Siempo Wants to Be the Phone You Don't Check

Did you just look at your phone? Are you looking at your phone right now? I'm typing this on a PC, and I'm looking at ii phones. We may be looking at our phones also much, only we can't stop ourselves. Enter Siempo, an Android telephone that'southward designed to exist a lot less intrusive than rival devices.

I'thou fascinated by simple phones, probably because I know I need an intervention. Siempo isn't a cheap characteristic telephone like the Blu Tank 2 or a gadget for the elderly like the Doro SmartEasy: information technology's a midrange, high-quality Android phone with limited functions, which is designed to give you critical information but not to oppress.

I like the thought, just there'due south a catch, of course: it doesn't exist yet. Siempo founder Jorge Selva explained that the startup is even so picking manufacturing partners and hopes to accept its $349 phone for auction past the end of the yr. The LTE-capable telephone will probably be uniform with AT&T and T-Mobile.

(The hardware Selva showed me was a dummy; the screen shots y'all run into below come from the Siempo software stack running on a Nexus 5X.)

Keep It Simple (But Not Stupid)

The idea for Siempo came about when Selva was stuck using a feature phone on a trip to Republic of peru.

"Later on ii weeks on that trip, I was sitting at that place and said, huh, I feel much less broken-hearted and distracted," he said.

So why non just build or purchase a feature phone? In the U.s., feature phones are at a crossroads. Carriers are demanding voice-over-LTE for phone calling, which feature phone OSes by and large don't back up. And there are a lot of simple features, like cloud syncing for contacts, which are piece of cake to practice on Android but difficult to do on characteristic telephone OSes.

Siempo Home

"Nosotros built our own design of hardware, our own operating arrangement, and an e-ink screen, merely realized it wasn't feasible and pivoted into this," Selva said.

"This" is an Android phone with a small only manageable screen and a v-megapixel camera on the back. (Well-nigh of the specs are in flux.) There's no front-facing photographic camera and so you don't end up obsessing about yourself.

The stripped-down operating system, based on the open-source parts of Android, just presents yous with a text entry infinite where you type what yous want to do: "telephone call" or "text," for instance. You can also swipe right to see a very calm, restful menu with a fixed list of apps. There'south no app store, only if you desperately need a sure app, you tin can install an APK.

Siempo Menu

Two custom apps—"mindful morning" and "tempo"—permit you lock out diverse features and notifications for gear up periods of time then you can focus on other things. "Our goal is to get people to have dorsum that control over time," Selva said.

The telephone will take a "light electronic mail and browser feel," perhaps focused only on key correspondents and important sites, Selva said. For messaging, Siempo is looking at SMS for the US and WhatsApp for Europe.

While there are apps that prevent overuse on Android, they're too easy to dodge, he said. Baking limits into the core of the phone reduces "cognitive load" and makes information technology piece of cake to relax, he said.

Can Siempo But Survive?

Siempo Tempo

Creating a phone startup is very hard, and I've seen many fail. Navigating the Chinese manufacturing landscape tin be catchy, and when y'all're working at very small volumes, it becomes expensive to produce individual products. Siempo volition take to charge $349 for hardware a bigger company could sell for less. That's a midrange unlocked phone price, to be sure, just it's going to exist difficult for people not to mentally compare this to sub-$100 feature phones.

I recollect in that location's a market, if a niche marketplace, for Siempo'southward uncomplicated device. I come across it in my ain habitation: my married woman and I would like to focus on reading books at night, for instance, just I just can't help looking at my telephone. The material and stop on the telephone will have to be excellent, and the interface volition take to exist clear and elementary. I hope they make it.

Siempo is currently on Kickstarter, which hopefully does not mean it will fall prey to the hardware crowdsourcing curse.