169 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
169 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: The Featurephone Experiment
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date: 2024-02-05
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tags:
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- featurephone
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---
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Jr and I have spent the last year paring down our smartphone usage.
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This last December,
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we found we were using the phones about 30 minutes a day.
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When I realized last month that Jr's phone would stop getting security patches
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in August of this year,
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I was not looking forward to dropping another $500-$800 on a phone
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that we're trying our best to not use.
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So I moved to a featurephone.
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I have a few basic needs:
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* Need to be able to play one album to wired speakers: I run sound for the dance school
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* Group texting: surprisingly, this is still an uncommon feature in 2024
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* Rudimentary maps app I can use for walking
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* Calendar with alarms that syncs to some online service
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* Allows tethering my laptop
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* Battery lasts a full day
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## Nokia 2780
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Initially,
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I tried the Nokia 2780.
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This is a flip phone, running KaiOS,
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a browser-based mobile operating system.
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Checklist:
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* [ ] Play one album to wired speakers
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* [x] Group texting
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* [x] Maps for walking
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* [x] Calendar with alarms
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* [x] Allows tethering my laptop
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* [x] Battery lasts a full day
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Other neat features:
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* $70
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* Camera with flash and geotagged photos (remembers where you were when you took it)
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* Displays photos sent over SMS
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* Email client, synced to Google Mail
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* Possible to write JavaScript apps for things like playing ebooks
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* Alarm clock
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Bummers:
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* USB C charging port is still directional and won't charge in one orientation of the cable
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* Dings for dumb reasons like "battery is full", with no clear way to turn that off
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* Music player won't play to wired speakers (but wired headphones are okay: I don't understand how they did this)
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* JavaScript apps cannot use "native" controls: you have to scroll a cursor around with the d-pad
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* Larger than flip phones used to be (but still smaller than a smartphone)
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* Predictive text input makes you send "G will be there" instead of "I will be there", unless you're vigilant
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* Some built-in apps, and all store-installed apps, have ads
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* Google is all over the shortcuts, even when it doesn't make sense
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* OS will probably never be updated
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Jr wound up taking this device,
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and seems to be fairly happy with it.
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For me,
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it was pretty good,
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but I felt like it could be better.
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## Light Phone 2
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This is actually running Android
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with a custom front-end for displaying on a small e-ink screen.
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You can hack it to run any Android app,
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apparently.
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I'm going to try hard not to do this.
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Checklist:
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* [x] Play one album to wired speakers
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* [x] Group texting
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* [x] Maps for walking
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* [x] Calendar with alarms
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* [x] Allows tethering my laptop
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* [x] Battery lasts a full day
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Other neat features:
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* Will auto-forward MMS attachments to your email
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* Small: fits in my jeans watch pocket
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* E-ink display looks cool
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* Lots of the setup you do is actually on a web page you access with your computer
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* Alarm clock
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* Podcasts built into the core OS
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* Allows typing some Latin diacriticals like ñ and ç
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* Gets regular updates: seems like about 2 updates per month!
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Bummers:
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* $300
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* USB Micro charging adapter
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* Music is organized as a flat list of every song you added
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* Percent button on calculator makes no sense to me
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* Sends notification tone when it pairs to Bluetooth or regains signal
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* Does not sync messages over bluetooth to the car
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* Does not sync contacts over bluetooth to the car
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* You have to turn it on to see if you have any notifications
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* No camera
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* No ability to display images
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## Where Things Stand
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Jr has the Nokia 2780 and so far likes it.
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I suspected this would happen: it feels more "fun" somehow,
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and the camera is a big deal.
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I'm enjoying the Light Phone 2.
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It checks all my boxes, and... that's about all there is.
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$300 feels like a lot,
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but if I can keep it for 2 years,
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I'll be spending the same amount per year as I did on smartphones.
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If I can keep it for 5 years,
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it will be much cheaper.
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I've also started tossing an old digital point-and-shoot camera in my bag
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if I think I might want to take photos.
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It turns out I don't take many photos these days,
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now that Jr is off at college.
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---
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More interesting to me is that
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*I still need a smartphone*.
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Or at least,
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I still need something that can run Android apps.
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Specifically, for:
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* Depositing checks
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* Authention app for work (!)
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That's actually all:
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everything else I need, I can run in a web browser.
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But they won't let me deposit checks with a browser.
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I can run Android apps on a Chromebook,
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so that's what I'm doing.
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I'm switching over to my kid's Chromebook,
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which has a better camera than the 8-year-old one I've been using:
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this will help with video calls.
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It's also smaller, lighter, and has a newer battery,
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so it's a bit of an upgrade.
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It can still run Linux, too.
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While I was messing around,
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I set up the Plex app,
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so I have some stuff to watch on my next train trip.
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Will this stick?
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I guess only time will tell!
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