Author Topic: Light phone on Kickstarter  (Read 37072 times)

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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #50 on: June 30, 2015, 07:48:26 pm »
Well we have time to wait and see what happens.... If this thread doesn't get buried, maybe one of us will remember to check in with this campaign in 1 year and update the thread. Let's see what the backers are saying once they get the phones delivered:

Will it fall apart easily like those SONICable?
Will it look just like a different skin on an Alibaba phone?
Will there actually be a working iPhone and Android app?
- and will these apps actually work as "seamlessly" as claimed to forward calls
Will the SIM work over a generally large coverage area? And on what carrier(s)?
Will the battery last as long as they say?

Now all we can do is speculate. The Light Phone Company now has to deliver, and they have the money to do it. So they can either spend most of it to make it match or beat expectations, or they do the easiest thing possible which will fall short of their promise, upset their backers and keep a nice sum of the money.
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Offline janoc

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #51 on: July 01, 2015, 07:53:16 pm »
Of course they could, there is nothing special about the GSM networks in Europe.

I can tell you have never actually tried to put that theory into practice.

What I meant is that you can bring pretty much any standard GSM phone to Europe and it will work with a local SIM card if the radios support the correct bands. I assume that Mediatek (or whoever is the board supplier) knows how to make a working GSM phone.

However, I am open to hear any evidence to the contrary.

 

Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #52 on: July 02, 2015, 12:32:53 pm »
I predict we will end up with a whiter-looking Alibaba phone with likely the same display, and mostly same buttons (they may drop a few or claim as a "bonus" they upgraded the phone and can now feature it)....

We will probably also see a ton of photos and an arsty-fartsy book and Web site of their time in China including scenery, nightlife, social lives of factory workers, their families, cultural events and so on.

And finally, if an app (or 2) finally materialize, it may be made to only work with the one GSM carrier they negotiated a SIM contract with in the USA and only need to handle the forwarding call codes needed to set it up with them....*if* they can even get it to work at that level (I assume an app can be given permissions to control the phone and have dialing privileges).

If they manage to do more I will be impressed.
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #53 on: April 06, 2016, 04:35:04 am »
Ok... So just resurrecting this thread since we are about 2 months away from the predicted release date of June 2016. Latest comments suggest they are right on schedule. I can't read the updated because I'm not a backer.

I'm waiting to see what people get for $100 when they can buy the same thing for $25 on eBay (or even cheaper like $10-15/piece when buying in bulk quantities from Alibaba).

Is it all a big marketing gimmick? "Phone away from Phone".  :-DD
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #54 on: May 03, 2016, 06:32:28 pm »
Now only 1 month away from the Light Phone shipment to backers. Seems they are on schedule. A reminder of the main description for this device offered by the creators:

Quote
"A credit card-sized cell phone designed to be used as little as possible. The Light Phone is your phone away from phone."

Summary of campaign: 3,187 backers pledged $415,127 to help bring this project to life.

Here is the main bulk of pledges (the rest are for T-shirts, a book, various combinations of T-shirts and books and phones):

Quote
Pledge $100 or more: 1,875 backers

The Light Phone! You will receive one of the very first Light Phones. It will come with a mini USB charger, and a SIM card preloaded with at least 500 minutes. Estimated delivery: May 2016. Ships to: Ships anywhere in the world

One of the key selling features of this phone was the seamless "hand-off" provided by some app that was to be installed on your main phone which forwards calls to the Light Phone. It will have the ability to screen calls (Mom versus business call) and automatically forward the proper calls to the phone. So you would leave the phone at home, take your "Light phone" with you and only be disturbed by important calls from a white-list you create from your contact list.



Without the smartphone companion app, this thin GSM phone would be nothing more impressive than a nicer looking version of the AEKU M5 card phones which you can get for $15-20 on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AEKU-M5-Ultra-Slim-OLED-Mobile-Cell-Phone-GSM-MP3-Speaker-Card-Phone-Alarm-Clock-/111762723551?var=&hash=item1a0593d2df:m:mnpghQ3ko_IC-BwrrFKqvLg

There are still a few unanswered questions as to the progress of this campaign:

1. COMPANION APP - Do they have the app to detect incoming calls (iPhone, Android I assume only) and how does it automatically forward some and not others? Is not call-forwarding something done at the carrier level, before the call ever gets to the smartphone? Usually you dial *?? on the phone you want to set up the forwarding on... and it forwards all calls until you cancel the forwarding. The phone you are trying to bypass never gets the call. If it did, and it answered it, how would it forward? The only other option is the app would need to be able to answer calls, get the caller ID, and play a pre-recorded message to people who are on the white-list to call your secret Light Phone number, whereas everyone else gets a message that you are unavailable. I don't know if apps are given that high level of permission to take full control of the phone. Alternatively, is there a 3-way call option being used here where the app on your smartphone will automatically answer and dial your "light phone" to connect a 3-way call?

2. 500 MINUTES SIM CARD - They still haven't answered who will pay and what carriers will cover the SIM card that is shipped with the phone. They claimed 500 minutes. They would have to buy prepaid SIMS from a few major carriers that cover several jurisdictions (USA, Europe, etc) that work on the bands that this GSM phone runs on (assuming there are still nationwide towers and carriers supporting it) and bundle it with the phone.

Those 2 MAJOR selling points are yet to be fully discussed, and in my opinion the meat in the dish... meaning, that is the real differentiation between The Light Phone and all other cheap GSM phones. That is what is "value-added" here and worth the extra cost from $20 to $99 for this phone (and waiting over a year to get it).

The creators have not revealed at all how they plan to solve those main distinguishing features. Otherwise you may as well have bought an AEKU m5 a year ago for a quarter the cost, and done your own forwarding (or just tell important people your AEKU number and don't let anyone else know about it).

Ironically, neither of these 2 features have anything to do with the actual phone. All of the work involved should have been in these 2 features (the app and getting SIMs) and you have performed a proof-of-concept even using an existing AEKU "as-is". Once that was working and established, they could then work to rebadge the AEKU to customize the look and feel.  :popcorn:
« Last Edit: May 03, 2016, 08:28:49 pm by edy »
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Offline Raj

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #55 on: May 13, 2016, 06:41:57 am »
 :wtf:
Why would anyone wanna use it?
I have a rokr e1 modded, (for use at noisy places) and defy for (rainy days)
this phone fulfils no special purpose,why even make it?
 

Offline edavid

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #56 on: May 13, 2016, 03:23:45 pm »
Do I understand correctly that this is a 2G GSM phone?  Have they mentioned anything to the backers about the impending (Jan 1) AT&T GSM shutdown?
 

Offline rrinker

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #57 on: May 13, 2016, 03:56:53 pm »
 This functionality is more or less built in to the iPhone at this time. Maybe even in newer versions of Android. But on my iPhone I can flag users to get sent right to voicemail, blocked totally, or be allowed to ring through.

 

Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #58 on: June 22, 2016, 12:01:59 pm »
The campaign is now ripe.... Any day now they are supposed to be shipping to backers. They've passed their 1 year anniversary back in May. $415K in the bank (minus KS and other fees). Would be interesting to see the final product, functionality and review (especially if someone manages to post a YouTube video). I'd like to know how they managed to implement the "App" to forward calls to the Light Phone, and what kind of PrePaid SIM cards they provided (and at what value). Remember this was a $99 item.

I'm not sure if these guys plan on actually continuing production or not past these initial backers either. I don't think they have a market at that cost, and less and less so today as 2G networks are shutting down.

As far as the creators, a recent post mentions battery life:

Quote
@Ron
1. Battery life on talk time has varied from 1-4 hours depending on the signal quality. We are still testing/optimizing, but that is the ball park right now. That being said, the phone is designed to be used as little as possible so we never intended it to be used for very long calls.
2. Yes, Android is definitely supported :)

 :-DD  I like that, talk time 1-4 hours.... phone is designed to be used as little as possible...      Truth be told, that is  HUGE range. 4 hours not bad, but 1 hour.... and what about STANDBY time. Then again, it depends on the signal strength. Also, remember what kind of piss-ant battery is in this thing... Has to be very small and thin. If you go camping for 1 week with this thing, will it stay on and notify you of important "forwarded" calls, or die after 2 days? Hopefully all these questions will be answered soon.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2016, 12:07:26 pm by edy »
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #59 on: July 15, 2016, 01:31:35 pm »
When can we expect the melt-down to start?

So we are now past the expected delivery of this project (which was June 2016). Granted, it's not even a month after the expected delivery date, but the updates have left a lot of people wondering what is going on. I'm not a backer, but based on the comments people are getting impatient.

Just to remind you....

Quote
June 27, 2015. Successfully raised $415,128 USD with 3,187 backers

Remember, this is for a credit-card type slim-phone on a GSM network, the kind of stuff you could have bought on eBay and Alibaba for $10-15, more than 2 years ago. The "innovation" here was (1) an app that allowed you to easily switch calls to the light phone from your iPhone/Android main phone, (2) long battery life on standby at least, and (3) a $50 prepaid card for your region.

So for now nobody knows what is delaying this campaign, the comments don't seem to provide any clues and I am not privy to seeing the updates. But the comments do show a stream of people starting to ask for when they can expect delivery.

BIG QUESTIONS:

1. Will they have a decent app?

I am suspicious that they can make an app that actually works they way they say. At the very simplest, it should let you type in the number for your "light phone" and once set up, should have a 1-button toggle for either FORWARDING ON or OFF. For that, the app will have to turn on and turn off call-forwarding with the carrier, since the forwarding happens BEFORE any call gets to your phone. By the way, that makes this DIFFERENT from the call-blocking feature in the phone. When you use that, the phone sees the Caller ID first and based on the number it either lets it through or doesn't pick up, and the carrier sees that you haven't answered so that's why it goes to Voicemail. The "lightphone" can't work the same way (or wasn't supposed to). For one, people are supposed to still call you on your REGULAR NUMBER. Forwarding means your regular phone never gets the call, never has a chance to decide anything. It has to be done in the carrier's equipment. It is part of your cell phone plan features.

In Canada on Bell, usually you dial a *72# and enter some digits if you are on an EVDO/1XRTT network. If you are on HSPA/UMTS, you can do it in the phone... probably it sends some data to the network to turn it on/off, and you get a text confirmation. So I am not sure if their app can do this or not, how it latches in to the phone and if apps even can get that deeply integrated to be able to do this..... And will have to know the particulars of many countries and carriers, otherwise allow the user to set up custom dialing numbers, etc. I mean, if malware was able to do this, it could hijack your phone number and forward your calls to some pay-per-call service and make a fortune. So I have a feeling basic apps (except for the OS of the phone) do not have such power to access carrier forwarding... but I could be wrong.

2. Battery life on standby?

Not sure yet what the verdict is. Depends on your signal, I'm sure even in standby some "dead zones" will have a larger drain on the battery as the phone tries to lock on. Also, no word on the coverage for GSM and if it is going to be even useful to most people who live in countries that have transitioned over already to newer protocols.

3. SIM CARD

They claim to give you $50 SIM card. Again, this is a logistical nightmare to promise to people. So many carriers, countries, and how on earth do you package this with the phone? You are better off just refunding people $50 and telling them to go buy their own SIM in their local country.

I'm very curious to know what is going on here. I did email the creators of this project and they seemed to be genuinely trying to do something here with an "incubator" group in China that works with these types of crowd-funding campaigns. But other than a cosmetic rebake of an existing phone and a "marketing gimmick", I still see nothing concrete having materialized. Prove me wrong guys.... and good luck in getting this thing out soon, your backers are getting impatient.

[EDIT: Latest Reply from the Creators]

Quote
Hi Jonny,
The Light Phone uses Nano SIM. You are correct, the Light Phone is 2G only. As for adapters, we are actually only providing our custom micro USB cord to all backers, but even US backers will not receive a power block as we assume everyone has so many already. Please feel free to email me whenever you have any questions - info@thelightphone.com goes straight to both of us. Thanks again for your continued support and patience. I'm sorry for our slow response we are heads down trying our best to stay on track and get everyone their phones :) Much love!

Before they change the rewards:

Quote
Pledge $100 or more

The Light Phone! You will receive one of the very first Light Phones. It will come with a mini USB charger, and a SIM card preloaded with at least 500 minutes.

ESTIMATED DELIVERY
May 2016
SHIPS TO
Anywhere in the world
1,875 backers

Pledge $125 or more

The Light Phone, a shirt and the process book. This is our Collector's Package. You will receive one of the first Light Phones, our exclusive Kickstarter shirt and the process book. This reward will ship in multiple parts. The Light shirt will ship in July of 2015. The phone will ship by May of 2016 and the book will follow in June of 2016.

ESTIMATED DELIVERY
May 2016
SHIPS TO
Anywhere in the world
317 backers

I thought it was $50 SIM, not 500 minutes. Not sure if it makes much of a difference. I don't know what 500 minutes costs with the various carriers around the world.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2016, 10:52:24 am by edy »
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #60 on: August 06, 2016, 11:46:28 am »
We are now past the June 2016 delivery estimate, on this project which collected $415,000, over 2x their goal... for what looks like a rebaked case design of already existing card phone. So what is holding them up? Can they not get the software right? The SIM cards? Few updates, no details. $100 for a $15 Alibaba item... where is the value-added so far? We do not even have any publicly viewable updates showing photos of the final phones, screen shots of the software, etc. Any backers here reading that have seen any evidence?
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #61 on: August 23, 2016, 07:41:19 pm »
Here is the latest update in the Comments section to answer a series of backers who are growing impatient with the delayed delivery of the phone (not sure who Albert de Vos is, and how he is related to the project, since as far as I know it's Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang running the show):

Quote
Albert de Vos about 11 hours ago
Robin:
The less great news is that we are behind with our software development and will be delaying shipping any phones until those elements are complete. We spent the last month working with our team to draw out an 8 weeks launch timeline around the software and we feel confident that by the end of August we will have the cloud/app/and firmware functionality complete and ready to scale. We understand how frustrating the delay can be, but the experience is only getting better than we imagined and we know it will be worth the wait.



So, what to be gathered from this comment by Albert? First, I'm not sure how he is involved with the project. Assuming this is a legitimate insider who is part of the developing team, I gather they are trying to make their phones be able to handle the "hand-over" function smoothly when switching from a regular phone to the light phone, and back again. I'm still wondering how this will be done since forwarding happens through the carrier, not from your own phone once it is already ringing. The idea of having a "cloud" also hints at something here, since I am not sure why you would even need that option in this application. Certainly it is not for the Light Phone which is not going to have any data capability. So "cloud/app" for iPhone and Android? To do what exactly and how?

Any hint or ideas of how the technology is going to work from this comment?

Waiting patiently.... :popcorn:

By the way, here you can see them working with lots of photos in China, either scenery or from the factories. Looks like they are really trying to get this thing done on time. In the video you can see a lady with a Foxxconn shirt on, and the entire plastic injection molding line, PCB board, assembly, soldering stations, etc... Pretty amazing video to look at:  :-+

https://www.facebook.com/thelightphone/



PS - That is one tiny display.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2016, 08:00:39 pm by edy »
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #62 on: September 14, 2016, 02:18:27 am »
An interesting post by one of the backers of the project:

Quote
Bob Scarborough 2 days ago
2G phone will soon not work anywhere - happy for the creator to prove this wrong. But the outlook is bleak.
By all reporting 2G networks around the world are closing down to using 4G network, including the USA in January 2017. What are you doing about the ramifications to the Light Phone.
Australian 2G network closes in December 2016. Can you tell me if there is future ideas of 3G or 4G compatible phones to be produced. As of December the Light Phone will not even work in Australia.
Networks
As many of you are probably aware, Cellular network operators around the world are planning to shut down their 2G networks to re-farm spectrum for more efficient 4G/LTE services. In the USA, AT&T plans to shut their 2G Network by January 1st 2017. Singapore is one of the first countries in the world to have all 2G networks shut down at once with M1, Starhub & Singtel announcing a joint shutdown on April 1st 2017

Also, a backer-only update was released called "The Final Survey". Unfortunately I can't see it. But it's probably an announcement for the release of the phone soon and maybe a few last questions. But I found this using a google search... not sure if it is the same thing:

http://www.thelightphone.com/kickstartertest

It doesn't ask anything related to the campaign. I wonder if this was a survey from before or if it is new. Also, the latest Facebook feed shows someone asking about battery life and they responded 3-6 days STANDBY time based on the strength of the signal.

 :clap:

So to summarize, people who are getting this phone to use "away from phone" may only have a few months to try it out before the 2G signal gets pulled in their area. Whatever 2G towers will remain up (if any) are going to be spotty at best, and you are going to need to figure out what carriers in your area still support it. I guess the purpose of the phone being "light" is appropriate, because you will never be disturbed having this phone with you. Nobody will be able to reach you.  :-DD 

What remains to be seen is whether this phone has any substantive advantage (other than purely esthetics) over the 2G credit card slim-phones that have already available online for several years at ~$15. I am curious to know how they solved the "hand-over" problem using an app for iPhone/Android to figure out what numbers to forward and what numbers to block. My only guess is that the app is able to dial the carrier or send data to the carrier using whatever protocol they designed to set up forwarding. Except that forwarding is all or nothing... you can't program your carrier to forward some numbers and not forward others to a different number.

The only way I can see this working through a type of conditional call forwarding, whereby the carrier will forward if there is a busy signal, or unanswered call, or when unreachable, or always. The app on your iPhone/Android would have to be set up with a "white-list" to allow one response (like let the phone ring and ring) for certain people, and another response (like give a busy signal) for the rest. Your conditional forward would have voicemail set up for the busy, and the unanswered call forwarding to your Light Phone.

Anyways, that will be very interesting to learn how they solved that problem.... if they were successfully able to do so.
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Offline Kean

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #63 on: September 24, 2016, 12:08:23 pm »
They're posting a bunch of stuff to Twitter apparently claiming Google has ripped off their "idea".
https://twitter.com/thelightphone
Well I think that's what they are going on about...  :blah:
 

Offline Richard Crowley

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #64 on: September 24, 2016, 02:15:54 pm »
They're posting a bunch of stuff to Twitter apparently claiming Google has ripped off their "idea".
https://twitter.com/thelightphone
Well I think that's what they are going on about...  :blah:
They seem to have such a tenuous grasp of reality, that doesn't seem very surprising.
 

Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #65 on: September 25, 2016, 10:10:55 pm »
I think they've completely lost their minds. The Google ads are just showing outlines of a new device. Light Phone just photoshopped their phone design on top of the Google ad and changed the date to their NY event on Oct. 5. By absolutely no stretch of the imagination is Google copying anything. In fact, Google probably never heard of them. They are delusional!
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #66 on: September 29, 2016, 04:51:00 am »
What do they mean about not shipping their SIM cards internationally? See attached reply from @light, screen-captured from their comments. I assume that they plan on buying a bulk of SIM cards from a local US carrier, preloaded with 500 minutes each, and that will only work in the US. So anyone who bought outside US will not get a SIM card, because the US carrier's card will not be accepted by other carriers abroad? Aren't there international agreements where you can take phones to other jurisdictions and use same SIM? I'm not sure how this works. I wonder how many of their backers are outside US?
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Offline wraper

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #67 on: September 29, 2016, 04:55:04 am »
Aren't there international agreements where you can take phones to other jurisdictions and use same SIM? I'm not sure how this works. I wonder how many of their backers are outside US?
There are, but calls in roaming are very expensive. Therefore 500 US minutes will convert to just a few minutes at the same price.
 

Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #68 on: September 29, 2016, 02:09:52 pm »
Aren't there international agreements where you can take phones to other jurisdictions and use same SIM? I'm not sure how this works. I wonder how many of their backers are outside US?
There are, but calls in roaming are very expensive. Therefore 500 US minutes will convert to just a few minutes at the same price.

So shouldn't have Light said something like "We will give you a SIM card which in the US on the preferred carrier will have a value equivalent to 500 minutes anywhere in the USA (Disclaimer: calls to numbers outside the USA or made from outside the USA, mileage may vary depending on local carrier costs per minute)."   

Then you could probably figure that if you have 5 cents a minute, then 500 minutes = $25 equivalent value on the card. So for that $100 Light Phone, there is $25 worth of SIM value included. Now people outside the USA will not get the SIM at all? Then that's $25 scammed even more from them? They should either refund them partially or provide them the US SIM and let them use it for whatever value it's worth.
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #69 on: October 23, 2016, 02:12:55 am »
Am I misunderstanding something here, or wasn't the original reward including 500 minutes minimum? What is this comment saying it was originally 100 minutes and they are now offering 500? They always promised 500! See attached photos. Still nothing shipped... bunnie:studios should look into this.... Another HAX incubator /accelerator... After seeing that Shenzhen documentary by WIRED, I would think this phone would be done in a week! (ok a month or 2 maybe).
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #70 on: November 07, 2016, 08:07:12 pm »
The latest comment posted by the project creator:

Quote
Light Creator about 5 hours ago
Hi All,
Update coming this afternoon. Thank you for your patience we have been waiting to have a 100% confirmed shipping date which we are beyond excited to share.
We will begin shipping at scale on November 30th. That means about 1,800 (white) phones will leave that date and begin shipping to backers and the next batch will leave the following week and hopefully all of our backers will receive their phones by the end December or the early into the new year depending on the batch and region we are shipping to. The black phone will not begin shipping until the second week of January and follow a similar roll out.
We are so close!!
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"Ye cannae change the laws of physics, captain" - Scotty
 

Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #71 on: December 01, 2016, 02:01:12 am »
Some soft rebuke from Tech crunch. No sh#t Sherlock, we knew all this from the start. Good read but unfortunately still not enough:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/15/light-phone-delays/

Light blames "iOS" limitations for some change to initial user experience goals. If this is referring to the one-touch forwarding on/off feature, well we already knew this was B.S. and couldn't be done. Either they would need to know every carrier's forwarding setup codes and have the app be able to dial or have a way to interact with the carrier's system through data/SMS, if that is even possible. Or need to set up forwarding by carrier after certain number of unanswered rings (if call not answered by primary phone) but have app monitor called ID of incoming call and choose who to answer and drop the call on within the phone (therefore aborting a forward by the carrier) and who to allow to keep ringing (not answered) and therefore fall back to carrier's forward feature.

The article also brings up other criticisms and issues. Phone is supposed to ship now, let's see if it is just an AEKU Re-badge. The creators initially promised 500 min. SIM card, then backtracked and said they wouldn't ship a SIM to international callers, and also seemed confused as to their original promise of 500 min (see above post showing how they say it was 100 min. and that they are being generous by offering 500 min). Then there is also the issue of what 500 min. card costs and where it will work. If they are buying some US-only AT&T or Verizon SIM preloaded card, it would look like this and give you anywhere-in-the-USA 500 minutes:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/AT-amp-T-500-Minutes-Rechargeable-US-amp-International-PrePaid-Phone-Card/5634374

That card above expires after 365 days. If you read the comments on that page, many people complain that most of their cards lasted WAY LESS than 500 minutes, because if you call even to the next city or state, each 1 minute may use 5 minutes or more of the card. So it is not true 500 minutes of nation-wide calling anywhere to anywhere within the continental USA.

Anyways, if you shop around now for a SIM, almost nobody offers 500 minute cards. They are always denominated in the $-value to get around this poor trick marketing scam because many people bought 500 minute cards thinking they get 500 minutes, whereas if they buy a $-value card and they are forced to check the rates to see exactly how much each minute costs, and calculate the actual amount of minutes that amount of $ buys them.

The creators seemed to have brilliantly pulled off this stunt where they fund a year or more of their personal development in China to the tune of about $415,000 between the both of them, within the HAX/incubator system no less... and it takes them this long to produce not a 3G phone, but some crappy 2G that already existed but just a re-designed look, that you could buy for about $15 on eBay/Alibaba. Then they promised a companion app for iOS/Android that would make "hand-off" or forwarding on/off easy as click of a button, and 500 min. calling. We have seen some back-pedalling on both of these, so I can't wait to see what actually gets sent out to people and what features they ended up including and what didn't make it... like the companion app and calling SIM which is really the only value-added feature that would even make this phone stand out. You can then justify is the $100 price tag, over 5x the cost of the $15 AEKU, is worth those 2 extra features.

And they posted this to their public comments:

Quote
Light Creator 3 days ago
We will be explaining the minutes/SIM (US backers) and software roadmap with everyone in an update later this week. Cheers!

So that seems to confirm that only US people are getting cards, that likely it is some fixed $ amount that *may* give you 500 minutes if you are calling next door so they can claim they delivered a 500 min. card to you, for maybe $40 (500 min x 8 cents/min lowest possible rate for a local call). And the software looks like it is nowhere to be found so they are producing a "roadmap" to explain the delay in the iOS/Android companion apps.

I think the best deal people got from this campaign is the T-shirt and book offer which was about $25-50. It is a great coffee-table book of another Kickstarter scam.

Any day now some backer who receives their item should give us the answer.... how exciting!  :popcorn:
« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 03:01:54 am by edy »
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #72 on: December 01, 2016, 02:43:12 am »
Oh yeah... I thought this was a cool shot from their Twitter feed.... maybe it provides some clues:



I just found this one on eBay for $9.98 US (with free International shipping) and they are still making a PROFIT! Wow:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AIEK-C6-Ultra-Thin-Credit-Card-Mobile-Phone-1-0-Bluetooth-GSM-2G-Candy-Color-/282218521075?var=&hash=item41b588e1f3:m:mQgbwWK0dm7WyPJXxrSERLg

« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 03:08:26 am by edy »
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Offline jonovid

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #73 on: December 01, 2016, 03:30:42 am »
there is a market for a basic cell phone that is more like a old land line. for the disabled and the elderly, that has a big battery. basic phone call os , good antenna , big buttons with beep , bright high contrast oLED screen , good audio volume.
rugged polycarbonate exterior case. and cheap to own.
Hobbyist with a basic knowledge of electronics
 

Offline Delta

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Re: Light phone on Kickstarter
« Reply #74 on: December 01, 2016, 12:06:53 pm »
...so I can't wait to see what actually gets sent out to people...

A £10 AliExpress credit-card phone, and a pre-paid SIM card.
 


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