. 3. Same steps to turn these features off.<p>If you can learn how to use your phone with VoiceOver and the screen curtain, you will now get ~4 days of battery life.

&gt;<i>Titan is a set of eSim-enabled, voice controlled earbuds with embedded live voice translation.</i><p>Yeah, I&#x27;m out.<p>Could not tell you the amount of times that Siri has misunderstood me due to my accent, or Google Maps voice guidance has tried to summon eldricht horrors by attempting to pronounce &quot;Länsiväylä&quot;. Voice is an awful interface and should not be a main&#x2F;easiest way of interacting with any device.

This article has a competence level that rivals the PC building guide by The Verge. What happened? How in the world does any tech writer use the wrong definition of SIM, among other mistakes?<p>Vice, if you are reading this, I could write you a better article in 30 minutes. I have IT certifications and a certification in Writing, which is more than your writers.

Every single time something like this pops up nobody seems to care that there are people who don&#x27;t feel comfortable having other people around listening to their conversation, browsing and whatever is controlled by voice. There is a reason screens are still popular.

It’s like the movie Her.<p>I do feel like we just lost a generation worth of “calling” skills with people somehow surprised when you just call and start talking. I wonder if we can get that back.

I’ve been mulling over ideas like this for a while. What if the metaverse is actually primarily audio, without all this 3D, VR headset bullshit? Earbuds are incredibly widely deployed but outside of the initial surge of interest in assistants like Siri it doesn’t feel like they’ve been treated as a platform in a serious way.

For an actual &#x27;screenless smartphone&#x27; look at the movie &#x27;The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest&#x27;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt0280674&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt0280674&#x2F;</a>

Reminds me of the LightPhone -- different approach but addressing a similar problem.

It seems like a standalone Siri assistant, I don&#x27;t know if you can define it as a &quot;smartphone&quot;. Anyway, I don&#x27;t know precisely why, but I never feel good to use a voice assistant in public

It might be a cool proof of concept project.<p>Frankly I&#x27;m never remotely seeing this as a successful product though (from a business perspective), a niche hype at best.

&gt; The Rec Room staff independently selected all of the stuff featured in this story.<p>From how large a selection?

I remember calling goog411 with my dumb phone...good times

No games, no tiktok? It won&#x27;t be a success. And good luck spelling out your passwords.

&gt; (A SIM stands for security information management, and traditionally collects, monitors, and analyzes security-related data.) Said another way: It’s the thing that helps make your smartphone a connected, data-driven device.<p>That’s the worst definition of SIM that I’ve seen in my life.

I have a 24 hour a day Freedom session going blocking all news and social media sites. This has really helped me turn the corner from addiction to having a heathier, more minimal relationship to my phone! <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;freedom.to" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;freedom.to</a>