this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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chapotraphouse
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It still baffles me that having a NOT "smart" phone is more expensive by far than a "smart" phone.
I own a smart phone, yet I am stupid as hell. Curious!
Debating seeing if I could get one of those twenty year old spring loaded phones they made for the Matrix sequels and getting it compatible with a service now as a bit
Actually impossible. The device was carrier-locked to Sprint PCS, who ran a CDMA network. It was decommissioned by T-Mobile (who bought them out) in 2020.
It is unlikely that there are any networks in the world that would still support tech that ancient.
Sorry for seriousposting a shitpost! In a past life, I worked for AT&T (TDMA 2G gang representing!).
Nah you're good lol, I just kinda yearn for a modern gizmo with some swivel screen and clickyclack physical keyboard
Aww.
I miss when phones were goofy doohickeys instead of glass rectangles, I had the original RAZR and a friend with the Sidekick that I always thought was sick
Debated getting the Sony PSP Phone when that was new and am kinda glad I didn't but that was neat to me too
There was a GSM version of that Nokia phone from the original Matrix film sold around the world. Are GSM radio bands from the late ‘90s/early 2000s still in use? If so it would presumably still work for calls and texts in some countries.
The spring activated thing in The Matrix was only in the movie though. On the real phone you had to actually pull that plate down yourself, which made the phone seem like a complete disappointment back in the day when I once met someone who actually had one. This person could sort of fiddle it with their hand to kinda push it out one smooth motion, but it just wasn’t quite right.
I'm not aware of any. North American 3G shut down recently as well.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/185117610516?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=inyp6qrvsya&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
De-googling (FOSSifying?) my digital life has been very costly, not in money but in time, effort, and loss of convenience. I make it work for me just fine, I just wish it was easier to bring my friends and family with me.
Do you have any recommendations on how to effectively do this now that you've gone through it?
there are many guides out there that are going to be a lot more organized than asking a random user.
https://tycrek.github.io/degoogle/
https://redlib.pussthecat.org/r/degoogle/wiki/index
etc.
It really depends on your usage (which products, for what, how much, etc) and your tolerance for spending time vs money vs inconvenience.
Thanks comrade
I endorse what Chronicon posted, those guides are good. YMMV but for me the turning point was switching to grapheneOS on mobile. I've still yet to completely detach from Google but I'm enjoying the process.
The one thing I'm struggling to get rid of, eventhough I hate it to high heavens, is google messages. The features I do like are great but they keep adding crap I will never use(Gemini) and I'm naturally concerned with privacy. But if everyone in your life is still on one platform, it's so hard to switch.
I quit using google messaging when they killed Hangouts and Voice. Sorry, wish I had a recommendation for ya. Definitely feel ya about platform woes, and this is coming from a guy who got his IRL loved ones to switch to Signal back in 2017. I wanna get my peeps on Element/Matrix but already I've run into some resistance... so it goes. Good luck comrade.
I've never used google messages, what features from it do you like? What sets it apart?
The main one was the automatic spam check where it'll move percieved spam messages to another tab. Most of the time it's correct and it catches all of the political spam. I also like the rcs support too since most of my friends have iphones. Then the last thing is the Ui/UX which I like, easy to attachment pics and emojis
Interesting. I see. I barely get any spam texts so I probably wouldn't find it useful.
Is there anything you did to not get spam text or are you chosen? Some of the ones I get aren't even selling things, just saying "hey hows it going"
Aside from being careful about which companies I share my phone number with, maybe spam texts are just more prevalent in your country overall?
My Nokia cost me $35. Or are you talking about other costs?
I'm glad that you proverbially got yours. I have seen no such offers for affordable not-smart phones with coverage in my area.
I'm in the U.S. This is TMobile. When I used Verizon I had a flip phone that cost me maybe $80. I just did a quick search and found flip phones for AT&T for $60. That covers >90% of the U.S. cell plan market share.
That's great. I'm checking right now and I may be in that <10% area. Glad you got yours.
Even if you have a smaller carrier they probably still use one of the big three networks , in which case the cheap phones will be compatible.
I want to be clear that I'm not saying "fuck you, I got mine." I didn't get a special deal or win a raffle or anything. You're certainly right that they do try to hide the fact that it's at all possible to get a cheap phone. But contrary to appearances, you can probably save money here. If not now, then the oligopoly will probably invade your section of the country soon enough.
I may have to dig around if it really is possible in my area to get a cheaper not-smart phone. If I can keep my current number, even better.
I had to order mine separately from my carrier, but I verified with them that they could activate it and all that - I think you'd use the same SIM card and therefore wouldn't have to change your number but I don't really know how that works. When I've had to change phones I just tell the people at the carrier store that I have certain red lines I absolutely will not cross (budgetary and otherwise) and whatever their misgivings or confusion they've worked with me on that. They still try to upsell me whenever I have a technical support question, of course.
I'm in a fairly remote area, but I may take a little trip and see what I can do.
Good luck!