Product: Cell Phone: Retro
Blue Remembered Mobile   (+13, -1)  [vote for, against]
A mobile with the technology of several generations before.

This mobile is only just. It is a fairly standard up to date GSM dual band phone on the audio side, but that's where the similarity ends. It has a 12 digit nixie tube numerical display. It has a fold-out bellows with a 45mm lens and leaf shutter, behind which sits the 126 film cartridge you inserted some time ago. It has a morse key, for messaging nearby peers. It also has a small folded-up atlas and an A-Z for finding your nearest. It can play cassettes. It can also tune into the AM band (7 transistor, with ferrite bar aerial).
-- Ian Tindale, Jun 06 2007

Retro Cell Phone Retro_20Cell_20Phone
Not dissimilar? Redundant? [hippo, Jun 07 2007, last modified Jun 08 2007]

The Hands-Free kit http://www.hawkin.c...STK_PROD_CODE=08850
More comfortable than the one [Canuck] was proposing - look, he's smiling! [hippo, Jun 07 2007]

Housman http://www.bartleby.com/123/40.html
Not actually 'A Shropshire Lad' at all, but I thought it was until I checked. [pertinax, Jun 07 2007]

Blue Remembered Hills http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0078882/
Dennis Potter play inspired by the Houseman poem. [DrBob, Jun 07 2007]

Can it at least have a re-configurable chime mechanism?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 06 2007


Also limited to 30 min. talk time, analog AMPS (824-894 MHz), and should weigh at least a couple of pounds *without* the required alkaline batteries.
-- nuclear hobo, Jun 06 2007


Don't forget the sextant for location based services.
-- DenholmRicshaw, Jun 06 2007


Maybe an MP1 player?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 06 2007


<admires the shade of brown bakelite>
-- po, Jun 07 2007


Would there be room to squeeze in one of Mr Baird's Televisors?
-- DenholmRicshaw, Jun 07 2007


Don't forget it should also have a pair of tin cans and a short length of string for communicating with other similarly-equipped local devices.
Perhaps the antenna should be held aloft by kite.
-- coprocephalous, Jun 07 2007


I want mine to play 8-tracks.

And have a compass.

And a big C-clamp attachment for hands-free use

<clamps unit to head - Ouch! It's too tight! Nnngh, nnngh! Urk! Ahhhh! Much better!>
-- Canuck, Jun 07 2007


So this would be from A.E. Housman's famous work 'A Shropshire Nerd' (see link):


Upon my specs the rains that tease
From yon far country blow:
What Blue Remembered Mobiles these,
What aerials for show?

That is the Land of lost content-
Providers, one and all.
The happy crowd of anoraks
Who rarely come at all.
-- pertinax, Jun 07 2007


Bun just for the nixie tubes ! Love all the rest of it too ! Compass is good, though the ferrite bar and other magnetic bits may be troublesome ... the sextant is nice for full global functionality, but would require a book of tables and a mechanical chronometer. How about a pair of clip-leads so it could connect to the landline network ?
-- batou, Jun 07 2007


I'm gonna put a Flavor Flav clock on mine. To each generation his own I guess.
-- punk_punker, Jun 07 2007


Thinking, it would have to have a proper multi-tap battery for the valves' (vacuum tubes) grid bias, or perhaps a cat's whisker.
-- coprocephalous, Jun 07 2007


Next up, the mobile mobile-- a crib decorative made of old used cell-phones.
-- RayfordSteele, Jun 07 2007


Optional wax cylinder module for recording and playing back your voicemails.

Oh and a drum unit for usage in remote (jungle) areas.
-- zen_tom, Jun 07 2007


Can it include a crochet tool? I might want to send a textile.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 07 2007


Perhaps a couple of small semaphore flags in case the battery dies.
-- Canuck, Jun 08 2007


a calcium-carbonate acetylene lamp for the keypad backlight. with flint + tinder to light it of course.

it must mysteriously store and dispense delicous boiled sweets too.
-- Custardguts, Jun 08 2007


Does it have an electric bell instead of that annoying electronic frog?
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Jun 08 2007


//a calcium-carbonate acetylene lamp // sp. "calcium carbide"
-- coprocephalous, Jun 08 2007


... and the Geek shall inherit the Earth ...
-- Canuck, Jun 09 2007


Beware of Geek's boring retrofits!
-- Ling, Jun 09 2007


Does it have a "Punched" SIM card?
-- kamathln, Jun 12 2007



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