BIG ISSUE: Mudita Roams without Notification

Mudita Products
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So today on my livestream: https://youtu.be/o6feY5Yh7Ew my Mudita switched automatically from a T-mobile connection to AT&T roaming. The phone did not alert me that I was roaming and for me, that’s not an issue since I have a plan that supports it, but I would incur in overages if that would not be the case.

Please fix this by adding a dialog box or some alert :slight_smile:

I see in the manual there is a roaming indicator (https://support.mudita.com/support/solutions/articles/77000512871-mudita-pure-full-user-guide), but it did not show during the stream and I was on AT&T instead of T-mobile.

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Thank you, @Jose_Briones, for escalating this! It is crucial that Pure users know when the Pure starts to roam. Here are two of many good reasons.

Cruise Ships: As you may know, cruise ships have their own roaming arrangements that can cost users a small fortune. I have read that even cellphone users on land a mile from a docked cruise ship can accidentally roam through the ship’s cellular signal … and get a huge bill as a result.

Foreign Hotels: Two American T-Mobile customers within a few feet of one another in a hotel in Australia accidentally roamed on two different Australian cellular carriers at the same time! Each customer did not notice (on Android phones) that they were roaming, so they did not get to make the choice as to which of those two Australian carriers to use for roaming. It’s only when they returned to the USA and saw their T-Mobile bills that they realized that they had roamed … and NOT on the same Australian network.

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@Jose_Briones: You said in your livestream that you were unsure why people would choose the Pure over, say, the Light Phone II – two premium-priced non-smartphones – or over, say, that US$19 Nokia phone that you were showing.

My answer vis-à-vis the Light Phone II is that it and the Pure are comparably priced, but I prefer the Pure’s physical buttons, replaceable battery, ultra-low SAR, and physical slider to switch to Airplane mode.

Now Mudita must address all the reported problems to raise it to the level of its premium price for a non-smartphone. I am counting on Mudita to do this.

I agree with your recommendation that those in a hurry for a fully functional non-smartphone that they can order today and get tomorrow should look elsewhere.

If I were not willing to endure the version updates in the Mudita Pure and Mudita Center, and if I did not believe that Mudita can correct most problems within the next several weeks, then I would cancel my 14-month-old order for the Pure, order something other than the Pure today and get it delivered to my door tomorrow.

But, I am willing to endure the version updates, and I do believe that Mudita can correct the Pure’s problems. So, I’ll persist with my simplified, black-&-white-mode, five-year-old, Android-7 cellphone until my Pure arrives.

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I see. That’s fair enough. I personally don’t care about SAR, but I know some do. Physical buttons are nice for sure and the slider is good. The issues must be addressed and I believe that Mudita will get to it. We’ll just see how long it takes. If all you need is calls and 1-1 texts then the Pure can be a good option.

Also, my question specifically is: who is the target demographic that only needs 1-1 texts and calls? It’s very narrow.

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Hi Jose, I already thanked you for your work elsewhere.
Just one small comment - you are probably right about the small and very specific target group that just wants phonecalls and 1-1 textmessages from their phone.

I am one of these people! :sweat_smile:
And I am looking for exactly that, but in a high quality built device with very good materials and a good design.

So, my preferred options were the Punkt MP01 (the very first minimalist phone of this kind) and the mudita pure. The light phone, by the way, does unfortunately not work in Germany. That’s what their website says, at least.
I prefer the mudita pure‘s clean design and also appreciate the replacable battery. Both are advantages compared to the punkt. I also like the inclusion of a flashlight - for me personally, I don’t care about group chats, hotspots, meditation timers and all the other things. But to carry a small flaslight with me, integrated in my phone, is a nice idea.

But I need the sound quality of phonecalls, for both me and the person I talk to on the line, go be very good. Not just ok, not good, but very good. That is what I expect from a premium priced device that mainly is focussed on just that - making phone calls. I believe that mudita still needs to work on that. I canceled my pre-order for mainly this reason (besides a few others), but stay positive towards the company‘s future endeavours. I hope they fix all these issues.

My dream would be for them to release an even more stripped down version one day, similar to the Punkt MP01. And I‘d like that phone to become even smaller. It is a dream, but since I am in a small minority with these specific expectations, I know the chances of this coming true, are small.

Let me lastly tell you about my favorite phone, the one I have been using in the last nine years and I really like to rave about.
It is the Nokia 515, a high quality built and very small phone with gorilla glas, a metal body, good buttons and very nice ringtones (I like the ringtone quality and variety much more than the ones from Punkt, for example). It has many applications that I don‘t use and unfortunately can‘t delete from the phone‘s interface (I would love to delete the pre-installed facebook app, for example), a 5MP camera that I never use and that I would love to trade for just a flashlight, which this phone unfortunately lacks.
They stopped producing it many years ago and mine starts getting problems. The modern simple Nokia phones are too flimsy for my taste, I want better build quality and only basic functions. Their prices are very fair, though - for what they offer, the modern Nokia phones are cheap. But as I said, I am looking for something more elegant and better built from high quality materials.

I would love you to take a look at the Nokia 515, though. New companies like Punkt or mudita should do, too. To me, it is amazing, how small, well designed and well built this minimalist phone was even nine years ago.

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@Jose_Briones Our dev team asked that you transmit all the logs from Mudita Pure via Mudita Center. This way, they can recreate the issue & fix it right away.
Perhaps @Bartosz_sp2fet can shed some light on this as well.

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I’ll do that. Thanks for being on top of things :slight_smile:

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Thank you for that reminder! I want those two because of what I do NOT want:

  • Browser - inferior to a computer browser
  • Games - inferior to outdoor activities and real-life games
  • GPS - unnecessary surveillance
  • Group texts - as maddening as long, group email threads
  • Social media - time drains, with Big Tech censorship

I’m sure that I missed some, but those are my top-of-mind undesirables for a cellphone.

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They can be a life-saver, literally. I read a news story about a man whose hands were heavily bleeding because of a vicious attack. He could not dial his touch-screen smartphone for emergency help because his hands were wet with blood. Fortunately, a passerby was able to call for help from another phone.

Another example: Try dialing a touch-screen smartphone with winter gloves on.

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@Jose_Briones Thanks for pointing out the Roaming issue. It is a big issue for INTERNATIONAL travel outside of the EU. Here, in POLAND, while traveling within the EU- we have this program “Roam like you’re at home.” Basically, it means that even if I go to a different European country & even Iceland & Norway, who are not in the EU, I can use my plan as if I was in Poland. Switzerland is not included in this & boy did I find out the hard way last year, when I traveled there. @kirkmahoneyphd Roaming charges can be CRAZY! A few years ago I traveled back to the US to visit my parents, just turning on my Blackberry at O’Hare resulted in overage charges of around $100. And this was just to download all the messages that were received while I was in the air for 10hrs.
So yes, roaming notification is important.

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@Jose_Briones I personally hate group texts/messages. I don’t sit on my phone all the time & when I’m included in these threads, by the time I see them, there is just so much to get through. I prefer a phone call.

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Plus, a single group-text thread can last for several days when group members re-use the same thread instead of starting a new group message for a new topic!

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I agree on Browser, Games, and Social Media. GPS is debatable because there are offline and open source options. And Group texts are useful to me, but I work in a collaborative environment.

I see how Group texts may not be useful to some, but people will still include you or send you media (images, video, links, etc.). I can see people not wanting to participate, but at least being able to see them would be a plus. So isolationism as a policy for a device is not necessary the best path forward IMO, but again I am not the target for the Mudita Pure due to the lack of features. Glad it can be serviceable to some and once they cook some of the software, I’ll be able to recommend it to the demographic.

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They make capacitive sensitive gloves.

Interesting. Now Android and iOS make a triple click to SOS call with power buttons. Maybe this was a few years ago.

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No problem. The roaming issue needs to be addressed for sure. I’ve connected the Pure and sent the logs as far as I know.

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Yes. And I understand that people may not want to participate or find them useful. But if all you receive is 1010203040 (like on the Pure as of right now) every time someone includes you in a group thread, I find that very confusing and also a bad implementation. I understand that people who want the Pure want it for 1-1 texts and calls, but they are going to receive a ton of 010202 due to the lack of Group MMS. Maybe there is something to be done in software to block Group MMS and just receive 1-1. Something like a filter for SMS like a filter for calls.

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I already tell people to email images, videos, and links to me – so that I can give what they are sending to me the attention that they believe those images, videos, and links deserve.

So, I am in the demographic that does NOT find it a plus to be able to receive those on a cellphone.

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^ I would vote for this, @urszula, if Mudita Center cannot handle MMS. I already block MMS messages through a setting in Android 7.

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Fair enough. If you communicate ahead of time, people can follow guidelines. My overall point is that you are a niche within a niche for sure. I’m glad the options are there though.

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Yeah for sure. A setting to block MMS should be a possibility or a way to do so would be ideal. It has been a pain to see notifications that are 021010340 or a bunch of blocks of unreadable text.

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