3 ms·

I have one of these simpler feature phones and use it as my primary phone device. It started as an experiment when my phone screen broke as a backup device and

by acd 7y ago

I have one of these simpler feature phones and use it as my primary phone device. It started as an experiment when my phone screen broke as a backup device and to get rid of smart phone addiction. Positive cutting down wasting time in phone apps. The phone forces me to call people more often as it is tedious to text on its interface which is a good thing. There is very few apps so time trap like that can be avoided. It has quite good battery time days to weeks. The phone is very sturdy. Drawbacks, cannot purchase train tickets online, cannot use online bank. Drawback camera. One needs to use the brain to navigate so one forces to know the way how to navigate. Its a bit hard if you get stuck in the middle of nowhere but then the phone has a navigation map app. Smartphone zero.

cheeze 7y ago
> The phone forces me to call people more often as it is tedious to text on its interface which is a good thing Most folks I know don't really use calling anymore. If one of my friends called me, I'd probably pick up because I assumed it was an emergency. If they just called to talk, I'd tell them to text me. YMMV here but younger crowds seem to shun voice calling IMO.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- lazerwalker 7y ago
  Probably depends on what you mean by "young". Anecdotally (family friends + news articles, although who knows what the latter is worth) a lot of teens are super-into videochat as a primary means of communication. Facetiming someone is (allegedly) as common and casual for teens as texting is for 20-somethings.
  - iamnotacrook 7y ago
    You've answered with information about a different concept. Videochat is different to voice chat. Many young people use videochat (with 1 or more other person involved). It's pure voice calls which are far less common (and typically involve just 1 other person).
    - LocalH 7y ago
      Group voice chat, without video, is also very common in some communities. For example, in the Guitar Hero community, Discord voice chats are ubiquitous.
      - iamnotacrook 7y ago
        Totally irrelevant to the topic at hand - voice calling.
        LocalH 7y ago
        Right, I was asserting that people often use voice chat who don't ever do voice calls. Basically, we're in agreement. Hell, I'm almost 40 and I don't like voice calls
- em-bee 7y ago
  i don't know if i still count with the younger crowd but i guess i was an early adopter of internet tech. calling you on the phone means that my time is more important than yours and you had better be available when i want you to. that said, pure social calls are fine, they are less disruptive than needing to discuss something that is not urgent or even important. if it's anything i need to remember, or think about before responding then i really prefer messages.
  - iamnotacrook 7y ago
    "i don't know if i still count with the younger crowd but i guess i was an early adopter of internet tech" The internet is 50 years old this year. I'm sorry to break this to you but you are no longer young.
    - cr0sh 7y ago
      50 years if you go back to the beginning - but most people didn't get on the internet until the early 1990s, when it was "opened up" to commercial interests (which led to the meme of "Al Gore invented the internet"). Prior to that, the only way to get access to the internet (D/ARPANET) was (generally) thru educational or military connections; one of the few exceptions to this (I don't understand exactly how it worked) was being a member of The Well, which allowed some kind of internet access (not sure if it was limited to email, or if other access was allowed?). The number of people on the internet prior to (roughly) 1992 were mostly confined to the United States, and was a relatively small percentage of the total population of the country, simply because of the exclusivity of the connections; it was open to commercial traffic. Prior to 1992, most people who had experienced some from of "online connection" did so via either multiuser private commercial networks (two of the largest in the USA were Tymnet and Telenet), or large "walled garden" shared systems like AOL. Then of course there were the myriad local and long-distance Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) - which toward the "end" (I put that in quotes because they never really fully "died") in the early-1990s started to standardize on form of "email" called FidoNet (IIRC, even the original developer thought of it as a hot mess of code that barely worked). All of this is to say that for most people (but not all - certainly more than a few people here on HN likely had access to the internet prior to 1992) the internet is only about 30 years old. Though you remain correct in the assessment that "we are no longer young"...sigh.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
lota-putty 7y ago
The phone forces me to call people more often as it is tedious to text on its interface which is a good thing. What's your Voice & SMS plan on that phone(Jio)? Before smartphones, prior 2006 people opted for cheaper SMS prepaid plans over costly Voice rates(dedicated channels & limited resources). Our choices are based on cheaper rates of communication, now we've unlimited voice calls as a norm. WhatApp'ing(or similar on smartphones) is richer than MMS'ing. SMSes are losing out, only limited to VAS-App & OTP code notifications.
- mrweasel 7y ago
  Depending on where you live, SMS and talk is basically free at this point. The telco I currently use does not have a single plan that doesn't include unlimited talk and texting. The only difference is the amount of data included.
rambojazz 7y ago
Everything you wrote resonates with me except for one thing: "The phone forces me to call people more often as it is tedious to text on its interface". For me it's the exact opposite, older phones with physical buttons were much better for writing texts than touchscreens.
dwild 7y ago
For them, it's not a simpler feature phone, as the article mentions they gather around to watch movies at night on it. They offer 14 GB for 1.50$ a month.
spiffytech 7y ago
Which device do you have? Does it have a basic web browser?

by acd 7y ago

cheeze 7y ago

> The phone forces me to call people more often as it is tedious to text on its interface which is a good thing Most folks I know don't really use calling anymore. If one of my friends called me, I'd probably pick up because I assumed it was an emergency. If they just called to talk, I'd tell them to text me. YMMV here but younger crowds seem to shun voice calling IMO.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
lazerwalker 7y ago
Probably depends on what you mean by "young". Anecdotally (family friends + news articles, although who knows what the latter is worth) a lot of teens are super-into videochat as a primary means of communication. Facetiming someone is (allegedly) as common and casual for teens as texting is for 20-somethings.
- iamnotacrook 7y ago
  You've answered with information about a different concept. Videochat is different to voice chat. Many young people use videochat (with 1 or more other person involved). It's pure voice calls which are far less common (and typically involve just 1 other person).
  - LocalH 7y ago
    Group voice chat, without video, is also very common in some communities. For example, in the Guitar Hero community, Discord voice chats are ubiquitous.
    - iamnotacrook 7y ago
      Totally irrelevant to the topic at hand - voice calling.
      - LocalH 7y ago
        Right, I was asserting that people often use voice chat who don't ever do voice calls. Basically, we're in agreement. Hell, I'm almost 40 and I don't like voice calls
em-bee 7y ago
i don't know if i still count with the younger crowd but i guess i was an early adopter of internet tech. calling you on the phone means that my time is more important than yours and you had better be available when i want you to. that said, pure social calls are fine, they are less disruptive than needing to discuss something that is not urgent or even important. if it's anything i need to remember, or think about before responding then i really prefer messages.
- iamnotacrook 7y ago
  "i don't know if i still count with the younger crowd but i guess i was an early adopter of internet tech" The internet is 50 years old this year. I'm sorry to break this to you but you are no longer young.
  - cr0sh 7y ago
    50 years if you go back to the beginning - but most people didn't get on the internet until the early 1990s, when it was "opened up" to commercial interests (which led to the meme of "Al Gore invented the internet"). Prior to that, the only way to get access to the internet (D/ARPANET) was (generally) thru educational or military connections; one of the few exceptions to this (I don't understand exactly how it worked) was being a member of The Well, which allowed some kind of internet access (not sure if it was limited to email, or if other access was allowed?). The number of people on the internet prior to (roughly) 1992 were mostly confined to the United States, and was a relatively small percentage of the total population of the country, simply because of the exclusivity of the connections; it was open to commercial traffic. Prior to 1992, most people who had experienced some from of "online connection" did so via either multiuser private commercial networks (two of the largest in the USA were Tymnet and Telenet), or large "walled garden" shared systems like AOL. Then of course there were the myriad local and long-distance Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) - which toward the "end" (I put that in quotes because they never really fully "died") in the early-1990s started to standardize on form of "email" called FidoNet (IIRC, even the original developer thought of it as a hot mess of code that barely worked). All of this is to say that for most people (but not all - certainly more than a few people here on HN likely had access to the internet prior to 1992) the internet is only about 30 years old. Though you remain correct in the assessment that "we are no longer young"...sigh.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

lota-putty 7y ago

The phone forces me to call people more often as it is tedious to text on its interface which is a good thing. What's your Voice & SMS plan on that phone(Jio)? Before smartphones, prior 2006 people opted for cheaper SMS prepaid plans over costly Voice rates(dedicated channels & limited resources). Our choices are based on cheaper rates of communication, now we've unlimited voice calls as a norm. WhatApp'ing(or similar on smartphones) is richer than MMS'ing. SMSes are losing out, only limited to VAS-App & OTP code notifications.

mrweasel 7y ago
Depending on where you live, SMS and talk is basically free at this point. The telco I currently use does not have a single plan that doesn't include unlimited talk and texting. The only difference is the amount of data included.

rambojazz 7y ago

Everything you wrote resonates with me except for one thing: "The phone forces me to call people more often as it is tedious to text on its interface". For me it's the exact opposite, older phones with physical buttons were much better for writing texts than touchscreens.

dwild 7y ago

For them, it's not a simpler feature phone, as the article mentions they gather around to watch movies at night on it. They offer 14 GB for 1.50$ a month.

spiffytech 7y ago

Which device do you have? Does it have a basic web browser?