Commodore announces a digital detox phone and the comments seem very negative. I thought only the #MSX scene was that grumpy! 😅 I love the idea of a less-online focused device. It looks on-brand and fittingly nostalgic for Commodore. The pricing may limit its appeal, though.

@bitsofbas To be honest I struggle to see how this project is even viable. They’ve not long had the C64 remake out and then they’ve thrown what I considered a vanity project in to the mix. It just seems a crazy prospect.

@BetaRaddish Dunno, I'm not in the C= scene, but it seems like a well designed project. Not just "slapping stickers" on a Temu phone. They can only do so many C64 remakes before having to expand. A digital detox phone seems like a good candidate to me! It might just get traction. Who knows?

@bitsofbas I’m not gonna ho into the Commodore lore as that’s a whole different beast 🤣. But my honest thought is I don’t think it’ll be pulled off. They tapped into a market with commodore fans but to sell a phone… I think it’s a long shit with a hell of a margin to go wrong.

@BetaRaddish True. It's a risk for sure! Then again, what else can they do? They apparently don't have the Amiga license. So then.. Joysticks? Monitors? Not sure there's many options left but to try something totally different.

@bitsofbas Who knows what they could have done. That’s the point. But it’s seems they gone from FPGA device to “digital detox,” phone with a hefty premium. Happy to be proven wrong but man that’s a tall order. And even people outside the fan community are scratching their heads.

@BetaRaddish In a way, any retro computer is also a kind of digital detox product. I understand their thinking. But it's going to be a hard sell, between price and panicked comments about people not wanting to lose access to their FB 😅 It's just one more product. There will be more!

@bitsofbas I’ve just been looking at the OS documentation and the android emulation layer needs a purchased license to work. I wonder if that comes port of it of if you need to buy that separate. Also the 99% android compatibility claim is a little… dubious.

@BetaRaddish Maybe that's why they say that Whatsapp, Telegram, etc. work on the phone. Probably not sure enough to say it's got full compatibility. Ah, interesting re license! That could be part of that elevated pricing.

@bitsofbas Or the 48mp camera sensor. That’s another thing I’ve been research. The chip lowering it is a super low power one and that’s the most the chip can handle camera wise. But why stick that camera in that phone. Man this thing make no sense 🤣