Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Combination lock phone.

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One limitation on the compactness of mobile phones is the need for the keypad. Whittling one's fingers down makes it possible to operate smaller keys, but there are limits.

MaxCommunications is therefore somewhat proud to introduce its StickPhone, featuring combination-lock dialling.

Resembling a small but unusually expensive stick, the StickPhone has a microphone at one end and a speaker at the other. The body telescopes into itself, being four inches long when closed and about six inches long when extended.

Encircling the body of the StickPhone are 15 titanium-fibre rings, resembling the number rings of a combination lock. Each ring has, etched into its lovingly-knurled surface, the digits 0-9, plus a # and a blank.

To dial, simply set the number on the wheels and pull the two ends of the phone to telescope it out to its full length. To hang up, just telescope it back down.

MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 22 2015

crank me up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta
Start me up... make a groan man cry [popbottle, Sep 24 2015]

[link]






       [ ] disappointing it isn't a single-dial phone: 4 to the left, 1 to the right, 6 to the left, et cetera.
FlyingToaster, Sep 22 2015
  

       The US version of this telescopes out to 11 inches. The knurling might not be quite so lovingly.
bungston, Sep 22 2015
  

       Hey, you can do a lot with eleven knurled inches.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 22 2015
  

       Made in chunkily machined aluminium with expensive knurling?
hippo, Sep 22 2015
  

       No no no. Made of the finest titanium fibre. The knurling is, however, particularly expensive.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 22 2015
  

       A bun, despite requiring me to actually remember the phone numbers of everyone I might want to call.   

       Maybe version 2.0 could respond to voice commands, recognizing names and automatically rotating the lovingly knurled rings to the appropriate position ready for me to make the call.
Tulaine, Sep 22 2015
  

       //Maybe version 2.0 could respond to voice commands//   

       No, but we're adopting the Curta mechanism so it can calculate square roots.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 22 2015
  

       A Curta phone would be beautiful indeed
kaz, Sep 22 2015
  

       We are considering using the Curta's crank to recharge the battery.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 22 2015
  

       You're considering this quite a lot.   

       Also, a few mockups of this on Kickstarter would attract barrow-loads of cash, I think.
hippo, Sep 23 2015
  

       Ah, but how many barrows does it take to fill a truck?
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 23 2015
  
      
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