2 Things that would dramatically improve this product would be.
Pay from phone.
The idea here is to seamlessly integrate your top payment card or cards into a simple to use App. Again, the idea is to be as minimal as possible, maybe I just need to take my phone with me on the go and have options to pay quickly and just like a wallet, put it back in my pocket.
Directions
Often times we find our selves needing to get around. The ability to plug in an address than have offline directions with or without GPS to aid things along is invaluable in today’s world. I think the phone is a perfect candidate for this to provide clear direction information on screen with Turn graphic as simple as possible, not over complicating the experience and only used when needed.
@cjc26 Thanks for your feedback. Mudita Pure is an intentionally offline phone, which does not have internet/data service. It also doesn’t allow third party apps, so you would not be able to download any payment apps. It does not have a GPS module, so there is no possibility for a map/GPS function.
We understand that Mudita Pure may not work for everyone, however, we have many exciting things planned for the future, so stay tuned
I’m not sure what the point of payment by phone actually is. How is it more convenient than tapping your debit or credit card when you’re out and about? Tapping the phone instead of the card seems a little unnecessary to me. Either way, I think there are much more important features that could be included in the phone first.
As for directions… You can very easily live without them, but I do agree they’d me a nice “would like to have” feature - and possibly even a selling-point. Unfortunately, the physical phone hardware makes such an app technically impossible. Assuming the phone had the storage, memory and processing power to do it, you could probably view a map and get a list of directions from A to B, by manually typing those locations in to the phone; however the lack of a GPS receiver in the phone would make realtime guidance impossible.
I would suggest that two features that should take priority over a payment method, directions, or streaming music services would be:
a password-safe (preferably Keepass compatible, as it’s cross-platform and free/libre/open-source)
and
a TOTP authenticator app, to generate one-time passwords for service that require 2FA, similar to Google authenticator, Authy, Aegis etc. The Pure wouldn’t be able to scan the QR code to set up accounts, but the user could still manually type in the TOTP secret with the phone’s keypad.
I don’t agree, a phone like this is made to go against the grain, to be independent from the system and not merge into it like all other tools. I’d rather use hard cash, and like the other comment said, bank cards are still just as easy to use.
GPS is a nice feature, but I find my geolocation abilities improve when I can’t rely on a GPS.
I honestly don’t understand why people come to minimalist phones and then start asking for features that make the phone a smartphone. Go buy a smartphone if you are looking for gps and being able to pay using your phone.
@cardio79 A while back there was a thread about WHY this happens.
It’s an interesting read about why so many people want PURE to work like a smartphone:
Very good points. I want my phone to have friction. I am addicted to smartphones. I want a phone that looks great and makes it impossible for me to go down the rabbit hole into mindless scrolling. I am a blackberry addict, so I know I needed a phone that made me not want to write out long texts to people, spending hours upon hours texting back and forth when I could have just picked up the phone. In fact, that is my goal now moving forward., bring back the phone call. Starting from yesterday, I called one of my friends. He sounded so surprised lol. We are so use to texting that we are surprised when someone calls us. In fact, when someone calls me I assume its with a bad news! I am making it my goal to call one person every day and have a real conversation. When they text me I am going to pick up the phone and call them.
I am glad for companies like Mudita that have a clear mission and refuse to steer clear from it. One of the reasons I left the Lighphone 2 behind because it went from a device being phone calls only (my dream phone) to a phone that started adding too many smart phone capabilities. The moment you add one thing, like podcasts, it snowballs into your community asking for more and more and more. All of a sudden you have a smartphone. I really hope Mudita does not start adding apps you find on a smartphone. If you want a smartphone looks elsewhere. If you want a phone that forces you to look up into a beautiful blue sky versus mindlessly scrolling like the tech zombies around you, then commit to a dumbphone life, and you will be happier for it. When I look around me, its sad to see how many people around you are just staring at their phones. We are on this planet for a blink of an eye, I am choosing to spend my time here wisely with my friends and family, focusing on them, not a smartphone
I couldn’t agree more. I want the phone to be limited, it basically removes the incentives to play with it. My Pure just sits on my desk and when it rings, I answer the call. That’s it. And it’s liberating.
That is awesome. It truly is liberating isn’t it?
I don’t think people realize how much of a negative impact technology has had on us. But it’s not the technology, it’s our relationship to it. However companies like facebook etc make it difficult when they figured out how to get us addicted to these apps purely for profit. When you unplug from the matrix you literally feel like you have been released from a technological prison. Yesterday I was waiting for my son outside of his karate class. Every single person was on their phone. I looked at my son and thought to myself, that is my son…and I love him. I was in the moment. It was fuc*$ awesome
