The dumbphone boom is real

38 点作者 fluxic大约 1 年前

16 条评论

jdsnape大约 1 年前

I tried a dumbphone but it was a frustrating experience.I recently bought myself a cheap old Android device and installed LineageOS on it. I then removed the play store and browser, and installed a handful of apps that are useful and that I don't get sucked into (personal email, whatsapp, maps, kindle). If I need to (e.g. for a trip) I can load the browser and whatever apps back onIt's the only thing that has worked _for me_ to stop randomly scrolling through rubbish when I'm bored, after having tried parental controls etc. on an iPhone

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djha-skin大约 1 年前

I've seen the light phone or phones like it.I think the biggest thing about the smart phone is important apps like on-call, office reimbursement/receipts, chat applications such as WhatsApp or GroupMe, and the camera. Were it not for these, I might switch. Also I do light reading/research on my phone, which I would miss.

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dmattia大约 1 年前

I had a dumbphone for two years, it was fine.For the past two years though, I've been using just an Apple Watch, which I was able to connect my old phone number to. It has maps, texting, calling (works best via bluetooth), weather, heart rate monitoring, alarms, email, sports scores, and some music apps. When attached to my wife's phone plan, it costs me $5 per month for all service.I think the unfortunate reality of dumbphones is that of the folks searching for dumbphones, we all have fairly specific ideas on which features we want and which ones we don't, but there are only like 5 reasonable options available, and most don't hit the mark for many of us. If you want good maps, that rules out many. If you want a camera, that would rule out the watch like I use. If you want reasonable texting ergonomics that isn't speech-to-text, that rules out pretty much all of them

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retrocryptid大约 1 年前

I wanted a dumbphone so I could avoid the crapware in android. But then I saw the Punkt MP01 with it's 4G hotspot and lust filled my heart.So then I had a smartphone with android crapware and a very bad UI.It did keep me from doomscrolling at the bus stop, so there is that.I suspect the "iPhone of modern dumbphones" hasn't been invented yet. My gut feeling is there are about as many reasons people want to use dumbphones as there are people using dumbphones so getting "one dumbphone to rule them all" the same way the apple and Samsung have is a ways off.

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1vuio0pswjnm7大约 1 年前

I always wanted a pocket-sized computer. But I never wanted a pocket-sized computer with a built-in telephone. Strange idea.Some folks got to experience the world before telephones were portable, and also before mobile telephones came with general purpose computers attached ("before"). To anyone born after, the idea probably seems perfectly natural.The case for carrying a mobile phone on one's person wherever they go is compelling, for emergency reasons alone. But the case for one carrying a portable computer wherever they go, not so much.Those generations born before might remember that as kids we used to have handheld video games, with tactile buttons. Of course, kids wanted to bring these games everywhere. But no responsible parent let their kid bring them _everywhere_.

jonahrd大约 1 年前

I used a string of KaiOS devices mostly as my primary device from ~2017-2023. I loved the battery life, the lack of distraction, the size and portability. I liked KaiOS because I could still chat via Facebook, Whatsapp, check email, maps, when I needed to. But it was annoying enough that I didn't spend much time in them. I loved/hated the physical T9 keys. I could text while not even looking, but it definitely was never as fast as a smartphone. If the predictive text was better it may have worked out.The problems are 1. The camera. I had multiple devices with different levels of camera but it's truly a marvel of our world that I can carry around something that takes cinema-quality photos immediately. Dumb phones do not have good cameras. It's almost useless to even include one, I mostly just used it to remember specific posters/signs like parking.2. The 'requirement' to use smartphone apps. Certain bank logins need an authenticator app. The Canadian border required Arrive can. Some concerts use apps for tickets. Yes, there are workarounds. Yes, it's possible to live without these.. But I can tell you from firsthand experience it's getting harder and harder, more annoying. This is actually simultaneously the reason I stuck with it so long, as a sort of protest against the direction our society is going.. but alas it didnt quite last.3. Job changed, I needed to access discord while working at a bar. I realized I was carrying BOTH phones around for almost all of 2023, using my dumb phone for calls and texts, and my smartphone with WiFi to run discord and a few other apps. It felt stupid and was annoying so I bit the bullet and switched my sim to the smartphone.4. I literally listen to less music. The music player apps were all garbage and it's no longer 2007 so it's not really fun to maintain a library of mp3s on a device. None of the KaiOS devices support streaming music.If someone comes out with a small "dumb" phone with maps, Spotify, a great camera, and support for signal, Whatsapp, maybe FB messenger, and a basic browser, with good predictive typing and an OS that doesn't lag, I would pay a premium for it.Edit: one of the most annoying side effects is when I'm in public trying to check maps or write a text and suddenly everyone around me asks "omG is that a flip phone???" and I am not a rude person so I maintain a slight conversation while they pry and ask to see it and show their other friends. Slows down the process of quickly using my phone quite a bit

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jareklupinski大约 1 年前

> So many hours of each day are lived through our portable, glowing screens, but the Internet isn’t even fun anymore.I'm in the process of "de-apping" my entertainment: I replaced TV/Streaming with a stack of DVD's and hard drives, and Music apps with cassette tapes.I'm thinking there's something to the "tactile experience" that vinyl lovers want from their collection, but I just don't have that much room...Things like Taxis/Maps/Work will be impossible to remove from my smartphone, but this way at least my free time is fully mine again

kkfx大约 1 年前

To recharge my EV on the go, unfortunately, I need a macrospy device, aka smartphone [1] but I normally do not use it as a phone, and I answer calls from it only on the go, my phone numbers for 99% of my contacts are on my home pbx and calls get redirected only when I'm on the go. Only very few in my family know my "mobile" phone number. For me it's essentially:- a GPS device for car navigation- a portable hotspot when needed- rarely a quick browser looking for basic information (like a phone number of a shop)- rarely a MUA if I need to see, not compose, my mails on the go.That's is. I've tried a KaiOS phone but it's just a bad hybrid, so I quit it.[1] macrospy as opposed to classic micro-spy (bugs) that was bought and deployed with significant costs, potentially aleatory reliability and potentially short lifespan by those who want to spy a target. These days PR are able to do the inverse: an expensive and very visible device, bought and kept up by the spied target to enjoy being profiled...

Dem_Boys大约 1 年前

Isn't this a damning condemnation for the tech world? Can anyone think of another product that was so popular and then people started abandoning it for their own mental health? This sounds like drugs!We created the most influential hardware device in the past 30 years (smartphone) and within 5 years it was used to weaponize human vulnerabilities (high jacking dopamine, porn, propaganda, etc...) and has had a huge negative impact on our young people so much so that social media* is now being compared to smoking. I think the takeaway is "Don't trust anything this industry makes because eventually they'll use it to extract profits and harm you in some sneaky way". Kinda like how most people rolled their eyes when tobacco companies push vapes as "safer".Most of my non tech friends are starting to look at the tech industry like the oil industry. Greedy, hurting society for profits, and delusional. This is sad because most people I work with are amazing and great people who build fantastic products.* I think social media would be a fraction of what it is today without the smartphone

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BadHumans大约 1 年前

My love for the dumbphone has nothing to do with disconnecting from distractions. I just want a small fucking phone again.

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test1235大约 1 年前

<a href="https://archive.ph/B9pgO" rel="nofollow">https://archive.ph/B9pgO</a>

r00fus大约 1 年前

Got my kids dumb phones for basic calls & texts only - their only really meaningful gripe is that sending texts using T9 is very very slow.I do want them to text friends and us for coordinating. Otherwise, they do feel ostracized for not having a smartphone or Apple Watch.

silent_cal大约 1 年前

This has worked pretty well for me on iPhone:1. Pacific Block app to block images and videos on the web2. AdBlock Pro3. Text Font Extension to make all fonts the same on Safari4. Delete all social media apps5. Block social media URLsSurprisingly getting rid of pictures, videos and fonts goes a long way towards making the web less addictive.

ChrisRR大约 1 年前

Do many dumb phones include whatsapp? I think for a lot of europeans that might be an issue

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cjk2大约 1 年前

I quite like a smartphone. But I am capable of limiting my use.Perhaps that's the problem no?

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Piraty大约 1 年前

(sorry, this is long. i took a few minutes to write this down.)I never owned a Google/Apple device and never used one for more than a few minutes in my life.I currently use my pinephone exclusively since my +15y old 2G dumb phone broke last year (i broke it while fiddling with it, duh. it would likely have lasted another 15y. it still had its first battery which lasted 5d with moderate phone usage). Before pinephone i used a +15y old 2G flip phone (it had its first battery and lasted +7d) and i loved it, which replaced my htc hd mini and htc hd2 around 2015 (fun times, sigh).I hate the modern concept of phone and observing the long-lasting effect of addiction on people's social and mental capabilities reminds me how important a mind free from distraction and addiction is. I know it takes a lot of self-discipline to own such a thing and not get sucked into all the dark patterns that lurk you into addiction and drain your brain (and pocket, ultimately, as this is what it's made for).Every now and then HN features some "i quit my smart{phone,watch} and it was hard" post and commenters romanticize about it, yet i doubt most of them grasp the real implications. Every now and then I whitness the effect of detox/cold turkey with "smart"{watch,phone} on people (usually children, which cant't know better. they are exposed to digital media way too much with way too little guidance/regulation by adults who are exposed too much and who don't seem to know better as well) and it's the classic symptoms.Unlike other additctive things, while addictive, modern phones seem useful/beneficial at the same time, which is used to justiy excessive use. It's a fallacy, i don't see it. Software run on these devices is not meant to be useful (in the generic sense) but to keep/make you a customer (and they use lot of psy trick).Do I miss out on things because i don't take part in the "modern" way of interacting with people/companies/state? due to my self-impossed "accessibility issue" (not using "apps", that is)? Sure, but I think * people forgetting my birthday because their facebook app didn't remind them (because I don't provide data to facebook) are dumb, * banks who don't provide any other second factor for auth than their Google/Apple apps are dumb, * (nothing to complain about state here yet, but will probably come later)To me this just reveals the brokenness of some aspects of social interaction and economy as the exclusion very well applies to elderly people as well (who even struggte with using a computer, so they miss out on even more that can't be done in a purely offline way).And i'm not even taking into account the macroscopic political aspects of driving social life, state affairs and economy more and more into the walled garden duopoly that is Google/Apple.Nowadays, Nokia branded HMD dumb phones are available (i have a 4G 2660 flip here, works ok'ish).