Commodore Releases Flip Phone

bbartekrutkowski about 3 hours ago 48 commentsRead Article on commodore.net

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Discussion Sentiment

78% Positive

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Discussion (48 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

mnls•5 minutes ago

$120 max and I’m feeling generous. If it had an option to install a messenger of choice (Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp etc) then maybe $140-150.

The whole "people want their data and privacy and all" is becoming the next premium service and/or product and I don’t like that at all.

pflenker•1 minute ago

> If it had an option to install a messenger of choice (Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp etc)

It has that capability. From TFA: > A flip phone with the apps you need: WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram. Music, podcasts, maps, rideshare, a great camera for the moments worth keeping.

cosmic_cheese•8 minutes ago

This is interesting to me for a few different reasons, but one of the bigger ones is that it appears to be a Sailfish device that’s readily available in the US, which to date has been oddly rare. As a dev, Sailfish has caught my eye a few times over the years but no US availability has meant I’ve never had the chance to play with it.

pimterry•about 2 hours ago

Some scepticism here I see, but personally I think this is spot-on. I've been keen on a dumber phone for a while, but losing whatsapp & maps makes it a non-starter for any real use. This is an excellent middle ground. The aesthetic is cool, and building this on Sailfish but with Android compatibility is awesome. Big fan of the concept.

SirFatty•about 1 hour ago

maps exist, you must have missed that... as for whatsapp, I have never used it once, and yet my phone provides "real use" (whatever that means).

ubermonkey•5 minutes ago

Try to understand that the person you're replying to clearly has different needs than you do.

kamma4434•about 1 hour ago

For me, Id say that whatsapp is the phone. It’s so much better than pstn…

towledev•about 1 hour ago

For me, Maps and pods.

If it looked like a RAZR, I'd buy one today

kakacik•about 1 hour ago

Phone like this, especially with whatsapp, is something I can imagine giving to my kids once they are older. They would love the design 1000x more than what biggest players bring on the market these days. Maps & whatsapp cover basically 99% of the needs I want them to be covered (contact with optional video & navigation).

Full phone? No thank you, its enough to look around how it ends up.

rickdeckard•about 1 hour ago

Nice, but a little bit too thin on details to read this as more than "we ordered a Commodore-branded Sailfish-OS phone from an ODM".

If it would be more "considerate" from hardware (or even software) perspective it could be compelling, but from the infos on that page it sounds more like a "memberberry" product

(like e.g. a phone from Kodak, Sega, Atari,... built on the business decision of [product-cost] + [branding] = [potential price-premium of xxx USD])

branon•14 minutes ago

> we ordered a Commodore-branded Sailfish-OS phone from an ODM

Is this true? I did some research on flip phones the other week and I didn't turn up anything running Sailfish. Options seemed limited to

* custom AOSP derivatives (Punkt, Sunbeam, Kyocera, others - most common)

* older KaiOS devices (Nokia 2780 and friends)

* Nokia S30+ devices (traditional proprietary feature-phone firmware, somehow Nokia is still producing these)

Are there any other examples of Sailfish phones being vendored similar to how Commodore is doing theirs?

st_goliath•about 2 hours ago

This is really confusing brand/product combination. Who is it trying to appeal to?

I'm pretty sure the people who have fond memories of growing up with a C64 or watching ToS are of an entirely different generation than those with fond memories of flip phones and cyber/color-puke ads for transparent plastic gadgets.

> BASIC Beige Edition

There's a missed opportunity for a better ToS joke here: "Beige... the final frontier"

reedlaw•17 minutes ago

What do you mean? I'm Gen X but remember all those things. It seems like a reasonable mashup of nostalgia.

Gigachad•40 minutes ago

For a while now I’ve been considering using a flip phone but I just can’t go without modern messaging apps because no one uses sms anymore. This seems like exactly what I wanted.

bilekas•about 2 hours ago

> A flip phone with the apps you need: WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram. Music, podcasts, maps

Honestly, that sounds appealing to me at least. Those are the only communication channels I have, so it suits. Maps if I get lost somewhere. And some spotify. I pretty much have that now, but just with constant privacy breaches and issues I need to stay on top of.

> There's a missed opportunity for a better ToS joke here: "Beige... the final frontier"

I don't think this product will actually ever launch, but if it does, it absolutely MUST have a beige model.

oneeyedpigeon•about 2 hours ago

> Honestly, that sounds appealing to me at least.

Absolutely, same here—but it has to look good. I know that's subjective, but this thing looks atrocious.

risyachka•about 1 hour ago

>> Who is it trying to appeal to?

To me. I want to have access to whatsapp/browser but with constraints of T9 so that I am not tempted to jump from website to website or write a lot.

And I want a phone that does not look like the most lazy thing a company could possibly do with 0 design effort put into it.

Gracana•about 2 hours ago

Retrocomputing Roundtable has talked about the new Commodore company over the course of a couple episodes, and I thought they brought up a good point about “what is it that people actually want from Commodore,” and the best answer they came up with is “to be 12 again.”

A new C64 with modern video output, a disk emulator, a SID chip replacement so you don’t need an original… that’s all good, but beyond that, it’s hard to say. This phone, though? I don’t think anyone saw that coming, and I don’t see how this could possibly be the right move.

nkmnz•about 2 hours ago

I had my first flip phone at the age of ... 12! And I can definitely see myself replacing my iPhone 12 with something like that once its battery has died. I don't need 99% of functionality of a smartphone, because I own (and carry along with me) a computer with a physical keyboard at all times - except those where this phone would do 99.9% of the jobs a smartphone would do.

Edit: just saw the price point. Nevermind, not going to spend more than 50 bucks on that.

Gracana•about 1 hour ago

I'm at my computer now and I took a second look, and honestly that beige edition is damn good nostalgia bait. I still find it to be an odd direction to go, but it does look very good for what it is.

kamma4434•about 1 hour ago

At 50/100$ it would be great but for 500$ I’m not sure

Hugsbox•about 1 hour ago

This looks really awesome! It's pretty hard to wrap my head around the price though. $500 USD (so $700(!!!) Canadian) is pretty bizarre for what it is.

jwr•about 2 hours ago

I am really happy someone is trying something new again. It isn't yet another iOS/Android clone, and I'm here for it!

AdamN•about 1 hour ago

Two things need to change and this would be a hit:

1/ Find My support or similar (for parents who would give this to kids) 2/ WhatsApp?????? That is the ultimate social network so it should definitely not be there by default.

moron4hire•about 1 hour ago

What is the deal with WhatsApp? My family roped me into using it, "because it's better than text messages", we've been using it regularly for over a year, and it's... literally the same thing? I don't get it.

garciasn•38 minutes ago

1. If you're not based in a country where SMS was included free, it was/is advantageous to use something delivered over the Internet, rather than carrier.

2. It allowed for sharing multimedia better.

3. It closed the divide between Android and iOS, giving a singular experience across the two systems.

4. Prior to RCS, it allowed for typing notifications, high resolution media, read receipts, etc whereas SMS did not offer these options.

5. There really isn't any additional benefit for most of these now; but, folks are already ingrained into the ecosystem.

clbrmbr•20 minutes ago

Hmm I imagine using a server to connect to signal/whatsapp or even email, then using a local model to classify and filter and trim messages and forwarding to SMS, and viceversa. I guess the trouble is I’d need many source numbers :thinking:.

grvbck•about 2 hours ago

I really want to like this, but does it bring anything new to the table? I see the same low-effort buzzwords I've seen on other "dumb" phones.

And the design…it looks like a Motorola.

rob74•about 2 hours ago

Well yeah, it looks like a Motorola, and the Motorola flip phones looked like the Star Trek TOS communicators (which they acknowledged by calling their first flip phone the "StarTAC"). And the article also references Star Trek. Sure, the kind of nostalgic people that are in the market for a Commodore phone probably also have the same feelings about Star Trek, so why not...

disastronaut•about 2 hours ago

> but does it bring anything new to the table?

No, but that's the point. It has all of the good parts of a smart phone, none of the bad ones. Do other dumb phones run Signal or Maps?

whilenot-dev•about 1 hour ago

The Punkt. MP02 runs Signal-compatible encrypted messaging, no Maps though: https://www.punkt.ch/products/mp02-4g-minimalist-phone

bigupthewhole•37 minutes ago

What about the apps that we need but not everyone needs? Local train apps, bank identification etc.

Can't really escape it

Maakuth•23 minutes ago

SailfishOS runs most of Android apps fine. For bank ID, system attestation requirements might block them though.

JKCalhoun•36 minutes ago

As a company (or a brand name I suppose, that markets nostalgia?) they're free of course to pursue any product they like.

The retro vibes I'm getting from this one though involve "the Fonz" getting up on waterskis…

fooqux•44 minutes ago

I'm torn on the blocking of web browsers. Yeah, they can be used for getting to Facebook or whatever. But they are also used to access 99% of the world's info now. Seems like if you just wanted to block social media, a DNS block or even firewall would be a better option.

andy_ppp•about 1 hour ago

Damn, I was hoping it would look like an Amiga not a CRT candy iMac

functionmouse•33 minutes ago

my kneejerk reaction was "plastic crap", but I'm happy to see Jolla getting any kind of OEM support.

vintagedave•about 2 hours ago

Also here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48552570 (slightly different URL)

wewewedxfgdf•about 2 hours ago

Seems a major shift in direction and a major distraction.

I don't think the renewed Commodore will last too long.

If you want a brand new C64 get em before they become .... collectors items.

jhbadger•about 2 hours ago

I honestly don't think Perryfractic would be that sad if it doesn't last (assuming he, Lady Fractic, and child and dogs don't become homeless in the bankruptcy) He knows perfectly well that the audience for Commodore nostalgia is small and aging and is just enjoying being part of the scene while it lasts.

bkirkby•41 minutes ago

get grok on it and I'm in

thisislife2•about 1 hour ago

$500??

annagio_•19 minutes ago

what? you made choke.... Where I live, those kind of flip phones used to normal price €€ to 100something€ back then, how we ended at 500? I must ask if it's going to make coffee too haha.

ChrisRR•about 1 hour ago

Meh, I find perryfractic's stuff to be more style over substance. It's interesting that he's releasing products, but not interesting enough for me to buy

butchkass•about 2 hours ago

  -> $500   
  -> Corny nostalgia-bait   
  -> No web browser   
  -> No social media   
  -> System-level DNS blocking

Lmfao. What even is the point of this ? I could see an argument for not allowing to install social media apps, but blocking me arbitrarily from even accessing them through a browser is crazy. The OS is Linux-based too, so there’s no technical constraint, they just went out of their way to add always-on parental control.

For $500 (FIVE HUNDRED) you get a $30 dumb phone with Whatsapp. Wow.

Anonasty•about 2 hours ago

Then it's not literally for you and people who are dependent on social media. It's almost like there is a growing populace who don't want to be there 24/7. Also most people would access the needed sites or social media via laptop or desktop. Not to mention that you feel that it's "corny nostalgia-bait" gives me vibes that you are younger than the target audience of this device even is.

butchkass•41 minutes ago

I use zero social medias and I have a phone that wouldn’t tell me no if I (a grown adult) did want to use them.

In fact I’d believe this is exactly for social media addicts because needing to be blocked from even accessing the domains by your OS to not use them is truly something.

And it is nostalgia bait. Wide sweeping nostalgia bait (C64 and Y2K). Corny nostalgia bait because surfing on pre social media Internet and Y2K aesthetics has been an overdone low-hanging fruit for at least 2 years already.

My main problem is the price. This has barely any more capabilities than a burner AliExpress dumbphone. Their margin is most likely egregious (because you’re paying for nostalgia bait).

wewewedxfgdf•about 2 hours ago

The new Commodore seems to see itself not as a retro nostalgia vintage computer company, but an anti social media company - which explains this product.