This $350 'anti-smartphone' is designed to keep you from getting distracted - here's how it works

Siempo is a young startup that thinks the modern smartphone has gained too much control over our everyday lives.

To help, the Oakland, California-based operation built a phone of its own, one it believes will help you live more in-the-moment without totally shutting out the essential information you might need to get through a given day.

That phone, also called Siempo, launched on Kickstarter on Tuesday. Though it's certainly getting at a noble idea, there are questions to be had over how effective or viable its approach is. Let's take a closer look: