It's one small step for technology and one giant leap backwards for the imagination…. Fisher-Price has just introduced a new version of its iconic Chatter Telephone that actually makes real telephone calls. Yes, it still rolls around, its eyes move, the dial spins, and now… it connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth. The "Special Edition Chatter Telephone" is $60, a price seemingly pegged on the 60th anniversary of the original toy's introduction. From Gizmodo:
…The rotary dial can actually be used to place calls by dialing the person's phone number, digit by digit (which is something most of us will probably have to look up in our phone's contact list). When a call comes in it can be answered by simply picking up the Chatter Telephone's red handset and talking into it, or by pressing the speakerphone button on the toy, which is the only real indication that this version is different from the toy.
And for us luddites, the original Chatter Telephone is still available for just $7.