Sky's Edge hosts Justine Haupt's open-source robotics and electronics projects, including the Rotary Un-Smartphone, a rotary-dial cell phone.
HN brings it up in threads on dumb phones and open-source feature phones as a rotary phone people can buy.
It doesn’t work well. Telephones haven’t changed for decades and are now practically a dead technology. The wires are used for data, and phone service is grandfathered in. You can reasonably say this is the result of a lack of innovation caused by government regulation.
Edit: I say this as someone who loved the dial telephone era. I really want one of these: https://skysedge.com/unsmartphones/RUSP/index.html
I would have bought one, but then I realized that the phone is useless now.
Here's an example of living with the light phone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7G1pWYVtBg
Honestly I think using an Android phone with minimal apps, or having two profiles, one for work, one for play/weekends makes the most sense. And on iPhone using screen time to force your grip from app vices makes more sense than the self punishment of these phones.
That said my ADHD makes me want to buy one of these https://skysedge.com/unsmartphones/RUSP/index.html
I would like an open source feature phone. Something like The Rotary Un-Smartphone (https://skysedge.com/telecom/RUSP/index.html). Just a plane phone.
I have never had a connected smartphone and I do not think I am missing much in my life. I carry an old smartphone without a SIM. I can take pictures and browse the web with wifi. I would like to find some sort of "life recording" software. When I find a good Linux tablet I will use that.
As a note: there are almost no true dumb phones in existence anymore. Almost all flip phones are smart phones in disguise, with either a cut-down version of Android (with all the data collection that entails) or KaiOS under the hood.
At this point, you might be best served by obtaining a Rotary Un-SmartPhone (https://skysedge.com/RUSP/index.html ) once they start production up again. Now that is a true dumb phone.
I can never pass up an opportunity to mention Justine Haupt’s Rotary Un-Smartphone.
Buy: https://skysedge.com/telecom/RUSP/index.html
Story: https://www.justine-haupt.com/rotarycellphoneinfo/index.html
Edit: wait, was she not able to get it certified? Does it really say it won’t connect to a US network?
Oh,
> This is a regulatory approval issue which will take time to resolve.
Even rotary cell phones [1] I'm old but that is too much for me.
I just bought my first smart phone and spent a while in developer mode quieting it down to extend battery life so some old people can do this.
[1] - https://skysedge.com/unsmartphones/RUSP/index.html