Smart phone detox: Nokia 8110 review

I picked this phone up a while back to detox from using an LG Phoenix smartphone. I had to stop using the smart-phone for one primary reason: it was legitimately hurting my hands. I like to practice guitar and drums and I was suffering from a major bout of "Smart phone claw" or whatever it's called, where I couldn't bend my hands properly and was in pain from using the smart phone for ALL of my web-browsing, and texting

This phone is unique in that it allows for 4G LTE service, on AT&T and works flawlessly. It also allows for two SIM cards to be active at once, both a regular SIM and a smaller "Micro SD." I'm not sure why you'd need two SIMs, or who could even afford such a setup, but if you need that, this phone will work with it.

The phone itself is smaller than you'd think, and therein lies the major issue. Because it's so small, the keypad is almost unusable. The buttons are miniature and don't allow you to text (SMS) effectively whatsoever.

The major plus of this phone is that it's actually comfortable to use and talk with. The 4G LTE service works perfectly and phone-calls sound very clear. It's an interesting sensation to experience a great cell connection on a phone based on technology from a past era. It's actually awesome.

The other major plus is with the ability to tether the 4G signal to create a wireless network. In fact, that's worth the price-tag of the phone, in a sense. I made the decision that the Smart phone was hurting my hands so I just took my SIM out of it and put it into the Nokia 8110. From there I tether my phone's "Pay as you go" 4G LTE Data plan and create a WiFi network from the phone and instead of having "Smart phone claw" I just use a laptop (to connect to the Nokia 8110 WiFi network), like I used to back before Smart phones existed. This way I don't hurt my hands and I limit my usage. If I'm at the coffee shop, or donut shop, I don't spend the entire time on my phone, because this Nokia 8110 doesn't allow for that. Instead I just wait until later on to fire up the laptop if I want to use the Internet. That's the main draw for me.

The phone runs on a new OS called "KaiOS" that is popular in India, and it's decent, but utterly useless compared to what you can do with a Smartphone. In terms of an experiment, I do enjoy using this device as a traditional cell-phone, but in terms of replacing a smart-phone with this, it's not even a comparison. When it comes to mobile phones and how I like to interact with others and also use the Internet in a day-to-day sense, I'm still searching for the perfect handheld device. Until next time. - Mike

Smart phone detox: John's Phone (Business version) review

I used this phone for about two years, and it solved a major issue for me. It was simple. I used to like to drink on the weekends, and this led to the occasional drunk text to a former female friend. She didn't mind the texting when we were going steady, but when I couldn't seem to stop even years after she had unceremoniously dumped me, she laid down the law. "Stop, or else."

I knew I liked to drink every Saturday at a local bar. I'd walk there at 9:45 am and the side door would open at 10:00 to let in a crew of about five or six of us to watch English Premier League games.

Now, at this point (I was 28 years old) I had stopped drinking on weekends and at night, I essentially only drank on Saturdays, and during the English Premier League season. Still, I needed to avoid the "or else." John's Phone solved this problem for me.

The phone does not handle SMS. I believe any incoming SMS may be stored on the SIM latently, but outgoing texts are more or less impossible without the help of say, a computer and some serious hacking skills. The phone book is hand-written just like the old days when men carried a "little black book" of numbers they might have collected from strange women.

This phone's speaker is essentially a copper penny wired up to vibrate with low-fidelity. What's sort of amusing is the headset, which I did use somewhat often. I used to call into the caller-line for the Howard Stern show every morning. I'd often be put on hold, for the full duration of the show. You listen in as you wait to potentially get on the air, and I'd do this, through my John's Phone while I walked around the city by myself.

I'd probably still be using this phone, but AT&T shut down 3G service entirely and I had too much into my number to switch to T-Mobile in order to just preserve the usage of this device. In order to solve my other issue? I quit drinking entirely. No more issues, but hey, I'm still waiting for the John's Phone 4G.

Is acceptance of "smart devices" a de-facto credential for upstanding citizenship? Why?

Back when I was in my teens, I used to love using the computer. The days of the giant beige CRT monitors, AOL Instant Messenger, KaZaa Lite, IRC, Windows 2000, and Netscape Navigator are over, and these programs are mostly relics of a bygone era. Still, I seem to mentally wax poetic about the days of Ethernet almost daily.

My daydreaming isn't based solely in nostalgia. I believe those lost user interfaces were in fact, much better. Many of the old-school programs I listed worked just fine. Reading and replying to email, chatting with friends and even sharing files with one another... it all happened more or less seamlessly. I actually felt more connected to my network of friends back then.

All of my 2004 swag has been stripped from me. But this wasn't my choice, it was forced by an agenda from large corporations to sign the masses to smart-device-centric cell phone contracts. In place of what was already working just fine, we've been shoved into submission to endless algorithmic "gunk" (for lack of a better term) in exchange for acceptance and perceived normalcy.

Now, all of the sudden, if you're smartphone-less, or even Internet-less you're perceived differently. You may even have trouble finding and holding a job. Isn't that a bit much? What ever happened to a land line? Time off from full connectivity at all times?

Ever try to pry a cell phone from someone's hands? Their reaction can be dramatic, and for good reason. As we all know smart phones contain a plethora of sensitive information about someone: their personal messages, private photographs, banking information, logged in accounts, and so on.

The difference, of course, is you can't fit an old-school giant desktop computer into your front pocket, and maybe there were benefits to this.

At this moment I'm swamped with tech. I own a mini desktop computer, a micro-computer, an iPod, and a LG Phoenix smart phone, and a flip phone with Internet. It's a lot.

I noticed my hands were cramping from holding the smart phone for hours a day, whether texting people, or watching YouTube videos, or browsing the web. That's why I have the flip phone, so I can limit myself from non-stop Internet.

The more I use the Internet, the more I build up a dependency on it. I'm often left wondering, what would happen if I trashed all my gear?