


21 Jun 2026 · 37m · 15 chapters

DTNS Weekend hosts Tom Merritt and Play Retro’s Brian Dunaway discuss the Commodore Callback 8020, a retro-styled “digital detox” flip phone. They cover its Commodore-inspired hardware design, pricing/editions, connectivity limits, and especially its app restrictions (blocking social media and even YouTube) via Sailfish OS plus DNS-level blocking. They also compare it to other minimalist/“no doomscroll” phones and predict likely market reception.
Brian Dunaway (host of Play Retro; co-host of the 8-Bit Computer Club; long-time Commodore 64/retro computing enthusiast). Tom Merritt is the main DTNS host.
Commodore is expanding beyond nostalgia computing into privacy/minimalism; the phone is meant as an alternate device, not a replacement; blocking social media is a “speed bump” that may be bypassed by jailbreaking.
T9 keypad; removable battery; FM radio; LTE/Wi‑Fi (no true 5G); blocked apps include TikTok, Facebook/Instagram, X, YouTube, Reddit, Discord, Roblox; preorders launch June 30; editions like PET/SX/Beige/Starlight/Founders (gold button).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes.
Exploring the new flip phone by Commodore and its retro appeal.
“They're where we can truly push the limits of what's possible.”
Exploring the new flip phone by Commodore and its retro appeal.
“Brought Brian on because I wanted to talk a bit about the Commodore Callback 8020.”
A look at Commodore's history beyond computers and its past products.
“So I was a little bit taken aback by a cell phone, not where I thought it was going.”
Discussion about the design and variations of the Callback 8020 phone.
“And of course, they've got several different models of it, which also goes along with what they did with the Commodore 64.”
Insights into the phone's connectivity options and app restrictions.
“$550 for the pet, and I think the beige is also$550.”
Understanding the intent behind the Callback 8020's design and app restrictions.
“I haven't really looked into all the apps.”
Explore the concept behind a new flip phone aimed at reducing social media usage.
“the social media apps included in australia's under 16 rules uh as well as discord and roblox which I don't think are blocked in Australia.”
Learn about Aramco's focus on energy reliability and efficiency.
“BBS is must be allowed on the, on the, I would call back as well.”
Discuss the expected launch for the new Commodore phone and market interest.
“So I'm curious about how this is going to fly because this is supposed to launch, Priora start June the 30th.”
Analyze Commodore's strategy to appeal to both nostalgic fans and new audiences.
“For those literal minded out there, AOL does aggregate other stories.”
Evaluate the new phone's features and its potential limitations in a modern context.
“And it's going to have some SID tunes, so you can really geek out and bore your kids with stories from the past.”
The hosts discuss the appeal and potential limitations of the Commodore retro phone, including user motivations and features.
“It's like, oh no, my other phone broken.”
The conversation shifts to the specifics of the Commodore phone, including pricing, features, and intended user concerns.
“And that worries me because they're like, they don't mention any specs about that.”
The conversation shifts to the specifics of the Commodore phone, including pricing, features, and intended user concerns.
Discussing the weekend's events and engaging with the audience.
“i'm never going to call it that it's going to be the commodore phone for me yeah it'll never be the callback uh well brian dunaway thank you very much uh for joining us man i really appreciate it Thank you so much.”

Get the gist, explore an idea or ask about something said.
On Daily Tech News Show, what are the key points of this episode?
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.
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3:15Welcome to a Daily Tech News Show weekend edition, gratefully provided to you and thank you for your support of this fine program joining me today i'm tom merritt and with me is the host or one of the hosts anyway of play retro brian dunaway welcome oh hi tom i fucking just saw you recently perhaps it's a nerd tecular yeah it was great seeing you in in live 3d uh presence immersive surround brian yeah it was nice seeing you as we passed in the halls and then competed most fiercely on the stage. I think we spent most of our time together on a panel, yeah, in the trivia game. Good job. Yeah. But here we are, finally, separated by a continent.
4:01It will hang out again. Brought Brian on because I wanted to talk a bit about the Commodore Callback 8020. We mentioned this in the news when it came out. the callback 8020 is from the commodore people who have brought back brought back have brought back the commodore 64 uh which brian uh joined me to talk about on live with it uh previously but now they're making a flip phone now this is really interesting brian in a lot of ways because it's it's not bringing back a product commodore never had an actual flip phone flip phones are more of a 90s thing and commodore had kind of you know spun out by then uh but it's got the commodore styling it's got the commodore look it's doing the red leds on the front uh there's a whole digital detox aspect to it what did you think about this as somebody who's into the retro computing when it first hit your eyeballs right uh uh old retro phone who dis uh is what i thought actually was quite i was taken aback because we knew there was an announcement coming from paraphractic uh who is now the ceo of commodore um and they launched last year like you said with the commodore ultimate uh and this was not the direction i thought they were going to go in when they announced the phone i was kind of off kilter a little bit i was like okay phone i commodore never had a phone same as you um but then i kind of listened a little bit and and remembered that retro recipes back a few years ago was really trying to uh push and that's his youtube channel by the way paraphractic uh christian uh simpson i think believe his name is yeah um yeah he he was doing some uh digital detox then and trying to look for a phone that would uh meet that bill right and so i guess if you look at the whole story not surprising just kind of a surprising really a second step in the new Commodore, trying to recover from an image problem where other rights holders of the name for years had put the Commodore name on many stupid things like shredders and trash cans and different things.
6:16So I was a little bit taken aback by a cell phone, not where I thought it was going. Yeah. One of the ways they explain this is that in the history of Commodore, Commodore did a lot of things that weren't computers before the Commodore 64 even came out. In fact, my dad had a Commodore calculator back in the 70s. And I didn't really put it together that his calculator was a Commodore until I was digging through his stuff later on after he passed. And I looked at this little tiny calculator and I saw the Commodore logo on it. I'm like, huh, I have no idea. Look at that. They were everywhere. So I get, he's like, you know, Commodore has always done a lot of different things.
7:00And so why not do something that it hasn't done before? Of course, I'm not surprised that they tried to make it look like it's within the design language of the Commodore 64 of the 80s. That that makes sense. And of course, they've got several different models of it, which also goes along with what they did with the Commodore 64. So you can get, what is it? Okay, there's the Proto Pet, which looks kind of in the style of the Commodore Pet. Then there's silver. Then there's the basic beige, which looks like the Commodore 64. Then Starlight, which is similar to one of the models that they put out with the Commodore 64 reissue.
7:41And then the Founders Edition, which is gold and actually has a gold, like a 24-karat gold button on it. Right, right. Like the first one you said was the PET, which goes back to the 70s. The second one is the SX, which was a Commodore 64 that was portable. And I've always wanted one of those. Maybe I could get a phone that looks like it. And then the beige, which you're used to seeing with the VIC-20 and the Commodore 64s. And then, like I said, the Starlight Edition, which is the one I got when I picked up the Commodore 64 Ultimate. it is translucent or transparent however you want to say it um and it has the ability to do all these cool led tricks which i'm hoping they'll do in the same on the phone and they'll last the gold one look if you're into that sure not me though you got you need that six hundred ninety nine dollars to waste on it uh because Yeah, it's what?
8:40$550 for the pet, and I think the beige is also$550. I think they're selling them for$50 less if you pre-order them. Right. So it's$500 for the beige if you find it that way. But then the gold one is$700 or$640 if you pre-order. You got to pay for that gold, man. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Get that gold. Match your grill. So styling-wise, these suit your retro tastes? right so that so they're looking at a little later retro they're trying to attack that market from the late 90s and early 2000s so the company's trying to spread out beyond just us it's really us old heads right and trying to look at some of the little bit younger people and they were really big uh into uh you know the star tech um it's kind of a mix between all those flip phones from that time period from the late uh 90s star tech flip phones to the motorola motorola razors yeah can't talk either it's late night on saturday with brian and tom but uh motorola razer with that external status display so we're still going to kind of have that a little bit and it's definitely borrowing a lot um from the nokias with their t9 key keypad oh right because that's that's an important part is that you have to use t9 on the on the callback 8020 like you know right You don't get a keyboard.
10:05You just get the one through nine. Yeah, Gen Z, you got to learn something all new. But it's going to have a removable battery, which I was pretty excited about. And FM radio, when's the last time you listened to FM radio? Do you do it often? We have an FM radio in the car, so probably the last time I listened was in the car. I couldn't tell you when I did it. On purpose, right. And the last time I listened to FM radio on the go walking around was probably on my Nokia candy bar phone. in like 2003. Right, right. Because, and I wonder about the modem in this, because it's got the FM radio, they used to require an FM radio tuner on the modem for cellular phones.
10:49That was a deal that was made. And I assume maybe they're using that same functionality, although this is got modern connectivity, right? It can get a 5G signal. So it's not - No, I don't think it'll actually get 5G. I was reading about that. I think, yeah, LTE is the fastest will go. Oh, okay, I mispronounce that. Price concern. No, no, I didn't know what to do. My point being, it's not limited to GPRS. Right, right. Like, this is a modern connectivity. Yeah, you're right. It is Wi-Fi support and worldwide network support. Yeah, it sounds fancy, doesn't it? Yeah, worldwide network support. But yeah, 4G.
11:29So, you know, I mean, yeah. Thing to remember is eventually 6G comes and then they start retiring 4G service. But this phone will last you for a few years before that. Yeah. And plus, I mean, 5G is mostly for streaming videos and stuff, right? At least that's how I use it. And this phone is not that. It's not intended for that. I guess you could. I don't know. I haven't really looked into all the apps. They do talk about doing video calls because WhatsApp comes pre-installed and you can install Signal. Right. And so you could do a video call, which is technically streaming video. But yeah, it's not meant for...
12:05Although you can. Can you install YouTube? Let's talk about that. There is a block list of apps. So that is the weirdest part of this. Like the style is retro. The price is not retro. The keyboard is retro. The app policy is weird. Very weird. It uses the Sailfish OS, which is a derivative of Android that's not run by Google. So it's got a much stricter privacy policy, which is why a lot of people like Sailfish devices. And therefore, you can load Android apps onto it. Any APK, theoretically, can run on Sailfish. But Commodore is blocking social media apps specifically. So no TikTok, no Facebook, no Twitter, X, whatever you want to call it.
12:57None of that. Right. No browser either so that you can't cheat. No browser, right. You can't even cheat the system. Come on. They say 99 % of Android apps will load, but it's that 1 % that it's not going to load. Right. And they're supposed to have a Commodore store of sorts like you would have on Apple or Android. Yeah, they can list a bunch of those Android apps. Right, right. And then, of course, you can be decided a lot of APKs, but they're going to block it at a DNS level from the services like, like you said, social media, Twitter, Facebook, and X. What is it called now? And all that stuff.
13:34I'm going back to Twitter. No YouTube. I looked it up. Yeah. No YouTube. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Kik, Twitch, Discord, and Roblox. all blocked oh i forgot about roblox how how uh what a what a divisive choice for these for these gen zers who are like what what wait come on yeah i mean the idea uh is that they're blocking uh all the social media apps included in australia's under 16 rules uh as well as discord and roblox which I don't think are blocked in Australia. And they're doing that to say, this is the phone you take when you don't want to doom scroll.
14:19When you just need to be connected, you need to call an Uber or order some DoorDash or check the sports score from an app that'll do that because you can't do it on the browser. But you don't want to just get sucked down a rabbit hole of stuff. So we're not giving you a browser so you can't get around that. And we're not going to let you install Instagram and doom scroll right that's too bad right good i don't like doing that anyway i kind of uh i do that now basically with my apple watch i have cellular service on it i just yeah yeah sure yeah i kind of do that now but having it in a form factor that's a flip phone and it tickles my nostalgia fancy i'm i'm kind of excited but at 500 how do i add it to my service plan these are the things that i've been thinking about because i'm i'm not used to having multiple lines on one service this not multiple kind of devices this is going to be a flip phone i don't even understand how that part works i'm so i'm curious about that do you know anything about that how do you because i still got to keep my iphone right i can't just yeah this is give that up they're they're they're expressly saying we don't expect this to replace your phone right this is the phone you take in special circumstances you're going away for the weekend and you you don't want to be on social media the whole time you're you're spending quality time with your children you don't want be on social media all the time uh and so this is an alternate phone for you uh that you know can connect to the internet and get you the important things of the internet uh and not let you get sucked into the vortex of social media which is weird right uh so so it's an alternate phone there is a market for that there is definitely a market for these sorts of like limited uh you know use phones that are meant to keep you from going down the rabbit hole.
16:11And in fact, Commodore put a bunch of them in comparison on their website. The Light Phone 3, the Balance Phone Pro, the Minimal Phone, the Clix Communicator, which we saw at CES, the Fairphone 6, which is both a privacy-oriented phone and a ecologically sensitive phone. They also put the Commodore 64 in the comparison, which I thought was a nice touch. That had no WhatsApp or ride share. It did not have a quick swap battery, but it did block social media because you can't run social media on a Commodore 64. So yeah. How about BBS is all right, fine. I'm old. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. BBS is must be allowed on the, on the, I would call back as well.
16:51Yeah. What if a marginal gain unlocked greater performance? What if an insight in data could change everything? At Aramco, our focus on detail helps us deliver reliable energy to millions across the world. Because margins aren't marginal, they're where we can truly push the limits of what's possible. Aramco, an integrated energy and chemicals company. Learn more at aramco.com. The 2026 FIFA World Cup meal at McDonald's is underway with one of nine legendary cups in the lineup. Christian Pulisic, David Beckham, Laminio Mal, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Son Hyung-min, Alphonso Davies, Santi Jimenez.
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19:37According to, I belong to the Parapractic patron, and we get updates occasionally that might go out a little bit later. But I think currently there are around 50 ,000 people who have signed up for the launch day. So you add that to the wish list, but you only get that discount on the launch day, on the 30th from what I understand. And 50 ,000 people have signed up so far, and I think they're kind of estimating or guessing around 2 % to 5 % may actually order. So FastMask says that, what, like 1 ,000 to 2 ,500 sales maybe on the first on the launch. and this is a limited run piece of hardware right this is not something they're going to make the tens or hundreds of thousands of that they can i mean if it's successful enough i'm sure they might do a second run but there's no guarantee to that right right right um so i'm curious how that's going to work i'm going to be there i'm going to be i'm getting it because i'm getting it i'm well yeah look i mean wearing a commodore shirt for Pete's sakes uh is yeah i'm i'm in all in uh fail sinker sinker swim i'm i'm in i think with the two most interesting things of this are obviously the social media stuff which we talked about because that is not nostalgia i guess it's nostalgia in the sense that people do like nostalgia computing because it's simpler you know and you don't get distracted by all the apps and everything so there is an overlap there a little bit but the second interesting thing is that this is not nostalgia this this is an interesting play for Commodore.
21:09And I think a really smart play for Commodore to say, we want to appeal to Brian Dunaway, who is a big Commodore fan, but that doesn't just mean now we come out with a VIC-20 and now we come out with an Amiga. We want to come up with something that is new. So it's not just, let me collect new versions of all the old machines. Let me give Brian something that never existed before that he'll still like. Right. And this is smart because we will die out, Tom. Me and you will die out eventually. Yeah, we're like dinosaurs. They can't. The Commodore can't depend on us to keep buying their products. So they've got to branch out.
21:50And that's one of the things that they were doing here is trying to get a little worldwide attention. And they did it. They actually started hitting the regular news outside of the retro news that I'm used to visiting. so not what I would have done or would have predicted at all but I am curious to see where this goes if they're going to succeed or fail at it but I think it'll just be a moderate success I'm going to go ahead and predict a moderate success that won't be either way that people are predicting I've seen some people on both sides of being very mad about oh I can't believe this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen I could buy one of these off you know, AliExpress or Timu.
22:34And, and so, and then other people are like, Oh, I can't wait to do this. This is, you know, Commodore is my first love. And so I, I, I do think it's going to be neither one of those two things. I think this is going to be a moderate hit that kind of has allowed the brand name to get back out there. Or as AOL said, I believe I sent you that earlier. what did aol said on their on their news what was the headline um long forgotten brand is bringing back flip phone with no apps says aol.com no they're wrong it does have apps it's just not social media apps right right it is funny that this is on aol because that feels like it should be on the onion that it is on AOL saying that.
23:22For those literal minded out there, AOL does aggregate other stories. And this is a New York Post story that's appearing on AOL. So the headline was written by the New York Post that the inaccuracy belongs to the New York Post. And obviously it's not as funny if it's just on the New York Post, but I thought that was pretty funny too. To see that AOL banner above that headline is pretty great. Made me crack up. yeah algorithm loves me it took me right there when i looked it up yeah i think you're right that this will be a moderate success i think it will be a bigger success than say the clicks communicator although the clicks communicator also has the blackberry cloud on it um yeah uh i think it's different i don't think it's really apples to apples to compare it to fair phone because the fair phone is really more about uh the the supply chain part of it uh than the commodore callback uh but i do think it will get it'll get more attention there will be more people interested in it than these other you know secondary phones because it's got that commodore nostalgia factor because of what you said that it got covered by more mainstream press like the new york post um i think that will make it do better i still don't think it'll do great compared to other mid-range phones, which is what this is,$600,$500.
24:44It's the price of a MacBook Neo. Granted, it's much more awkward to hold a MacBook Neo up to your head when you're making a call, but it's not super cheap, but it's also not super expensive. It's not flagship phone,$1 ,200 status. Most people are just going to go for a Samsung Galaxy A series phone or something like that if they want a mid-range phone or maybe a OnePlus. But this will do better than these others. And I think that's better for Commodore than it is for minimal or clicks or even Fairphone because Commodore has a very dedicated fan base. And actually these others do too, but it has a very dedicated nostalgia fan base, which is a different kind of dedicated fan base.
25:29And this is expanding that. Whereas the Fairphone, the clicks, they have a dedicated fan base of people who want privacy forward phones and that's it. Right. Where do you go from that? Commodore is moving from the nostalgia computing sector into that space, which is an expansion of what it does, which I think is really smart. I think so too. And they're not just going for this market. They're also nodding a little bit back at us. They're going to have some DAC chips that were created by ESS, who did Impossible Mission and Ghostbusters speech synthesis for back in the Commodore days. And it's going to have some SID tunes, so you can really geek out and bore your kids with stories from the past.
26:17But I am excited about taking it on trips. I've been trying to figure out where it fits into my life because it certainly couldn't replace my current phone. and it's definitely not supposed to replace a work phone. I don't think there's any email capability on this either, if I remember reading that correctly. But it does come with a 48-megapixel Sony camera, so you can take some nice little pictures. I don't know where you would share them, but you can keep them in your pocket. On WhatsApp, I guess. Right, WhatsApp, I suppose. You can send it to your friends, I suppose. So that kind of stuff.
26:47I mean, you'll be able to download them off of, yeah. Right, right. I guess you could get the Google Photos app, too. yeah you probably so i'm sure with a little bit of work once you get back home uh transfer your files your photos over and then share them uh in a safe space yeah with your social media but obviously music go ahead oh sorry go ahead hd music hd music and i'm excited to say podcasting so you can still get your toxic podcasting uh right yeah so i hear that yeah uh you can get Play Retro and Daily Tech News Show still on your callback maybe 20. Yeah, I think that's the other thing I was going to say is people are going to jailbreak this because if something exists, people try to jailbreak it.
27:33So someone's going to unlock the ability to sideload TikTok on the callback and then do a video where they look all proud of themselves. And I think Commodore is going to say okay why'd you buy it then yeah yeah it's we're addicts trying to trying to get away from things and you know and we're and we're going down there and uh buying all the things we're addicted to because yeah it's kind of like this with with new technology lots of times uh you'll get it and is the gimmick is really cool if there's a gimmick um do i call this a gimmick i don't know it might feel like a gimmicky yeah yeah it might feel like a gimmick eventually and And eventually it might be in a place where like we all are.
28:15It's like, oh no, my other phone broken. Now this is my primary phone. I wish it also did social media. Forget that dedication I made about not eating ho-hos earlier in the year. I need my social media on this thing. And people will start finding ways to jailbreak it, right? I suppose, yeah. Yeah, but that's fine. And people will just do it to do it. But I think what Commodore is going to say is, sure, fine. the the point of blocking the social media apps wasn't we want to stop you from ever using social media it was right if you would like a phone that doesn't let you give into eating the ho-hos right or smoking the cigarettes or whatever metaphor you want to use uh this phone will make it harder so that it'll be a speed bump yeah and it that's like uh i don't know that that's that's like uh rolling up your nicotine patch and smoking it and being like ha ha fooled you nicotine patch take that nicotine patch can't stop me yeah so i i fully expect somebody to do it just to show that they can uh but i don't think commodore gets mad about that sort of thing yeah um it being inside the uh inside the machine i i do a 8-bit computer club once a week as well where we cover a lot of commodore 64 ultimate things and i there was a pretty big blowback from the hardcore community um when they announced locking down some of the firmware and things and i thought this was kind of after getting all that flack from that and then they come back and they're announced the split phone where it's really locked down and like we're going to stop you from doing everything at the dns level i'm like i guess they're doubling down on that kind of uh thing but yeah i yeah i i i kind of haven't figured out where i want to put it in my life i just want it and i'm probably not the typical user for this maybe i think you're one of two typical users.
30:08I think you're probably the typical user, honestly. Maybe you're not as concerned about smoking as some of the typical users, right? So there's probably the prototypical user is somebody who's really into the retro computing and is like, I need to stop using social media so much. Yeah. I mean, you could flash Sailfish on the phone and just get rid of their thing and get rid of the DNS stuff. Like, I'm sorry, I went back to the firmware thing real quick. Oh yeah, absolutely. You're right. Yeah. They're trying to say, if you're using our version, we don't want you to do that because that's the point.
30:45But knock yourselves out. This thing obviously runs Sailfish. So yeah, maybe they'll do some more things to stop the firmware, in which case I'll change my tune a little bit. But yeah, I think this is going to target you. and I wonder how many people who just think oh that's kind of fun I've wanted this kind of you know more minimalized phone I've been into minimalism uh maybe I'll try this one because it's because it's very fun and retro I think the style is a big thing too just just looking at it and there's some uh there's some accessories too did you see some of the accessories they got for this thing they got some throwback sling bags to put over uh to throw over your shoulder they've got hard shell cases and things that they haven't really talked about much on the announcement, but they're there.
31:36They've also got some headphones. I don't know how I feel about wired headphones. Wired headphones with Commodore 64. Yeah, even still. Yeah. I've got to think about that. The cases, you can change the color of the back with the cases. It's kind of very smartphone of them. Not very retro. no uh and i found out recently the pair of factory also used to make that he used to help design some of the the work for some of the phones during the original periods and stuff too this guy's done everything yeah he's had his hands everywhere uh but i'm i'm interested i think in either the starlight edition or the beige do you have a you have an opinion on the actual color styling uh does it matter to you get in the gold aren't you just say get in the gold and i'll be i'll be happy I'm going to go for the gold.
32:24Go for the gold. I wish I were going to get any of them. I don't think I will. Right, you don't think I'll get it? That's okay. Yeah. That's okay. But if I was going to, with the Commodore 64, I got the beige because I wanted it to be directly comparable to my actual Commodore 64, which I still have. Right. And I did a side-by-side opening of them, comparing the boxes and everything. Oh, you still got the box? Oh, impressive. Yeah, I still have the original box. Yeah. Impressive.
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34:15however for this i don't have to think about that i don't have an original uh well actually i don't even have an 8010 we didn't mention that part the 8010 was the old commodore modem that you had that yes had the phone headset i thought that was a nice touch to make this the 8020 uh but they never had a commodore phone so i don't have to worry about that so i don't know i might go for the starlight edition if i were to go for it yeah are you planning on getting any of these kind of phones this is becoming a minimalist kind of uh you know time for people are you going to look at any other minimal phones no man i can stop anytime i don't need i don't need your help i don't need this do it on my own no i if i were to get this it would just be to try it out uh i i don't and maybe i'm fooling myself but i don't feel like i need a phone to limit my consumption uh i'm i'm i think i'm lucky enough that i just don't doom scroll a lot uh yeah by accident of nature um so it's not it's not something i worry about personally and i it almost sounds like a humble brag so i hate to say that but it's just no i'm not concerned about that but i do like the idea of this form factor you know of playing around with it um so i'm gonna make i'm gonna make you let me use yours sometime i feel yeah absolutely i feel like this will make me want to go on more um hiking trips i don't know now i think that really is someone who has a problem uh trying to um justify their purchase by going well maybe this will make me get outside more i don't doom scroll as it is but maybe it'll make me do that yeah like disconnect take some good pictures maybe you know maybe real minimal maybe get all 48 megapixel minimal I know.
35:59There's a front camera too. And that worries me because they're like, they don't mention any specs about that. Like there's, you need it for the phone calls, right? Right. Right. The video calls. Yeah. Cause that's something they've got the, the video call in the video. Let's see. I think I got the video even paused on the part where they're yeah, they're doing it. They've got it in the demonstration video. They've got it in the, and later on, if you go down on their webpage, they've got it in the everything you want. It's not the dumb smartphone. It's Linux-based. It means Android. Android is also Linux-based.
36:34I think the only problem with this phone is that it took me so long. There's not like a quick sales pitch for this. They've tried some, and they keep trying different ones, but I've had to have it explained to me. It took me like two days of reading to go, I still don't understand. you know i mean i mean i and i see that they shoehorned in school friendly design stay connected with your kids while blocking the app schools hate like maybe your school let your kid keep this one since it doesn't have a browser on it um i do feel like they said look let's make a retro phone uh and digital detox is hot let's have it do that yes and then we'll figure out the marketing later uh right and now it's later and now it's much later yeah um definitely buy it if you can pre-order it on first day.
37:23The bad thing about this is not Amazon pre-orders. This is directly off Commodore.net. And so if you buy it that first day, I think you will save a total of a hundred dollars. I think if you order after that, you save$50 or something. The price is high because this is a limited run production during a time where getting things from one place to the other, kind of difficult sometimes in sourcing things. So I'm not terribly surprised about the price of it, it doesn't really shock me too much. But justifying it, that's another thing entirely, right? Last thing I wanted to make sure we mentioned is some of the tech specs on here.
38:03There is a privacy kill switch. Oh, yes. Yes. Right next to the SOS multifunction button. Right. So keep those straight. When you just want to cut off the internet, don't accidentally send an SOS. it it happens maybe how many times my my iphone whoops in my pocket i'm like oh what did i do am i pressing the button i'm pressing the button aren't i yeah yeah otherwise i think we we touched on pretty much everything else here oh there's the dome notification system i'm curious how that works because this doesn't have notifications as such um but uh but it does have lights that will tell you like oh you have an incoming call or something like that so i guess you have to learn that system right because one of the things they wanted to do was they had mentioned um that that our phones currently like are constantly calling us back to it right yeah which is kind of true yeah it's like hey i'm talking to you i'm what tonda go says there are five lights yeah that's hilarious it's got those old it's gonna be interesting i yeah i'm making a mistake but i'm getting one yeah no i think you're doing it right uh yeah i think i think uh you're doing it right do it for us do it for us who are who want to know what it's like but have it actually uh yeah that's right to get you out and live with it to talk about it that's right that's a good idea absolutely yeah yeah uh any last thoughts about the commodore callback 8020 uh once again i there's a couple of more announcements coming down the the the pipe um i'm curious what commodore is going to do next they they kind of subverted what i thought you should do if you create a piece of hardware and you distribute it then you would think that the natural follow-up would be software um and you know you say for your platform and make money that way they went two hardwares in a in a row or three times or three in a row i mean they are putting out some software they are putting out a little bit yeah yeah i know what you mean you thought it'd be like hero level software yeah yes like uh here's here's our apple and here's our apple phone and oh here's the app store so we can squeeze every little cent out of you that we can so I don't know how they could do that here because they don't I don't know I guess they are gonna have an app store on it but they're not gonna try to squeeze every cent out of you maybe yeah I don't know curious curiouser and curiouser time well if you would like to hear more of Mr.
40:32Brian Dunaway's take on tech you got to check out his podcast where should people go Brian to catch you you probably most likely know me from the play retro show do that once a week with Scott Johnson but we're also doing the 8-bit computer club. So if you're kind of into these old 8-bit computers, join us for that. Once a week, I'll get together and we'll do our Commodore 64 Ultimate demos and we'll look at dot matrix printers, the 803. So I printed something out pre-show. I think I showed it to you real quick. Do I still have it at hand? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, look at this. Let me see. Oh, I guess I got to show it this way, right?
41:07All right. Commodore Callback Digital Detox Smartish Phone. There's our album art. Yeah, yeah. I printed this right off of there from Print Shop. It's amazing. Check it out. Fantastic. Yeah, if you want to do the 8-Bit Computer Club, how do you get there? You go to YouTube.com or go to Twitch.tv forward slash Brian Dunaway. That's probably the... What am I talking about? I forgot I made a website. What's the website? It's 8BitComputer.club. .club? you got dot club it's in the name i what choice did i have is this it that's it oh yeah eight bit computer dot club dot club oh it's a very retro looking site but also really is modern modern much like the commodore 8020 perfect the callback i'm sorry i should say yeah the callback i'm never going to call it that it's going to be the commodore phone for me yeah it'll never be the callback uh well brian dunaway thank you very much uh for joining us man i really appreciate it Thank you so much.
42:11I hope you had a good Saturday night. I keep saying that, but I guess I'm dating this, right? I shouldn't do that. Whenever we recorded this. We did stream it live on Saturday night, which is why we were able to take Tonda's comments and those of others like KT Data and Sun Bun and Ambassador Domo and all those folks. All those people. Those are people that were at the Nerdtacular this week. Yeah, yeah. There's a little mini Nerdtacular going on in here. But yeah, if you're listening to this on Sunday, well, have a good rest of your weekend, everybody. and keep supporting us at patreon.com slash DTNS.
42:44We'll be back with the regular news on Monday. See you then. Bye, everybody. Take a time.
43:02The DTNS family of podcasts. Helping each other understand. Simon Club hopes you have enjoyed this broker.
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Tom chats with Brian Dunaway from Play Retro about Commodore venturing out from nostalgia computing to nostalgia digital detox phones with the Commodore Callback 8020.
"Commodore - The Future We Were Promised™" https://commodore.net/
"Long-forgotten brand is bringing back the flip phone with no apps — and tech-weary fans are relieved: ‘Take my money’ - AOL" https://www.aol.com/articles/long-forgotten-brand-bringing-back-173550000.html?guccounter=1
"8Bit Computer Club – The once a week meet up where we celebrate the history and future of 8bit Computing." https://8bitcomputer.club/
"Play Retro | Scott Johnson" https://frogpants.com/en-usd/pages/playretro
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