As anyone could have guessed, the new "Commodore" owners have announced
a pointless ill-fitting garbage device using the brand name, just as
many previous owners stupidly tried / planned to do. :-(


Going retro: Commodore strips the smartphone back to essentials
---------------------------------------------------------------
The dumbphone revival has been gathering momentum in recent years,
and the newly revived Commodore brand wants in. The computing
icon, best known for the machines that defined a generation of
1980s bedroom keyboard warriors, has unveiled the Callback 8020,
a retro flip phone built around a simple idea: keep the parts of
a smartphone you actually need, and strip out the ones designed
to keep you hooked.

It's a space we've explored plenty before, from the minimalist
Light Phone III to Fairphone's clever dumbphone switch, and
Commodore is approaching it from a fresh angle. Rather than going
fully bare-bones, the Callback positions itself as the middle
ground between a smartphone that's too smart and a dumbphone
that's too dumb.

The company calls it the "not dumb dumbphone," and the pitch
leans heavily on nostalgia, with Y2K styling, a flip-to-close
design, and the kind of friendly, character-rich hardware that
phones largely abandoned years ago.
<https://commodore.net/callback/>

Under its retro shell, the Callback runs Sailfish OS, a
privacy-focused Linux platform developed with Finland-based
Jolla. That choice lets the phone run around 99% of Android apps
while still being an independent and completely de-Googled
device - so essentials like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, maps,
rideshare, and music streaming all work, while social media apps
and web browsers are blocked at the system level. Commodore says
there's no data harvesting, and no sign-in is required to get
going.

The hardware is mid-range but purposeful: a MediaTek Helio
G81 chip, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage, paired with a
3.25-inch touchscreen that stays disabled by default to
encourage keypad-first, T9-style texting. Audio is where
Commodore's heritage really shines, with audiophile-grade DAC
chips from ESS and Cirrus Logic, lossless playback, FM radio,
bundled IEM earphones, and SID chip ringtones lifted straight
from the Commodore 64. Rounding things out are a 48-MP camera,
a removable battery, and a privacy kill-switch that takes you
off-grid with a double tap.

Pricing starts at US$499.99 for the standard editions, rising to
around $640 for premium finishes like the gold-accented Founders
Edition, which throws in a 24k gold-plated Commodore key and a
presentation box. That undercuts rivals like the $699 Light
Phone III while offering considerably more functionality,
including those swappable batteries and back covers. Pre-orders
open on June 30, with free worldwide shipping for a limited time
and devices expected to ship toward the end of the year.

It arrives as regulators tighten the screws on youth social
media access, with Australia's under-16 restrictions already in
place and similar UK rules expected in 2027. This means the
Callback isn't just a good phone for minimalist adults, but
also a great potential device for under 16s who need a somewhat
modern phone and also need to stay away from social media.

Commodore is betting that a phone built around deliberate
friction, rather than willpower alone, is what the digital
minimalism crowd has been waiting for. And although it won't be
for everyone, anyone with an interest in digital minimalism
should be happy to see more product offerings in this category.


<https://newatlas.com/consumer-tech/commodore-callback-8020-flip-phone/>





---
* Origin: rbb pygate - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10.0)

In article <112cbmm$ne80$1@dont-email.me>,
Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

As anyone could have guessed, the new "Commodore" owners have announced
a pointless ill-fitting garbage device using the brand name, just as
many previous owners stupidly tried / planned to do. :-(

Call me silly but I saw this coming from a mile away and I'm not opposed
to the idea. A De-Googled and OS-level SM-blocked device is actually not
a bad idea imo, though the form factor is obviously reaching for
nostalgia. I guess I can't see the "pointless ill-fitting garbage"
aspect but I'm open to more of your take. At least they haven't started selling pencil sharpeners... yet...

If Peri wants to lean into Commodore being a "digital detox" brand (his branding, not mine, ofc) then I say more power to them. There's either a market or there isn't.

--
*~~a blonde may be fair~~*
*~and a brunette upscale~*
*~~but as my name hints~~*
*~~~I prefer a red ale~~~*

---
* Origin: rbb pygate - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10.0)

On 2026-07-05 05:00:02 +0000, Smithwicks said:

In article <112cbmm$ne80$1@dont-email.me>,
Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

As anyone could have guessed, the new "Commodore" owners have announced
a pointless ill-fitting garbage device using the brand name, just as
many previous owners stupidly tried / planned to do. :-(

Call me silly but I saw this coming from a mile away and I'm not
opposed to the idea. A De-Googled and OS-level SM-blocked device is
actually not a bad idea imo, though the form factor is obviously
reaching for nostalgia. I guess I can't see the "pointless ill-fitting garbage" aspect but I'm open to more of your take. At least they
haven't started selling pencil sharpeners... yet...

The problem is that the dumb-samrtphone is simply going to be the thin
edge of the wedge as they cmoe up with more ridiculous things to stick
teh "Commodore" brand onto. :-(

They should have just kept with the C64 and perhaps the Amiga
(realistically a "new Amiga" is at best never going to be anything but
a Windoze PC with a so-called "Amiga OS" slapped on top). The company
is never going to reach the height it was in the past and will, and
*should*, just remain a nostaglia brand rather than trying to cash-in
via silly gimmicky gadgets.

If Peri wants to lean into Commodore being a "digital detox" brand (his branding, not mine, ofc) then I say more power to them. There's either
a market or there isn't.

---
* Origin: rbb pygate - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10.0)

On 7/4/26 22:20, Your Name wrote:

On 2026-07-05 05:00:02 +0000, Smithwicks said:

In article <112cbmm$ne80$1@dont-email.me>,
ÿYour Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

As anyone could have guessed, the new "Commodore" owners have
announced a pointless ill-fitting garbage device using the brand
name, just as many previous owners stupidly tried / planned to do.ÿ :-(

Call me silly but I saw this coming from a mile away and I'm not
opposed to the idea. A De-Googled and OS-level SM-blocked device is
actually not a bad idea imo, though the form factor is obviously
reaching for nostalgia. I guess I can't see the "pointless ill-fitting
garbage" aspect but I'm open to more of your take. At least they
haven't started selling pencil sharpeners... yet...

The problem is that the dumb-samrtphone is simply going to be the thin
edge of the wedge as they cmoe up with more ridiculous things to stick
teh "Commodore" brand onto.ÿ :-(

They should have just kept with the C64 and perhaps the Amiga
(realistically a "new Amiga" is at best never going to be anything but a Windoze PC with a so-called "Amiga OS" slapped on top). The company is
never going to reach the height it was in the past and will, and
*should*, just remain a nostaglia brand rather than trying to cash-in
via silly gimmicky gadgets.

There are hardware Amigas on the market.
Like the original system the price is too high for
me. But the best Amiga Emulations do not run on
top of Windows but on a stripped down Linux running
only a "Just In Time" aka JIT emulation of the
MC 680x0 processors series on the X86 processor
which I saw at an AmigaWest Show quite some years
ago.
The performance of the laptop with a 500 MHz
Pentium laptop was comparable or faster with Amiga
native hardware speeds The makers of the emulation
software ran into problems with licensing before I
could buy a copy but there are Linux Amiga Emulations
but you will have to buy the ROMs from some source
and the Emulation that does run on Windows might be
a simple way to acquire the needed software roms.

I sold my Amiga 1000 and its Expansion box,
My A2000B with the 50 MHz 68060 and lots of 32 bit
ram some time ago and GNU/Linux as spoken by texstar
is enough for this hobbyist.

If Peri wants to lean into Commodore being a "digital detox" brand
(his branding, not mine, ofc) then I say more power to them. There's
either a market or there isn't.

I really don't much care about the Commodore
brand since the man that made it a great company is
gone. That was Jack Tramiel who went on and bought
Atari.
Jay Miner died long ago and without him there
never would have been any Amiga and he was a community
member running an Amiga BBS down the Peninsula.
I was in my 40s then when I got into computers with
the C=64,C34/128/CPM,AmigaOS,WindowsXP and then
Mandriva Linux.in my 60s and I am 88 YOA now.

bliss- Dell 7730- PCLinuxOS 2026.07,Linux 6.18.37,Plasma 6.7.2

---
* Origin: rbb pygate - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10.0)

On 2026-07-05 08:04:58 +0000, BobbieSellers said:

On 7/4/26 22:20, Your Name wrote:

On 2026-07-05 05:00:02 +0000, Smithwicks said:

In article <112cbmm$ne80$1@dont-email.me>,
?Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

As anyone could have guessed, the new "Commodore" owners have announced >>>> a pointless ill-fitting garbage device using the brand name, just as
many previous owners stupidly tried / planned to do.? :-(

Call me silly but I saw this coming from a mile away and I'm not
opposed to the idea. A De-Googled and OS-level SM-blocked device is
actually not a bad idea imo, though the form factor is obviously
reaching for nostalgia. I guess I can't see the "pointless ill-fitting
garbage" aspect but I'm open to more of your take. At least they
haven't started selling pencil sharpeners... yet...

The problem is that the dumb-samrtphone is simply going to be the thin
edge of the wedge as they cmoe up with more ridiculous things to stick
teh "Commodore" brand onto.? :-(

They should have just kept with the C64 and perhaps the Amiga
(realistically a "new Amiga" is at best never going to be anything but
a Windoze PC with a so-called "Amiga OS" slapped on top). The company
is never going to reach the height it was in the past and will, and
*should*, just remain a nostaglia brand rather than trying to cash-in
via silly gimmicky gadgets.

There are hardware Amigas on the market.

The only real Amiga hardware for sale are original machines selling as
used on eBay and similar places.

Anything else is a pretend "Amiga", usually a bog-stanard Windoze PC or cobbled together 680x0 / PowerPC box running at best what claims to be
AmigaOS or simply running an emulator ... but neither are actually a
real Amiga since they don't have the custom chips, etc. that made the
Amiga what is was.

No new computer will ever have those types of custom chips either.
There's simply no real reason to do it with CPU and GPU chip
capabilities these days.

Like the original system the price is too high for me. But the best
Amiga Emulations do not run on top of Windows but on a stripped down
Linux running
only a "Just In Time" aka JIT emulation of the MC 680x0 processors
series on the X86 processor which I saw at an AmigaWest Show quite some years ago.
The performance of the laptop with a 500 MHz Pentium laptop was comparable or faster with Amiga native hardware speeds The makers of
the emulation
software ran into problems with licensing before I could buy a copy but there are Linux Amiga Emulations but you will have to buy the ROMs from
some source and the Emulation that does run on Windows might be a
simple way to acquire the needed software roms.

I sold my Amiga 1000 and its Expansion box, My A2000B with the 50 MHz 68060 and lots of 32 bit ram some time ago and GNU/Linux as spoken by texstar
is enough for this hobbyist.

If Peri wants to lean into Commodore being a "digital detox" brand (his >>> branding, not mine, ofc) then I say more power to them. There's either
a market or there isn't.

I really don't much care about the Commodore brand since the man that made it a great company is gone. That was Jack Tramiel who went on and bought Atari.
Jay Miner died long ago and without him there never would have been any Amiga and he was a community member running an Amiga BBS down the Peninsula. I was in my 40s then when I got into computers with the C=64,C34/128/CPM,AmigaOS,WindowsXP and then Mandriva Linux.in my 60s
and I am 88 YOA now.

bliss- Dell 7730- PCLinuxOS 2026.07,Linux 6.18.37,Plasma 6.7.2

---
* Origin: rbb pygate - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10.0)

In article <112cpji$r7ar$1@dont-email.me>,
Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

On 2026-07-05 05:00:02 +0000, Smithwicks said:

In article <112cbmm$ne80$1@dont-email.me>,
Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> wrote:

As anyone could have guessed, the new "Commodore" owners have announced >> a pointless ill-fitting garbage device using the brand name, just as
many previous owners stupidly tried / planned to do. :-(

Call me silly but I saw this coming from a mile away and I'm not
opposed to the idea. A De-Googled and OS-level SM-blocked device is actually not a bad idea imo, though the form factor is obviously
reaching for nostalgia. I guess I can't see the "pointless ill-fitting garbage" aspect but I'm open to more of your take. At least they
haven't started selling pencil sharpeners... yet...

The problem is that the dumb-samrtphone is simply going to be the thin
edge of the wedge as they cmoe up with more ridiculous things to stick
teh "Commodore" brand onto. :-(

They should have just kept with the C64 and perhaps the Amiga
(realistically a "new Amiga" is at best never going to be anything but
a Windoze PC with a so-called "Amiga OS" slapped on top). The company
is never going to reach the height it was in the past and will, and *should*, just remain a nostaglia brand rather than trying to cash-in
via silly gimmicky gadgets.

If Peri wants to lean into Commodore being a "digital detox" brand (his branding, not mine, ofc) then I say more power to them. There's either
a market or there isn't.

It would be nice to see them join forces with some more niche offerings
and projects. I think that a foray into the Amiga universe would
actually go very well if they partnered with MorphOS and the
PowerProgress PowerPC Notebook project (which has been in a slow-crawl development hell for ages). Maybe even something involving RISC-V, if
there's any Amiga compatibility there.

--
*~~a blonde may be fair~~*
*~and a brunette upscale~*
*~~but as my name hints~~*
*~~~I prefer a red ale~~~*

---
* Origin: rbb pygate - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10.0)