featurephone round-up

content/blog/2024/02-05-featurephone/01-29-featurephone-comparison/index.md

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+---
+title: Featurephone Comparison
+date: 2024-01-29
+draft: true
+tags:
+  - featurephone
+---
+
+Trip Report!
+
+It's been just over a week with the 2780. It's... fine, actually. I thought I was going to sorely miss a couple of things, but I just don't. It only took a couple days to adjust to not having a computer nearby all the time. All the articles I read about "I tried going without a smartphone for a month: here's what happened" are like, breathlessly claiming something or the other, but for me, it's just been meh. It's fine, whatever.
+
+Ms Cruft got a Light Phone 2 a few days ago and she's having a bit of an adjustment. Last night she put it on silent, and then woke up complaining that it really worried her that Cruft Jr might have called in the middle of the night, and she missed the call. We eventually decided she could just turn the phone down and ignore text messages.
+
+I am getting a lot of text messages at night. I hadn't realized how often that happened. Jr sends things after we're asleep, but the biggest offender is my 84 year old father, who likes to stay up until 2am working on projects and send me updates about everything before he turns in. Allowing myself to ignore the messages seems to work okay, but I do wish it had auto quiet hours with the "call twice and you ring through" thing that Android has.
+
+Anyway. The Light Phone 2 has maps that are maybe a touch nicer than Google Maps on the 2780, but also chew through CPU. Ms Cruft had to hard reset her phone because it stopped being responsive to inputs, it was spending all its power rendering map frames on the e-ink display. The text input is nicer on the Light Phone because it supports diacriticals (like ñ and ç and ø), handy if you use Latin-based languages other than English.  It also has a more polished Podcast and Music player than the Nokia. It does not have a camera. It does play to wired speakers. It does not appear to sync SMS to the car.
+
+Since we embarked on this silly thing for Jr, I've been thinking about which one would work better for a college student, and I think it's the 2780. Here's my breakdown of thinking:
+
+[b]You'll prefer the Nokia 2780 if[/b]
+[list]
+[*] You want SMS in your car
+[*] You want a camera
+[/list]
+
+[b]The Light Phone 2 is the way to go if[/b]
+[list]
+[*] Size is a primaryn concern
+[*] You aren't willing to put up with ads
+[*] You do a lot of texting
+[/list]

content/blog/2024/02-05-featurephone/_index.md

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+---
+title: The Featurephone Experiment
+date: 2024-02-05
+tags:
+  - featurephone
+---
+
+Jr and I have spent the last year paring down our smartphone usage.
+This last December,
+we found we were using the phones about 30 minutes a day.
+When I realized last month that Jr's phone would stop getting security patches
+in August of this year,
+I was not looking forward to dropping another $500-$800 on a phone
+that we're trying our best to not use.
+
+So I moved to a featurephone.
+
+I have a few basic needs:
+
+* Need to be able to play one album to wired speakers: I run sound for the dance school
+* Group texting: surprisingly, this is still an uncommon feature in 2024
+* Rudimentary maps app I can use for walking
+* Calendar with alarms that syncs to some online service
+* Allows tethering my laptop
+* Battery lasts a full day
+
+
+## Nokia 2780
+
+Initially,
+I tried the Nokia 2780.
+This is a flip phone, running KaiOS,
+a browser-based mobile operating system.
+
+Checklist:
+
+* [ ] Play one album to wired speakers
+* [x] Group texting
+* [x] Maps for walking
+* [x] Calendar with alarms
+* [x] Allows tethering my laptop
+* [x] Battery lasts a full day
+
+
+Other neat features:
+
+* $70
+* Camera with flash and geotagged photos (remembers where you were when you took it)
+* Displays photos sent over SMS
+* Email client, synced to Google Mail
+* Possible to write JavaScript apps for things like playing ebooks
+* Battery lasts a full day
+* Alarm clock
+
+
+Bummers:
+
+* USB C charging port is still directional and won't charge in one orientation of the cable
+* Dings for dumb reasons like "battery is full", with no clear way to turn that off
+* Music player won't play to wired speakers (but wired headphones are okay: I don't understand how they did this)
+* JavaScript apps cannot use "native" controls: you have to scroll a cursor around with the d-pad
+* Larger than flip phones used to be (but still smaller than a smartphone)
+* Predictive text input makes you send "G will be there" instead of "I will be there", unless you're vigilant
+* Some built-in apps, and all store-installed apps, have ads
+* Google is all over the shortcuts, even when it doesn't make sense
+* OS will probably never be updated
+
+
+Jr wound up taking this device,
+and seems to be fairly happy with it.
+For me,
+it was pretty good,
+but I felt like it could be better.
+
+
+## Light Phone 2
+
+This is actually running Android
+with a custom front-end for displaying on a small e-ink screen.
+You can hack it to run any Android app,
+apparently.
+I'm going to try hard not to do this.
+
+
+Checklist:
+
+* [x] Play one album to wired speakers
+* [x] Group texting
+* [x] Maps for walking
+* [x] Calendar with alarms
+* [x] Allows tethering my laptop
+* [x] Battery lasts a full day
+
+
+Other neat features:
+
+* Will auto-forward MMS attachments to your email
+* Small: fits in my jeans watch pocket
+* E-ink display looks cool
+* Lots of the setup you do is actually on a web page you access with your computer
+* Alarm clock
+* Podcasts built into the core OS
+* Gets regular updates: seems like about 2 updates per month!
+
+
+Bummers:
+
+* $300
+* USB Micro charging adapter
+* Music is organized as a flat list of every song you added
+* Percent button on calculator makes no sense to me
+* Sends notification tone when it pairs to Bluetooth or regains signal
+* Does not sync messages over bluetooth to the car
+* Does not sync contacts over bluetooth to the car
+* You have to turn it on to see if you have any notifications
+* No camera
+* No ability to display images
+
+
+## Where Things Stand
+
+Jr has the Nokia 2780 and so far likes it.
+I suspected this would happen: it feels more "fun" somehow,
+and the camera is a big deal.
+
+I'm enjoying the Light Phone 2.
+It checks all my boxes, and... that's about all there is.
+$300 feels like a lot,
+but if I can keep it for 2 years,
+I'll be spending the same amount per year as I did on smartphones.
+If I can keep it for 5 years,
+it will be much cheaper.
+
+---
+
+More interesting to me is that
+*I still need a smartphone*.
+I'm leaving it powered off,
+but I need to turn it on for:
+
+* Depositing checks
+* Obtaining SMS codes (I still haven't ported my phone number over)
+* Video calls with my family
+* Authention app for work (!)
+
+I *think* I can do business travel without the smartphone.
+I've got the work authentication app installed on my personal Chromebook,
+and while I was at it,
+I set up a Plex app,
+so I have some stuff to watch on my next train trip.
+
+Will this stick?
+I guess only time will tell!