7 ms·

You will be in a tough spot if you're in the USA. All the nice Nokias and decent low-tech phones are rapidly becoming useless as carriers phase out 2g (and even

You will be in a tough spot if you're in the USA. All the nice Nokias and decent low-tech phones are rapidly becoming useless as carriers phase out 2g (and even 3g) coverage to free up bands for LTE and now 5g. If your "dumbphone" doesn't support VoLTE you'll be frustrated with dropped calls and spotty service everywhere. I know this from experience. I settled on T-Mobile's only "dumbphone" - the Alcatel GoFlip [1]. It supports LTE, the battery lasts for days and it even has a rudimentary IMAP and CalDAV client. I tried turning my smartphone into a "dumbphone" and using it less, but I honestly lacked the self-control to put the stupid thing down. Having a kid made me realize how many moments I was pissing away just scrolling. These things are designed to be addictive, and some people (like myself) can't compete with the entire teams of "engagement engineers" many tech companies employ to exploit your dopamine-reward cycles. I had forgotten what it was like to be alone with my thoughts. I feel as though I am rediscovering a part of my brain that was suppressed by having a boredom-prevention device at my fingertips all these years. Also other humans now look like phone-zombies everywhere I look. It's kind of dystopian honestly. [1] https://us.alcatelmobile.com/alcatel-go-flip/ https://us.alcatelmobile.com/alcatel-go-flip/

torvald 8y ago
A quick search and it does not seem to be available for sale in Europe.
- paulcarroty 8y ago
  ebay.com
EvanAnderson 8y ago
How's audio (MP3) playback on the GoFlip? I'm disenchanted with my options to replace my aging iPhone 4 (frustrated that old, unsupported 32-bit apps I like aren't going to work on a new iPhone) and I'm contemplating jumping-ship to a "dumb" phone. I would really like to play MP3s on the phone, however.
- perlgod 8y ago
  I would imagine it's pretty bad. The interface is pretty slow and T9 is just frustrating enough for me to just call people instead. The call quality is great though! I use a HiBy R3 [1] with a 512gb SD card to listen to my collection of ripped FLACs on the go. It's a great device, highly recommend! https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-r3 https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-r3
- plants 8y ago
  You can play MP3s, but the user experience for the music app is pretty bad in my limited experience using it
flanbiscuit 8y ago
In my last company (ad agency) we were talking to Dopamine Labs[1] (now called boundless.ai[2]) to integrate it into an app we were building. It honestly felt kinda gross but I on the other hand I can understand a company investing thousands (into the hundred thousands) to build an app and wanting people to use it. Does more engagement equal app usefulness and adoption? I don't know. I have a lot of apps on my phone I don't touch as often but when I go and clean out apps I don't use anymore I still keep some because I still find them useful to have even if I don't engage with that much [1] https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/08/meet-the-tech-company-that-wants-to-make-you-even-more-addicted-to-your-phone/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/08/meet-the-tech-company-that... [2] https://www.boundless.ai/ https://www.boundless.ai/
- Skunkleton 8y ago
  > Does more engagement equal app usefulness... Obviously no. I think it is fairly obvious that there are many apps that are highly engaging that are a huge waste of time for many people.
- hammock 8y ago
  > Does more engagement equal app usefulness No, but it equals more ad impressions.
javiramos 8y ago
"Also other humans now look like phone-zombies everywhere I look." Just this morning I saw someone take a brief pause while crossing the street to look at her phone unaware that a car was coming. She stopped in the middle! of the street. The car screeched to a halt and missed hitting her by nothing.
- c1sc0 8y ago
  Today is spent a full 30 seconds driving at a crawling pace behind a guy so immersed in his phone that he didn’t notice he was walking in the middle of the street.
- yeahsure 8y ago
  My phone screen broke last night. Today I took a small break and sat at a bench in front of my office. I noticed how most people were looking at their phones. Even if they were with others. It's been quite a while since I noticed this and it honestly disturbed me. The thing is, most of these people are (most likely) not even looking at something important, just their social media or messaging apps. I noticed a girl who was talking to someone on the phone. She hanged and put the phone in her pocket. Not 10 seconds later she took it out and just started scrolling while walking past me.
- rlue 8y ago
  I have a (slightly) more optimistic view of seeing everyone on their phones all the time. When you're on your computer at home, you withdraw into it, too. It's your cave. Phones give people a way to get into their caves anywhere they want. It's like everyone's out in their PJs, trying to have private time in a public place. Obviously, it's a very bad thing when someone decides not to leave her mental cave while strolling through traffic (worse still if she's behind the wheel). I just think it's a more humanistic view than the zombie angle.
Shakahs 8y ago
It's not just degrading coverage, Verizon no longer allows 3G device activations and is shutting down the 3G network completely on 12/31/2019 [1]. ATT is doing the same in a few years. Interestingly, they are also no longer activating 4G devices unless they support HD Voice, so the iPhone 5s and 5c are out even though they support LTE. [1] https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-218813/ https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-21881...
movedx 8y ago
> I tried turning my smartphone into a "dumbphone" and using it less, but I honestly lacked the self-control to put the stupid thing down. Got a wife/husband/best friend that you trust? Use iOS or Android's built in systems for restricting what you can do on your phone, from what websites you can visit to being able to install apps, and lock them in place with a pin... that your trusted partner sets. Now you have no choice. Worked for me.
faitswulff 8y ago
> These things are designed to be addictive I would blame app designers, but I uninstalled all of them and ended up pissing away most of the day on HackerNews, so I think they're mostly blameless in my case.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  I uninstalled all of them and ended up pissing away most of the day on HackerNews, so I think they're mostly blameless in my case. All of us HN commenters are also engagement designers. If not in our day jobs, then at least in an amateur capacity in text.
- drivers99 8y ago
  HN has many of the same addicting qualities. You never know what you'll get when you reload (after some time has passed) (Random reinforcement.) Also, if you comment, you get random reinforcement in the form of (hopefully nice) replies and upvote points. Ranking stories on the front page based on voting also is intended to draw an audience with similar interests.
  - plants 8y ago
    Hacker news is addicting, but there is a noprocrast setting that only allows you on the site for maxvisit minutes at a time and doesn't let you back on until minaway minutes have expired. I just turned it on this week and it has changed my browsing habits immensely!
    - faitswulff 8y ago
      Unfortunately, I use Firefox Focus, meaning I'm not logged in most of the time. However I may use this for my desktop addiction, thank!
    - frosted-flakes 8y ago
      Yeah, but changing it back is just two clicks away, and I don't have the discipline to not do that.
stcredzero 8y ago
I had forgotten what it was like to be alone with my thoughts. I feel as though I am rediscovering a part of my brain that was suppressed by having a boredom-prevention device at my fingertips all these years. Right. Necessity is the mother of all invention. Boredom can be a powerful necessity. If it weren't for the crushing boredom of the suburbs in the 80's, I would never have learned to code at the age of 11.
- brightball 8y ago
  Loneliness is the same way. It can give people determination to come out of their shell, work up the courage to ask someone out, etc.
  - tanzbaer 8y ago
    Or it may just crush you...
    - bargl 8y ago
      Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/theodore_roosevelt_103499 https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/theodore_roosevelt_103499
      - retsibsi 8y ago
        I was tempted to reply with a link to the wiki article for survivorship bias, but that would come across snarkier than I intend. Seriously though, this is a bit like taking advice on financial risk-taking from a startup billionaire.
        bargl 8y ago
        Do you really think it's at that scale? I see that some adversity in life actually makes me better and some does not. It really depends on how hard it is to overcome each individual hurdle. Keeping with the analogy of hurdles. It's like, successful startup is a 20 ft wall. Deciding to workout 3x a week is a 3ft hurdle. Getting a fitbit and targeting more walking is like a 2ft hurdle (my scales not everyone's). Getting over loneliness due to not having a cell phone is a 5 ft hurdle. It'd require getting out of the house a lot more and that anxiety can be crippling. If that was a goal of mine I'd train for it just like a marathon. You don't start by running the whole thing in the first week, you start with increasingly large goals. I totally agree that blindly saying adversity is good, is a crazy over simplification. I also think we (if you are in top 60% of tax brackets just to really bound that statement) have it exceptionally easy in the USA and that we are all capable of much more than we think we are. Not everyone can do a startup, but many of us have lost the concept of setting a goal and pushing ourselves (myself included). Thanks for calling me out. A quote from T. R. could be seen as snarky as well. This really is a personal thing. I should have really put a caveat that this applies to me. Just me. I think more people would benefit from the mentality, but I also don't believe in a society that pushes artificial adversity to "make people better" that'd be bad.
localhost 8y ago
I've been doing this using an Apple Watch, and have been for the past 3 months or so. I documented it in this tweet: https://twitter.com/john_lam/status/1074527089569615872 https://twitter.com/john_lam/status/1074527089569615872 Note that I'm paying more to have this experience, but it's been totally worth it. So far I've been quite happy with it. It's amazing how, in the odd times where I've needed to carry my phone with me, how I instantly reverted to my former (bad) habits. It's a form of commitment device and it's been very effective for me.
isoskeles 8y ago
Dumb question: Can it run a 2FA app (not over SMS) like Duo or Google Authenticator?
- dontbenebby 8y ago
  Almost certainly not. This has been a barrier for me too. What I've done is started putting the phone in do not disturb and airplane modes when I'm not expecting a call.
checkyoursudo 8y ago
I was looking at getting one of those Alcatels. Can it broadcast a wifi hotspot, such that you could tether a laptop or tablet? I couldn't tell from the listed specs.
- yurishimo 8y ago
  I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it can't. I agree it's not obvious from the spec sheet though. It's most likely made for an aging demographic that can't be bothered to even learn how to use a smartphone, so hotspot connectivity probably won't be missed.
  - kwoff 8y ago
    Had one of those dumb phones for a decade. Definitely not interested in connecting to your demographic.
- perlgod 8y ago
  It can!
- paulcarroty 8y ago
  Yes, it can: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-35636 https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-35636
Arnavion 8y ago
>You will be in a tough spot if you're in the USA. All the nice Nokias and decent low-tech phones are rapidly becoming useless as carriers phase out 2g (and even 3g) coverage to free up bands for LTE and now 5g. Anecdote: I used to have an LG dumbphone with AT&T (I'd purchased it with prepaid time at the airport). A few years ago they sent me a message to come to their store and have it replaced for free because it would stop working with their planned "network updates". I did that and got an Alcatel dumb phone. Not sure if it's using LTE or whatever G, but it works well and I'm reasonably happy with it. I do wish it was a flip-phone like the LG, because I've butt-dialed 911 a few times with it. (They did initially give me what must've been a used phone, since it had over 50 personal contacts from someone else on it, but that's a different story...)
crazynick4 8y ago
> I tried turning my smartphone into a "dumbphone" and using it less, but I honestly lacked the self-control to put the stupid thing down Did you remove the browsers and app store as well? I got rid of everything except for phone/texting, Slack (for work), and non-bingy convenience apps like Maps/Yelp/etc. On Android, it can be done with the adb shell without rooting, even the 'uninstallable' apps like Google search and the Samsung browser. Not sure about Apple. I tried this before without getting rid of the Play Store and found that I would just cheat and download FF Focus when I felt like binging and then deleting it again when I was done. Now if I think I need a new app, I actually have to go on my laptop, download the apk, and move it to my phone to install it. It's not foolproof but it's enough extra steps to where I don't act on it on impulse. It's worked really well and I don't binge like I used to . I still have some compulsive phone-checking habits but it's way less time consuming than compulsive-random-article-reading/scrolling. And I also get to keep the nicer benefits like the good camera and the large screen for when I need a GPS.
- perlgod 8y ago
  I should try something like that. Honestly just having the device in eyesight triggers some kind of latent mental FOMO. Removing the option entirely has worked well for me so far. I still keep an old iPhone for when I know I'll need an Uber or something, but the smartphone isn't a part of my daily life anymore.
  - crazynick4 8y ago
    If I could go with a flip phone I gladly would, but I do need to have Slack around for when I'm on call for work. I suppose I could switch to a flip phone for when I'm off call. You're giving me ideas here.
    - leesalminen 8y ago
      You could also use Slack’s API + Twilio to trigger a SMS to send when a post to #app-outage happens. I’ve been playing with this myself.
- 8y ago
fjp 8y ago
Surprisingly effective way to make your phone less addicting: put it in greyscale
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
plants 8y ago
I tried using that phone, but I found Kai OS to be pretty awful from a usability perspective. Maps was completely unusable - which was a large reason why I bought the phone in the first place. On top of that, the texting app is extremely laggy to the point where you'd wait a second for a word to show up. I don't know if the problem is with Kai OS or with the apps themselves, but my Samsung A-157 blows that phone out of the water from a texting usability perspective (but does not have GPS)
kemps4 8y ago
I also have recently acquired an Alcatel goflip- mostly to minimize distractions (I am a student - need time to study). It does what I need. It allows me to have time without a swiss army knife of distractions (including things we ought not look at) and still lets me make a call or pull up directions. Go ahead, free yourself.

torvald 8y ago

A quick search and it does not seem to be available for sale in Europe.

paulcarroty 8y ago
ebay.com

EvanAnderson 8y ago

How's audio (MP3) playback on the GoFlip? I'm disenchanted with my options to replace my aging iPhone 4 (frustrated that old, unsupported 32-bit apps I like aren't going to work on a new iPhone) and I'm contemplating jumping-ship to a "dumb" phone. I would really like to play MP3s on the phone, however.

perlgod 8y ago
I would imagine it's pretty bad. The interface is pretty slow and T9 is just frustrating enough for me to just call people instead. The call quality is great though! I use a HiBy R3 [1] with a 512gb SD card to listen to my collection of ripped FLACs on the go. It's a great device, highly recommend! https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-r3 https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-r3
plants 8y ago
You can play MP3s, but the user experience for the music app is pretty bad in my limited experience using it

flanbiscuit 8y ago

In my last company (ad agency) we were talking to Dopamine Labs[1] (now called boundless.ai[2]) to integrate it into an app we were building. It honestly felt kinda gross but I on the other hand I can understand a company investing thousands (into the hundred thousands) to build an app and wanting people to use it. Does more engagement equal app usefulness and adoption? I don't know. I have a lot of apps on my phone I don't touch as often but when I go and clean out apps I don't use anymore I still keep some because I still find them useful to have even if I don't engage with that much [1] https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/08/meet-the-tech-company-that-wants-to-make-you-even-more-addicted-to-your-phone/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/08/meet-the-tech-company-that... [2] https://www.boundless.ai/ https://www.boundless.ai/

Skunkleton 8y ago
> Does more engagement equal app usefulness... Obviously no. I think it is fairly obvious that there are many apps that are highly engaging that are a huge waste of time for many people.
hammock 8y ago
> Does more engagement equal app usefulness No, but it equals more ad impressions.

javiramos 8y ago

"Also other humans now look like phone-zombies everywhere I look." Just this morning I saw someone take a brief pause while crossing the street to look at her phone unaware that a car was coming. She stopped in the middle! of the street. The car screeched to a halt and missed hitting her by nothing.

c1sc0 8y ago
Today is spent a full 30 seconds driving at a crawling pace behind a guy so immersed in his phone that he didn’t notice he was walking in the middle of the street.
yeahsure 8y ago
My phone screen broke last night. Today I took a small break and sat at a bench in front of my office. I noticed how most people were looking at their phones. Even if they were with others. It's been quite a while since I noticed this and it honestly disturbed me. The thing is, most of these people are (most likely) not even looking at something important, just their social media or messaging apps. I noticed a girl who was talking to someone on the phone. She hanged and put the phone in her pocket. Not 10 seconds later she took it out and just started scrolling while walking past me.
rlue 8y ago
I have a (slightly) more optimistic view of seeing everyone on their phones all the time. When you're on your computer at home, you withdraw into it, too. It's your cave. Phones give people a way to get into their caves anywhere they want. It's like everyone's out in their PJs, trying to have private time in a public place. Obviously, it's a very bad thing when someone decides not to leave her mental cave while strolling through traffic (worse still if she's behind the wheel). I just think it's a more humanistic view than the zombie angle.

Shakahs 8y ago

It's not just degrading coverage, Verizon no longer allows 3G device activations and is shutting down the 3G network completely on 12/31/2019 [1]. ATT is doing the same in a few years. Interestingly, they are also no longer activating 4G devices unless they support HD Voice, so the iPhone 5s and 5c are out even though they support LTE. [1] https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-218813/ https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-21881...

movedx 8y ago

> I tried turning my smartphone into a "dumbphone" and using it less, but I honestly lacked the self-control to put the stupid thing down. Got a wife/husband/best friend that you trust? Use iOS or Android's built in systems for restricting what you can do on your phone, from what websites you can visit to being able to install apps, and lock them in place with a pin... that your trusted partner sets. Now you have no choice. Worked for me.

faitswulff 8y ago

> These things are designed to be addictive I would blame app designers, but I uninstalled all of them and ended up pissing away most of the day on HackerNews, so I think they're mostly blameless in my case.

stcredzero 8y ago
I uninstalled all of them and ended up pissing away most of the day on HackerNews, so I think they're mostly blameless in my case. All of us HN commenters are also engagement designers. If not in our day jobs, then at least in an amateur capacity in text.
drivers99 8y ago
HN has many of the same addicting qualities. You never know what you'll get when you reload (after some time has passed) (Random reinforcement.) Also, if you comment, you get random reinforcement in the form of (hopefully nice) replies and upvote points. Ranking stories on the front page based on voting also is intended to draw an audience with similar interests.
- plants 8y ago
  Hacker news is addicting, but there is a noprocrast setting that only allows you on the site for maxvisit minutes at a time and doesn't let you back on until minaway minutes have expired. I just turned it on this week and it has changed my browsing habits immensely!
  - faitswulff 8y ago
    Unfortunately, I use Firefox Focus, meaning I'm not logged in most of the time. However I may use this for my desktop addiction, thank!
  - frosted-flakes 8y ago
    Yeah, but changing it back is just two clicks away, and I don't have the discipline to not do that.

stcredzero 8y ago

I had forgotten what it was like to be alone with my thoughts. I feel as though I am rediscovering a part of my brain that was suppressed by having a boredom-prevention device at my fingertips all these years. Right. Necessity is the mother of all invention. Boredom can be a powerful necessity. If it weren't for the crushing boredom of the suburbs in the 80's, I would never have learned to code at the age of 11.

brightball 8y ago
Loneliness is the same way. It can give people determination to come out of their shell, work up the courage to ask someone out, etc.
- tanzbaer 8y ago
  Or it may just crush you...
  - bargl 8y ago
    Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/theodore_roosevelt_103499 https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/theodore_roosevelt_103499
    - retsibsi 8y ago
      I was tempted to reply with a link to the wiki article for survivorship bias, but that would come across snarkier than I intend. Seriously though, this is a bit like taking advice on financial risk-taking from a startup billionaire.
      - bargl 8y ago
        Do you really think it's at that scale? I see that some adversity in life actually makes me better and some does not. It really depends on how hard it is to overcome each individual hurdle. Keeping with the analogy of hurdles. It's like, successful startup is a 20 ft wall. Deciding to workout 3x a week is a 3ft hurdle. Getting a fitbit and targeting more walking is like a 2ft hurdle (my scales not everyone's). Getting over loneliness due to not having a cell phone is a 5 ft hurdle. It'd require getting out of the house a lot more and that anxiety can be crippling. If that was a goal of mine I'd train for it just like a marathon. You don't start by running the whole thing in the first week, you start with increasingly large goals. I totally agree that blindly saying adversity is good, is a crazy over simplification. I also think we (if you are in top 60% of tax brackets just to really bound that statement) have it exceptionally easy in the USA and that we are all capable of much more than we think we are. Not everyone can do a startup, but many of us have lost the concept of setting a goal and pushing ourselves (myself included). Thanks for calling me out. A quote from T. R. could be seen as snarky as well. This really is a personal thing. I should have really put a caveat that this applies to me. Just me. I think more people would benefit from the mentality, but I also don't believe in a society that pushes artificial adversity to "make people better" that'd be bad.

localhost 8y ago

I've been doing this using an Apple Watch, and have been for the past 3 months or so. I documented it in this tweet: https://twitter.com/john_lam/status/1074527089569615872 https://twitter.com/john_lam/status/1074527089569615872 Note that I'm paying more to have this experience, but it's been totally worth it. So far I've been quite happy with it. It's amazing how, in the odd times where I've needed to carry my phone with me, how I instantly reverted to my former (bad) habits. It's a form of commitment device and it's been very effective for me.

isoskeles 8y ago

Dumb question: Can it run a 2FA app (not over SMS) like Duo or Google Authenticator?

dontbenebby 8y ago
Almost certainly not. This has been a barrier for me too. What I've done is started putting the phone in do not disturb and airplane modes when I'm not expecting a call.

checkyoursudo 8y ago

I was looking at getting one of those Alcatels. Can it broadcast a wifi hotspot, such that you could tether a laptop or tablet? I couldn't tell from the listed specs.

yurishimo 8y ago
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it can't. I agree it's not obvious from the spec sheet though. It's most likely made for an aging demographic that can't be bothered to even learn how to use a smartphone, so hotspot connectivity probably won't be missed.
- kwoff 8y ago
  Had one of those dumb phones for a decade. Definitely not interested in connecting to your demographic.
perlgod 8y ago
It can!
paulcarroty 8y ago
Yes, it can: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-35636 https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-35636

Arnavion 8y ago

>You will be in a tough spot if you're in the USA. All the nice Nokias and decent low-tech phones are rapidly becoming useless as carriers phase out 2g (and even 3g) coverage to free up bands for LTE and now 5g. Anecdote: I used to have an LG dumbphone with AT&T (I'd purchased it with prepaid time at the airport). A few years ago they sent me a message to come to their store and have it replaced for free because it would stop working with their planned "network updates". I did that and got an Alcatel dumb phone. Not sure if it's using LTE or whatever G, but it works well and I'm reasonably happy with it. I do wish it was a flip-phone like the LG, because I've butt-dialed 911 a few times with it. (They did initially give me what must've been a used phone, since it had over 50 personal contacts from someone else on it, but that's a different story...)

crazynick4 8y ago

> I tried turning my smartphone into a "dumbphone" and using it less, but I honestly lacked the self-control to put the stupid thing down Did you remove the browsers and app store as well? I got rid of everything except for phone/texting, Slack (for work), and non-bingy convenience apps like Maps/Yelp/etc. On Android, it can be done with the adb shell without rooting, even the 'uninstallable' apps like Google search and the Samsung browser. Not sure about Apple. I tried this before without getting rid of the Play Store and found that I would just cheat and download FF Focus when I felt like binging and then deleting it again when I was done. Now if I think I need a new app, I actually have to go on my laptop, download the apk, and move it to my phone to install it. It's not foolproof but it's enough extra steps to where I don't act on it on impulse. It's worked really well and I don't binge like I used to . I still have some compulsive phone-checking habits but it's way less time consuming than compulsive-random-article-reading/scrolling. And I also get to keep the nicer benefits like the good camera and the large screen for when I need a GPS.

perlgod 8y ago
I should try something like that. Honestly just having the device in eyesight triggers some kind of latent mental FOMO. Removing the option entirely has worked well for me so far. I still keep an old iPhone for when I know I'll need an Uber or something, but the smartphone isn't a part of my daily life anymore.
- crazynick4 8y ago
  If I could go with a flip phone I gladly would, but I do need to have Slack around for when I'm on call for work. I suppose I could switch to a flip phone for when I'm off call. You're giving me ideas here.
  - leesalminen 8y ago
    You could also use Slack’s API + Twilio to trigger a SMS to send when a post to #app-outage happens. I’ve been playing with this myself.
8y ago

fjp 8y ago

Surprisingly effective way to make your phone less addicting: put it in greyscale

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

plants 8y ago

I tried using that phone, but I found Kai OS to be pretty awful from a usability perspective. Maps was completely unusable - which was a large reason why I bought the phone in the first place. On top of that, the texting app is extremely laggy to the point where you'd wait a second for a word to show up. I don't know if the problem is with Kai OS or with the apps themselves, but my Samsung A-157 blows that phone out of the water from a texting usability perspective (but does not have GPS)

kemps4 8y ago

I also have recently acquired an Alcatel goflip- mostly to minimize distractions (I am a student - need time to study). It does what I need. It allows me to have time without a swiss army knife of distractions (including things we ought not look at) and still lets me make a call or pull up directions. Go ahead, free yourself.