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This story was printed from CNET Asia.
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Crazy concept cell phones

By John Chan
26/06/2007
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39050603,62024778,00.htm



One of the most famous gadget phones is from the 1960s comedy series, Get Smart. Even before GSM base stations were invented, Agent 86 Maxwell Smart had a rotary dial phone in his leather shoe. While it is absolutely possible to make such a gizmo in this day and age, it's a horribly flawed concept that's good only for gags in a comedy. Over the next few pages, we have concept phones conceived many years after that spy parody, and unlike the shoe phone, we'd like to see some of these made into real products.

Zenum Opus | Tarati | Seesaw phone | Google phone | Roll phone

Zenum Opus | Tarati | Seesaw phone | Google phone | Roll phone





Zenum Opus
Let's start with one born close to home. The Opus was thought up by a Singaporean designer Jaren Goh. Now, this phone is not entirely a concept design because a Swiss company, Zenum, will be making it. It may look like your regular smart phone, but this comes with the touchscreen version of Windows Mobile 6, though oriented in a landscape format. It hasn't gone on sale yet, but the people over at CNET UK have had a hands-on with an early unit. So at least we know it's not vaporware.

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Credit: Jaren Goh Design

Zenum Opus | Tarati | Seesaw phone | Google phone | Roll phone





Tarati
If you pressed this phone onto a piece of bread, you'd get a waffle. But no, that's not the point. This Tarati phone must be dialed by inserting your finger into the appropriate keyhole. The displays are on the top and bottom, seamlessly integrated with the phone body. Of course, this will never be made into a real product, simply because the company that dares to produce it will be sued silly by those with fat fingers.

Credit: nonobject Design

Zenum Opus | Tarati | Seesaw phone | Google phone | Roll phone





Seesaw phone
The obsession with all things flat extends to ideas of phones as well. This rendering by Karsten Willmann in Germany thins out the bezel on a phone and adds a hump across the center of the back. We can think of two possible uses for this. First, the phone's too flat for a battery, and that's where the AAA goes. Or perhaps you can put it in a hamster cage and it becomes a seesaw for your pet rodents.

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Credit: Karsten Willmann

Zenum Opus | Tarati | Seesaw phone | Google phone | Roll phone





Google phone
With over a billion people, we won't be surprised if the next big thing in mobile phones will come out of China. One interesting concept is one person's idea of how the Google phone should look. It appears like the screen wraps around the edge and works both forward and backward. There are also attachments for its base, which once again look like they are for fitting AAA batteries. This designer has even gone further with his idea of what the interface should look like. No one outside of Google knows if a phone will come from the search giant, but if it ever happens, rest assured that the hype will equal or exceed the iPhone frenzy we are currently seeing.

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Credit: www.dogorgod.com

Zenum Opus | Tarati | Seesaw phone | Google phone | Roll phone





Roll phone
Designer Tao Ma's concept, the Roll phone, looks like a shotgun cartridge when in its closed state. Unfurl the outer surface, and you see the screen. The center portion is where you insert the battery--and guess what, it's an AAA cell! This reminds us of a roll of film, that ancient thing we used to insert into cameras to make photographs. There's no resemblance to anything we perceive as phone-like, which is what makes this concept so interesting.

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Credit: Tao Ma