
How I Simplified My Phone (2015) - sygma
http://robrhinehart.com/?p=1389
======
markbao
> _Iphones, which seem to get bigger, heavier, more expensive, and more
> complicated with every release, not to mention a complete lack of
> customization and control, are obviously off the table._

There are excellent reasons to not choose iPhone, but this one warrants a
click on the back button.

Other than the iPhone 6 upgrade (the smaller one has a screen size of 4.7",
the same as the phone the author ended up picking), they've been getting
smaller, lighter, and thinner every release. (At the expense of using the
space to increase battery life, which is what I'd really like to see
improved.) There has been zero increase in cost since the first release.
Complexity could be an open question, but after using iOS and Android, I've
found iOS slightly more intuitive than Android, which is still too rough.

Lack of customization and control are good reasons, but the first bit is
bafflingly misinformed.

~~~
madeofpalk
I don't think this is actually true.

The second iPhone model (iPhone 3G) was actually thicker than the original.
When iPad mini went retina, it got 1mm thicker. iPhone 6S is slighter thicker
and heavier than iPhone 6, which I find noticeable.

Also, maybe cost in the US hasn't changed (but that's disingenuous because
iPhone was originally almost completely subsidised by your carrier), but in
Australia, the base cost for latest gen iPhone used to be $799. Now, the
iPhone 6S 16GB is $1079.

Of course, lots of things have happened for Apple to raise their prices in
Australia - consumer protection laws changed (well, Apple started following
them differently) significantly increasing the cost of providing a warranty.
Also I'm sure the exchange rate has caused prices to change (though I'm not
sure in which way - I think it's gotten worst though).

~~~
markbao
You're right, I forgot that the 3G did get thicker, and the iPhone 6s does
seem to be slightly thicker and heavier, by a hair. My mistake. I think the
general trend still sticks, despite these exceptions, whereas the author
argued that the general trend goes the other direction.

~~~
madeofpalk
I think generally speaking, the major revisions get 'significantly' thinner,
and then there's been a few instances of the 'S' revision (or however it works
for iPads) of it getting a hair thicker.

------
BuckRogers
A few tips or best practices I've learned along the way. They would probably
increase battery life and sanity.

1) Only allow notifications for texts, calls and maybe email.

2) Only allow yourself 1 screen/page for your apps. Extraneous stuff should be
in folders. I have my most-used apps and 4 folders on a single iPhone
homescreen (Shopping/banking; Food; Extras; Games).

I'm the last of GenX and remember many years without cell phones. But I feel
bad for Millenials who never knew anything else and will probably never learn
to really get control over these devices.

If I could get a T9 cellphone with voice dictated mapping built-in, I'd dump
traditional smartphones altogether. Having your devices work for you rather
than work you over is a huge part of the 21st century. So says grandpa.

~~~
yason
I've also disabled all notifications except texts and calls. I can look up for
messages myself if I have time and I want to. A silent phone means a happy
user.

Further, I've used the weirdly named "Wifi/Data Auto Off/On" application¹ to
disconnect mobile data and wifi except when the display is on. This helps me
get days of battery if I don't do much with the phone. It also makes it easy
to ration the battery: when I do something with the phone, I use the battery;
when I don't do anything with the phone, the battery drains very, very slowly.
Thus, I don't get surprises as the charge will be depleted only when I decide
it's all right to use it. And nicely enough I don't get a zillion
notifications all the time which would urge me to look at the phone again and
again, further consuming the battery.

¹)
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whueric.da...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whueric.dataonoff&hl=en)

~~~
BuckRogers
Yup, the key is to take back control and make the phone for your convenience.
Rather than the convenience of others and apps.

Limiting social media accounts is helpful in this too. I have FB and Twitter
but receive no emails or notifications from either and don't even have any FB-
related apps on my phone at all. They sit there waiting for me to visit at my
convenience. I check FB maybe once every 3 months at my desk. When I do look,
I always realize I'm missing out on nothing.

If people need to reach me, I check my email a few times a day on my
phone/desktop and can get immediate access through my cellphone number if they
have it.

------
reiichiroh
Xiaomi is now retroactively locking bootloaders: [http://www.xda-
developers.com/xiaomi-locks-bootloader-on-rec...](http://www.xda-
developers.com/xiaomi-locks-bootloader-on-recent-devices/)

~~~
striking
Whoa. Thanks for the comment, I was looking at Xiaomi for my next phone. Guess
I'll have to be careful about which one I buy.

~~~
petra
Xiaomi has a process to request unlock codes, which takes between 3-21 days,
and they say it's to protect against malware from sellers.

And some users say they already recieved unlock codes. So maybe it's
reasonable.

But it's new , it still requires followup.

------
aduitsis
Nova launcher is mentioned in the article and I would like to add my 5 cents
about it. Specifically, it is an absolute gem of a launcher and is fast and
highly customizable. 100% worth paying for it, though there is a free version
with most of the features. I was able to customize it and make it exactly as I
wanted it to be, up to details like icon spacing, using custom themes,
gestures, unread badges, home screen arrangement and effects, home folders,
widgets, app menu arrangement (I prefer it vertical coming from Symbian), etc.

------
melted
Given the same radio power (it's capped for all cell phones) the faster your
wireless data, the less battery it will chew up. Why? Because it consumes the
most energy when radio is on, and if you transmit at higher speeds, radio
doesn't have to stay on for long.

~~~
detaro
Assuming the signal processing doesn't take so much more energy to kill the
benefit, and the higher speed is equally stable against noise. (Which might
actually be true, but I don't think it is obvious that it always is)

------
devereaux
How I simplified my phone: I got a windows phone.

While I agree that Nova launcher is impressive, I don't want to have to change
the launcher.

On a windows phone, the basics work relatively well. The phone takes good
pictures and doesn't get in the way. There are very few apps in the appstore,
which is a feature since it means I won't be tempted to tweak it too much
(temptation... must resist...).

And it's cheap, so much that I don't care if it falls out of my purse. I'll
just get another.

------
nfoz
Sounds like he would like a Blackberry (running BBOS 10). My bb Passport has
_excellent_ battery-life, no bloat, extensive customization of the messages
"hub" and minimal notifications, privacy and per-app per-feature controls,
etc.

But instead he pretends that Android and iOS are the only two choices. And
while boosting a two-player market, somehow acts entitled to options that are
not well provided within that limited competitive space.

------
mdm_
His comments about his previous phone, the LG G3, are interesting to me. That
happens to be the phone I have, and I think it works great. I'm using a stock-
based ROM (rooted, of course, with TWRP), performance is excellent, very
little bloat, and the battery easily lasts me the day, even when I play a
little GTA:SA, watch some YT/Twitch, do some video calling with Hangouts, and
Chromecast some Dora The Explorer for my kid. I use Viper4Android to do DSP on
Spotify and get some pretty nice sound out of my $10 earbuds. I'm not on
Facebook, and one of my New Year's resolutions was to stop reading the news[1]
and using Twitter and Reddit, so that's probably saving me loads of battery.

As far as expense, yes, it's more than $129, but it's currently being pushed
heavily by MVNOs where I live as a $0 budget phone ($400 in subsidy).
Currently flagships from Apple, Samsung, etc are in the $850-1100 range. IMHO
the G3 is a perfectly serviceable mid-range phone.

[1]
[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews)

~~~
soperj
That article is interesting because in the end, the news did involve him.

------
seba_dos1
There's a way simpler option: [https://github.com/paulfertser/fso-
el/wiki](https://github.com/paulfertser/fso-el/wiki) ;)

------
Twisell
TL/DR iOS is crap cause it is not customizable and because some of iPhone
specs are getting worst (while still better on average). So he search and
found the holy grail of specs and install a stripped down alternative version
of Android overly customized to remove feature from UI. And this is supposed
to be simple and make your brain cringe less...

~~~
bydo
His "Endurance rating per mAh" is a really curious measurement to use.
Particularly as, despite it casting Apple's performance as degrading year-to-
year, it still ended up higher than that of every other manufacturer in the
graph.

He also claims that iPhones have been getting "bigger [and] heavier" then
bought a phone almost the exact same size and weight as the iPhone 6s (the
Redmi 2 is 4mm shorter, 2mm thicker, and 10g lighter).

The "customization and control" stuff is right on, of course; what he's done
with Android certainly wouldn't be possible with iOS, even jailbroken. It'd
have made more sense to leave it at that (and price, as the cheapest current-
generation iPhone still costs five times the Redmi 2).

------
post_break
He'll be crawling back to iOS when he sees the standby time of Android eat
massive chunks of battery. From the mobile radio active bug to the play store
deciding it needs to be active for some unknown reason.

Don't get me wrong, I love android, I love it more than iOS, but damn does it
eat battery for no reason. I only switched sides because I couldn't take it
any more. Sure iOS devices have started a downward trend of capacity, but at
least when I go to bed at night with 80% I wake up in the morning with 79-78%
instead of 65% at best.

~~~
hobbyjogger
Might be worth giving it another shot. Doze in Android Marshmallow drastically
improved my standby battery life[0]. Doze handles wake locks much like iOS--
not quite as well but it's night and day from my previous Android phones.

Here's more detail on how it works[1].

[0] [http://i.imgur.com/tQyNJXD.png](http://i.imgur.com/tQyNJXD.png) [1]
[http://developer.android.com/training/monitoring-device-
stat...](http://developer.android.com/training/monitoring-device-state/doze-
standby.html)

~~~
post_break
I've been following Doze closely, there are still a bunch of quirks where Doze
either doesn't force hibernate or other apps just keep polling. Also it helps
that you had full bars the whole time. Low signal murders battery.

------
ricket
> To my surprise it came not just unlocked but rooted.

This rings alarm bells for me. What are the chances that it comes with a pre-
installed Android rootkit? How would you know?

~~~
undersuit
I would be just as concerned if it was unlocked and unrooted. Nothing stopping
a malicious party from rerooting the device after they install their rootkit.

~~~
sliverstorm
In my experience you can only relock the device if you have flashed a
manufacturer-signed system image. (That might not be the case for every phone)

------
agumonkey
People should know about adb and dig into android 'shell' and tools. You can
trim things a lot and make a focused 'distribution'. That requires root
though.

ps: almost unrelated but you can also drive the UI through input events like
swipe and drag. I had fun caressing my old HP TouchPad through emacs.

------
cowpig
> Other than these I use Lyft, Spotify, Dropbox, Drive, Amazon Underground,
> Phone, SMS, and Calendar. Instagram is my only social media app, mostly
> because I think the @soylent account is awesome.

Signal, phone, google maps, firefox/chrome.

I like how "phone" falls under the "other" category for this person

------
technological
I have seen many posts where people are turning off notifications and stop
using sync go save battery. Are'nt modern phones give good battery life and
allow to use all apps ?? I have all notifications turned on + Greenify +
amplify + powernap to save battery. I get 7 hours SOT on nexus 6p

