31 Jul 2025
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 Confession: I miss my Cat B35

 I used to carry my work iPhone and a Cat B35 personal phone. It is one of
 those they called "smart feature phone" that runs KaiOS, a descendant of the
 long-gone Firefox OS.

 I stopped carrying it a month ago. I have loads of excuses: it is hard to
 carry 2 phones; Though it is rugged, there are some small cracks on its body
 now; Probably due to its age, its keypad went from double clicking to triple
 clicking, then to now quadruple clicking - I can get an incorrect passcode
 message on its 4-digit unlock screen by pressing on just one key.

 But deep in my heart I think I still love it, much more than any smartphones
 that I have ever used.

 I guess I love it because of how "just right" it is. I guess it is also the
 reason why I love using some of the older tech. I have to be honest but I am
 not really a retro-loving person, but things like IRC, RSS, now Gopher too,
 work really well for me. I love old games because they require less processing
 power from my wife (yes, she starts to struggle when upgrading from an SNES
 joystick to a PS1's). I love *BSD because of how tidy and "just right" they
 are.

 On my Cat B35, I used my own RSS reader app. I like listening to online radios
 too, LiveIreland is definitely one of them if you are interested, so I built
 an app for that as well. Because of work that sometimes involves IoT stuffs, I
 built a Bluetooth tester app on it. I wrote a very simple AI app which I have
 used for less than 5 times other than showing people I can do that on feature
 phones. I have a global sim card on it so I don't have to worry when I travel
 (I travel quite a lot due to work). Because of all the optimisations, I used
 like around 200MB per month of data so 20 pounds worth of credits would be
 good for a whole year on this phone. I have also MP3s on it so I can listen to
 during flight time or if I am bored of listening to FM radio stations when
 commuting.

 Of course because I am a techie, but besides normal phone functions, I can
 literally build an app for some daily needs if I really really have to. The
 OS is also, er, insecure enough so that I managed to root it, put an Alpine
 Linux mini rootfs in it, put Dropbear SSH in it, and ta-da, it became a hidden
 personal PC with me in office. I fear no Z-Scalar and I can always SSH freely
 to my SDF shell for fun and IRC.

 I can do the same with my work iPhone, with much less effort, but I would get
 RSS readers that want to suggest me some insightful readings; I would get an
 Internet radio app with sleep timer, car mode, not to mention ads; The OS
 would offer AI assistant to me all the time so it can make my life easier; I
 can SSH to my VPS and SDF, but there are also loads of bells and whistles
 that I don't need.

 I don't dislike having many functions, but I like having a feature set that is
 just right for me. Nowadays I think people are bundling too many things into
 their products. I like how older tech are just built for exactly what they are
 built for. I like the simplicity in them.

 I am always thinking whether I should go back to my Cat B35, but a sentence
 from a blog post is still sticking in my mind. Interestingly, the post was
 about why the author was switching back to smartphone from a "dumbphone", as
 an effort of digital detox. The sentence was "I don't need it anymore, I am a
 modern man now". Though not quite related to why I am bringing/not bringing
 the Cat B35, I keep wondering is it as well part of "being modern" so I should
 accept that things won't be "just right" or as simple as they used to be, and
 I should just move on.