Comment by 🚀 baloof
blocking phones?!
that sounds crazy. how are they enforcing that law?
extra money for hotspot also sounds like a real unecessary thing.
thanks for the links!
Jul 12 · 5 months ago
6 Later Comments ↓
I would like to use a dumbphone, but I need a "hotspot" feature and at least LTE+. Otherwise I only use it for SMS and calling. So I think my options are limited, but if anybody knows such a tool, I would be thankful for hints.
I’ve been meaning to do a proper write up for a while but will have to make do with a summary of my thoughts. I am a big advocate of digital minimalism and share a desire to use tech less and use it intentionally when doing so.
I’ve used a dumb phone for about 6 years
- the nokia banana phone
was ok, build was poor but it mostly worked, audio was 6/10, software was not worth mentioning.
- punkt mp02
build was lovely, audio 7/10 but software was pants. signal app (pigeon) would break every few months and be PITA to fix.
- next?
I got excited by the lightphone, but the more I thought about it, the more it was a risky crippled android phone and you’d be better off just using a second hand phone and not having apps you don’t want.
- dumb’d iphone mini
About three months ago, I got one second hand from a family member, it has the following apps
- signal
- maps app
- self hosted music app
- home alarm app
no email, no browser (browser locked with screen time settings).
When I need to call the bank or some business, the sound quality is great, the four apps I use work perfectly and I charge the device every two days. I also didn’t cause a new device to be produced. This could easily apply to a degoogled android device, the mini was available and I like the small form factor.
I think people (myself included) in the alt tech scene want to have that cool device as its a conversation piece, a badge of honour. But I don’t care anymore what people think, I have an iphone but I don’t use it like 99% of people.
I'd dump my 'smart' phone in a second if there was a reasonable dumb option.
I used to have a flip phone. It never crashed, and the battery lasted a week. Towards the end I bought 10 of them on EBay for $10, and as they broke, I'd just grab the next one out of the box. The rest of my family had 3 smart phones, and in total paid less for service than my one flip phone, and I eventually gave up and got a smart phone too. Hate every minute of it.
On a modern phone network, ideally I'd have a dumb phone with a mobile WiFi hotspot feature, and use other devices chosen by me to connect to the Internet.
hey!
i just found https://github.com/jgauchia/IceNav-v3
I truly think that this project is possible, I'll try to work on the software (for the matrix client) and then get it to a suitable microcontroller
@fab i had for this reason used kaios, but i would not recommend it.
Not having whatsapp or a good map is kind of a bummer.
if i were to buy another dumbphone it'd be the cat s22, but i rather make my own.
i found another treasure:
https://forum.lvgl.io/t/open-source-example-of-lvgl-on-square-screen/17753/11
Original Post
Dumphone - w/MCU hello. I wanted to ask if anyone was interested in building their own dumbphone...? And thought maybe this is a good place to ask, and maybe we could a community around that. I myself would focus only on these things: - Calling - Texting - Music And probably the hardest: - Navigation I don't think linux or anything is needed for that, and would only make it more complicated, just a low end MCU. Maybe that could make it better in other qualities like battery and...