content/blog/2024/01-17-my-dumb-dumbphone-experiment/apps.md

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----
-title: App List
----
-
-This is most of the apps I use on my smartphone.
-
-* 1Password: I'll have to rely on the browser version
-* A Better Route Planner: The new phone has some version of Google Maps,
-  and longer trips can be planned on the computer beforehand
-* *Amtrak*: this one could be tough. Having the Amtrak app is very helpful
-  on train voyages when problems happen.
-* Andronome: A metronome app. I bet I can make a web app on woozle.org to do this.
-* AntennaPod: Podcasts. I think there's a podcast app for KaiOS.
-* Authenticator: There's a TOTP app for KaiOS. I may need to update it.
-* Awful: I'll use the web version.
-* Book Reader: I wasn't reading books on the phone. What's funny is that
-  I read Moby Dick on my Nokia 5310. But the smartphone is too distracting to read.
-* Calculator: KaiOS has a calculator.
-* ChargePoint: EV charger app. I may have to either pay more and use my credit card,
-  or get their plastic card for in-network rates.
-* ConnectBot: ssh client. There's one on my laptop.
-* Contacts: There's one built into KaiOS.
-* Electrify America: same story as ChargePoint.
-* EVGo: same story.
-* Firefox: KaiOS has a browser. I bet it's awful. But I don't think I'll use it much.
-* Fitbit: Gonna have to give this one up.
-* Gmail: I'm already off gmail.
-* *Google Calendar*: This may be the thing that pulls me back.
-  Getting push reminders of upcoming events has been a big deal.
-* Google Home: I think I actually need to keep the phone just for this app.
-* Google Messages: It'll be SMS only for me.
-* Google News: good riddance.
-* Google Photos: web version.
-* Google Podcasts: they're killing this anyway.
-* Google Pay: credit cards have tap to pay.
-* Listen Audiobook Player: I'll have to see if I can find a KaiOS app for this.
-* Mattermost: No more work push notifications for me, so sad.
-* Open Camera: The camera is not as big a part of my life now as it once was.
-  I can get snapshots with the dumbphone. Not good ones, but good enough.
-  I grew up with crummy 110 cameras. It'll be okay.
-* Plex: maybe I can copy video files over, for the train trips.
-  Will I want to watch movies on a 2-inch screen, though?
-  Good thing I have a laptop!
-* PlexAmp: I will have to copy music files over to my phone, like I did 20 years ago.
-  It'll be okay.
-* Proton Mail: laptop ahoy!
-* *Signal*: Ironically, Signal is the one app that absolutely cannot run without a smartphone.
-  And it's where most of my friends are.
-* gStrings: (instrument tuner) I may have to buy a guitar tuner!
-* YouTube: comes with the phone, although, again, 2-inch screen.
-* YouTube Music: same story as PlexAmp. Music files on phone.
-* Work Apps: I'll just use my work laptop for work. It'll be fine,
-  the main inconvenience will be when I forget to do my timecard,
-  I'll have to grab the laptop.
-* Banking Apps: they all have web sites I can use,
-  although one of my credit cards leans fairly heavily into the app.
-
-
-
-
-

content/blog/2024/01-17-my-dumb-dumbphone-experiment/index.md

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-title: My Dumb Dumbphone Experiment
-date: 2024-01-17
-tags:
-  - pocket computing
----
-
-Last year,
-I went on a quest to reduce how much time I spend on my "phone"
-(which is actually a pocket computer: I don't place many calls with it).
-Comparing notes with my kid last week,
-it looks like I'm averaging about 1 hour per day,
-which is pretty good.
-Most of that appears to be using the web browser,
-probably to look stuff up,
-and the Something Awful Forums app.
-I do a little bit of text messaging every day,
-and a few other scattered "utility" apps here and there.
-
-The kid's phone stops getting security updates in August,
-meaning we're going to have to drop another $500-$800 again,
-or risk running malware on the gateway into her online life.
-
-I'm tired of this.
-
-I'm going to try using an $80 Nokia flip phone.
-We'll see how it works out,
-maybe jr will want one when it's time.
-
-
-# Apps I'm Giving Up
-
-By doing this,
-I am in essence giving up every app on my device at once.
-Many of them have web page equivalents,
-so this is not a big deal.
-A few, like banking apps,
-I suppose I can keep using the phone when I'm at home.
-Maybe I can set up SMS check deposits:
-that would mean I don't need the app at all.
-
-The ones that seem the most painful are:
-
-* Amtrak: Their web site isn't great, but maybe I just need to spend more time on it.
-* Google Calendar: Getting reminders has caused an improvement in me being to things on time.
-* Signal: This is where all my friends are.
-
-I made [a full list](apps.html),
-if you're interested.
-
-
-# Initial Thoughts
-
-It's much better than I remember featurephones being.
-So it's exceeding my expectations,
-which is nice.
-
-It is a lot bigger, though.
-Much bigger than I was expecting.
-Maybe in a few years there will be a smaller one I can get,
-with the same functionality.
-It's still significantly smaller than the smartphone,
-so it's still an improvement.
-
-The text messages work pretty well,
-I can do group messages and see images,
-I can even send images and emoji.
-
-The music player is fine for me.
-People on the Internet seem to hate it,
-but it's playing my music files,
-so whatever.
-Bluetooth music playback is great too.
-
-I found a podcast app that seems decent enough.
-That might be nice when Amy starts back at work,
-but right now I'm not listening to a lot of podcasts.
-
-The browser is miles better than the one on the 5310.
-It's good enough that I'm thinking about whether I should try writing an ePub reader
-that I can host on Woozle.
-I think maybe not:
-I like the e-ink book reader I've got a lot.
-
-The phone part is fine, no complaints.
-Speakerphone works well, maybe better than the smartphone.
-Bluetooth works on calls exactly like it did on the Pixel.
-
-I paired it to the car,
-but I can't imagine using it that way for anything other than calls
-and quick voice-dictated text messages.
-That's probably for the better:
-ever since Google got rid of standalone Android Auto on the phone,
-I've been unlocking it, navigating menus, and whatnot,
-in the seconds I'm at red lights.
-I was probably going to give up on that anyway.
-
-The camera is roughly equivalent to the point-and-shoot camera we have.
-My requirement for keepsake photos is that they be at least as good as a 110 camera from 1975.
-This is much better than that.
-It also geo-tags photos, which is a nice thing to have.
-
-It comes with a low-resource version of Google Maps!
-I haven't used it for directions yet,
-but it seems like it'll be good enough.
-This is a pretty big deal,
-and I'm glad to have it.
-
-I can also connect to Google Mail,
-Google Calendar,
-and Google Contacts.
-None of them seem to work particularly well:
-I keep getting reminders for things that happened years ago.
-Maybe cleaning out old events will help:
-having calendar reminders would be pretty nice.
-
-The games are insipid.
-No change there from the 5310.
-It also has news and weather apps that will tell me some headlines and the weather,
-but I have to go open them up to see it.
-There's little chance I'll get wrapped up in any of these.
-
-Calculator is basic and fine.
-
-Honestly, I'm excited about the browser being so capable.
-I tried sideloading an app in debug mode and ran into trouble,
-but I'm realizing that I'm thinking about the phone wrong here.
-It is a telephone with an okay camera.
-I should only turn to it when I have no better options:
-it's not there to try and replace a real computer.