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I feel like this is a niche that smartphones haven't hit. Perhaps we'll have to wait until it's 'easy' to manufacture phones, but I would be extremely intereste
by trostaft 3y ago
I feel like this is a niche that smartphones haven't hit. Perhaps we'll have to wait until it's 'easy' to manufacture phones, but I would be extremely interested in something more customizable on the hardware and/or software side. I'm aware about the downsides from a performance and/or cost perspective, but having something of your own makes a difference (I can't find the word to describe it) towards loving it.
- eternityforest 3y agoSmartphones are so hyper optimized for their role. The fact that they're mostly the same is why there are so many apps that all worl reliably. If they had too much variety we'd have to go back to actually owning physical items again and maybe even paying with real cash and cards! What seems more practical is cheap low power devices that connect to phones, which can be left in a backpack. Like, an EInk Pokedex that just does texts, calls, notes, and smart light control. These devices would already be cheap and easy to make. The proof is that all they would be is cheap emulator handhelds, with different software, more interesting cases, and an ESP32 instead of whatever CPU. The cost should be like $30 for TFT ones. GPS, a camera, a touchscreen, etc, are all not needed. You don't need a high resolution screen or real video playback. There's the phone for that. All you need is Bluetooth and Wifi, and probably NFC or perhaps even LoRa for some of the cooler possibilities.