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The $12 “Gongkai” Phone (2013)
- drivingmenuts 12y agoSo, what are the rules of gongkai? That might have been useful to include in the article.
- Nexxxeh 12y agoFirst and second are presumably "Don't talk about gongkai."
- sah88 12y agoThere is a link in the comments to a 7 dollar phone that looks way more polished. Crazy really, a fast food meal will cost you more than that here in Canada. http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/$7_cell_phone http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/$7_cell_phone
- joezydeco 12y agoI own one of these burner phones for backup use, $9.99 but it was on sale for $4.99 when I bought it. It's no iPhone, but I also get 8-10 days on a charge: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8520651&CatId=5118 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-det...
- mcovey 12y agoTracfones are subsidized though, they give them away for almost nothing because people buy minutes for them, and they're almost useless without minutes unless you just want it to call 911.
- readme 12y agoThis phone too is unlocked?
- glomph 12y agoThe $12 one has mp3 playback and micro sd support though. Those are some pretty big features.
- icebraining 12y agoAnd Bluetooth. Really incredible for the price.
- userbinator 12y agoMediatek (MTK) was for many years the SoC of choice for ultra-cheap feature phones like these, but they seem to have gone up the scale (their Android platforms are good value) while others like RDA have filled in the ultra-low-end. I think one of the ways in which they were able to undercut MTK was to use a different CPU core - the $2 MT6250 in bunnie's phone still uses an ARM core, which means licensing fees to ARM are some part of the cost (I'm not aware of any "pirated" ARM cores) - and in such a cheap SoC, could be a significant fraction. The RDA8851 is "MIPS-compatible" so they aren't paying ARM and likely the other IP on it was either designed by RDA or others in China.
- minthd 12y agoWith such capabilities it's pretty weird that such companies aren't fiercely competing in the mcu market(at least in the high end of it). They could have made a killer mcu for very cheap.
- nodata 12y agoCheck out the soldering! http://wiki.hacdc.org/images/6/6d/Phone4.jpg http://wiki.hacdc.org/images/6/6d/Phone4.jpg
- mey 12y agoTitle should be updated to (2013)
- frozenport 12y ago3rd world folks want Internet, and many will ration food spending to buy a phone capable of such.
- pronoiac 12y agoAh, this dates from a year or two ago. Here's a previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5703946 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5703946
- ww520 12y ago"Gongkai" seems to be between public domain and open source. Interesting to see a sharing ecosystem developing without a firm legal framework.
- ChuckMcM 12y agoActually its more a collective exploitation of third party IP. The factories that build the chips, the people that put together the boards, the places that build the screens etc. They have generally at one time or another been contracted to or licensed to produce some product, which they do, and then well they make more for their friends without so much cost. In a fascinating sort of way it works like folks who burn copies of DVDs and sell them out of their trunk except these folks have access to much more sophisticated manufacturing gear. By and large its "harmless" in that none of the people buying a $12 phone are going to buy a $60 legitimate phone, even if that was the only phone available. So its hard to argue to economic loss as well. Very little of the stuff built into these phones and gizmos though seems like the original creator was doing it to give away.
- api 12y agoA good chunk of open source is reimplementated copies of closed source.
- lotyrin 12y agoBut not by people who just left the developer teams of those products and can take advantage of IP in a similar way (at least in the majority of cases)
- minthd 12y agoI don't think it happens at the chip level.Chip fabs have pretty good respect for IP.
- ChuckMcM 12y agoWhen I was at Intel we saw "breakage" at the packaging level, basically once die were packaged they would be run through a tester and a fraction of the parts would bin out (fail characterization testing). In theory those bad chips were ground up and recycled, sometimes they went missing. (this was back in the late 80's early 90's) At the time Intel invested in ways of tracking chips back through the process when those chips showed up in the market the source of the leak could be plugged. It is entirely unclear to me if companies like AllWinner which make a bunch ARM chips has similar sorts of controls.
- mintplant 12y agoDoes anyone have a link to this particular phone on the Digital Mall site? I've been looking for a low-cost, 'disposable' MP3 player for a while now.
- Istof 12y agoyou can get an mp3 player for less then $2 if you supply the SD card and headphone... try aliexpress for example: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Wholesale-Retail-Sport-MINI-Clip-MP3-Player-with-Micro-TF-SD-card-Slot-with-mini-MP3/2032969720.html http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Wholesale-Retail-Sport-MINI-C...
- Animats 12y agoIt's been possible to get a reasonably good Android tablet for $30 in Shentzen for two years or so. Now those are down to $20 in quantity. http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2014-shenzhen-Wintouch-Digital-Dual-Core_1931301955.html http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2014-shenzhen-Wintouch...
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- guylhem 12y agoI used that exact phone (well, it had a different plastic shell was called "cardphone" - no bluetooth) for a year as my main cell phone. It worked very well, had about 3 days of battery time (given my uses). The best part is that I never forgot it, given how small it was - always there with my credit cards Unfortunately, the headphone died after a bad fall (I could still use on speakermode). I'll be very happy to buy a new one, especially it has bluetooth now. (if there's someone from China I would be interested, it usually sells for 3 times as much on ebay :-)
- rsync 12y agoI have been using a Motorola "FONE" (or F3, or "MOTO FONE") for the last 2 years. It does nothing but make calls. Well, I guess it has an alarm and it also has redial. It also has an e-ink screen, which is mildly interesting. It was designed and built for emerging markets that might not have reliable electricity, hence the e-ink and other battery saving measures. I love it. Very small. The only problem is that it is 2G and I have some trouble in some places. I suspect that 2G service is not well maintained or observed these days ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone
- zemvpferreira 12y agoWhere did you find one? That was my phone through college and one of my favorite pieces of design ever. the screen was phenomenal and the interaction fairly unique.
- moe 12y agoI got one of these (or a very similar model), they are sold as "Cardphones" on eBay. Really nice backup device, battery lasts weeks, reception and call quality is surprisingly good. I only wish there was an easy way to sync the phonebook to Android/iOS because the interface is really, well, basic.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- sturmeh 12y agoThat looks like a Sansa Clip+ display, hmm.
- Gracana 12y agoOh you're right, it does. I never knew they were used in that device, but I do have a couple of those displays.. If you search ebay for "oled display," you'll see them listed over and over in different variations for $5-10.
- wyager 12y agoHow hard is it to re-program these? If you needed a device with GSM and just a few GPIO, this makes more sense than an Arduino + GSM shield. In fact, the entire phone is cheaper than a GSM shield. It would even make sense to use this phone solely fore GSM comms and connect to some other µc over the UART.
- codinghorror 12y agoIf any article needed a date in the title this one does. Seen it on HN a few times now. (can HN have code that checks for dupe links from the past and forces the year in the title, if so, just as an additional signal to long term readers? That'd help a lot.)
- vegedor 12y agoIs reliably finding the date a trivial task to you? Date of submission could also be misleading.
- millionairegonk 12y agoWHY MILLIONAIRE BUY Gonkai Phone? 1.) Complete failure of security in 'convergence' to the smartphone. too much centralization and the firmware has plenty of rootkits. 2.) Most USA citizens own their home and Hurricane Katrina - New Orleans turn their major assets into WEALTH DESTRUCTION. 3.) Yes, I carry around a 'personal book' on lightweight paper that could easly be 'obliterated.' WHY CARRY an apple phone, flash it and the ARMED ROBBERS and 'predators' follow you? 4.) Sure I am a bit extreme. Sure I made money the HARD WAY. paid my way thru school by part time work, scholarship, etc. 5.) Hey MILLIONAIRE - I PAY CASH to local merchants/friends/ room-mates. Plug in LIVE CD - Gentoo preferred or openbsd and THE CLOUD TAKES CARE OF YOU. 6.) OK. so I wear the tux and the bicycle is 50US$ used. upgarde it 100 $US. Paying for an expensive car and parking it in New York City? 7.) RUSSIAN JOKE - ancient - So, the scientist wears the supercomputer the size of a wristwatch. on wrist. BUT the catch is he has to carry a suitcase full of heavy lead batteries. 8.) OH, ahhhh. some of the equipment is hammmraddddio using the newwwer open source software. So, the 911 service CRASHED IN Seattle, WA? AGAIN?? AGAIN?? not a problem for the MILLIONAIRES.... riding a bicycle. making a chinese food delivery and traveling by private plane arrangements means the SILLY VALLY Vulture Capital guys have a harder time to track MR. Mobius of Templeton or Mr. gongkai. LOL, suckers enjoy your aaaple dumb phone. PS. moving most of the 'infrastructure to world diversified VPS. even CLOUDFLARE is a single point of failure.
- rustyfe 12y agoI honestly wonder if you are a bot or someone struggling with translation. Of course if you're a bot, I don't know what your purpose is, there aren't any links in the post, it's just conversation. If this came up and I was judging a Turing Test, I really don't know if I'd pick correctly. At some points you seem like you're just listing words that appear on HN frequently. Other times there are distinct opinions though. The mmm www tick doesn't seem to be related to anything I can find. You are interesting person.
- goblin89 12y agoMy apple dump phone replaces many stacks of flashcards for me (yes, using Anki on the go was one of the primary reasons for the purchase). Sure, though, if I suddenly turn millionaire I may lose the remains of my passion for learning languages and memory training. PS. The posting should probably have (2013) appended to its HN title—it’s an old story.
- GuiA 12y agoRelated: David Mellis (one of the Arduino founders) has an Arduino-based phone project as part of his Phd research: http://web.media.mit.edu/~mellis/cellphone/index.html http://web.media.mit.edu/~mellis/cellphone/index.html
- userbinator 12y agoabout $200 total Shows just how extreme the economies of scale and integration can be - putting together a working system based on loosely-coupled off-the-shelf parts (it looks like his effort was mostly only expended on the "gluing" of these parts together) can cost more than 20x that of the tightly-integrated, mass-produced product with equivalent functionality. The speaker, battery, and display for the Arduinophone individually cost more than one of these entire cheap phones. ...and $200 is more than enough to buy an unlocked, contract-free, Android smartphone with several times the processing power and functionality.
- ja27 12y agoIt's pretty amazing to me that there are pretty regular sales of of crappy no-contract Android 4.X phones for under $10. Here's a current one: http://www.target.com/p/brightspot-zte-zinger-prepaid-cell-phone-black/-/A-16599233 http://www.target.com/p/brightspot-zte-zinger-prepaid-cell-p...
- megablast 12y agoThis is probably locked to Target or whoever they use.
- ja27 12y agoYeah it's clearly sold with the razor / razor blades (or printer / ink) pricing but I see a lot of people buy them as wifi-only devices.
- dangrossman 12y agoI outfitted my house with 5 wifi cameras by buying some prepaid Android phones like that from Boost Mobile on clearance. Why pay $150 per Dropcam or some other dedicated camera when you can get one with an attached computer for a couple bucks?
- mappu 12y agoWhat app / software do you use to manage the cameras? How do you keep them powered, have you had to run extra power cables?
- dangrossman 12y agoEach phone came with a charger, and they run "IP Webcam", a free app on the Play Store. I have them semi-hidden in bookcases and other out-of-the-way locations so they're not obvious. I usually just use IP Cam Viewer Basic, another free Android app, to check on the pets when away from home. My home automation hub (Vera) works fine with the phones as IP cams as well.
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- krisgenre 12y agoHere's a $10 phone sold in India - http://www.flipkart.com/k-1300-pk/p/itmefh68fqtqcnzq?pid=MOBEFH68DZ7GPAT5&srno=b_1&ref=5a7afe37-c98a-46a8-b6d0-59c7b422f682 http://www.flipkart.com/k-1300-pk/p/itmefh68fqtqcnzq?pid=MOB...
- chdir 12y agoUnder $12, with camera, bluetooth, FM, radio, flashlight and dual SIM http://www.ebay.in/itm/Q-Tel-Cheapest-GSM-Dual-Sim-Mobile-Phone-With-Camera-BT-FM-Radio-Torch-/171553046831 http://www.ebay.in/itm/Q-Tel-Cheapest-GSM-Dual-Sim-Mobile-Ph... There are more available in B&M stores for $6-$7 with a reasonable lifespan (easily greater than 1-2 years)
- jarcane 12y agoThis reminds me of the magazine phone. http://mashable.com/2012/10/02/ew-has-smartphone-inside/ http://mashable.com/2012/10/02/ew-has-smartphone-inside/
- Aqwis 12y agoIs this really that extraordinary? I can buy a Samsung GT-E1200 candybar phone for $15 in Norway. Presumably similarly priced phones are sold in the US. That's a considerably nicer phone too, with a bigger screen and more features.
- listic 12y agoOr Nokia 105 http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_105-5324.php http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_105-5324.php , about the same price here in Russia. I guess what attracts others is the absolute record of a minimum commercial price of a phone, kind of "how low can you go?" achievement.
- mseebach 12y agoAt $15, it's most likely subsidised (Tesco and ASDA carry them subsidised at exactly that pricepoint in the UK). Unlocked, it's twice that. Still cheap, but 3X more expensive than the phone featured in the article. 3X is a lot.
- Aqwis 12y agoNo, I can buy the phone without any contract/subsidy for that price. Indeed, I don't think subsidised candybar-style phones are even sold here anymore. But even if it's $30 in the UK, are there really no (unlocked) phones available at a lower price-point?
- mseebach 12y agoFair enough. It's plausible - I have a few of the Samsung (unlocked) at roughly that price point, but they were cheap enough that I didn't bother to shop around.
- stormpat 12y agoFor a real low budget phone you could get an Nokia 105 for 18 dollars.