If you could only download TWO apps to Mudita Kompakt, which two would you choose?

MuditaOS
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Session is a Signal’s fork based on blockchain for privacy and redundancy. Until recently, it had advantage of not being based on phone numbers, now the advantage is trimmed down to the fact that you still need a phone number to sign up for using Signal.

But will we really need encrypted messaging in the future? Banks are being advised to abandon using SMS for one-time passwords and verify using apps.

Well… banks are abandoning SMS which is not encrypted (don’t call A5/1 encryption). At the same time, you may want to preserve your communication from providers or other actors.

Some may say: if you don’t do anything illegal, you shouldn’t be worried. That would be accurate if there was no practice in changing the law on a whim. It’s also about some principles.

Yet, it’s worth remembering to gradate communications security according to information severity. If I send or recieve a plaintext SMS, the world’s not gonna end. But if I want to ask my lawyer about some “what if”, I’d go Signal or face to face.

As you say, keeping stuff like that on PC is a great option and I do it that way for a long time now.

I’m too honest to be a criminal and the only revolution I want to coordinate is one to reduce the number of phone zombies cluttering public spaces.

Not sure what country are you located, but there are places where people are deprived of rights all of a sudden. If you want to use wood for heating - banned. If you want to have your own chickens - strict regulation. If you want to sell and purchase non-F1 seeds outside of a big store (say, someone makes seeds out of his plant and you want to purchase those seeds to plant in your backyard) - banned. You want to discuss how could you pay less tax - you’re on a list. Some people tackle such problems by wrapping their thoughts in synonyms, symbols, phrases and so on, some people go on a direct confrontation with the system, some people prefer to stay out of line of sight - which encrypted messaging provides to a degree.

I got a bit defensive on that one so let me summarize and I’m gone from this thread :wink: - I won’t tell anyone what they are supposed to do. People have different requirements, needs, and desires and this leads to different solutions and best practices.

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85

Very sobering thoughts and thank you for reminding those of us lucky-enough to live in relative freedom of the restrictions and fear those less fortunate are sometimes living under. I often explain to those people who are willing to give-over their data without thinking about it that governments change, regimes change and one day we may be living in the same country as we do now but with very very different laws altogether. Once laws are passed to handover data then they’ll never be rescinded.

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86

For people with friends & family in different countries, sometimes just having texting & calling is not ECONOMICAL. It will seriously drain your wallet faster than you can say, “I just called to say, I love you.”
I have family in the US & in-laws in Australia (but I live in Poland)- I just spoke with my dad last night, who’s in Chicago for 27minutes. If we were talking on a regular phone line, that phone call would have cost me around $30 USD. (108-135 PLN). If I wanted to do a video call it would be even more. I talk to my parents every other day. At these costs, I would be working at Mudita just to pay my phone bills :rofl:
With apps like Signal & WhatsApp, I can connect to wifi & not get charged an arm & a leg to keep in touch with friends & family.
PS: For all those thinking of Skype- it’s shutting down on May 5 (RIP- thanks for the memories LOL)

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87

Could not agree more with all these statements, obviously i try hard not to judge but I feel so sorry for people, a lot of them have no idea how their brains have been high jacked by massive corporations only interested in keep their eyes glued to their phones to make money, people need to wake up honestly, we have turned into a society of zombies, we don’t speak to each other, and when we do it is through hate filled speech on social media.

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88

lol skype, a classic is done

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89

I understand. I make international video calls almost every day — from my computer. (Ah, lovely Skype.)

But do I really need the internet in my pocket wherever I go? “Convenience comes at a cost.” Isn’t that what Mudita is all about?

I have literally bought into what you are offering — connectivity on the move without the internet tempting me back into zombie mode. It doesn’t matter that I may be recording a heartfelt audio to family while I’m standing in the street — the effect is to insult the world around me. I see this almost every day at yoga — even seconds after a beautifully mindful class. “Namaste” and boom: they’re back online. It’s dispiriting.

Sideloading? Suddenly the proposition becomes confused. It’s like a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in which you can smuggle in a bump if you really want to — just to relieve the boredom of listening to people.

I’ll be keeping my Kompakt clean.

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90

I fell off my chair & seriously I’m on the floor laughing. You win the internet today. :champagne: :trophy:

But on a serious note, this is exactly why I love Mudita Kompakt. It’s flexible enough if you do need that bump, but it’s not gonna make you do anything if you’re totally into being straight edge.
I mean, I have friends who don’t drink & are alcohol-free by choice. But, me, I’m a fan of some bubbly at the end of the week :slight_smile: :champagne: :clinking_glasses: I don’t judge them & they don’t judge me. We co-exist in a mutual-respect sphere.

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91

I totally understand your purist approach and I am exactly like that with few other things in life.

But can I play devil’s advocate for a bit more? It’s fun. :slight_smile:

Couple ideas that are not about zombification:

  • corporate authenticator app for 2FA (could workaround with SMS-based OTP sometimes),
  • Revolut app and alike (web app sucks and can’t even send money that way),
  • some people want to have their national digital ID or club/rebate cards on the phone (I’m not a fan but that’s happening),
  • private medical app,
  • home alarm system (might help if it’s not integrated with security intervention squad),
  • parking payment app,
  • voice recorder (is it going to be available on Kompakt, @urszula ?),
  • national park walking paths map, geo tracker (if someone wants to record his hiking without spending money on dedicated watches that do that),
  • translator/dictionary,
  • Uber (can call regular taxi though),
  • prompter app (available for smartphones and can be an entry-level improvement when dealing with video recordings or webinars for some people),
  • OBD-II car scanner (yeah I verify ‘check engine’ myself, laptop not always by my side),
  • Office Lens as a quick way to process a photo to look like the document was scanned.

These are examples from top of my head and some from my current smartphone that I have for work.

Does everyone need them? Definitely not. Even with a swiss knife, how often do you use any of its features?

Are they [from the list] driving your addiction higher up? I don’t think so either.

The biggest addicter, social disrupter and/or brain rot fertilizer is Youtube, X, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Messenger, Telegram, sometimes a web browser too.

There’s plenty of use cases for sideloading which doesn’t mean anyone has to do it. I agree it should be a process hectic enough so that nobody with addictive personality (like myself) will turn this feature phone into a junk phone.

By the way, I got a feeling that we should call ‘smartphones’ the real dumbphones, as they are dumbing people down. ^^

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92

I totally understand the reluctance when it comes to sideloading apps. Although I don’t know which one is worse:

  1. Blocking sideloading and using unsafe SMS messages.
  2. Allowing sideloading and downloading Signal for encrypted messages.

Choose your poison!

Btw, @urszula can you delete the mudita browser app or is it an undeletable default app?

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93

Yeah to latch on to Urszulas point, I was critical of Mudita when they decided to allow sideloading, but after I gave it some thought, the best move is to give people the CHOICE, it is not a right or wrong answer. Some people have self control, so they can use a smartphone, others (like myself) do not have control because I am an addict, I know that, and that will never change, but to a whole host of other people they need the flexibility of being able to sideload the apps they need, for some it is a browser, for some it is whatsapp, and for those people they are able to control themselves and be in the moment and that is fantastic for them. I don’t believe that minimalism is black or white, it is grey. You have to do what is best for you, and others will do what is best for them.

I have been smartphone free for 4 years now and even I think to myself I have built some really good habits so maybe I can sideload a browser to the device and even email, BUT ultimately I know that is not the device I want and Mudita gives you that CHOICE. The light phone 3 tells you here is the phone and this is what it is used for take it or leave it, from a pure business standpoint not the best move in my opinion, Mudita 100 percent was very smart with what they did. They said here is our device, this is our philosophy out of the box, but we are not saying YOU have to use the device like this, do what you want with it. That is the freedom of CHOICE, and that is ultimately up to the individual

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I understand your points but no one is telling anyone that has an addiction to buy a device that you can sideload apps, if a person knows that would be bad for them because they will cave and add add addicting apps that is a decision they are making, Mudita is not responsible for what I add or not add to my device I am a grown adult. That is like blaming Mcdonalds for serving junk food, I know they have junk food it does not mean I have to go in and order .

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95

I think his point was moreso that he loves the Kompakt so much, but just wishes it didn’t give him the option to sideload. I get it. Both of your points are valid.

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It would turn the phone into a junk food, if someone CHOOSES to make their Kompakt that is their choice, I wouldn’t do it, I want to keep my Kompakt PURE (see what I did there Urszula :smirk:)

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97

Thanks for the trophy!

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What a list!

Why get a Kompakt at all? Just delete the social media apps (I did that in 2017) and keep all the tools you need.

It seems that — thanks to sideloading — there might not be much difference between the Kompakt and an iPhone except that the iPhone will light up your face like a ghost and the Kompakt won’t. And no video.

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But people do go and order junk food in droves and so ruin their health and litter the streets around us. Both these things are bad for everyone. Along the way they promote a culture of ignorance around food and the idea that everything must be convenient, disposable and forgettable. Consume consume consume. Junk food is just another narcotic.

I would like as many people as possible to commit to living without a smartphone all the time. Less junk all round for everyone. More humanity.

As it stands the choice is: highly addictive smartphone vs partially addictive Kompakt.

I also want to set an example to family members — especially very young family members — that not everyone has a smartphone.

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100

Well, cleaning Android phone is too difficult. You can always bring stuff back. De-addicting(?) Android firmly is more difficult than it should be IMO.
Plus, Kompakt is de-googled out of the box, plus the Offline+ mode, plus e-ink that gives good battery life as well.

I am already used to dumbphones (my latest is Nokia 150 2023) but audio quality and texting experience were always crap, this was first thing which brought me back to look at Mudita, I didn’t like price/capability ratio of Pure but I saw Kompakt and I decided to try something like that this time.
And I like the sideloading option, and I am going to get Signal or 2FA or Revolut, Revolut for sure because there seems to be no PC alternative to using this app and I am recently very interested in using it - and I highly prefer getting it on Kompakt than having a smartphone by my side (all the time in the end, let’s be real) because of one or two apps I need as tools.

I won’t ever see every single .apk as addiction-inducing, I’m not that addictive to refresh account balance every minute lol. BTW that reminds me of the good ol’ days when I was sometimes sitting at my dial-up connected PC and refreshing my mailbox… or looking at MS-DOS defrag.

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Y’all reminded me of one important thing if we want to take a holistic approach.

Having the dumbest phone possible, or even a landline, doesn’t solve all possible problems. Let’s keep in mind that many of us can still binge-anything and zombify ourselves on laptops almost same easy as with a regular smartphone.

While good phone can help living the life more, work productivity is still at risk if someone works on his computer with Internet access.

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You can set that example, and good on you, but not everyone has the same goals is what I am trying to say. I don’t like what I see in the world either trust me, when it comes to people just staring at their phones all day but I don’t control other people’s choices, all I can do is live my life in a way that is best for me and let others do the same

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Yes, but the internet needs to be left at home in one corner of one room. When I leave the house, I’m in the social world. I’m available.

Being distracted from your work is one thing, being distracted from humanity is quite another.

If we are to rehumanise, we will need to make sacrifices. We will need to look up and dream. Like the woman at the station in the Kompakt ad. I’m quite sure her performance notes from the director included the following:

"Remember, you’re fully human — definitely not a cheating sideloader. In your bag you have a hardback copy of the Bhagavad Gita. It’s a dual-language parallel text edition — one side Sanskrit, one side Polish.

“You also have a water pistol which you use to wake people who are zombie-ing towards you.”

You can see all that in her smile.

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