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Comment by neilobremski | Hacker News Reader

This brings to mind the phone ringing in the middle of the night. You pick it up and add mumble into the receiver and the conversation begins. But no, now the phone rings in the middle of the night (assuming it isn't text / Slack / email / etc.) and you pick it up and then try to focus your eyes on the screen to figure out WHAT is happening and then HOW to answer. It seems the massive leap forward in the CAPABILITY of our phones has actually caused them to stumble backwards in PRACTICAL usability.

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So, has anyone made a “old school smartphone dock”?

What I want is a dock I can put my smartphone into and then the old phone interface takes over. Preferably one with links to 1-2 other docks in the house so all three ring if I get a call.

Pick up the physical receiver, say hello. Talk. Say goodbye, hangup. No screen interaction at all.

That's... genius! It's so obvious now that you wrote it. I'd love to have one at my desk, and another at my nightstand.

The cordless phone system I have lets you make/receive calls via your cell phone from any handset in the house. It connects via Bluetooth, so isn't a dock, but the functionality is similar to what you're suggesting.

Mine is an older Panasonic system, but I'd be surprised if other manufacturers didn't offer something similar.

Like this? https://shop.panasonic.com/cordless-corded-telephones/cordle...

Yes, mine is very similar.

Though, (and I should have mentioned this in my original comment, sorry) I've never actually used the functionality in question, so I don't know how well it actually works.

There are Bluetooth units with telephone jacks on them that can connect to your phone. A friend was considering getting one to connect to his old wall-mounted dial phone. I don't know what they're called or how well they work.

I have had almost this exact experience multiple times, except with the alarm I set to wake myself up. With most old-school alarm clocks, you can violently fling your hand in the general direction of the clock and usually manage to at least hit the snooze button.

Ever since switching to a phone/tablet though, (Android, in my case), I now have to first locate the phone, make sure it's oriented right-side up, attempt to remember which direction I'm supposed to swipe, and if I can't remember, attempt to decipher the tiny symbols without any explanatory text.

I remember at one point that the entire UI changed when I upgraded Android and the next day I could only stare blankly at the screen trying to figure out what was going on while the alarm blared in my face.

Only for that specific use case. It's true that modern smartphones are worse than old voice phones. But modern smartphones are more like pocket computers, they're just called phones for legacy reasons basically. Personally, I think I can count the number of times one one hand that I've used my phone as a phone in the last month.

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