Anybody have one of these gizmos? Seems a bit interesting to me although it also lacks a number of non-social smartphone features I like/use:
- mapping/directions (apparently this is an optional feature, no idea about quality)
- audiobooks (although maybe podcasts app can be used?)
- signal/whatsapp
- email (viewing email as addictive in 2024 is a bit quaint; remember "crackberries"?)
Basic functionality like satnav, e-mail, word processing, are all essential functions. Their attempt to create "just a phone" fails bc smartphones, despite the name, have never been "just phones". The modern phone is a general purpose computer, a camera, a navigation system, a means of sending audio, text, and imagines, and a media playback device at minimum. Their attempt to create a "pure" phone by stripping out core functionality smacks of nostalgia more than a practical attempt to make phones less harmful and invasive. they would have done better implementing hardware and software that allowed the user to block advertising, take fine tuned control of notifications, and overall have more ownership and control of the machine, rather than trying to strip the machine down until it was a gimmick that would necessarily need to be supplemented by another, full featured phone in order for the individual to function in society.
Minimalism is a scam and someone who claims to give you power over yourself by giving you less agency and control probably won't deliver on their claim. We cannot go back. We cannot return to a simpler time that never existed. We must pursue mastery. Attain heaven through violence.
I basically disagree and your idea about putting more control in the hands of users is undermined by the entire adtech industry having the singular aim of undermining your self control.
wouldn't loading a minimalist OS onto the phone and just not installing those apps accomplish the same thing?
You are right that there is a nostalgia behind it, it's made by a Log Off pilled skater-artist dude
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tltzRNZrNC8
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Alternatively I could just get a linux phone where none of the social stuff actually works either, but for different reasons.
I think it’s a gimmick for the “productivity motivational speech playlist hustler.” I think it’d be wiser to just get one of those semi dumb phones with a physical keypad from china or CAT. They give you navigation and necessary social media but it’s also annoying to use so it’d be less tempting to use all the time
just get a flip-phone with SMS capabilities idk, this light thingey feels like a grift
Random Dumb Phone: 30 bucks
Random Dumb Phone (Apple Design Language): 300 bucks
Typing on a tiny e-ink touch screen sounds like a quick way to get me to throw this thing out a window. This just seems like self-punishment the phone. I'd much rather have a focused OS that isnt app-centric on a smartphone, but no navigation/maps or web browser is a deal breaker for me.
I don't know why every single company is so allergic to buttons anymore. They say it's for waterproofing or for cost, but the fact that I can get a feature phone for $15 which is waterproof and has a shitton of buttons disproves that.
Those light phones are cool but I don't think I could use one for similar reasons. If you're comfortable with Android then maybe one of the Unihertz Jelly phones might be good? They're still full-featured Android devices, but they're very small so you are in theory less inclined to doomscroll etc.
