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You can make your own rotary cellphone
As convenient as modern cellphones are, there's a certain charm to spinning an old-fashioned rotary dial to make a call -- and now, there's a cellphone that caters to that nostalgia. Brookhaven National Lab engineer Justine Haupt has developed a rotary cellphone that's not only functional, but available to make with the help of a $240 do-it-yourself kit. It's effectively a throwback to the days when phones were for calling and nothing else, plus a few present-day creature comforts.
Tweephone is a rotary phone Twitter client, even your grandma could love
The collectives behind the Tweephone, UP digital Bureau and Unteleported tech agency, claim that it's the first analog Twitter client. We find that hard to believe but, while we've seen rotary phone-based Twitter tools before and analog meters that measure microblogging activity, we couldn't come up with a single example of a client that lets you punch in messages through non-digital means. Even if it's not the first of its kind, the Tweephone is still a pretty neat hack. Inside the old-school chassis is the ubiquitous Arduino, which interprets your pulls of the dial as letters. Like a phone with only a dial pad, you'll have to ring up numbers multiple times to get the right letter (i.e. dial "2" three times to get a "c"). It definitely not the most efficient method for sending out 140-character missives, but certainly one of the more unique. Check out the video after the break to see it in action.
FlexiKnob paddle controllers are perfect for playing your old Atari Breakout ROMs
Spend any time in a audio or video editing suite of applications and you'll find yourself overwhelmed by a selection of on-screen controls that have absolutely zero relevance to your on-desk controls -- keyboard and mouse don't really equate to slider and dial. FlexiKnobs bridge that gap, and allow collaborative work too. A project by researchers at the University of Applied Sciences, they're little wooden mice of a decidedly non-ergonomic shape, but they allow you to move cursor (shown after the break) over on-screen control, then click in the wheel and spin it to adjust the value. The cursor changes depending on whether it's locked on or floating free, and each bears the color of the FlexiKnob it is associated with. Up to 250 of the things can be paired with a computer at once, which sounds like heavenly pandemonium to us. [Thanks, Sam]
Rotary phone 4-port USB hub is impossible to hate
At first glance, we figured this heap was a dead-ringer for the next episode of Crapgadget, but after a few delicate moments of gazing at this amazing piece of retro-styled kit, we just had to let it pass. The $15 USB Telephone 4-Port Hub explains itself pretty well -- it's a non-functioning phone that doubles as a 4-port USB 2.0 hub. And it's really cute. And awesome.[Via Pocket-lint]
Rotary dial for your iPhone
I am one of the few people left in the country that owns and uses a rotary-dial telephone. Call me old-fashioned, but I just like the sound of that bell instead of an electronic noise when the phone rings. Now you can extend part of that experience (at least the labored dialing part) to your iPhone. Minnesota-based CodeMorphic has released RetroPhone, an application that simulates the rotary dial mechanism on the screen of your iPhone. Their website doesn't have a whole lot of information yet, but you can watch a video of the software in action at the St. Paul Pioneer Press's Your Tech Weblog. Of course, RetroPhone doesn't replicate the satisfying tactile response, but all the joy of spending two hours to dial an international phone number can be entirely yours. Thanks, Julio.
Earth Trek's 2-in-1 mult-card reader has a USB twist
We've been bored by the entirely too utilitarian concept of multi-card readers ever since they were hosting our SmartMedia and xD cards, but Earth Trek seems to have revitalized the concept for 2008. The 2-in-1 rotary multi-card reader has a patented swiveling USB 2.0 connector to let you come at it from all angles -- not exactly going to revolutionize your memory card experience, but a nice touch. The reader also includes a plug and adaptors for charging your phone, which seems random but useful. No word on price or availability.
The $500 GSM rotary phone
Sure, we're guessing the belt holster is a bit unwieldy, but the decades-old chassis on Spark Fun's "portable" rotary phone is probably every bit as sturdy as the Symbol MC70's for one-quarter the cash. We'll take ours in beige, please.[Via The Raw Feed]
