Admiral Patrick

I’m surprisingly level-headed for being a walking knot of anxiety.

Ask me anything.

Special skills include: Knowing all the “na na na nah nah nah na” parts of the Three’s Company theme.

I also develop Tesseract UI for Lemmy/Sublinks

Avatar by @SatyrSack@feddit.org

  • 15 Posts
  • 148 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 6th, 2023

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  • I tried a true dumb phone but was breaking out my laptop too much for everyday tasks (dumb phones these days can do hotspot).

    The flip phone I have runs Android 11, so I have the bare minimum necessary chat apps, email, GPS maps, and such. The main draw is that those work well enough, but anything more than that is possible but very frustrating. That’s kind of what the Minimal is about: e.g. yeah, you can watch YouTube videos on it, but you won’t want to.

    Then, when the detox period is up and you’re fully off the addiction, you can get the standard phone back.

    That’s kinda what I did. I used my flip like a true dumb phone for 30 days as a challenge and then un-dumbed it a little bit back to where only my basic needs were met and nothing more. I assumed I’d have rushed back to my old smartphone, but after breaking a bunch of habits, I found I didn’t really want to. Plus, I really missed T9 texting as weird as that sounds lol.



  • Yeah the marketing for it was lost on me. I already digitally detoxed last year when I switched to the flip phone I’m currently using, so I ignored the sales pitch and just looked at it from the cool hardware perspective and mostly reasonable price.

    Credit where it’s due, though: I tried unsuccessfully to just uninstall the time sink apps from my regular smartphone and always ended up just reinstalling them. It took using a device that couldn’t feasibly run those (plus a weaning-off period) for me to fully let go. Seems like that is what the marketing is trying to target.





  • Mostly the e-ink display and the QWERTY keyboard.

    By its nature, it’s not great for doom scrolling, TikTok, or videos (the major time sinks with most phones). Those aren’t my use-cases anyway; I’m more of a reader than a watcher so I figured this would be like a supercharged version of my Kobo (which I love) that has a physical keyboard (which I have missed terribly in smartphones).

    Edit: Plus, its 4:3 e-ink display and keyboard just scream “install Termux on me!” Also planned to use it as a nice portable SSH terminal like I used to have back when smartphones had slide-out keyboards.

    I’m rocking an aging Cat S22 Flip right now and have been trying to figure out what to replace it with. The Minimal Phone seemed like exactly what I wanted. Sad that it arrived DOA and am probably not going to bother replacing it; waiting weeks for something that arrives DOA is a hard thing to recover from.









  • Process was pretty easy. Basically you have to:

    1. Fill out the recall form (linked in post).
    2. Provide info for the unit:
      • Model number
      • Serial number
    3. It will check to see if that exact unit is part of the recall. If it is, you’ll also need to provide:
      • Where it was purchased
      • The order number associated with the purchase
    4. Let them know if you want a replacement unit shipped to you or a non-expiring gift card for Anker.com
      • I selected “replacement unit” and had to provide my shipping address. Not sure if gift card needs that or not, but would assume so.
    5. You have to submit two photos of the unit:
      • Write the current date and the word RECALL on a piece of paper.
      • Upload a photo of the back with the serial number visible with the paper in the shot
      • Upload another photo of the front with the paper in the shot. Also, you have to write RECALL on the device itself in Sharpie (not sure if they’ll be able to see it in mine since the case is black and you can’t see the marker at all)
    6. It said the turnaround time is approx. 5 days.
    7. It advises to send the unit for recycling after you submit the form, but I’m holding onto mine for now because I’m not sure if they’re gonna complain about the Sharpie not being visible in the second photo.




  • Pretty much same as you listed, actually, but with a few additions:

    Upvote:

    • Mark reply as read as long as it’s not something under the no-vote/downvote criteria
    • Pity (i.e. if I don’t think a post/comment deserves the downvotes it’s getting)
    • I’ll usually give posts to the communities I mod an upvote b/c I appreciate the contribution

    No-Vote:

    • Something I disagree with but doesn’t merit a downvote
    • A post I don’t like that is in a community I’m not subscribed to (i.e. when browsing /all)

    Downvote:

    • Violates the community rule where it’s posted
    • Is part of some bandwagon nonsense (e.g. the moths that have polluted the feed in the last several days, beans, etc)
    • Absolutist statements/positions, especially ones that paint the world in overly broad strokes.