Ord Phone | Hacker News Reader

Ord Phone

ordphone.com

33 pointswalz37 comments

Submitted by user `walz` 2 hours ago.

The site pulls in an analytics script from the domain `route.run`.

Going to route.run redirects to routeshuffle.com.

routeshuffle.com/about :

   Made by a teenager
   
   I'm Riley Walz, a distance runner from New York. I made Routeshuffle to help
   with my summer training in high school.

Not only is the credit card form not actually hosted by Stripe even though it says it is, this isn't from an "experimental product studio in New York", it's a random teenager from New York that just slurped up your credit card info.

This should be the top comment.

No form validation, either.

It's good that it doesn't actually send sensitive data. The request zeros out the credit card and CVC code before the POST.

Otherwise, this kid would have opened himself up to a world of hurt.

“OK, here's the deal

The Ord Phone doesn't actually exist... yet. This is a concept website created by an experimental product studio in New York. We want to see if there's a need for a product like Ord Phone, and whether people would actually pay for it. And you tried to... but we didn't actually charge your card or store your payment information. We might actually make Ord Phone if enough people try to buy it! If we do, we have your email address, so you'll be the first to know :) In the meantime, please don't share online that the product doesn't exist yet. At least until we've finished running this little experiment.”

Well that sucks.

Well ain't that some BS. I don't like that type of behavior from a company, makes me not trust them.

This is straight out of the playbook though, find out if people would actually spend money on it.

What they don't say to do , is give an actual ship date and outright lie about the timeframe.

lol, what are you talking about? they do give a date. and the date given is so absurdly soon that they couldn't possibly hit it even if they got millions of $ in orders.

> Orders ship by November 2023 from San Francisco, CA. Short production run, these will sell out very soon. Free shipping to anywhere in the world. Return for any reason within 2 weeks of receiving your order.

You're agreeing with the comment you're replying to. The parent comment is saying the "playbook" doesn't say to give a date, and they've given one so absurdly soon that it's impossible to hit. The "get signups for a fake product" is out of the playbook, promising it 4 months from now when it doesn't exist at all is not out of the playbook.

Pretending to take payment information is out what playbook? Selling things that don't exist is common or selling things that don't exist yet is common but pretending to take payment is weird. In fact, I'd burn that card.

I checked and they don't validate card information, which is at least something. I didn't bother to look at what the site is doing because if the fake info I put in was flagged, I would have already known. I assume they're collecting and storing contact info.

“Ok here’s the deal: we didn’t work with any data protection experts, consult a lawyer, or even think through any possible negative outcomes of tricking you into giving us your personal financial info and email. We’re sure that’s great for our brand, definitely not a form of wire fraud or a deceptive trade practice, and there’s no way we’d get into some seriously deep shit for this cute website.”

>If we do, we have your email address, so you'll be the first to know

Not for people in the EU I hope, since you'd be violating the GDPR by acquiring it under false pretenses

Like the Light Phone, I really love the idea. But, even as someone who doesn't use social media, my whole life has become reconfigured around my smartphone. Yes there are negatives - the endless distractions - but it's just too convenient to give up a fully-featured smartphone.

Just to give some random examples that you can't do on these devices..

  - I track all my workouts in my phone.
  - Don't need recipe books anymore.
  - Controlling TV/lighting/heating/robot vacuum.
  - Buying groceries.
  - Guitar tuner. Metronome. Practicing scales.
  - Voice recorder (for quickly remembering a cool riff I made up).
  - Playing a podcast from YouTube while I run because I don't have Spotify.
  - NFC for payment, transport.
  - Calendar (which this seems to be lacking)
  - Paying bills.
  - Watching my daughter's camera when she naps.
  - Flashcards for studying.
  - Dictionary. Foreign language dictionaries.
  - Sometimes even torrenting.

I became really aware of how much we depend on these devices when I had a daughter and we thoughtlessly decreed we'd never use a smartphone around her. That became untenable quite quickly. "Hey wanna take little one for a walk?" "I think it might rain, let me check the radar quickly"

I just don't have social media apps installed and that's pretty good for me.

I feel like this concept has been tried many times. The Light Phone is one example. It seems like a concept people find appealing, but in practice… almost no one wants to give up the features their phone already offers. It amounts to a technological regression, regardless of what the webpage says.

But, the thing that really got me to type a comment was seeing that this phone uses micro-USB. Why would anyone want that awful connector back in their life? USB-C is cheap and ubiquitous at this point.

Well spotted. I’m also unsure why you’d need a 6.5” screen for something that won’t even render a webpage.

I’m intrigued, however I’m not sure I understand why the visual side of entertainment is banned (not even a browser, unless I missed it), however Spotify and podcasts are somehow kosher? Why no audiobooks?

In Denmark ride sharing is banned, so the inclusion of Lyft and Uber, but no car sharing, public transport or personal mobility apps makes it a non-starter (I’ve used Donkey Republic dozens of times for visiting friends).

Finally, 32GB of storage, so let’s make that 30GB usable, 5GB for the OS, 1GB for podcasts… that leaves 24GB for conversations, notes and pictures.

> Why no audiobooks?

They allow mp3s so you could still have audiobooks.

> Why would anyone want that awful connector back in their life?

I thought the same thing when I saw that. No, never mind. I’m solidly on the way to USB-C only now, and I’m hoping the new iPhone will finally bring it after those rules changes in Europe (not that lightning is bad exactly, but I really enjoy having the same ends on both sides of the cable).

I wonder if this is Android-based.

That said, a custom homescreen launcher like O-Launcher and using ADB to manually uninstall/disable certain system apps, the stock browser, and app store would get you a similar outcome, but with a bit more flexibility.

Yeah - there are just too many specialized or single-function apps you might want - even if you're not hard core social media addicted.

Such as Banking, Authenticator, VPN, RSS readers, etc... a hard sell. Maybe people really do need two phones?

Looking at the specs this looks like you're paying mostly for the software (skinned android) and the hardware is an ancient (microUSB?? 8MP camera?) no-name phone. While the aesthetics of this are nice the hardware seems a bit too weak to justify the price, I'd personally rather stick with a few-generations-back flagship android and look for a nice minimal launcher/custom ROM.

I really appreciate attempts like this, but I encourage people to actually attempt living without a smart phone first. It isn’t easy. Just viewing a menu in many restaurants is difficult as you lack a QR code scanner hooked to web browser. Next, many people will expect you to have MMS, Signal, WhatsApp or something else. In moments where you realize that you need to look something up for something immediate, you can’t. If someone wants to split a bill and you don’t have a cash, you could Zelle, ah… but nope.

Personally, I hate smartphones and I hate how humans have changed their behaviors in response to them. I also love the utility that a smartphone provides, and I don’t know whether or not we’re better off with or without them.

It all depends on what you do with it.

If I had never spent 1 second on social media all I'd have is my time back. That stuff is worthless.

Other things like maps and translation services are a godsend

Wow, Micro USB in 2023. Also not much details on the screen, you'd hope OLED given the theme they've gone with but considering they chose to cheap out on the charging port, you can only guess.

I like the inclusion of the headphone jack though.

> Micro USB

Ouch. This is a non-starter for a new phone.

This is some weird data harvesting operation. There is no phone.

>Micro-USB charger

In 2023?

>32GB of storage, 2GB of ram

2GB of RAM? I am sure even a strip down Android wont run smooth with 2GB.

>6.5" 720 x 1600 pixel display

If your phone aren't used for content consumption. WHY do you want a 6.5" MASSIVE display? Should't it be small? The Res suggest this is a 225PPI screen. Is it OLED or LCD? Because on a OLED 225PPI is really low due to sub pixel alignment.

Lack of Browser? Serious?

And If this had Whatsapp on it, you could at least sell it to potential ~3B user outside of USA. But without it, it is a no-go.

Per the picture of the back it is just a Samsung phone with a custom version of android, or perhaps just a custom launcher.

I get that they are limited because they're buying off the shelf phones but a 6.5 inch screen is HUGE if you're not gonna actually use it for anything.

Still like the concept though.

0% chance this ships in November 2023.

The screenshot with airplane mode suggests it's Android (?) Then the whole thing is just a custom launcher and a minimum of preinstalled apps, so I can achieve moreless the same result by using a launcher like Niagara and I can keep my current phone.

Sounds like a good idea.

I wonder how easy it would be to write your own App for it, as it is missing a few I can't live without (Signal and WhatsApp)

Only tangentially related, but I would love to be able to put my iPhone into greyscale mode for everything except photographs.

You can set this up in accessibility->accessibility shortcut and select color filters. Then in accessibility->Display & Text Size->Color Filters select gray scale. Triple tapping the power button will now toggle gray scale. I use a red tint when in bed.

How is this better than a custom launcher?

Why do I have to buy a whole phone for this? Can't I just get the OS on my existing Android device?

awesome, so we can get hooked up w/ Spotify, and no other service, forever. Great idea!

I'm being sarcastic, BTW.

Also how would Spotify allow this to not have its logo everywhere and spend time to be available on such platform

Micro USB in 2023?

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