HN Reader

> "why would it format "city Hall" with just one capital? Commit to capitals or no capitals, don't do this awkward mix!"

I don't have a great solution but I suspect I do know the cause of this on iPhones, which I'll mention for anyone else curious:

I'd bet that he has a contact saved called Something Hall, and the autocorrect isn't clever enough to realise that he isn't typing the name of that contact and just automatically capitalises the H. (It's not 100% of the time, but it is ridiculously often that it wrongly assumes you're using the name from a contact, in my experience.)

I wish there was a way to turn this off, but afaik there isn't - I've removed or edited a contact's surname for a few words that I type as non-name nouns often enough that it got annoying.

Of course I might be wrong, maybe there are other causes for incorrect capitals.

I really enjoy these posts where people use new or weird devices in their lives to see how they fit. That said, this is missing one crucial piece of information: the price. The Minimal Phone is 399 USD for 128GB/6GB and 499 for 256GB/8GB.

I picked up one of these and have been having a number of issues, but have somehow managed to stick with it and my life is much improved as a result. Device usage has been much, much more intentional. I wouldn't say I'm cured of my scrolling addiction, but the time I spend scrolling has been relegated to just the latest hours of the night, and even then, significantly less.

The trick about this phone is that because it is full fat Android, everything is possible. But because it is low refresh rate black and white screen with a physical keyboard, everything is also a pain in the ass. Rather than hear a chat message notification and immediately get the urge to pull out my phone and engage, I actually now get slightly annoyed because typing out a proper response with proper grammar is going to be a pain in the ass.

The company is pretty lousy and doesn't communicate well. They have missed every single deadline they've ever set for themselves. The software is glitchy but usable (I have all the same issues mentioned in the article with the autocorrect, refresh settings, fingerprint, etc). All those things are fixable and hopefully do.

The phone itself is very weak hardware and the screen protector and case still haven't shipped. I had my phone in my back pocket and it did not survive that, I got two cracks along the edge and a slight bend. Still works though, but I have switched it to my front pocket.

Android Auto works great in both my vehicles, so maps/navigation are not an issue. Bitwarden works. Duo auth works. Banking apps work. Roon works. Podcasts work. Things that I need, that other dumb phones can't provide.

But the critical thing is, I am trying to avoid using the phone because it is just a pain in the ass to do things on. For this, honestly, I'd pay 10x the list price because it has given me so much of my life back. I actually had a mini crisis when I realized I was bored, with nothing to do in the evenings after work, because I had so much time back. (Don't worry, channeling that time into productive hobbies now).

I would highly highly highly recommend this if you want to spend less time on your phone but need certain functions a smartphone provides.

I've been searching for dumb phones these last weeks to avoid using my phone too much. But it comes with issues:

- my bank requires a smartphone

- whatsapp desktop requires a smartphone too

This smartphone could be an alternative: no videos, you can still use third party applications, perfect for reading.

Thank you for sharing!

I was far from sold. The entire article feels more like a lifestyle challenge on YouTube than a convincing life change.

The author makes great sacrifices to make the phone work in his life. He mentions: - The phone needs to be put in his pocket a certain way or it takes input - The phone loses keypresses when typing quickly - It can only render readable Google maps when set to the slowest setting - The phone forgets your fingerprint and requires pin, which suffers from dropped inputs

The author brings up the point that 2 developers work on the phone. The author doesn't mention, but I think should mention, that this phone WILL have vulnerabilities not found on flagship phones. Anyone security minded is going to be lost here.

Overall, I want a phone like this, but the sacrifices are way too numerous to justify it.

Reminds me of that phone that had a regular screen on one side and e-ink on the other side. Maybe someone should make a foldable where the outside screen is an e-ink and the inside a regular foldable OLED.

The keyboard is a huge negative for me. Why would I want a significant chunk of my screen space taken up by a keyboard on a device that I'm aiming to use primarily for reading?

Great post, thanks to you I’ve realised I use the “how much am I reading” to how burnt out am I proxy.

Quite tempted by the phone, but predominately a physical book reader.

For me it's not an either-or scenario. I use my Kindle when I'm bed, my Calibre e-reader (or preview, if pdf) on my MBP, and Moonreader+ on my Android phone. I'd say the ratio of usage goes like 10-15% for the Kindle, 25-35% MBP, and the majority of time Moonreader. I wish I could find a way to sync book status and highlights across the three platforms, but...

I've wished for years that there would be an actual e-ink only laptop. Or (even better) an aftermarket e-ink screen for my current laptop, because I'm quite happy with the rest of the machine.

Wait, so this thing actually shipped? To real users? I remember looking into it and concluding that it'd probably be vapeware, given the aggressive pre-release marketing and the founder's track record.

If it's a real device then that's awesome! If it wasn't for Zinwa I'd probably be getting one.

I could probably live without iMessage (though I wouldn't love it), but the one thing I really cannot live without is a great camera. My child is still young, my wife and I are still enjoying ourselves (when we have time), and I really do cherish the photos. I know I could get a separate camera, but it's not the as being able to snap photos spontaneously.

What I really want is a super reliable way to block social media from my iPhone, only allowing a short window per day.

I use "Freedom", but it doesn't reliably block things, and I end up cheating.

e-Ink seems like the perfect solution to : how do I make my phone functional for when I need to use it, but unpleasant enough I don’t want to use it

At the moment I have my iphone set to black-and-white but still find myself idly browsing

I think I’ll buy this phone

Personally I've downgraded my phone intentionally, from an iPhone 14 Pro to an iPhone SE 2020 (the previous iPhone I had). It's slow, it overheats, the battery is short. But that's what I want -- the friction makes me really consider every use of the phone, and the occasional slowdowns frustrate me just enough to reconsider taking it out of my pocket for everything. It kind of "works" for me. Might get a battery pack though hahah

We really need better software for this type of phone to take off.

The technology is needed to avoid short video / social media addiction but a working map app is a must.

Can you get root on this thing?

Can I recompile all (or at least most, modulo firmware blobs) of the software running on it?

Obviously I'm not expecting Pixel/GrapheneOS levels of openness. But I'm hoping it's not Samsung-level icky.

I've been using a BigMe HiBreak pro and it's pretty good! I have had issues with the usb port but after removing some cruft I really like it. Easy on the eyes, full android and I can watch videos in a pinch.

I find it makes it easier to do something else with my free time.

The device in the article is $400 (and obviously requires migrating to a new phone.) Don't get me wrong, it does seem like a decent solution - but for those looking for a lower friction (or lower cost) way to use your phone less, this is my system, which works very well: 1) lock away your phone in a separate box or room away from where you are, 2) make the phone as unappealing as possible (grayscale, disable animations, don't upgrade models, fill up storage so it's very slow), 3) increase friction on the device itself; uninstall any interesting apps and use "one sec" to block stuff in the browser.

With these interventions I went from using my phone for hours a day to using it (most days) only when necessary, and some days not at all. Feels very liberating!

As far as reading goes, I switched back to physical books.

1. I type faster with a touchscreen because I use the swipe finger thing, so a physical keyboard is not really that interesting

2. I doubt that keyboard will last forever, it will probably get quite dirty or tired.

3. I don't think an ink screen saves that much power.

4. I just have a cheap smartphone without 4G internet, 2 euros/months, 50MB in case I need to read some email. That way I will not stay on my phone for long.

5. I watch movies and shows on my phone, actually.

6. Physical books feel better, honestly.

Although I can find it useful to write code with it, but again, apps are not tailored to write code, the toolchains are not made for it.

Ditch the keyboard and price it like a kindle and I'm sold.

Can't win ... I really want to go this direction. Someone mentioned the Boox Palma which looks great ... and then I imagine taking or viewing photos/videos with it.

And then I get back to - ok, just get a normal e-reader and normal mobile phone.

Someone school me on why I'm wrong, thanks.

I have bought multiple ereaders over the years and i always go back to my phone. The main reason is convenience. I always have my phone with me and usually don't have room or forget the ereader.

I like the novelty of a phone with a real keyboard. And also the joy of having real buttons to press when wanting to type something in. I made 3 errors in typing up to this point, and I had to go slowly to get things input that well. I miss keys all the time, despite each successive phone being bigger than the last.

The phone I loved the best was a Motorola F3, which was I think the first e-ink phone ever. It looks like this phone is an worthy successor.

Oh my god a physical keyboard phone in 2025, I just got up and danced around the room.

Sanity is returning to our world.

There is hope. WAGMI.

I'm currently also considering if I should go to that, or not.

Most of my life I've been using phones with keys - the Treo/Centro series with PalmOS, then (due to working there) the Nokia N900, N9 and Jolla devices. The best ever on screen keyboard I've encountered was on the N9, followed by Jolla (unfortunately, we never implemented swype there). A had a regular Android phone for a while after that, but pretty much all Android on screen keyboards are just horrible - so I went from actively doing stuff on my phone to just reading stuff, and using it as notifier for getting my computer.

Things changed when some companies did end up doing new phones with keyboards: I had the Planet computers Gemini, followed by the Cosmo. Both had great keyboards, but a lot of other issues. Next were Unihertz Titan and Titan slim (which I'm still using) - both also nice devices, but starting to age, not really getting updates anymore, and putting something else on there is problematic due to Unihertz not releasing kernel sources.

The way I'm using my phones also changed again - I fully stopped using banking apps on the phone. The modern way is to combine an authenticator into the banking app, and treat the banking app as having built in two factor auth, which is just stupid. I can use a separate token with all of my banks - but using the smartphone app would forcefully sign me up to using them as authenticator, so I can't use them anymore.

A lot of other applications also are pretty much useless nowadays - most are just wrapped web pages anyway, and even for the ones which are not: Nothing has long living auth tokens anymore (which used to be one of the main selling points ) - and if I have to log in to not regularly used applications every time I use them it's easier and more convenient to just use the corresponding website on the computer anyway.

So we're back to just wanting a phone I can read on, and that sends me notifications - and the keyboard should allow me to even respond without taking out my computer. The main issue with the device is that I don't need Android for doing that - and with the ongoing enshitification of Android I'm not really sure anymore if it's worth the trouble of getting another device, or if I should just go towards "when I'm not on my computer I'm offline" again.

Sure the device may have some rough edges. But any sand thrown into the addiction/ enshttification engine is great.

reading the comments and link on my minimal phone :D hope they soon fix the bugs and finally ship the accessories, love the phone so far. my main device for two months now.

It doesn’t seem to have page flip buttons, which is a pity.

Can anyone with one of these confirm if Android Auto works with it?

After I bricked my pro max in the sauna last month, I bought a used 13 mini to test out how using a much smaller phone would be. Learnings after a ~month so far is that, it's not much less distracting and the tiny battery + poor perf are real limitations when travelling. Going to buy the new pro max when it comes out next month.

> I now feel weird posting Nice Photos to social media. Who are those for, really?

I have a private Instagram account with ~100 followers of people I actually know.

And I still agree with this although I'm trying hard not to. I'm just trying not to be cynical.

But I hate this feeling of my life experiences seeming like they require external validation.

Am I doing things just so that others know I did them? Is it just a curated feed I can look back on by myself? Social media feels like it steals our lives away from us.