The Rotary Un-Smartphone (2023)

nyc_pizzadev•about 4 hours ago

Worth mentioning the Tin Can phone: https://tincan.kids/

All their batches are sold out, I guess it’s pretty popular. Interesting tidbit, it needs to be plugged in at all times, not meant to be mobile.

AlecSchueler•20 minutes ago

What's he benefit here over a landline phone?

nyc_pizzadev•14 minutes ago

This one is wifi based, made for kids, it has a free plan, safety and security features. Pretty well put together.

ndespres•about 4 hours ago

Inspired by this I hooked up an old rotary phone to an ATA and got a number from a low cost SIP provider. Now my 5 year old can call his friends and family on his own. He loves when it rings and when he can call his pals to make his own plans.

It lacks the features and network effects of the tin can system but is still pretty fun.

nvr219•about 4 hours ago

We have a “house phone” for the kids which is an iPhone with all the apps disabled on it.

JKCalhoun•about 3 hours ago

So beautifully designed. It feels like something the wealthy might own in the film Brazil.

russellbeattie•about 4 hours ago

I grew up with rotary phones... They really are not something to fetishize.

I can close my eyes and still feel the plastic cutting into my index finger after repeatedly mis-dialing a long distance number, or having to redial a few times because the phone was busy. (Good luck if you were at a payphone.) You'd try to dial faster, but you'd always have to wait for the dial to return sooo slooowly... It took literally 15-30 seconds to dial a number. Then there was the yelling at someone to get off the line when they picked up and started dialing right away (clackada-clackada-clackada). Oof.

Yeah, there are reasons rotary phones are gone for good, and it's not just because of touch tones. The "good ol' days" sucked and always will, no matter which generation is trying to claim otherwise, don't listen to anyone who tells you differently.

bloomingeek•about 2 hours ago

Absolutely, rotary phones sucked! Always in the way, slow as a sloth and a mis-dial was the worst. Having said all that, these "cell" phones look pretty cool.

righthand•about 2 hours ago

I love baking bread by hand even though sliced bread is readily available around me. I don’t care how waiting for a rise “sucks” and/or is a waste of time because tEcHnoLoGy made it easier.

MichaelRo•about 1 hour ago

My first phone in the early 80s was a hand-cranked magneto phone like this: https://images.okr.ro/serve/product/572e8fdd848db2d3b02d36d2...

Connected by 12Km of telephone wire to a manual switchboard where an operator would pick my call and connect wires for local or long distance: https://alexandrone.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02...

Yes, in the early 80s, Romania was still using 1950s technology. And with only 3 telephones in the village, it was a big deal to have one.

Then at the end of the 80s moved to a nearby town and was amazed at how much more convenient a rotary dial phone is.

jacquesm•12 minutes ago

And with the unappreciated feature that the Securitate's people listening in could always be counted on to be available for consult in case you forgot a detail discussed in a call...

hvenev•about 4 hours ago

(2023) judging by https://skysedge.com/telecom/RUSP/electrical.html

The Rotary Un-Smartphone (2023)

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