8 ms·

Checkout our phone www.blloc.com . I think its exactly what we thought of, dumbing down the smartphone to the bare essentials without missing out too much. we

Checkout our phone www.blloc.com . I think its exactly what we thought of, dumbing down the smartphone to the bare essentials without missing out too much. we don't have it perfectly communicated (working on it), but we're trying to find the middle between a "smartphone" and full blown detox. We got inspired from some of our friends who went "dark" and didn't work out; we were as product designers sick of snapchat, gaming and the addicting viscous cycle however we still wanted to be in touch with some news, use uber and be sometimes reachable on whatsapp, messenger or telegram. We re-designed notifications to make it less distracting easy to turn off per app and most important functionalities reachable. Mainly theres no lock, you can lock some apps, but its ready to use (I was about to throw my iphone everytime it showed me 4 popups before i can use it). check it out let me know if it would make sense if we create the possibility for people (or you) to extend it and build their own integrations / functionalities.

TinyPants 8y ago
I really like what y'all are working on. I echo some other comments about the legibility of your body copy, I'd increase the contrast. Will your phone be available for purchase/use in the US?
- adhambadr 8y ago
  thanks a lot! yeah we have to fix that. US is pretty complicated with different bands & carrier restrictions we're focusing on EU this year.
rhizome 8y ago
Looks very cool, but your 10px font-size on the site is punishing.
david-cako 8y ago
I am in love with this. The home screen design is so obvious it hurts -- flip phone UX for a smartphone. "Open and dial". What's the story with the display? Do you have an actual proof of concept where you have a black and white mode that largely decreases battery life? Is there anything special about it, or does it just play into how OLED displays are locally lit?
- adhambadr 8y ago
  yes we initially used OLED and our phones after testing managed to use on average around 65% of the energy with our ui. We're dropping it unfortunately as its a supply-chain nightmare.. (for now). Black and white mainly increases your focus sharply, but u can always disable it to colours.
  - Nition 8y ago
    Your website plays up the greyscale reducing battery consumption. If that's not currently the case you really should to remove that info.
cimmanom 8y ago
This is an amazing idea! Are the actual apps it runs just Android apps with their default interfaces, or is each one something you've custom-built internally, or what?
- adhambadr 8y ago
  yes just Android apps. We used a lot of the widget-interface functionalities most famous apps already did to build this simplified UI, it was a lot straight forward than we thought.
akincisor 8y ago
FYI: Without third party JS, your site loads completely blank. Edit: Even allowing jquery, it still shows blank complaining about stripe. Your page should not be so completely reliant on stripe.
- adhambadr 8y ago
  oh thanks for the heads up. Sticking to minimalism we wanted the checkout to be a one-stop checkout on the landing page experience. we should build a plan B
ngngngng 8y ago
I want this with an e-ink display. I'm honestly not kidding, if this had an e-ink display I would buy it this second.
- leokennis 8y ago
  Yes! Imagine a smartphone with an e-ink display, with a custom built interface and apps that focus on text. Basically phone (4G mobile internet, apps) meets reader (e-ink, text as main screen content, long battery life)
coryfklein 8y ago
What does the percentage figure visible on the app tiles convey?
- adhambadr 8y ago
  energy impact
serf 8y ago
neat phone. website is totally disjointed at non-standard resolutions, making it very difficult to read. (i'm using 1200x1920, portrait)
jonahhorowitz 8y ago
The problem is I would never use Uber, but I use Lyft all the time. Other people probably have other limitiations and that's why a generic smartphone works better for the general use case.
- SirYandi 8y ago
  They're just android apps so I doubt you'll have any issue adding your own apps when this thing gets through to release
SCdF 8y ago
There appears to be a list of 'sanctioned' apps. I like everything else about the design except this (finger print to show colour is awesome). Why Uber and not Lyft? Why Google Maps and not CityMapper? Why spotify and not google play music? Why FB messenger and Whatsapp, why not just one or the other (or neither!). Are the apps actually locked down, or are there just examples? If I end up using a different map tool can I install that one from the play store and use that instead of google maps for example?
- TotempaaltJ 8y ago
  I have the same question! I have a very different set of productivity tools. Does this have the Play Store?

TinyPants 8y ago

I really like what y'all are working on. I echo some other comments about the legibility of your body copy, I'd increase the contrast. Will your phone be available for purchase/use in the US?

adhambadr 8y ago
thanks a lot! yeah we have to fix that. US is pretty complicated with different bands & carrier restrictions we're focusing on EU this year.

rhizome 8y ago

Looks very cool, but your 10px font-size on the site is punishing.

david-cako 8y ago

I am in love with this. The home screen design is so obvious it hurts -- flip phone UX for a smartphone. "Open and dial". What's the story with the display? Do you have an actual proof of concept where you have a black and white mode that largely decreases battery life? Is there anything special about it, or does it just play into how OLED displays are locally lit?

adhambadr 8y ago
yes we initially used OLED and our phones after testing managed to use on average around 65% of the energy with our ui. We're dropping it unfortunately as its a supply-chain nightmare.. (for now). Black and white mainly increases your focus sharply, but u can always disable it to colours.
- Nition 8y ago
  Your website plays up the greyscale reducing battery consumption. If that's not currently the case you really should to remove that info.

cimmanom 8y ago

This is an amazing idea! Are the actual apps it runs just Android apps with their default interfaces, or is each one something you've custom-built internally, or what?

adhambadr 8y ago
yes just Android apps. We used a lot of the widget-interface functionalities most famous apps already did to build this simplified UI, it was a lot straight forward than we thought.

akincisor 8y ago

FYI: Without third party JS, your site loads completely blank. Edit: Even allowing jquery, it still shows blank complaining about stripe. Your page should not be so completely reliant on stripe.

adhambadr 8y ago
oh thanks for the heads up. Sticking to minimalism we wanted the checkout to be a one-stop checkout on the landing page experience. we should build a plan B

ngngngng 8y ago

I want this with an e-ink display. I'm honestly not kidding, if this had an e-ink display I would buy it this second.

leokennis 8y ago
Yes! Imagine a smartphone with an e-ink display, with a custom built interface and apps that focus on text. Basically phone (4G mobile internet, apps) meets reader (e-ink, text as main screen content, long battery life)

coryfklein 8y ago

What does the percentage figure visible on the app tiles convey?

adhambadr 8y ago
energy impact

serf 8y ago

neat phone. website is totally disjointed at non-standard resolutions, making it very difficult to read. (i'm using 1200x1920, portrait)

jonahhorowitz 8y ago

The problem is I would never use Uber, but I use Lyft all the time. Other people probably have other limitiations and that's why a generic smartphone works better for the general use case.

SirYandi 8y ago
They're just android apps so I doubt you'll have any issue adding your own apps when this thing gets through to release

SCdF 8y ago

There appears to be a list of 'sanctioned' apps. I like everything else about the design except this (finger print to show colour is awesome). Why Uber and not Lyft? Why Google Maps and not CityMapper? Why spotify and not google play music? Why FB messenger and Whatsapp, why not just one or the other (or neither!). Are the apps actually locked down, or are there just examples? If I end up using a different map tool can I install that one from the play store and use that instead of google maps for example?

TotempaaltJ 8y ago
I have the same question! I have a very different set of productivity tools. Does this have the Play Store?