This is for reals. Someone actually designed and built a kit to convert a normal mobile phone to an old-fashioned rotary-dial jobbie, and there was enough interest that the thing has gone into production.
The sales pitch is that modern smart phones are too much of a distraction and the people who spend all their time staring at the screens are unsociable wankers.
Hang on…we’re starting to see the point.
Anyway, Sky’s Edge is a website specialising open-source technology, which we think means the ideas are made available free to anyone who can understand them. It’s full of high-tech gear and 3D-printed bits and pieces and already has a kit to turn a 3G slapperphone into one of these 20th-century throwbacks. Now the 4G version is on its way.
The 3G kit sells for US$140 and the 4G price has yet to be announced, but will be available in September.
Log on to www.skyedge.us – from your computer, obviously, because you couldn’t do it from your phone if you had one of these – to find out more.