The next gadget to bear the storied Commodore branding will be a flip phone.
The name behind the
bestselling desktop PC in history came back about a year ago. Christian “Peri Fractic” Simpson, best known for running the Retro Recipes (now known as Retro Recipes x Commodore) YouTube channel, acquired the Commodore Corporation and “100 percent of the original and official trademarks that defined the Commodore name since 1983,” per a July 2025 press release. Simpson said the price was “in the low seven figures.” Since the acquisition, the brand released the Commodore 64 Ultimate and the Commodore 64X PC, a mini PC housed in a chassis that resembles the Commodore 64.
Today, the new Commodore announced a new device in a dated design: a flip phone.
The
Commodore Call Back 8020 takes advantage of reinvigorated interest in dumb phones. Although Commodore’s phone has Internet connectivity, it blocks web browsers and social media “at the system level using patent pending technology,” the company’s announcement said. The phone supports other Internet-based capabilities, like maps and QR codes.
Frantic told Ars Technica that Commodore’s app store, Commostore, uses a whitelisting principle, and “social media and browsers will never get that whitelisting.” He added:
We’ve also developed patent pending technology that will prevent these apps—and only these apps—from being sideloaded on the device. … Users can sideload nearly anything else they want if it isn’t available on the Commostore, but we’ve drawn a firm line in the sand around any apps that drive doomscrolling.
On the off-chance somebody finds a way around that, we’ve also blocked access at the DNS level. So even if you manage to get TikTok installed, you’re not going to be able to reach its servers.
Ars asked Frantic if community forums would also be blocked. In response, he said that old school
bulletin board systems are permitted, but Reddit is not.
<small>Source: Ars Technica</small>
