Category:
Telephones

Just Imagine



The uproarious laughter by the human executive at the antics of Tommy Telephone, a plainly impossible vision, proclaims that the fellow is gratefully descending into the dark swamp of insanity due to the high stresses of his job.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 10, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Products, Communications, Delusions, Fantasies and Other Tricks of the Imagination, Technology, Telephones, Cartoons, Stop-motion Animation, 1940s, Brain Damage

Howling Dog Phone Ringer

October 1932: A Seattle woman complained that her phone never rang, but she could tell when someone was trying to call her because her dog would start howling in the yard. The telephone repair guy investigated. Realized the dog wasn't psychic. Instead, there was a short in the line and the dog was chained to the ground wire.

Indianapolis Star - Oct 23, 1932

Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 09, 2016 - Comments (3)
Category: Technology, Telephones, 1930s

Hairware

Control your phone by stroking your hair. It's a technology invented by Katia Vega of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, who explains: "we add new functionalities to hair extensions, turning them into a seamless device that recognizes auto-contact behaviors concealed to outside observers."

This is obviously a technology invented by someone who has lots of hair. Useless for us hairless types. Though she does say she has plans for a way of controlling apps by stroking your beard.

Posted By: Alex - Fri May 01, 2015 - Comments (5)
Category: Inventions, Telephones, Hair and Hairstyling

Automatic Telephone Dialer

image
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So this gadget stored a few phone numbers and allowed the convenience of one-button dialing. Would such functionality have been worth $360.00 even in 1978?

Original ad here.

image

Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 02, 2015 - Comments (7)
Category: Technology, Telephones, 1970s

Microwaved iPhone

Artist Kenny Irwin is selling a microwaved gold iPhone 6 on eBay for $6,660. Yes, he purposefully microwaved it. He's also signed and dated his creation. Irwin warns that, "Winner bidder will receive two NO A LONGER WORKING iPHONE because IT HAS BEEN MICROWAVED."



Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 22, 2014 - Comments (5)
Category: Art, Telephones

The NoPhone

The NoPhone is a black piece of plastic shaped like an iPhone. It's designed to act as a "technology-free alternative" for those suffering from "phone addiction."

According to the NoPhone's kickstarter page, "the NoPhone acts as a surrogate to any smart mobile device, enabling you to always have a rectangle of smooth, cold plastic to clutch without forgoing any potential engagement with your direct environment."

They're trying to raise $30,000 to produce these things, and are currently at $1,763.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 15, 2014 - Comments (16)
Category: Technology, Telephones

Wolrd’s First Mobile Phone from 1922

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 07, 2014 - Comments (7)
Category: Telephones, 1920s

The Telephone Booth Shower

Back in 1996, two East German entrepreneurs came up with the idea of converting old telephone booths into shower stalls. They plumbed up two booths and sold them for 4000 marks each. However, their idea ran aground when Deutsche Telekom refused to sell them any more old booths, fearing that, in the words of their spokesman, "It would be problematic if someone wanted to make an emergency call and ran into the booth that was actually a shower."
[via top.net.nz]

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jun 08, 2014 - Comments (11)
Category: Bathrooms, Telephones, Baths, Showers and Other Cleansing Methods, 1990s

Smell Phone

The oPhone is a new phone that promises to allow one to send scents via a mobile phone.


People have been speculating for a long time about the possibility of transmitting smells in the same way that we do sounds and images. But personally I've never understood the appeal of the idea. Beyond a small group of people such as perfume makers, how often do most people need or want to share smells long-distance?

Posted By: Alex - Fri May 16, 2014 - Comments (9)
Category: Telephones

Smoke Messages

This iPhone add-on, created by Dennis Be Bel, allows two people to send each other smoke messages. It's called the Smoke Messaging Service, or SMS. But the two have two agree in advance on what the smoke signals mean. [via likecool]

Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 24, 2014 - Comments (3)
Category: Technology, Telephones

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Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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