Commodore's Callback 8020 Is a $499 Flip Phone That Blocks Social Media and Browsers (techspot.com)
- Reference: 0183917138
- News link: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/06/16/201248/commodores-callback-8020-is-a-499-flip-phone-that-blocks-social-media-and-browsers
- Source link: https://www.techspot.com/news/112781-commodore-callback-8020-499-flip-phone-blocks-social.html
> Commodore says it has developed patent-pending technology that prevents browsers and social media apps from being sideloaded, while DNS-level blocking should stop them from working even if someone finds a way to install them. Users can still sideload nearly anything else if it's not available on the Commostore, but apps designed for doomscrolling remain off limits. That means useful services such as WhatsApp, SMS, Signal, Telegram, WeChat, Spotify, Uber, Lyft, maps, podcasts, QR scanning, voice notes, and hotspot support work, but the likes of Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Gmail, and browsers do not.
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> The Callback 8020 has a 3.25-inch 480 x 640 internal display, a MediaTek Helio G81 chip, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a 48MP Sony rear camera, an autofocus front camera, dual SIM support, USB-C, a headphone jack, FM radio, and something many of us miss from flagships: a removable battery. There's no 5G as Commodore argues that 4G VoLTE and Wi-Fi better fit a device meant to discourage constant streaming and scrolling. [...] The main screen is touch-capable but disabled by default, while the outer display keeps things deliberately sparse, showing basics such as time, battery, signal, and notifications via dome LEDs.
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> The 8020 name is a nod to Commodore's 8010 modem from 1980. The phone comes in ProtoPET White, SX Silver, BASIC Beige, a translucent Starlight Edition, and a gold Founders Edition with a 24-karat gold-plated Commodore button. Standard models start at $499, the Starlight version is $549.99, and the Founders Edition costs $640. Preorders open June 30, with shipping targeted for winter.
You can watch the launch ad [3]on YouTube .
[1] https://commodore.net/callback/
[2] https://www.techspot.com/news/112781-commodore-callback-8020-499-flip-phone-blocks-social.html
[3] https://youtu.be/ixD_fqrnA_c?si=YjO9trxzGir9pGQ-
Brand necrophilia at its worst (Score:4, Interesting)
This is the retrocomputing equivalent of the Trump T1 phone, and I'm far from the only person saying this. Fundamentally, there are two groups of people in this world: People who think having a YouTube influencer buy a venerable brand to "reboot" it is a good idea, and people who recognize this for the quintessential grift it is. Oh, and then there are people who don't have any emotional investment in Commodore - but based on a sampling of the people I communicate with regularly, there are very few of those. The kindest thing that can be said about Perifractic is that he started out running a reasonably interesting retrocomputing channel, but he slid through a one-way sphincter straight down the colon of SEO and YouTube monetization, never to return. (Pointlessly long intros and stretched content to maximize ad impressions and keep the "suspense" coming to meet minimum view time quotas, careful scrubbing of language, clickbait thumbnails and video titles - everything bad you can think of is there).
What is being done with the Commodore indicia now is a deplorable embarrassment to the community of Commodore collectors, historians and aficionados, on par with the ludicrous "PET phone" that was created by some bootleg company in Italy a few years ago.
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> What is being done with the Commodore indicia now is a deplorable embarrassment to the community of Commodore collectors
The phone is way overpriced, but I can see what they are trying to do. I would actually like a phone with real buttons, removable storage and battery. I'm just not going to pay $500 for it.
And their new Commodore 64 replacement looks genuinely good. Sure, it's a niche product, but if you want to play with an old C64 and can't be bothered find a good vintage example, then build/buy and adapter to connect to a modern screen, then build/buy some way to get software onto it... this FPGA version fills that niche
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> I would actually like a phone with real buttons, removable storage and battery.
I kind of miss physical qwerty keyboards, but definitely have no nostalgic feelings for the awful era of T9 texting. The problems with physical keyboards though, is that you either have to give up a bunch of screen space, or end up with a real chonker of a folding/sliding phone to accommodate the keyboard portion. It's been tried and for the most part ends up being too much compromise for something that, unless you're writing a novel on your phone, you probably don't actually need.
The T9 style flip phone
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> I kind of miss physical qwerty keyboards, but definitely have no nostalgic feelings for the awful era of T9 texting. The problems with physical keyboards though, is that you either have to give up a bunch of screen space, or end up with a real chonker of a folding/sliding phone to accommodate the keyboard portion. It's been tried and for the most part ends up being too much compromise for something that, unless you're writing a novel on your phone, you probably don't actually need.
> The T9 style flip phone design (which is what this phone is) is really the worst of both worlds - it wastes a ton of space that otherwise could've gone towards a larger screen and is still absolute garbage for text entry.
I'd be happy with T9 if it was as slick as the old Nokias. I even bought a Nokia 2720 a couple of years ago, hoping to find the same experience I had in 2001. Unfortunately, since then the T9 text entry has become quite laggy and they have tweaked the handling of capitals and punctuation so it was actually slower to type a proper sentence on a "modern" T9 keypad. I still keep the 2720 around, because it's very compact and works as a hotspot for a real computer. In my case I use a GPD MicroPC, which isn't mu
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> there are people who don't have any emotional investment in Commodore
People who are too young to have used a Commodore or who were adults when it came out and who never had one at home, university, or work come to mind.
But yeah just about any American who was school-aged between the late 1970s and the late 1980s probably used a Commodore computer or gaming system somewhere. Throw in the Amiga users, K-12 teachers, and it's a whole lot of people.
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> People who are too young to have used a Commodore
I was actually being sarcastic there by stating that the group of people without a real connection to Commodore is insignificantly small - not that it's super important. People who are really Commodore enthusiasts like me loathe the tosser who owns the Commodore paperwork ("Commodore" per se ceased to exist long ago), and the zombie influencer Temu entity into which it is being fashioned. People who are too young to be Commodore natives are consuming the fast-fashion aspect of it the way they'd buy an iPho
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> This is the retrocomputing equivalent of the Trump T1 phone
The Trump T1 phone is just a gilded HTC U24 Pro. The controversial aspects of it are entirely related to its association with the president, and that it was originally claimed that it would be US-made. As far as its actual smartphone functionality goes though, it is an entirely unremarkable mid-range Android phone.
This Commodore phone, on the other hand, is a far more niche product with some substantial limitations compared against what the market typically expects.
You know it kind of bugs me (Score:4, Insightful)
To see commodore or the husk that is commodore taking advantage of people who have mental issues when those people with the mental issues are looking for something like this because another company is taking advantage of them.
There's just something uniquely fucked up about a clearly substandard product that exists specifically to cater to someone who can't just uninstall Facebook and twitter, and again I am not blaming people for that Lord knows I have my own mental issues as my detractors will no doubt a test to. But there's something really fucked up about selling what's very obviously a $150 device, I mean for fuck sakes it's a cheap Media tech phone with a cheap display, and charging a premium because the phone blocks apps that the person buying it knows they can be tricked into installing even though those apps make their lives objectively worse.
It's also possible that this is going to get marketed to kids but again you have a bunch of people doing a fucked up thing and another bunch of people selling a product to solve the problem caused by the first fucked up thing. How about we just don't do the fucked up things in the first place?
It really is peak capitalism though I'll give them that. One group of capitalists Selling me a substandard solution to a problem created by another group of capitalists.
Re: You know it kind of bugs me (Score:2)
It would be nice to be able to uninstall all the bloatware and spyware that comes pre-installed on most phones without having to jailbreak the phone itself. Mostly because jailbreaking is a continual game of cat and mouse.
Re: You know it kind of bugs me (Score:4, Informative)
Phones that run stock Android are usually pretty good at letting you uninstall/disable anything you don't want. On the iOS side, Apple is also pretty good about letting you get rid of the preloaded apps (which are all first party - Apple doesn't allow preloaded 3rd party bloatware) you have no interest in using.
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I just buy my phones directly and throw a Sim in them so I can uninstall anything I want.
I remember years ago I had one of the old Huawei ascend phones which was the first really cheap Android. It could just barely run angry birds and that was a big selling point. I didn't care about angry birds but it was nice to have a cheap Android phone back then but it barely had enough storage to run the operating system and I remember being pretty pissed off that some stupid bubble bubble clone was marked as a sy
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Some aspects of this comment I really like to the point where I think it might have been a better and more productive FP than the actual winner of that silly contest. But in particular I think it deserve a Funny mod for the closing paragraph.
However, I disagree on the main point. If the objective is to sincerely block them (as with a whitelist approach), then it is not going to work with a "substandard" approach. The defenses will need to be stronger and even smarter than the offenses, and there as SOOOO ma
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It's not the approach that substandard it's the quality of the phone. It's a $500 device that you can buy the equivalent without the blockages for about 150 bucks.
I mentioned Twitter and Facebook has the kind of places that someone who is having trouble with doomscrolling wants to avoid and therefore wants a device that refuses to install those apps. That's presumably the selling point here you can't install the kind of apps that you would use to Doom scroll with. You're not searching Twitter you're was
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I think it's more of a hipster thing to buy something like this. You know, the same sort of people who just have to tell you they only eat organic food, don't own a TV, or refuse to use a smartphone, etc. Because the paradox of this sort of product is that it still requires you have enough willpower to buy a device that prevents you from feeding your social media addiction in the first place, and if that's the case, you could just have a friend set up the parental controls on your existing Android or iPho
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Dude hipsters don't exist anymore. The kind of young hip dude or dudette that would qualify as a hipster is so thoroughly beaten down these days they've just faded into nothing. They're busy putting 60 hours a week in at Uber for just enough gas money to do it another week.
The core market for this is neurodivergent people who are being actively harmed by.. I don't want to call it social media because it's not. We need a new word to describe the kind of nastiness that Twitter and Facebook do where they a
Re: You know it kind of bugs me (Score:2)
Peak capitalism should at least succeed commercially. This looks more like a bad idea that will sell maybe a dozen units and then be forgotten. So it remains faithful to the spirit of Commodore's business model at least :)
Could somebody remind me... (Score:2)
Why did Commodore die in the first place?
No, it was not the price of their computers (they were _very_ cheap for what they were, always!)
No, it was not the quality of their computers (maybe not top-of-the-line, but not bad!)
It was the STOOPID business decisions they insisted on doing, over and over.
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> It was the STOOPID business decisions they insisted on doing, over and over.
Yeah, but this isn't a stupid business decision, it's just an influencer grift like Logan Paul-branded energy drinks. Sooner they run out of money and sell the indicia to someone who actually has an investment in the historical value of the brand, the better (but I don't think this will happen; it's going to go the way of Magnavox and RCA and Polaroid and (...) and just be a zombie brand on random shanzai junk.
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Many things that are foisted on the market are not necessary. Google "did people, like, actually live in the 17th century?"
When did doomscrolling first become a thing ? (Score:2)
“It countered the days worth of doom scrolling!” and this association with politics in a pre-COVID context:
“ [1]Right Twitter [wordpress.com]. I need some joyful book recommendations please. Heart-warming page-turners to get me through the nighttime feeding hours and distract from endless social media/political doom scrolling.”
[1] https://archeothoughts.wordpress.com/2020/07/06/on-the-origin-of-doom-scrolling/
As long as you don't actually need a smart phone (Score:2)
As long as you don't actually need a smart phone or security, this will be a great throwback to a simpler time. For only $499, if you act now.
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No one actually needs a smart phone, nor does a smart phone provide any additional security to anything.
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> No one actually needs a smart phone
I can assume from this statement that you don't own an EV.
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> I can assume from this statement that you don't own an EV.
This is on an anecdote, but I rented an EV from Hertz in Colorado last year. I had no trouble using a public charger just by tapping a credit card. At the time I didn't have a phone at all.
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I've actually had the polar opposite of that experience once. Prior to Tesla opening their network to non-Tesla EVs, I tried charging at a OUC DCFC charger in Orlando. Had no end of problems with their poorly designed app and was completely unable to charge. Ultimately just decided to drive slowly on back roads and made it home anyway.
It'd be less of an issue if charging stations were as ubiquitous as gas stations, but as things currently stand, the situation of "oops, I can't charge here because they re
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> No one actually needs a smart phone, nor does a smart phone provide any additional security to anything.
I agree 100%. Unfortunately my bank has recently decreed that customers can't log into their online banking without first authorizing it thru their app. So now I need to put the same password into two devices. Seems to me that would double the attack surface, but those billionaires think they know better.
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> As long as you don't actually need a smart phone
As Slashvertisement-ish as this feels, I still clicked through out of morbid curiosity and it seems like the phone does still function as a basic touchscreen-enabled smartphone when a 3rd party app requires it. So, if you need to use a DCFC network's charging app for your EV, or want to order a McLardburger with one of those perpetual X% off coupons for mobile orders, or place a drive-up order for groceries from Walmart - you still can.
I think that's kind of the point behind this - to unplug from social me
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So... just as much a douche and in the exact same way?
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> So... just as much a douche and in the exact same way?
IMHO, it just feels more douchey to me when someone goes all old man yells at cloud because things change but they're stubbornly stuck in the past. [1]Reminds me of this skit. [youtube.com]
Personally, I like just ordering my food on my smartphone and it just magically appears on a counter for me to grab without having to deal with a human.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzb355qT8RI
hosts file (Score:2)
Can I install /etc/hosts on Android and block social media, AI, trackers, and ads? Because that seems more convenient than spending $500 on a phone.
Needs adjusting (Score:2)
Blocks email? You need email and that has nothing to do with doomscrolling. Spam is pretty under control at this point. Scammers will directly call and text you so just having a phone is an issue. I also need mapping apps and I need my browser for things like banking and such.
I could see giving this phone to someone who can't control themselves online like romance scam victims.
A Bit Disappointed (Score:2)
I was really hoping for something like a Retromod Commodore Amiga 500 with HDMI out and modern I/O ports, that could dual boot Linux and AmigaOS.
I imagine it being able to be run in "Retro Mode" for classic games or distraction free word processing, but then could be flipped to "Modern Mode" for watching YouTube and browsing the web.
Instead, we got a flip phone. Rats.
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> I was really hoping for something like a Retromod Commodore Amiga 500 with HDMI out and modern I/O ports, that could dual boot Linux and AmigaOS.
It's not an Amiga 500 but they do make a Commodore 64 using an FPGA for accurate emulation, with all the mod cons like HDMI, USB etc. [1]https://commodore.net/computer... [commodore.net]
[1] https://commodore.net/computer/
$299 (Score:2)
For what it does, it's priced too high for me.
I'd prefer a Sinclair unit anyway!
The Sinclair telephone ... (Score:1)
... will be [1]this [wikipedia.org] but priced at $99.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-can_telephone
A step in the right direction (Score:2)
Looking past what it's designed not to do, the fact that it has:
1) A removable / replaceable battery
2) A headphone jack
3) USB-C
are definitely steps in the right direction.
( albeit a pricey one )
Bring back the Micro-SD storage while we're at it instead of charging us extra for the " more storage " model.
It's absolute insanity that folks throw away $1k+ phones because we can't easily swap out a $25 battery.
It's absolute insanity they removed the headphone jack to force us to buy / replace battery powered h
Pick a damn standard, you say? (Score:1)
Um, [1]okay [xkcd.com].
[1] https://xkcd.com/927/
I like the concept, but.. (Score:2)
I like it, but I would pay no more than $200
Who is this for? (Score:2)
It's got a butt ugly design, it's roundy, transparent, plasticy, has the commodore logo on it, primitive, and it's got a SIM card.
You know what that means? It's still fully trackable, it will give you false feelings of safety, a phone without the bloat for sure, and maybe it's best as a 30$ Nokia simple-phone (yes they sell those), but this is a 500$ simple phone in disguise, and with a design that is so ugly that I can't even see it sell to people like me who actually used and coded Demoscene stuff back in
Whitelisting? That trick never works (Score:2)
Blocks innovation. Dare I say anti-freedom? And the motivations of the "evildoers" will drive them past the safeguards.
But I do have a funny smartphone anecdote to report. Trying to find an old picture yesterday in response to a human query. The google's Photos app was not being cooperative. We could both remember this as a relatively trivial task on the webbrowser version of the app, but it seems like a case of "no can do" on the smartphone. Finally gave up and stuffed the phone back into my pocket.
A few m
Re: (Score:2)
Anti-freedom ?
If you don't like it, don't buy it there are a ton of alternative
Be a great phone to give kids though, you know that parental responsibility thing where they can keep kids away from the BS.