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.

“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.”

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.

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.