Yeah it’s completely frivolous and won’t do what it’s claiming to. The Click’s Communicator seems like it’s designed to fulfill a niche (whether that niche actually exists is up in the air, but it...
Yeah it’s completely frivolous and won’t do what it’s claiming to. The Click’s Communicator seems like it’s designed to fulfill a niche (whether that niche actually exists is up in the air, but it can describe who its buyer is supposed to be at least). This just seems like it’s trying to manifest living in the aughts as if it was the flip-phones that created that environment, but hasn’t thought through whether aspects of flip-phone design were ever good or just the technical limitations of the price and technology and lack of imagination that came with everything being gatekept by telecom carriers.
Like why T9 texting? It was bad even back then and anyone who texted frequently got a Sidekick or a BlackBerry or something with an actual keyboard. Don’t give me this “needed friction” crap, nobody wants friction when they’re trying send their spouse a grocery list. It sucked even back when people primarily used their phones as phones, it’s going to suck even more now that people primarily used their phones to text. Your personal consumer choice isn’t going to change the cultural context around how we’ve all opted to communicate now.
I texted frequently and never got a sidekick or blackberry. T9 worked really well, and many of us could do it very quickly without looking. We wouldn't type as much on it as we do with a full...
Like why T9 texting? It was bad even back then and anyone who texted frequently got a Sidekick or a BlackBerry or something with an actual keyboard.
I texted frequently and never got a sidekick or blackberry. T9 worked really well, and many of us could do it very quickly without looking. We wouldn't type as much on it as we do with a full QWERTY, but for texting I honestly preferred a T9 with physical keys over my touchscreen keyboard. The poor display was the bigger hinderance.
The only people I knew with a blackberry or sidekick were responding to work emails from their phone, like realtors.
T9 was fantastic. I sook out T9 soft keyboards for years after moving to Windows Phone and Android, but I never found anything that hit the spot. I would pay money for an iOS implementation.
T9 was fantastic. I sook out T9 soft keyboards for years after moving to Windows Phone and Android, but I never found anything that hit the spot. I would pay money for an iOS implementation.
At the risk of presenting an idea with very annoying implications: with the current capabilities of local Parakeet/Whisper-like models on phones, a flip phone that allowed texting by voice...
Like why T9 texting?
At the risk of presenting an idea with very annoying implications: with the current capabilities of local Parakeet/Whisper-like models on phones, a flip phone that allowed texting by voice recognition would be quite feasible and convenient.
Having it activated by flip would be very amusing and probably drive bystanders mad.
I'm afraid you do know what you're saying, but you aren't confusing T9 with multi-tap/ABC mode, are you? T9 was great. Trust me, plenty of people were sending thousands of messages a month with no...
I'm afraid you do know what you're saying, but you aren't confusing T9 with multi-tap/ABC mode, are you? T9 was great. Trust me, plenty of people were sending thousands of messages a month with no issues while using T9. I think I knew one person with a sidekick or equivalent and we all thought it was weird.
I think there is a market for capable and reliable phones that specifically will not do social media. Especially parents on the fence about getting their kids their first phone. I imagine they...
I think there is a market for capable and reliable phones that specifically will not do social media. Especially parents on the fence about getting their kids their first phone. I imagine they might pay a premium for that if it's from a brand they can trust.
Whether or not this phone is a good fit for that is of course debatable.
I’ve yet to see a minimalist dumbphone that seems like it’d be preferable to just having a cellular Apple Watch. And they all cost as much or more than an entry-level Apple Watch too! Like it...
I’ve yet to see a minimalist dumbphone that seems like it’d be preferable to just having a cellular Apple Watch. And they all cost as much or more than an entry-level Apple Watch too!
Like it makes calls, it receives calls, it can do turn-by-turn directions, call an uber, do mobile payments, play music or podcasts or audiobooks for you. It basically does all the phone stuff you might want to do while touching grass as long as it doesn’t involve a camera or extended stretches of reading or text input. It can technically text, email, or get into a chat app but the experience of using it to do that is so painful you’ll probably just wait unless you really have to, which is nice since you do have the option in a pinch. All that and, as an industrial design object, it’s just way smaller, more impressive, and better looking than things like this, or the Light Phone, or any of these other “minimalist phone” thingies.
There are certainly cheaper dumb phones, but this one seems to be using SailfishOS which has some android compatibility. I'd be interested if you know of any others that are similar.
There are certainly cheaper dumb phones, but this one seems to be using SailfishOS which has some android compatibility. I'd be interested if you know of any others that are similar.
Literally popped into Tildes just now, to post about this phone. Yeah, it's expensive, maybe too expensive. But it's also original. It's not a smartphone, it's not a dumbphone. It's neither iOS...
Literally popped into Tildes just now, to post about this phone.
Yeah, it's expensive, maybe too expensive. But it's also original. It's not a smartphone, it's not a dumbphone. It's neither iOS nor Android; it's a Linux phone, but not a weird techie niche thing. It has a removable battery (raise your hand if you're old enough to remember those).
It's not that original. SailfishOS has been around for a while now, but it has had very limited hardware support. This is just one more piece of dedicated hardware for it. They're basically just...
It's not that original. SailfishOS has been around for a while now, but it has had very limited hardware support. This is just one more piece of dedicated hardware for it. They're basically just using the Commodore brand to sell a device that does everything halfway.
Also, SailfishOS hasn't been available in the US in the past. I have no clue how well this will work over here because of that.
Dead in the water at that price. I'm sure they'd love to have it be cheaper, but in no world is this anything but a boutique item. My wife struggles with being addicted to her phone (me as well,...
Dead in the water at that price.
I'm sure they'd love to have it be cheaper, but in no world is this anything but a boutique item.
My wife struggles with being addicted to her phone (me as well, but less so, given I don't use social media), but she'd rather spend the $137 on the Moto G 2024 we just bought her and try to mitigate her phone overconsumption herself. At least she can use Kindle, Libby, play a variety of games, use maps, etc on her phone. Yeah it's still using her phone, but it's not falling into a rabbit hole and it's doing so much more for her at 1/4 of the price.
You can get a new smartphone with decent specs for less than this, not just used ones. I have the Moto G 2026, I think it was $300? The problem I see here is that it offers just enough friction to...
You can get a new smartphone with decent specs for less than this, not just used ones. I have the Moto G 2026, I think it was $300?
The problem I see here is that it offers just enough friction to break casual users out of scrolling loops, but it's odd enough to not attract casual users. Since it can run Android apps, you can install a normal browser via an apk file. I just don't see this hitting its mark, and definitely not for the price it goes for.
Edit: the FAQ states there is a system-level block that prevents installing a browser at the system level. I don't know how they'll enforce that, but I'll take their word on it for now.
Commodore was acquired last year by a group led by Christian Simpson, best known as Peri Fractic of the YouTube channel Retro Recipes (but he's done more of course). In addition to working with...
Commodore was acquired last year by a group led by Christian Simpson, best known as Peri Fractic of the YouTube channel Retro Recipes (but he's done more of course). In addition to working with several tech and financial experts, he has built an advisory team of something like a dozen people who worked at Commodore back in the 80s and 90s, some of who in very key roles. They also include the son of Commodore's founder Jack Tramiel. In that sense, this seems to me like the first time in three decades that the Commodore brand is again legitimately "Commodore", and not just a logo that someone is using to sell stuff to people.
The direction that the new Commodore seems to be attempting is something like "the future that we were promised", an approach that many of us expected tech to take in the late 80s or early 90s, before things took a different turn. One where devices, software and services function to make our lives better and easier, not to just sell us things or to sell us to things. They also seem to lean fairly heavily on the concept of digital minimalism which Simpson has made multiple videos about in recent years.
Personally, I think the Callback phone is a fun idea, but I wonder if there really is a market for it. The challenge, as far as I see it, is that while people often have several computers in use at the same time, leaving room for "hobby PCs," fewer people use multiple phones simultaneously. And these days, in my experience at least, a phone pretty much has to support banking apps, government services, travel applications and other similar systems, or it becomes difficult to function in society. Since this likely doesn't support any of those, I at least would find it very hard to use this phone in my day-to-day life.
Also, I'm not entirely sure I understand the "no social media" argument. I have an iPhone and I have no social media apps in it. Surely it's not that hard. Phones also have fairly robust notification and permissions settings, so attaining at least some level of "digital minimalism" isn't really that challenging, either.
That said, I hope they find customers and the brand thrives! I do like what they are doing, even if I haven't yet seen a product from them that I would buy.
The sold to Perifractic (Christian Simpson) and a group of investors about a year or so ago. He's the CEO now, and I believe it's his first experience at that level. They're definitely trying a...
The sold to Perifractic (Christian Simpson) and a group of investors about a year or so ago. He's the CEO now, and I believe it's his first experience at that level. They're definitely trying a lot of new moves to revitilize the brand. Perofractic also really does care about the retro computing community, so there is that.
It lets you sideload apps. Except browsers and social media. It's based on Sailfish OS which has its own compatibility layer for Android apps, seems to be based around Linux containers with a lot...
It lets you sideload apps. Except browsers and social media. It's based on Sailfish OS which has its own compatibility layer for Android apps, seems to be based around Linux containers with a lot of glue.
Jolla's November 2022 whitepaper claimed a 99.4% pass rate on the Android Compatibility Test Suite, at about 97% of the performance of an Android Open Source Project environment.
So what are they using to detect browsers and social media? If you trust your users to sideload it's oddly infantilizing to add a "patent pending" method of detecting two arbitrary app categories
So what are they using to detect browsers and social media? If you trust your users to sideload it's oddly infantilizing to add a "patent pending" method of detecting two arbitrary app categories
Also, since it's Linux-based, what's stopping me from installing the right toolchains required to compile and install something like surf or dillo? I'm sure Tildes will run fine on those, possibly...
Also, since it's Linux-based, what's stopping me from installing the right toolchains required to compile and install something like surf or dillo? I'm sure Tildes will run fine on those, possibly sites like HN, Lobste.rs, and maybe old Reddit too.
I'd suggest compiling Firefox but I don't want to know how long that would take on that hardware, and cross-compiling for a new platform can be a bit messy.
The page says that it supports "even iMessage". I wonder how?? I use OpenBubbles on my Fairphone, but that required access to a physical Mac to set up initially (and in order to be able to send...
The page says that it supports "even iMessage". I wonder how?? I use OpenBubbles on my Fairphone, but that required access to a physical Mac to set up initially (and in order to be able to send numbers to/from my phone number on iMessage, I needed to do a crazy SIM swap dance with my old, physical iPhone, which has to stay powered on, online, and on airplane mode).
£370 is an egregious price for what it is. Basically paying for a logo. Stinks.
Yeah it’s completely frivolous and won’t do what it’s claiming to. The Click’s Communicator seems like it’s designed to fulfill a niche (whether that niche actually exists is up in the air, but it can describe who its buyer is supposed to be at least). This just seems like it’s trying to manifest living in the aughts as if it was the flip-phones that created that environment, but hasn’t thought through whether aspects of flip-phone design were ever good or just the technical limitations of the price and technology and lack of imagination that came with everything being gatekept by telecom carriers.
Like why T9 texting? It was bad even back then and anyone who texted frequently got a Sidekick or a BlackBerry or something with an actual keyboard. Don’t give me this “needed friction” crap, nobody wants friction when they’re trying send their spouse a grocery list. It sucked even back when people primarily used their phones as phones, it’s going to suck even more now that people primarily used their phones to text. Your personal consumer choice isn’t going to change the cultural context around how we’ve all opted to communicate now.
Also, we had way cooler looking phones back in the day than this. Motorola had one that flipped open like a switchblade. Use your imagination designers! It’s what you’re paid for!
I texted frequently and never got a sidekick or blackberry. T9 worked really well, and many of us could do it very quickly without looking. We wouldn't type as much on it as we do with a full QWERTY, but for texting I honestly preferred a T9 with physical keys over my touchscreen keyboard. The poor display was the bigger hinderance.
The only people I knew with a blackberry or sidekick were responding to work emails from their phone, like realtors.
T9 was fantastic. I sook out T9 soft keyboards for years after moving to Windows Phone and Android, but I never found anything that hit the spot. I would pay money for an iOS implementation.
At the risk of presenting an idea with very annoying implications: with the current capabilities of local Parakeet/Whisper-like models on phones, a flip phone that allowed texting by voice recognition would be quite feasible and convenient.
Having it activated by flip would be very amusing and probably drive bystanders mad.
I'm afraid you do know what you're saying, but you aren't confusing T9 with multi-tap/ABC mode, are you? T9 was great. Trust me, plenty of people were sending thousands of messages a month with no issues while using T9. I think I knew one person with a sidekick or equivalent and we all thought it was weird.
I think there is a market for capable and reliable phones that specifically will not do social media. Especially parents on the fence about getting their kids their first phone. I imagine they might pay a premium for that if it's from a brand they can trust.
Whether or not this phone is a good fit for that is of course debatable.
I’ve yet to see a minimalist dumbphone that seems like it’d be preferable to just having a cellular Apple Watch. And they all cost as much or more than an entry-level Apple Watch too!
Like it makes calls, it receives calls, it can do turn-by-turn directions, call an uber, do mobile payments, play music or podcasts or audiobooks for you. It basically does all the phone stuff you might want to do while touching grass as long as it doesn’t involve a camera or extended stretches of reading or text input. It can technically text, email, or get into a chat app but the experience of using it to do that is so painful you’ll probably just wait unless you really have to, which is nice since you do have the option in a pinch. All that and, as an industrial design object, it’s just way smaller, more impressive, and better looking than things like this, or the Light Phone, or any of these other “minimalist phone” thingies.
I don’t disagree, but you can get phones that achieve the same outcome for significantly less than this!
There are certainly cheaper dumb phones, but this one seems to be using SailfishOS which has some android compatibility. I'd be interested if you know of any others that are similar.
Literally popped into Tildes just now, to post about this phone.
Yeah, it's expensive, maybe too expensive. But it's also original. It's not a smartphone, it's not a dumbphone. It's neither iOS nor Android; it's a Linux phone, but not a weird techie niche thing. It has a removable battery (raise your hand if you're old enough to remember those).
Color me intrigued.
It's not that original. SailfishOS has been around for a while now, but it has had very limited hardware support. This is just one more piece of dedicated hardware for it. They're basically just using the Commodore brand to sell a device that does everything halfway.
Also, SailfishOS hasn't been available in the US in the past. I have no clue how well this will work over here because of that.
Well, it does claim "Worldwide network compatibility".
Dead in the water at that price.
I'm sure they'd love to have it be cheaper, but in no world is this anything but a boutique item.
My wife struggles with being addicted to her phone (me as well, but less so, given I don't use social media), but she'd rather spend the $137 on the Moto G 2024 we just bought her and try to mitigate her phone overconsumption herself. At least she can use Kindle, Libby, play a variety of games, use maps, etc on her phone. Yeah it's still using her phone, but it's not falling into a rabbit hole and it's doing so much more for her at 1/4 of the price.
You can get a new smartphone with decent specs for less than this, not just used ones. I have the Moto G 2026, I think it was $300?
The problem I see here is that it offers just enough friction to break casual users out of scrolling loops, but it's odd enough to not attract casual users.
Since it can run Android apps, you can install a normal browser via an apk file.I just don't see this hitting its mark, and definitely not for the price it goes for.Edit: the FAQ states there is a system-level block that prevents installing a browser at the system level. I don't know how they'll enforce that, but I'll take their word on it for now.
Kind of seems like whoever owns the Commodore name has no idea what to do with it.
Commodore was acquired last year by a group led by Christian Simpson, best known as Peri Fractic of the YouTube channel Retro Recipes (but he's done more of course). In addition to working with several tech and financial experts, he has built an advisory team of something like a dozen people who worked at Commodore back in the 80s and 90s, some of who in very key roles. They also include the son of Commodore's founder Jack Tramiel. In that sense, this seems to me like the first time in three decades that the Commodore brand is again legitimately "Commodore", and not just a logo that someone is using to sell stuff to people.
The direction that the new Commodore seems to be attempting is something like "the future that we were promised", an approach that many of us expected tech to take in the late 80s or early 90s, before things took a different turn. One where devices, software and services function to make our lives better and easier, not to just sell us things or to sell us to things. They also seem to lean fairly heavily on the concept of digital minimalism which Simpson has made multiple videos about in recent years.
Personally, I think the Callback phone is a fun idea, but I wonder if there really is a market for it. The challenge, as far as I see it, is that while people often have several computers in use at the same time, leaving room for "hobby PCs," fewer people use multiple phones simultaneously. And these days, in my experience at least, a phone pretty much has to support banking apps, government services, travel applications and other similar systems, or it becomes difficult to function in society. Since this likely doesn't support any of those, I at least would find it very hard to use this phone in my day-to-day life.
Also, I'm not entirely sure I understand the "no social media" argument. I have an iPhone and I have no social media apps in it. Surely it's not that hard. Phones also have fairly robust notification and permissions settings, so attaining at least some level of "digital minimalism" isn't really that challenging, either.
That said, I hope they find customers and the brand thrives! I do like what they are doing, even if I haven't yet seen a product from them that I would buy.
The sold to Perifractic (Christian Simpson) and a group of investors about a year or so ago. He's the CEO now, and I believe it's his first experience at that level. They're definitely trying a lot of new moves to revitilize the brand. Perofractic also really does care about the retro computing community, so there is that.
To be fair it was bought by a YouTuber.
??????
It lets you sideload apps. Except browsers and social media. It's based on Sailfish OS which has its own compatibility layer for Android apps, seems to be based around Linux containers with a lot of glue.
So what are they using to detect browsers and social media? If you trust your users to sideload it's oddly infantilizing to add a "patent pending" method of detecting two arbitrary app categories
Also, since it's Linux-based, what's stopping me from installing the right toolchains required to compile and install something like surf or dillo? I'm sure Tildes will run fine on those, possibly sites like HN, Lobste.rs, and maybe old Reddit too.
I'd suggest compiling Firefox but I don't want to know how long that would take on that hardware, and cross-compiling for a new platform can be a bit messy.
The page says that it supports "even iMessage". I wonder how?? I use OpenBubbles on my Fairphone, but that required access to a physical Mac to set up initially (and in order to be able to send numbers to/from my phone number on iMessage, I needed to do a crazy SIM swap dance with my old, physical iPhone, which has to stay powered on, online, and on airplane mode).
At the very bottom of the page, they mention it's done through OpenBubbles actually haha.