The $12 “Gongkai” Phone (2013)

https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=3107

by msvan • 8 years ago

131 43 8 years ago

bunniestudios.com

class4behavior• 8 years ago

From 2014: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8646781

ezequiel-garzon• 8 years ago

Thanks! In turn, from 2013: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5703946

browsercoin• 8 years ago

ah, blast from the past! this has to be one of my top favorite HN submissions of all time, I recall 5 years ago when I first saw it posted here I was amazed. It'd be interesting to see a 2018 "Gonkai" phone.

userbinator• 8 years ago

If you search AliExpress for "mini phone" you'll find plenty. Looks like the price hasn't changed much:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Arrival-Ultra-Thin-AIEK-...

It's amusing to see some of them advertised as being "low radiation", presumably to appeal to the health quacks, but all that phrase connotes in my mind is "bad reception".

Edit: a look inside reveals not much has changed from the one in the article, only the casing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h8Ca-yzKuc

da02• 8 years ago

Have you used these? Any good for receiving and making phone calls?

0db532a0• 8 years ago

According to the page, it even has a small fuselage.

bacon_waffle• 8 years ago

Not a Gonkai phone, but you might be interested in the iPhone aftermarket engineering behind this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY5R-7dgbEA

reaperducer• 8 years ago

A few weeks ago I tried to find the cheapest phone I could on amazon. I think it was $14, including shipping.

I can only assume the battery life and reception are terrible. It got bad reviews. But if you’re someone who burns through burner phones, or might do in a pinch.

ahofmann• 8 years ago

In Europe you can buy a mobile phone on Amazon for about 10,- € where the battery lasts for about two weeks and making calls works well. The manufacturer is called Wiko. Very convenient for children who constantly lose their mobile phones...

atlet• 8 years ago

Do you have any link?

Crosseye_Jack• 8 years ago

Dunno if the US stock it. In the UK at least its a 2G GSM phone so in the US you are going to be stuck to T-mobile and only till 2020. But we can get the Nokia 105 for £14(~$19) delivered from Amazon. Its a nice little dumb phone with a decent battery life that faithful to the old Nokia UI/OS.

Its 2G is its biggest downside imo as it will only have a few years of life in it before network operators in the west start shutting down their 2G networks but if you are using it for a burner that might not be too much of an issue for the next couple of years.

nielsbot2• 8 years ago

Need an update for 2018...

utopcell2• 8 years ago

there you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BlfAMitMf4

nielsbot2• 8 years ago

credit card phones. $15! wild.

amiga-workbench4• 8 years ago

I bought a slightly fancier one of these earlier this year, if I could get rid of the rancid boot sound it would be perfect. http://mos6581.com/pictures/vaio/nanophone.jpg

TACIXAT• 8 years ago

Do you have a product link?

amiga-workbench4• 8 years ago

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/itm/32816616368.html

lifeformed2• 8 years ago

Does it do sms? How's the battery life? I might get one...

amiga-workbench4• 8 years ago

Yeah, it does SMS just fine. I had to charge it up every 2-3 days though and I'm not a heavy user at all. I call for the odd taxi a few times a week and that's it.

Be warned, it charges via its 3.5mm jack. It comes with two USB adapters for you to charge and read its internal storage.

lucasgonze• 8 years ago

I'm less interested by the phone and more by the idea of "a unique innovation ecosystem evolved with little western influence, thanks to political, language, and cultural isolation." ... "gongkai isn’t a totally lawless free-for-all. It’s a network of ideas, spread peer-to-peer, with certain rules to enforce sharing and to prevent leeching. It’s very different from Western IP concepts, but I’m trying to have an open mind about it."

Any suggestions WRT other writing about this sphere?

Waterluvian• 8 years ago

I'm fascinated by it too. Though it does seem to conveniently ignore that this is probably made possible by stealing IP to get started.

Nevertheless, it's interesting to consider other mechanisms for technological evolution.

abraham_lincoln• 8 years ago

How does one steal IP?

Use BGP?

chillacy3• 8 years ago

Infringe is a more suitable word for IP than steal, since nothing is physically taken. The real question (and the thing which should force self reflection on western ip laws) is if companies are incentivized to invest in developing new ip without laws to create monopolies for the new tech. Maybe open source software is a similar model (copyright vs patents).

davidzweig2• 8 years ago

> "unique biological ecosystem evolved in the absence of continental species"

I think it's doing business based on informal interpersonal relationships, community, 'You scratch my back I'll scratch yours.'

It contrasts with Western BigCorpCo, sticklers for the letter of the law, insisting on long contracts, sue you into the ground etc etc.

Community before legal fetishism. I think it's the default modus operandi worldwide, it's the US/West that is unique. I don't say either system is superior.

I don't speak Chinese, so can't say for sure.

Edit: I reread the article, this part is interesting:

> Of course, you can’t just call up Mediatek and buy these; and it’s extremely difficult to engage with them “going through the front door” to do a design. Don’t even bother; they won’t return your calls.

Maybe they want you to use one of their associated 'development support' companies, that have ads on Taobao? Sometimes these companies ask for large downpayments to get access to the SDKs/dev tools. Genuine question.

SiVal• 8 years ago

"Community before legal fetishism."

This "legal fetishism", otherwise known as the rule of law, is what allows business deals to be made between strangers instead of the traditional "community" limitation of having to share a friend in common who will vouch for you.

The main problem with the rule of law is having too little of it, when the traditional worldwide norm you speak of partially subverts it, and the powerful scratch each other's backs.

staktrace• 8 years ago

There's a more detailed discussion in his book, https://nostarch.com/hardwarehacker

desireco42• 8 years ago

Since this was 5 yrs ago, now there are regular phones that are similar if not a little more polished concepts.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Uniwa-AEKU-C6-Mobile-Phone-G...

I think this makes a lot of sense for some uses, kids, when you want to be tech-less.

elil172• 8 years ago

The downside this approach to IP that is community based as opposed to legalistic is the culture of hazing it comes with. To learn about this I recommend listening to “Business and Fucking in China” by Sinica.

https://m.soundcloud.com/chinafile/sinica-podcast-business-a...

The $12 “Gongkai” Phone (2013)

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