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Orange's BIC phone comes ready to talk, doesn't require ballpoint licking first
The BIC phone has very little to do with famed pen / razor / etc. maker BIC outside of the branding agreement, but we suppose the disposable nature of dried-up writing utensils and this curious cellphone is somewhat similar. Granted, the official word from Orange is that this handset is "not a throw-away product," but unless users mail off a registration form to the carrier and wait for the phone to be activated, the mobile (and the hour of calls it comes with) will be rendered useless in two months. The selling point here is the unpack-and-talk nature, not to mention the €49 ($77) price, but those hoping to grab a low-cost phone, hack it and use it elsewhere may be heartbroken to find that this one does nothing more than talk, text and tune into FM radio. Check it out soon (if you're so inclined) in French convenience stores.[Via The Red Ferret Journal]Read - Orange press releaseRead - More details
LSN Global's ECOPLUS converts unwanted pens into styli
Finally, something useful to do with these heaps of ballpoint pens that either don't conform to our writing style, or worse, show up with ink that refuses to leave the cartridge. LSN Global is making sure we do something other than pick locks with our leftover pens, and furthermore, will probably save us a bit of cash by avoiding those overpriced replacement styli. The ECOPLUS can purportedly fit within the confines of a given writing instrument, clip onto one's pocket, and on a whim, can be whipped out and used to jot down notes in a lecture or throw down your digital John Hancock at a retail checkout counter. Not a lot of details beyond that, but be sure to click through for a few more shots of the creation in case you're feelin' a little DIY action rather than waiting it out.
RFID staples, omnipotent pens to grace offices of the future?
We already know just how snazzy your office's bizhub will be in a decade or so, and we think we've even got your desk and kitchen nailed down too, but a recent brainstorming in Popular Science brushed a few less sensational, albeit quite intriguing, office mainstays for 2017. Although we've got a few years yet before we can definitively say whether or not these folks will pull a psychic-AT&T on us, but if Swingline has its way, the traditional red stapler that continually jams and collects more dust than it does anything else will be quite controversial. Sure to enrage pro-privacy employees who've already been unknowingly chipped with an RFID tag upon agreement to come on board, the staples of the future could actually contain micro-RFID tags; these chips could then be traced to find out just how long it really sits in one's "to do" stack, or if "inexplicably missing" really means "intentionally destroyed." As cruel as we know that sounds, at least you can pen all the curses you wish on even the most ink-resistant material in your manager's suite, as the future-generation Staedtler pen is being designed to "write on almost anything by optimizing molecular bonds with a surface" in order to produce the right mixtures needed to adhere to a given medium. Of course, the transparent monitors that will come with your 2015 upgrade kit will effectively kill your ability to surf Engadget while being guarded by the plastic backing of your current LCD, but the face recognizing desk locks should at least keep Gary from snagging your chocolate when you're out on break. Click on through for a few more mockups of tomorrow's office gizmos.
