u/ReturningRetro

Rayman 2

Earthworm Jim

My first video game console was the original Nintendo Entertainment System (and was my second video game system ever after the Sega Game Gear). My mom found it at a yard sale with controllers and a bunch of games one summer in the 90s. My brothers and I couldn't believe our luck.

So to say the '8-Bit Gamer' is an excellent addition to my small collection of watches is probably an understatement. 😎

(Copied from their Kickstarter page here)

We are making good progress on Prototype V2!

We have de-risked a lot, here is what we have accomplished since the last update:

CPU
At the time of writing this, a few SoC (system on chip) for the CPU section of the board are being manufactured. We directly contacted Octavo Systems and they will continue making the CPU we selected for many years to come.

Keyboard
We ported the keyboard we originally had on V1, onto V2 (hardware and software). We will need to do one more iteration of it to make it thinner. We already have a plan in place.

Audio
We can now convert digital audio to analog and amplify it, which means..
We got audio! We are now able to play music or notification sounds on the speaker of the phone. We are using completely different integrated circuit than our original prototype for audio. What we use now is much smaller and less power hungry than what was in the original prototype.

Mic
We also integrated a digital mic, which lets you record audio and save it on the phone.
In the original prototype, we had a digital and analog mic. We were able to condense it down to one mic, the analog mic was redundant.

Cellular Network
Related to that, we got our network chip working with our new system. With our audio work, we were able to redirect audio from the digital microphone into voice calls, as well as route incoming call audio from the network chip to the speaker. At this point, we can officially call it a phone again, but of course, we still have a lot to do. 

We can now acquire GPS fixes with the new cellular chip. The GPS in this new network chip is much better than the one in our original prototype. It has faster fix times (you can pin point your location on maps faster). We also contacted Quectel to confirm the chip is still being produced for many years to come.

Motor
We now support the vibration motor for notifications. This will grab your attention if someone sends you a text or call, but you will be able to disable it.

ePaper
We were able to render to the ePaper display with the new system, we also ported our UI from V1.

Touch is now implemented on the ePaper display with the new system.

We've completed front light support on our ePaper display. It required us to design a new PCB because the one driving it was much too large. This design will be merged in our final PCB. What's exciting is that it uses much less power than we originally thought. The original prototype had no component to drive the front light.

3.5mm headphone jack
After reviewing and implementing community feedback we now support 3.5mm output! When you plug in a 3.5mm headset, audio automatically switches from the speaker to the headset. Next step is to also support input on the same line. We have some preliminary work done already as we have successfully converted 3.5mm analog audio to digital.

Wi-Fi
This is our main focus at the moment. The chip we wanted to use is consuming too much power, we needed to pivot and look at a few more options. We found a chip from Texas Instruments that was already integrated with a similar SoC that should work with our system. We spent quite a bit of time re-designing the PCB for this section to make it compatible with or SoC. We essentially made a Wi-Fi hat for our SoC. The design is done and a few boards are currently being manufactured for testing. This will also be merged into one PCB (as with everything) later on. We should be able to test in out in the next few weeks.

Next steps
Our next step is to ensure our Wi-Fi board works, get the camera working, finish 3.5mm input and finish the porting work of our software from the old prototype to the new one. As we have been working on this new prototype, we continue to monitor each component's power consumption. We also need to select a stable battery and complete the battery management system so the device can fully run from the battery, charge correctly and accurately report its charge level. We already have experience with this when we worked on V1.

After that we will design a single board, then create the injection molds for it, which we will then be ready to launch the Kickstarter!

Core values
One of our core values is to always improve. As you can see, we have improved a lot in the project since the last prototype and we continue striving to make this a solid product.

Timeline
The project is progressing well, although, slightly slower than expected. We originally mentioned launching Kickstarter between late 2026 and early 2027. After evaluating our progress, we've decided to target early 2027, assuming everything continues to go well. It's better to launch when we are ready vs launching too early. That said, please be patient, great things are coming and we truly believe The Basic Phone will help you reclaim your life.

Pricing
We know a price change isn't what anyone wants to hear, but let's start with the important part. We are still offering a small super early bird batch at $399 on Kickstarter, because that's the price we originally quoted and we want to honor it. At that price, we are essentially breaking even, it doesn't leave room for certifications or a buffer for unexpected costs, but it matters to us to keep our word in some form. Once that batch is gone, pricing moves to early bird, followed by our standard pledge tier, each roughly a few hundred dollars above the last, we are leaving the exact numbers open for now, so we don't repeat what happened with our original estimate. We would rather confirm them once costs are final than revise them again later. This way we can be much closer to what it actually costs us to build and deliver the phone sustainably and to keep supporting it after launch.

Here's why the numbers moved. When we first estimated pricing, a lot of costs were still unknown. Now that we are close to finalized the bill of materials and gotten real manufacturing quotes, tooling, certifications, assembly, testing and platform fees, those numbers came in significantly higher than our early estimates. At the same time, we've kept improving the hardware, reducing power consumption, redesigning major subsystems and validating every part of the platform. Our goal is to produce a product that's reliable and built to last, not one that cuts corners to hit a number we picked before we knew better.

We would much rather find this out now, before launch, than after.

Thank you for your continued interest and support in the project!

Come join us on Discord to discuss further: https://discord.com/invite/HVpbcddsXJ

Before we close, we want to share something personal.

Legacy
In honor of Dr. Guy Savoie 1932-2026 (recent passing of the grandfather of the founder)

Dr. Savoie was a respected surgeon, an accomplished pilot and a passionate advocate for aviation. At a time when aviation opportunities were limited, he earned his pilot’s licence, founded a flight school, established Frontair and created an air ambulance service that transported dozens of patients to specialized medical centers. He built a plane from scratch in his mid 80's.

He continues to be an important figure and inspiration to Bouchard Industries. We strive to be as accomplished, positive, driven, audacious and passionate about what we do, just like Dr Savoie. Just as he built a plane from scratch, we believe building a phone from scratch is a fitting way to honor his legacy.

I admit I didn't see this coming! Here are links to their shop. I don't have an affiliate/referral link, but friend of Returning Retro u/jbriones95 does!

Non-ref: https://www.thelightphone.com/shop

Referral: https://www.thelightphone.com/shop?ref=josebriones

I found their specs (here)
Dimensions: 110mm x 58mm x 19mm (folded)
Weight: 160g
Network: 5G + 4GLTE
Display: 2.8” OLED (480x640)
Screen: Matte
Port: USB-C 2.0, 3.5mm Headphone Jack
Camera: 12m image (50m rear sensor)
SIM: Nano SIM + E-SIM
Memory: 128GB / 6GB RAM
Battery: 1800 mAH
Sound: 2 mics (noise cancellation), 2 stereo speakers
Connectivity: GPS, Bluetooth 5.0
Materials: Plastic
Chipset: MediaTek MT8873
IP Rating: IP 54

I just got a marketing email from this company (I posted about discovering them a week ago). I am not affiliated with them (I even reached out to u/farrandswitwatch but haven't heard back), have never owned any of their products, and honestly have no clue as to their reputation but...

I LOVE the look of this watch. As someone born in the 80s who grew up in the 90s and became an adult in the 00s, this aesthetic speaks to my soul. Did I mention synthwave/retrowave is my favorite music genre? 😎

Thought I'd share!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw all of these together at a local thrift shop! Some I played growing up, and others I have always wanted to!

Anyone one fans of these?!

I just stumbled across this company yesterday and love the retro aesthetic so many of their watches and accessories have! Has anyone ever owned one before?

We’re excited to give you a first look at Communicator in action.  

▶️ Clicks Communicator: First Look

Before you press play, I want to share a bit more about what you’re about to see. 

These first demos feature pre-production hardware, and internal software. It’s real, working hardware being used by our team for testing and validation, but definitely not finished product.

That means you’ll likely spot a few rough edges. In fact, since we started filming this video there have already been several new internal SW and firmware deployments that add features and polish to the experience (like the hole punch camera cut out you may see obscuring text in the status bar at a few points in the video…that’s already been fixed 😉).

Over the next couple months we’ll continue sharing more details and new demos of features like Message Hub, Signal Light, Prompt Key, touch sensitive keyboard, camera, etc. 

Speaking personally, it’s been so rewarding to start carrying Communicator every day and to be using it out in the real world. Seeing it evolve from an idea, sketches and prototypes into something I grab as I head out the door is pretty special (and kind of surreal!).

The entire team is heads down building, and we're still on track to begin shipping in Q4.

Thanks for being on this journey with us.

We built the first Minimal Phone in 8 months.

It was rushed. It was imperfect. But it proved people want a different kind of phone.

We’ve been working on MP02 for a year and kept it quiet because we wanted to show the product only when it was real.

No promises. No concepts. No noise.

MP02 is coming.

Get updates: http://minimalcompany.com/pages/mp02

From Clicks' Instagram story!

We've been long-time lurkers in this sub. Like many of you, we've been waiting for a smaller phone to hit the market, but it never happened.

This winter, we decided to take a huge risk and do something about it, bringing you enough Phone.

Specs and more info coming soon!