iPad + Skype + retro handset = ridiculously fun mobile phone

My new mobile phone: iPad + Skype + Moshi Moshi 01H handset.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

A Bluetooth headset and Skype onthe iPad would be fine too. I’m pretty sure, though, that recent versions of Skype in the App Store still don’t support BT headsets.
schmod

Wait. Aren’t we supposed to be opposed to this?
GraemeM

Erm, “designed by…”, shouldn’t that be copied from a well establish but slowly fading design called, a traditional telephone handset. I really can’t agree with it being vintage, just yet.
AllisonWunderland

You want “retro” . . . ???

Have a look at the scene in “2001 Space Odyssey” (1968) where the protagonist makes a phone call from the space station back to earth, talks to his daughter. — From a “phone booth” and paid w/ some sort of credit card.

And I can remember when “car phones” were a real status-symbol and not a “driving hazard.”

OK — so when you get done watching the scene w/ the phone in “2001,” see if you can find some psychedelics and zoom to the light show at the end of the movie.

42 years ago . . . Where did the time go?
J France

With proper sorta multitasking in OS 4.0 you’ll actually be able to have this semi-permanently attached to use as a real, actual phone. A 3G model would make it perfect for the phonephobe like me.

I think when the iPad finally comes to my shore it’ll be my mobile communication device… I have a touch, and all it needs is non-phone 3G (ie data only) to become the killer communication tool for me. I’ll just have to deal with the 10″ screen… somehow *drools*
Anonymous

Awesome! Check out this one!
Jailbreak iPad: Running the iPhone on the iPad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHe4_aa3Ces
Anonymous

Considering the radiation oozing from this stuff, you might prevent brain tumors with those too.
Anonymous

And it’s fun why? Why not keep your 1970s phone?
jeligula

Is that a retro handset in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?
Anonymous

First! this is why I love boingboing… Completely ridiculous and cool. :)

yay stuff!
- Cowicide
  
  You are multi-fail.
hungryjoe

This is the first thing about the iPad that has appealed to me. I can imagine using this constantly. Too bad about the price tag.
Terry

Looks like Jobs’ Bat Phone. Why anyone would want to use such a thing escapes me, though.
nixiebunny

Now they just need to mold the iPad itself into the shape of a Western Electric 500 desk set.
continentalwhoswho

Continental Whos Who asks:
If an Iphone application is created and made available for the Iphone store will it also work with the Ipad ?
Anonymous

To the people kvetching about the lack of the handset’s “mobility”, I’ve thought about getting one, but strictly for use around the house.

I’m (like many of you) a cell phone only user. I have yet to find any earbud type headsets that don’t seriously irk me after a while so I figure this would be a good and comfortable compromise. Holding the tiny cell next to my head bothers my elbow after a while. I can put up with that sometimes, but if I can avoid it at home it’s worth it.
Anonymous

What a great idea, only if it were about 1/4 the size and had bluetooth. Now thats an untapped market.
- Anonymous
  
  They do have one, I mean 2. Its called an iPhone and Ipod Touch.
Anonymous

I’ve always wanted a phobile, but I can never find one for my company phone. So sad.
Egypt Urnash

Big audio I/O hooked to modern tiny devices is always awesome. I giggle every time I plug my fully-ear-covering headphones into my Nexus One; I can stick the phone between the cans and it almost vanishes.
Zaren

Oh, want. That would work even better with my iPod Touch – iPad doesn’t fit as well in a pocket :)
pjcamp

Surely you can code up a pulse dialer on that thing.

Unless, of course, Steve disapproves.
- Terry
  
  Umm…. no one can code up anything on that thing.
110rdr33f4

Rock it, Mark!
tumblingwall

Return of the bag phone!
dougrogers

needs a circular dial app
Anonymous

mobile phone? ‘mobile’ phone?? What part of this is mobile?
- Cowicide
  
  What part of “mobile” do you not understand?
  - querent
    
    wow, you’re in a mood! :)
Anonymous

ehhh…

make the handset infalte/deflate, when it rings or is taken out of pocket or when something is pressed in it.

So its rings, you put out a small thing out your pocked and then it inflates into a cool? retro style phone.

same fun, takes less space.

send me the check for the idea if you use it.
Anonymous

Too bad there’s no video (unless you use one of the PC-based pads that have been out for a while).
Anonymous

You know, I can see the usefulness of phone functionality with this device. There is a tutorial out now that shows how to make and receive VOIP to landline calls for free here: http://ipad-candy.com/ipad_phone_calling/ this is without a jail break.

Being able to use VOIP over 3G will be, I think, leveraged in more and more intelligent ways. I’m excited to see how OS 4.0 will make that easier!
Mim

Wouldn’t that be better with a … camera? :P
Anonymous

Careful before you accidentally invent the past!

From 1993, remember the EO:

http://www.smartcomputing.com/Editorial/article.asp?article=articles/1993/sept93/93n0918.asp&articleid=5960&guid=
- tim
  
  remember the EO
  
  Oh, I remember the EO. Dreadful device. Of course, I’m biased because I had been working on a much superior device – the Active Book – until ATT bought the company and closed it down in order to remove a strong competitor to their nasty little thing.
  
  Active Book was ARM based, just like the iPad. Only 8MHz though and no cache nor even an instruction prefetch queue. Only 1Mb ram and 1Mb rom. No USB. No wifi. No BT. But it did run Smalltalk very nicely.
  
  Oh and since the iPad does in fact have bluetooth (there’s this thing called ‘google’ – ever so good for looking up stuff so you don’t look like a total fool too often) you can use skype and a BT headset to make phone calls.
SamSam

Is this really Skype? Can you make totally-free VOIP calls to other computers over the wifi?

If so, wow! Does the iPhone have that yet? You can make VOIP Skype calls on the Android, but only through Fring, and the sound quality isn’t all that good.
Anonymous

IF I used a mobile phone, it would be for the convenience of having a phone in my pocket. I wouldn’t want to have to carry an extra bag around just so I could use the phone.

This would be fun, if I craved attention (I don’t) and wanted to attract a crowd (I’m pretty introverted, so that would freak me out). After that, it would get very annoying to drag that out every time I wanted to make a call, or someone called me. Even sitting at my desk, it would become annoying.

I guess I’m not as much as a gadget freak as I used to be. Coming up with ways to make the things I used to by, so they at least APPEARED useful is something I don’t even bother with any more.

It kinda reminds me of the other article I just read (I think on BB), about the ‘gadgets’ people get for their dogs. Doggie doorbell, anyone?
Anonymous

Waouh ! That’s THE missing accessory for my iPad ! Not crazy about this retro-styled design but they have a modern one on their website that’s awesome !
- Chris Tucker
  
  Anon @#34, I think you’ll find that the “retro” handset will work far better in the “between shoulder and head” mode than any of the “modern” ones.
  
  There’s a very good reason the classic Dreyfus Model G handset wasn’t changed for well over 50 years.
  
  The current “K” style handset sucks the flies off a dead horse in comparison.
Anonymous

It’s missing a crank.
nikroope

And of course there’s always Hulger lest we forget (ex-pokia) – http://www.hulger.com
sparkdale

Hilarious and awesome! dougrogers has the right idea! Maybe some kind of virtual crank to get a dialtone…
Anonymous

Someone was selling bluetooth enabled vintage phones to use with your cellphones a year or so back. Just google “Vintage Bluetooth Phone” and you’ll see some nice homemade ones as well.
Kozlow

Attn: Humorless, literal internet types. The title of this piece includes the words “ridiculous” and “fun”.
- dculberson
  
  Those things are not allowed here. “Fun.” P’shaw!
darren

Deliciously camp. All Skype needs is a 1960s Batman theme.
Anonymous

For unlock this model visit http://www.mobile-unlock.net

:D
Anonymous

Normally I’m allergic to iPhone hype, but this is totally cute!! Ingenious, even.
GlenBlank

Personally, I like the handsets that ThinkGeek sells: a wired handset that’s a reproduction of the Western Electric Type G handset designed by Henry Dreyfuss that came on the 500-series phones that many of us grew up with in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s; and a Bluetooth wireless unit that looks like the Type F handset from Western Electric’s earlier 300-series phones.