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Gear For The Timelady: Phone Watch
Remember the timelady? That nice woman who clued you in, every time you called the time phone number on your rotary phone? And remember the visceral feeling of really personal interaction with your rotary dial - put your index finger in the hole for the correct number, pull the dial all the way around, wait for it to cycle back, then six more numbers? If you were really in a hurry, you left your finger in the hole, and then tried to pull it back to make it go faster. It never did.
Feeling nostalgic? Okay, probably not; numeric keypads are more efficient. But for those who missed out, there is the phone watch, based on an analog or rotary dial phone. Dial 117 - Japan's Speaking Clock - and it reads the time.
This reminded me of the watchphone from Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net. Because it's the reverse - a phone in the shape of a watch. Not a watch in the shape of a phone. Nevermind.
Read the original article at Phone Watch, Not a Watch Phone; see the phone watch specifications (in japanese).
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/30/2004)
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