George Alex Grant

One month of dumbdroid

Today I powered on my iPhone for the first time in just under a month. Since the start of the year I've been using my dumbdroid as my full time phone. I've set up the phone pretty much as it comes out of the box, apart from the addition of WhatsApp, and I have disabled the app store and browser. It came with an open source maps application called Organic Maps, which I have been using just fine to get around London. I plan on making a more thorough review, but here are my thoughts for now:

Why?

People find the phone extremely interesting and almost everyone who sees it during a conversation will bring it up. While most people think it's a crazy idea at first, around half of everyone I've spoken to has been very curious and ends up saying they will think about getting one. It's been eye opening to me to see how many people want to improve their 'digital health' and instantly resonate with a desire to get some space from their phone.

In almost every conversation about my phone I am asked "why am I doing it?". My reasons are varied, and I'm find that 'the point' is revealing itself to me through time, but here are a few reasons:

• It's an experiment. Getting a smartphone was an experiment, getting rid of one is another. It's already been interesting to see how life changes when you reshape your digital life. That alone is worth exploring for me.
• My iPhone is too powerful. Pocket technology is a wonder, and at times it is indispensable, but at other times it weighs me down. I have that found simply going for a walk with and without my phone feels significantly different. It's hard to explain, but I recommend you try it and see if you agree.
• Why not just leave your phone at home then? Phones are essential for some things like navigation and calls/messaging + I do not want to miss urgent calls e.g. in a family emergency.
• It has lots of buttons. How many buttons does your measly iPhone have, 3/4? The dumbdroid has like 20!
• I have negative feelings towards big American tech and the attention economy.
• I grew up through the digital revolution of the 2000s, and while I am a digital native, I also remember what life was like before this global transition. Lots of people in my generation miss what we left behind and are curious about whether it's even possible to go back.
• The creators of the phone seem like awesome people. It's a tiny European company run by two chaps who quickly replied to my emails when I had a question about the phone.

App controls

The creators of the phone point out that given how small the screen is, and the relatively awkward keyboard, you might not need to put any additional restrictions on the phone to improve your screen time etc. I wanted to go a step further and actually lock the phone down so it's a true brick phone. Currently the only way that seems to be supported is by typing in a pin code, but if you know the pin code then that kind of defeats the point. You could have a friend do it, but instead, I pasted in a sequence of numbers I had not memorised and now the phone requires reinstallation in order to change the app controls.

My current setup:

• No browser
• WhatsApp installed
• No app store
• Default maps app

I like that this is super minimalist but if I were to do it again I would consider installing:

• Google maps.
• Banking (this is the only reason I occasionally use my iPhone now).
• ChatGPT. It's quite a good way to get some access to the internet without the full monty. Currently if I really need to know something e.g. opening times of a museum, then I use WhatsApp's AI.

Paying for stuff

I used to almost exclusively use Apple Pay, but have gone back to using bank cards and cash. I have had zero problems with that so far.

Some more thoughts

My right pocket used to be for my iPhone, it's now for by dumbdroid and a tiny ereader called the xteink x4. When I'm reaching for a distraction when I'm out and about I now only have the options of contacting friends or reading a book. I really like that choice. I find these devices go very well together.

I have also been experimenting with keeping my laptop in a locker in my office, which means when I go home I have zero internet connected devices. This has introduced some challenges, including an extremely tedious weekend in which I wanted to do some admin but was locked out of the office, leading to unplanned mini digital detox. Overall I find this a really nice way to check out after work and make doom scrolling of any kind impossible. It happens to work well at the moment because I have this separate working space, such that I do not need to do any work at home, and I'm not sure how one could achieve this otherwise.

I will absolutely be keeping my iPhone 11, despite not using it. Until I reinstall my dumbdroid and add my banking apps, it's my only way of doing internet banking. I will also certainly use my iPhone in certain situations like managing digital forms at airports, and might even start using it in the office as a 'mini-iPad' but not putting it in my pocket or bringing it away from my desk.

Tips

• Even though the phone has a USB-C port, my version of the phone only charges using a USB-A to USB-C cable, so if you have problems charging it try using a cable like that.
• Get a screen protector. I have not used a screen protector and the screen has picked up lots of little scratches in my pocket, despite me being pretty careful with it. You can buy custom cut-to-size screen protectors that should do the trick.
• To lock down the phone without relying on a friend to type in the PIN code: type a sequence of numbers into e.g. the browser or settings search bar without memorising them, copy the sequence to the clipboard, and then paste that into the PIN code settings in order to lock down the phone.

Written 1 February 2026

Vintage gif search engine

I love the blursed feel of gifs from the primordial internet.

You can find authentic vintage gifs like this by browsing archives of geocities (which was shut down in 2009), or the awesome reboot project: neocities.org.

There is also gifcities.org, a purpose built search engine for archived geocities gifs run by the Internet Archive. It's great!

Written 1 January 2026

Convert YouTube channels to RSS feeds (web tool)

There are a bunch of websites that offer YouTube channel to RSS conversion but require a login. RSS links used to be very visible on YouTube. That's since changed, but the links still exist.

I vibe coded a tiny API to convert YouTube channel links to RSS links, which you can interact with using the HTML form below.

Enter a YouTube channel URL in the box above e.g. https://www.youtube.com/@PewDiePie

I've also used it successfully on sites other than YouTube, as it just looks for an RSS link in the page HTML. It seems that a lot of websites have RSS feeds, but don't advertise them. I wouldn't be surprised if lots a lot of website maintainers have harmlessly forgotten that they are still publishing to these feeds, which are quietly being generated by the back end.

Written 27 December 2025

Retro digital pragmatism

Recently I've gone down a rabbit hole of what I'm currently dubbing retro digital pragmatism, a superposition of digital minimalism and digital maximalism which aims to cut out bland corporate consumerist products and fight digital addiction through the intentional use of single-use devices that bring joy. I'm intending on documenting this journey on this blog, but let's see if I can stick the habit.

I have a habit of getting really obsessed with things and at this point in my life I realise that I'm better off leaning into it, jumping in, and riding the wave than reading endless blogs and watching YT videos while deciding whether this is an obsession that's worth pursuing. The only downside is some obsessions dent my bank balance. Oh well, I really think I will learn a lot from this journey and developing a healthy relationship with tech is a long-standing goal for me, that I think will pay off.

I'm currently waiting for the following in the post:

• a dumbdroid.eu to replace my iPhone 11 as my pocket phone.

I will still keep my iPhone for iOS development and basically as a mini-iPad, but I want to decouple what I need (WhatsApp and Maps), from what is a boon that turns into distractions (browser, YT, etc.). Certain features of the iPhone are really useful like having ChatGPT with me in seminars in order to quickly refresh assumed concepts, and I plan to use the device for specific things like this, with intention.

• xteink (their site, reddit community)

I heard about this bad boy from jvsholz and was very surprised at how capable these tiny ereaders are for the price, but what made me order one was the extremely active community surrounding the device. Already, multiple people have developed custom firmware and feature rich file converters for the device, extending the already good enough feature set to be quite insane. My intention is to carry this on me so I have a productive way to kill time on the tube, or when collapsed on the sofa. I intend to put some silly fiction on it, as I typically read non-fiction but I want this to be a fun relaxing thing that I will do instead of reaching for something else.

• iPod Classic (7th gen, thicc), reddit community.

Ok I definitely did not need to order this, but hear me out. Not only are these single-use audio players still good at what they were designed for, custom mods extend the storage capacity and battery life to ridiculous levels, and a custom firmware makes the iPod fully customisable. I intend to use this thing to listen to music, and I've already cancelled my Spotify subscription. I get a lot from my Spotify subscription, and it's quite crazy to think about the lengths my parents' generation went to in order to get the music they wanted, compared with the ease with which I can access almost any song I want. My biggest problems with Spotify are the following:

• My music and my phone are coupled, I can't take a walk and listen to tunes without being a tap away from everything else.
• Music has become low value and I never know what I'm listening to. I don't pay attention to albums, or often even artist names because of the frictionless experience and my dependence on the recommender system to bring me new music.
• More often I find new music by recommendations external to Spotify e.g. from friends or elsewhere online.

And of course classic iPods are cool! They are really nice devices, from a time before planned obsolescence. I've seen some really cool mods that push these things to new heights, and give you a fun project to work on and learn from. Jakob Burrows has a great essay on why people are buying iPods again, and he points out that people tend to assign much more value to things they have put physical effort into. He gives the example of people valuing their flat pack iKea furniture more if they assembled it themselves, and apparently brownie kits ask you to add a fresh egg instead of containing powdered egg, even though they could, for the reason: if you on something you value it more.

I think this comes back to this idea of intention. It doesn't have to be about doing less or having less, and I don't think that buying more off the shelf corporate tech is the solution. I think developing intention, and taking ownership of your devices will be more fruitful. I think nostalgia is a powerful emotion and it can be harnessed to bring a simpler time to the present day.

But let's see how it goes! Thanks for dropping by.

Written 17 December 2025