Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/15/nokia-to-resurrect-classic-dum.html
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I had one for years, it was great. Battery lasted forever, and you could just throw it around and it was indestructible.
These days, though, the time I spend using my phone for actually talking to people with my voice is far outweighed by all the other things it’s good for. It’d be wonderful if Apple or someone made a cheap-ass dumbed-down just-the-basics smartphone. Apple’s already seen how crazy popular the iPhone SE is. Folks are tired of treating their nearly-$1000 devices like delicate flowers.
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can i get my Palm Treo back - phone, email, text, contacts - done and done - ok, so i’ll still have to carry an iPhone SE for Flightstats, Uber, map, camera, music…
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My son asked me why even today all anime characters have flip-phones. I’ve heard smart phones are everywhere in Japan, but maybe opening a flip-phone is a better gesture for making a plot point.
Will the day come (or has it come) when malware and spyware is so prevalent, a dumb phone is the only way to be secure?
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All the tech pundits who have been proclaiming that dumb phones will be going the way of the manual typewriter and the dodo, reckoned not with how some people just don’t need or care to be connected to the internet 24/7.
I have an ancient iphone 4s that I bought because I wanted to have a decent camera as well as a phone. I get about 5 days per charge, which shows how little it gets used. It has no data plan and it never will.
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Nokiasoft never really stopped making the basic phones. My dad had several of them before getting a QWERTY keypad version so that he can text people, it was still under £50 & running S40. Several years old now and still working.
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I have a flip phone for calls and a tablet for everything else.
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Simple reason, I believe : your son watches old anime (as in, a least 7-8 years old).
In any and all recent ones, the mobiles are smartphones by default (except if some kind of point is made).
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Perfect for crossing borders
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I think there’s still a market for dumb phones. Mainly the durability of the device itself and the long battery makes it perfect for trips and as a backup phone to have during emergencies.
It’s also a decent burner phone i suppose if you’re into that kind of work.
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I had the same arrangement until about two years ago I decided I needed a phone with a good and convenient to use camera, which led me to buy a used smartphone which I use without a data plan.
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For me and my eyes your normal phone sized phone doesn’t have enough screen real estate.
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All technology is cyclical.
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Oh yes, definitely. Pundits declaring the death of the tablet now that we have giant 5" and larger phones do not, I suspect, include very many people with aging eyes.
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As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve reached the age where bifocals aren’t helping me read my 4" phone screen, and I’m pondering either a bigger phone or a phone/tablet arrangement to prevent constant squinting at emails & texts.
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No, that’s my point. That would make sense. But they’re still drawing flip-phones… like, last week.
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Period specific anime? Something to show the character can’t afford a smartphone?
I won’t own a smartphone because I don’t want the distraction stealing time from the many things I want/need to do in meatspace.
I have a flip phone, a tiny DAP for audiobooks and music, and a dedicated portable GPS in my car’s armrest.
People at work sometimes get annoyed at me because I only read emails when I am at my desk. But my boss is okay with it, so the heck with 'em.
Every time I am at a restaurant and see families or friends around adjoining tables, each focused on their phones like goddamn pod people, it just reinforces my decision.
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For me, I want a phone that fits in my pocket without feeling like something Mae West would need to comment on, so I opt for a small phone and a tablet. YMMV.
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Poor @beschizza - he reverts to a dumbphone for ages, and when he decides to go back to having a smartphone again, this happens…
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