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Comment by jamesjyu | Hacker News Reader

This would be pretty cool. I've started the habit of bringing a book (yes, paper!) to places to read. But, I still need to have my phone with me, in case of emergency calls or urgent messages. If the watch can do that, it'd basically act like a dumb phone with just enough capabilities to make me leave the phone at home.

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I recently bought a cheap feature phone and used that for a while, especially at work. Two things pushed me back to carrying a smartphone full time:

1. Typing messages on a keypad (T9 predictive), annoying as I usually just send messages for work 2. Swapping the sim card between two phones on the weekend / evenings

Battery life was phenomenal.

Does anyone know how to copy an Australian sim card?

I have accidentally stumbled on a solution to 1., if nobody knows how to copy a SIM: I have an eleven year old Blackberry — full keyboard, not T9, and both new enough to be using the 3G network and so old nobody maintains distracting apps for it.

I can even, despite its age, use it to make a WiFi hotspot so my development phone with no credit can go online when I'm outdoors.

I had no problems with my old samsung flip phone and it's t9. I could even touch type on it without looking. But AT&T said it's radio frequencies were no longer supported.

The problem with cheap feature phones for me right now is that I can't find any supported by most US networks that don't suck. The new ones suck way more than the old ones, noticeable delays when pressing keys, etc.

I really enjoyed my pre-iPhone Helio Ocean. Only messaging apps (text,MSN,aim,yim), physical keyboard. I would probably buy a modern version with no web browser.

That's what I'm thinking. The smartphone could be left home turned off, only to be brought out when I need the GPS or similar.

As such I love the thought. It's nothing a dumb phone can't offer right now, but the convenience of it being in watch form would just be fantastic.

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