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HMD 2660 Flip Senior Edition Brings AI Conversations to an Old-School Phone

✇Yanko Design
Par : JC Torres

Making a phone call shouldn’t feel like learning a new piece of software. The HMD 2660 Flip Senior Edition responds to that familiar frustration with big buttons, a folding body, and an unexpected addition called Mary. This AI companion from inTouch brings conversation to a basic phone, letting older adults try the technology without trading their keypad for a touchscreen full of apps.

The hardware doesn’t stray far from the regular HMD 2660 Flip introduced in 2025. Open the clamshell, and there’s a 2.8-inch screen above a generously sized number pad, with a navigation control separating the two. Answering or ending a call can be tied to opening or closing the phone, giving those actions a physical beginning and end that a touchscreen doesn’t quite offer.

Designer: HMD Global

The outside gets its own smaller display, so checking the time doesn’t require unfolding the whole thing. Its dark body and rounded corners stick to the recognizable flip-phone formula rather than dressing the device up as medical equipment. That restraint matters here. The phone offers an alternative way to stay in touch, without announcing that its owner needs an entirely different category of gadget.

Mary adds a different kind of contact to the phone, one that’s available for a casual conversation around the clock. HMD says the companion speaks slowly, leaves room for replies, and remembers earlier conversations. A chat might involve history, a favorite memory, or a game. The interesting choice is delivering those interactions through speech, instead of asking someone to type their thoughts.

Of course, an AI feature can easily complicate a supposedly simple phone. Here, Mary appears in the main menu, and selecting her icon before pressing the call button starts the conversation. There’s no separate app to install or number to memorize. Activation still involves a website or QR code, though, so the simplest experience comes after someone has handled that initial setup.

The less glamorous details haven’t disappeared beneath the AI pitch. A removable 1,450mAh battery and USB-C charging keep the basics familiar, while HMD rates the body IP54 for protection against dust and splashes. A replaceable battery also means you can swap a worn component, rather than treating the whole phone as something that has reached retirement age.

The UK listing puts the phone at £79.99 (about $107), including a five-hour trial of Mary. Continuing the service costs £16.90 (about $23) monthly, with carrier charges potentially adding to that. The trial doesn’t automatically become a paid plan, but inTouch’s general terms say paid subscriptions renew automatically. It can be canceled, but ongoing conversations introduce another expense alongside ordinary phone service.

There’s an important distinction between making conversation easier to access and replacing human company. Mary is software, and her availability shouldn’t be confused with evidence that she reduces loneliness. The change here is how someone reaches that software. They can keep the familiar ritual of opening a phone and making a call, and still use their handset after the AI subscription ends.

The post HMD 2660 Flip Senior Edition Brings AI Conversations to an Old-School Phone first appeared on Yanko Design.

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This fan-made OS brings Windows Phone back to one specific Android device

✇Windows Central - News, Forums, Reviews, Help for Windows 10 and all things Microsoft.
Par : Adam Hales

Not a week goes by that I don’t miss Windows Phone. To this day, it remains the only OS that would genuinely drag me away from my iPhone. Don’t hate me for saying it, but the iPhone still offers me a superior user experience over Android, at least in my experience. I’ve tried Android many times, and quite frankly, I really don't like it.

Then again, I don’t hate Android with a burning passion, either, and I did recently stumble across something that might make me reconsider. ztOS is a new operating system designed to look and feel exactly like Windows Phone 8.1. It’s built on Arch Linux for ARM, complete with its own suite of apps.

According to the project notes, the ztMETRO shell and its components are written in C and accelerated with OpenGL. It also includes an SDK for building apps in Python and Qt, along with an updater to keep the system maintained. It’s a surprisingly robust setup for a passion project.

Windows Phone lives through Linux and AI

Galaxy S9 in Sunrise Gold displaying the Windows Phone 8.1-inspired ztOS interface, featuring blue Live Tiles and familiar Windows Phone icons.

Windows Phone might be dead, but ztOS is bringing its iconic interface back to life on the Samsung Galaxy S9. (Image credit: Zerone-Laboratories | Samsung)

There is a catch, as usual. Currently, the project seemingly only works on the Samsung Galaxy S9. The project itself is in alpha, so expect some bugs and install at your own risk.

And yes, whether you care or not, the project is spearheaded by Claude. Because, well, everything seemingly happens through AI coding now. I’m guilty of it myself, having jumped on the FreeMyTV bandwagon to debloat my TV, improve performance, and get rid of adverts.

Still, I do long for Windows Phone. There’s a small part of me that hopes we’ll see it return in some fashion. Seeing all these wild AI-driven projects, whether it’s Xbox Labs reviving the Blades dashboard or Steam games running natively on Android or the iPhone, we're really in the midst of unknown territory.

Thinking of Windows Phone, though, really does make me facepalm at the idea that we maybe could have had a future where Windows Phones would natively play your Xbox games via the Xbox app. Imagine full cloud saves and achievements, giving you even more reasons to invest in Game Pass. But again, this is all just wishful thinking. Windows Phone is sadly, truly dead. Even I admit it.

Regardless, let me know what you think. Would you install a Windows Phone-like OS on your Android, or do you think Windows Phone should be left for dead and forgotten? Leave a comment down below and make sure you take part in our poll!

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