'If it doesn't go through, I can try something else,' I said quickly, worried that the barcode wouldn't work. But just as Meadow founder Shreyas Narlanka promised me, the code I scanned onto the startup's minimalist phone earlier that day worked fine. I'd done it. With Meadow's bare-bones smartphone, I had called an Uber, streamed Apple Music during the ride, and entered the show. Not once did I need to touch my iPhone, which I only brought with me as a backup in case the ticket scan didn't work. 'With so many dumb phones, the Brick, and everything, the messaging is like, 'Slow down, focus on your work' or whatever,' Narlanka says, explaining why his company chose to build a minimal phone. 'But the reason we're different is because we're all about getting outside and unplugging and having a sick social life.' Go online, and you'll see a growing mass of content and comments from people across the world feeling suffocated by being constantly connected via their smartphones and social...
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