Technology

I had a bad feeling about the whole C64 brand when it got overhauled recently. It had vaporware startup written all over it. Guess my gut feeling was on point once again.

I agree it's too much money. But for the record it's not a dumb phone, it is a smartphone running sailfish which can run android apps in a sandbox

However for less money, the Sony Xperia 10 III with Sailfish OS (Xperia 10 mk3) is a better buy.

I love how people throw around "it's too expensive". But did you ever try developing a relatively small batch gadget for the market? Plus as others said, it's not a dumb~~p~~ phone at all.

Agree, was thinking the same thing. I would have considered it at that price..

Higher end camera and a HD DAC (maybe high power audio output?)

Those sorta things are expensive

Also it runs 99% of android apps

Probably also a low volume product which increases price

That's a bit far, isn't it?

Let's see what the article actually says...

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yeah, i'm intrigued by the idea of a pseudo-"dumb" phone to reduce mindless usage, but this is too restrictive to really work as a phone for a lot of people. those banned work and social apps have and will continue to supplant the phone features of a modern phone. if i got one of these, it would have to be a supplementary device, defeating the whole point! and for those of us who can use a "dumb" phone, they can just got get one for a fifth of a price

So I can receive an Email but if it has a link to a website I can’t click it?

It says "Email and work apps are not offered through the Commostore app store". So you can't receive email unless you sideload an email app. And you could also sideload a browser as well to open a link. At which point you just have a smartphone.

Being a flip phone with a T9 keyboard is already a lot of built-in friction. And some people want a device that might intentionally limit them further. But I must admit, this phrasing (and a lot of their phrasing) is kind of weird.

Web browsers are blocked at the system level

Did they ever try to use a browser on a 2" clamshell at 480*640 with a T9 keypad??? It's so painful that it's already for emergency use only, don't need to protect me from myself...

Same. $200 was my cap.

...So is sailfish... But ultimately I think the reason they went with it is that it is much more secure than an android phone as it ensure your privacy is respected. You can still run android applications, but you don't have to worry about Google apps spying on your activity. Similar to Graphene OS where you can actually manage the permissions of Google apps rather than allowing it to have unfettered access to everything. Or heck, you don't even need to install any Google application to be able to use either Graphene or Sailfish. To me, they are just better ecosystems. And heck, sailfish isn't the only one. There is also postmarket os, Mobian, Manjaro ARM, Arch ARM, Ubuntu Touch, PureOS, and many more.

One reason is that the wire from the headphones acted as an antenna.

Sailfish is not proprietary.

Lipstick (the UI) is proprietary. The OS itself is not.

That said, as someone who uses a SailfishOS phone everyday, I both wish Lipstick was OSS and wish this Commodore thing didn't exist. It's only going to bring poor publicity to Sailfish due to its stupid pricetag and featureset.

Same. I'm eyeing that translucent one because they sure did hit that nostalgia button for me on a translucent cell phone from the early 00s.