Zumba Phone: the Steorn Orbo of cellphones?

Ready for this? The BBC is reporting on a "top-secret phone" developed by a 40-person strong ejector-seat technology company -- IA Technology -- from Hereford England. The Beeb calls it, "the world's first fully accurate voice recognition system for mobile phones." A bold claim (to say the least) from seemingly nowhere. The report starts with a dramatic lead-in, "It's a secret world, much of which we can't film," before introducing us to the Zumba phone. A phone so secret that the BBC can't even show us how it works. They do manage to demonstrate how it's worn. A retro slug-on-the-ear type earpiece is removed from a thin slab sporting a display and circular dialer reminiscent of Bang & Olufsen fashionphones. The device relies upon a "100% secure" connection to an "Internet portal" (apparently called Zumba Lumba) that holds all your contacts. If the phone is lost or stolen "it is instantly useless to anyone else." A lot of hype to be sure, especially with plans to deliver the Zumba to shops before Christmas. Hit the read link for the video and let us know what you think.

Update: Ha! The zumbalumba.com site just lit up with an unreadable, elementary school design and no detail other than a whispy concept called "Natural Connecting." Some sleuthing and cross-referencing by our readers, however, seems to link Zumba CEO, Dean McEvoy, to a group of party promoters. Good luck with this Dean, the whole internet is about to be up in your shiznit.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read -- BBC Video
Read -- IT Technology website

[Gad Get @ Jan 30th 2009 5:19AM]

Funny... It doesn't look that secret.

[OneLove @ Jan 30th 2009 12:44PM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33lmyry2ka4

[freq @ Jan 30th 2009 5:20AM]

April the 1st comes early this year :D

[Bellzebub @ Jan 30th 2009 5:48AM]

That was my first thought when I saw it on the BBC website, but then I saw the Aunty Beeb lady hook it in her ear - It was at this point I realised that this was in fact a childs graphics communication project and that they had made the phone from cardboard.

Does anyone else think it's looks similar to the first gen ayePod?

[ahdok @ Jan 30th 2009 5:20AM]

It looks like it might have a small enough profile to replace my ancient (tiny) samsung

[jpxdude @ Jan 30th 2009 5:38AM]

Looks like a nano 3rd gen.

Could it be Steve's side business? Something from the NeXT generation?

[Gad Get @ Jan 30th 2009 6:21AM]

-1 for bringing up the iPod for no good reason.

[jpxdude @ Jan 30th 2009 6:50AM]

Actually, I mentioned it to take the piss out of people like you, the Engadget crowd are extremely easy to wind up.

[BuddyBoy @ Jan 30th 2009 7:09AM]

It's looks more like an iPod Classic in that first picture.

[smartphonezen @ Jan 30th 2009 5:44AM]

HAHAHA!! This looks stupid! this company is going to fail, please sell your shares now.

[123jns @ Jan 30th 2009 5:45AM]

If the voice recognition is so good one can easily send and receive emails and texts without typing then I'd say we have a winner. Add Android, a large screen unit to keep in one's pocket with camera and a 3.5mm heaphone jack and this may well be THE phone come xmas 2009.

[Patriks7 @ Jan 30th 2009 5:50AM]

I like how you take a small phone and then add things to it to make it COMPLETELY different..

[Tim Rosencrans @ Jan 30th 2009 5:51AM]

my guess by connected to internet portal they mean "no real innovation here we're just using our servers for the voice recognition" making it a cellular headset for a service based phone.

[Richard Cunningham @ Jan 30th 2009 5:48AM]

I love the bit where they say the website is "100% secure" - yeah right, nothing is 100% secure, which makes me think they don't know what they are doing.

[Jay Voorhees @ Jan 30th 2009 9:27AM]

Well it does, from their website, sound a little "tele-phony"

[Amir @ Jan 30th 2009 5:57AM]

ahhh engadget engadget,
When you run out of articles that dont mean you can go and post rubbish and make up stuff!

[Clinton Elston @ Jan 30th 2009 6:04AM]

What a load of shite, does anybody remember the Clonaid story a few years back, this very poor story from Aunty Beeb has the same validity as Baby Eve!

[Gad Get @ Jan 30th 2009 6:19AM]

-1 for the use of iEye's favorite word.

[Bazza @ Jan 30th 2009 6:09AM]

How can it be that far advanced, when it's put together & (seemingly) soldered by hand, by 3 women in a small warehouse in Hereford?

And if the technology is that secret, how can you sell it to the public?!?

[matt @ Jan 30th 2009 6:12AM]

There is probably one first! in this article.

Hereford on engadget. Not exactly known for its technical prowess. People have stopped pointing at those funny motorised carriages now too.

[NEUR0M4NCER @ Jan 31st 2009 5:32AM]

You wouldn't believe it from visiting there, but: http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceFor/ServiceCommunity/Hive/WalesAndWestern/HerefordHive.htm and there's a big QinetiQ site in nearby Malvern, Worcestershire as-well...

[KilgoreTrout @ Jan 30th 2009 6:13AM]

Before a fully functional voice input UI will be sported by cellphones it would have to be operational on PCs.
This is why this story is and can only be a smoking load of B.S.

[Aditya @ Jan 30th 2009 6:27AM]

ZUMBA LUMBA?

I'm gonna use my Zumba to connect to the Zumba Lumba to call my mate.

The monthly bills will be called Zumba Bumba.
Speed dials are Zumba Dumba.

If you develop a hack to play Doom, the mod is gonna be called Zumba Doomba. o_0

[smartphonezen @ Jan 30th 2009 6:29AM]

Ironically, this is probably the only technology that will never have a doom port.

[fb @ Jan 30th 2009 6:34AM]

So. There's this 40 person company from Herefordshire (most of whom seem to be women in their fifties with soldering irons). And this 40 person company are launching a cellphone that will rival Nokia, Samsung and Moto who invest hundreds of millions of dollars every year in R&D. Yup. Oh, and it's a 100% Secure Server. 100% Secure ? Purrrlease. And it's so secret they can't demonstrate it ? Hmm... and by the way they happen to also have developed the best voice recognition software on the planet. Purrrlease.

Come on, BBC Midlands. I applaud your efforts at self-promotion, and encouraging local industry, but please don't treat us like idiots.

[?fur Kristj?son @ Jan 30th 2009 6:46AM]

It looks like it's made from cardboard and vacuum molded plastic and has no function at all.
In which case they don't even have a working prototype.

It's function also sounds fairly fantastical. The concept is basically a cocktail of several ideas that have been floating around for years but never really fully materialized, and that's after being worked on by giants like Sony, Nokia, Simens et al.

Smells like dotcom to me. All I heard the marketing guy, the dyslexic "inventor", say was "Hype, hype, drivel, hype, hype". You know the language people learn at marketing school.

WAPORWARE!

[Saibot @ Jan 30th 2009 7:06AM]

check this out

http://www.zumbalumba.com/

biggest load of BS, obviously using this to promote some as yet unknown service..

'.....ZumbaLumba is a ‘Natural Connections’ website that taps into our real life circle of contacts held on our phones and allows us to interact with them in new and purposeful ways. It allows users to manage their contacts, availability and communication, whilst enabling closer connections. ZumbaLumba ‘Natural Connecting’ brings the virtual world of networking into the real world of connecting to solve real problems that affect all of us.'

sounds like scientology to me!

[ipubs bastard child @ Jan 30th 2009 7:21AM]

sounds like marking bollocks, looks like a prop and the factory might want to look up surface mount tech..!

[coolblue @ Jan 30th 2009 7:38AM]

Did they get thier website developed by some 5 year old using frontpage?

[John Self @ Jan 30th 2009 7:22AM]

Hilarious. If you listen to what the guy says in the film, it's basically a voice recognition system that transcribes text messages. Wow.

As well as the people in their 50s with soldering irons, beware of the fact that the company, according to the caption at the end, appears to be called 1A Something or Other - the last refuge of the crappy company that wants to be first in the Yellow Pages because it hasn't got anything else to recommend it.

[Clinton Elston @ Jan 30th 2009 7:10AM]

Breaking News !!!

Its all true, I just spoke to my 4 year old, she says she designed the website featured on the clip.

Ba Boom

[maw @ Jan 30th 2009 7:13AM]

And what is this? Surely Zumba isn't based on cheapo SDKs?

http://osdir.com/ml/telephony.pbx.asterisk.biz/2005-07/msg00135.html

Super-fit, handsome and with a stomach that would make Brad Pitt insecure Mr McEvoy certainly has bag-less eyes, despite what must have been countless development hours in front of C++...

Ahh... http://www.advancedlipo.co.uk/ (it's a cheap-shot, read the first few lines...)

[ipubs bastard child @ Jan 30th 2009 7:24AM]

sorry if i'm missing your point, cooperFBI but .. what?

the mill most likely has multiple units to let to various businesses.

[maw @ Jan 30th 2009 7:25AM]

It appears McEvoy has no experience developing innovative technologies, rather a background in telecoms.

Used to own http://our-telecom.com and Your-tel (http://www.daisyplc.com/corporate/news/daisy-completes-acquisition-of-yourtel.html) so must have made a few quid.

[maw @ Jan 30th 2009 7:29AM]

It's a business estate. McEvoy doesn't own either of those companies.

[absinthe party @ Jan 30th 2009 7:42AM]

The first rule of Zumba Phone is: You do not talk about Zumba Phone.

[Andrew @ Jan 30th 2009 8:20AM]

My work firewall blocks ZumbaLumba.com for "Malicious Sites" Not a good sign..

[Freakin Ijit @ Jan 30th 2009 8:22AM]

Is that a Zumba Phone or a Zombo Phone?

[Leigh @ Jan 30th 2009 8:47AM]

Branding Fail.

http://www.iatechnology.co.uk/zumbaheader.jpg

[cmariotti @ Jan 30th 2009 8:45AM]

Bull... from a mile away. I'm laughing so hard it's priceless. I hope BBC isn't in on it, cause it's way too funny.

1. Look what they a soldering, they're huge PCB boards... with huge wires. Nothing remotely close to what they're presenting.
2. Something that small, on-mass, isn't made by hand. And definitely not in Britain where alcohol withdrawal would give them all the sakes.
3. Magnetic sheets is what the earpiece is made of, and the mega ear isn't remotely close to a good design, it comical. I wish they made it pointy (spock like).
4. She can't actually show us because it doesn't actually work and they already blew the budget for the joke with all the other props.
5. And he dresses too well to be really that smart.
6. The background projector is priceless, a little birdie pulling a banner... it's ultra secure. I pissed myself.
7. ZumaLumba - Where's my golden ticket so I can visit the factory!

I want a ZUMA, because I am so AMUZ'd.

[Rod @ Jan 30th 2009 8:53AM]

A phone developed for dyslexic people. Oh dear, oh dear. This company will be bust before Christmas if they try to market that POS.

Far better idea would be to licence the software to the entire market and make millions without the added costs involved in making an ugly handset.

Then again being British, and having a history of selling all our best inventions to the rest of The World, he'll probably swap it for £3.75, a cuppa tea and some digestive biscuits.

[Dorf @ Jan 30th 2009 8:58AM]

Zumba Lumba, doom-pa-dee-do
I have a fake phone for you
Zumba Lumba, doom-pa-dee-dee
They totally fooled the little old Beeb

[Psycros @ Jan 30th 2009 9:25AM]

Can I play Chumbawumba on my Zumbalumba?

[HarryHippo @ Jan 30th 2009 9:26AM]

Dean McEvoy...............from preston...........same guy................

http://www.advancedlipo.co.uk

[Colin @ Jan 30th 2009 10:30AM]

Reporter at the end:

"I was thinking of inventing one myself...Been real busy the last couple of weeks just haven't got around to it."


See! They're so easy to fake, even an old reporter can do it!

[Martin Conaghan @ Jan 30th 2009 10:38AM]

Undoubtedly a hoax.

[Hubert Daffodil Caruthers @ Jan 30th 2009 12:10PM]

I call bogus, as a Brit if they say they're from Hereford! That place is the middle of no where, it's not near any major industrial complexes. Unless they're growing their own chips in their potato patch, I can't see how they're getting a decent supply of parts. It's like having a hi-tech firm in the middle of a village, where the only skills the local workforce are likely to have is brewing cider or killing people in novel ways, as that's where the SAS were based.
Now the name "ZumbaLumba" however, that's only a name a village idiot from that area could come up with!

(Apologies to anyone from Hereford... or perhaps not, but congratulations on making the BEEB look idiotic)

[Loonie @ Jan 30th 2009 12:58PM]

Zumba Lumba Doopety Doo,
I've got a dubious concept for you,
Zumba Lumba Doopety Dee,
Will you give all your money to me?

We've got a phone that can link with your mind,
A plane that can run on a single pork rind,
A small little box that makes power from air,
Why not leave all your cash... just... there?
(Don't expect a prototype)

Zumba Lumba Doopety Dar,
We accept euro, yuan and dollar.
It helps if you're gullible, too.
Not like the Zumba Lumba Doopety Doo.

[Wentao @ Jan 30th 2009 1:26PM]

"Its so secretive that I can't actually give you a demonstration"

Thats probably because it doesn't actually work...

[Pradster @ Jan 30th 2009 2:57PM]

Zumba Limited is an internet application software development company that integrates the Internet with telephony through a new concept called ‘Natural Connecting.’ It was initially conceived over four years ago, when the founder and CEO Dean McEvoy saw the gap between the global communications and internet market. The company has been formed to drive this concept through to reality and to bring its advanced technology into the realms of global access, via its viral architecture.