Comments on: Disposable Phone

Disposable Phone

bluedaniel — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 22:53:39 -0800

The Disposable Phone. With 60 minutes of calling time and a hands free attachment, it's the thickness of three credit cards and made from recycled paper products. Bizarre.

By: daver

daver — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 23:18:02 -0800

Hmmm... Dieceland's site doesn't look so good these days. The wayback machine tells a different story from just a few months ago.

By: bluedaniel

bluedaniel — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 23:41:45 -0800

One thing I had noticed was the date of the story. I caught it via a friend's head's up, and thought it bizarre enough to post. I suppose the ol' idea never took off, eh? Hell, considering how much mass communications I deal with personally, I'm surprised I don't have a standard cell phone as of yet. A disposable phone, be it extinct already or not, doesn't help the temptation mind you. And to think, we still use the term "dial" in radio promos ("dial 1-800-555-5555"), I wonder if anyone's thought that term extinct now as well.

By: gatorae

gatorae — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 23:45:25 -0800

I remember two years ago I read a similar article about a company called Hop-on that was trying to patent its disposable cell phones.. but it turned out they were recycled Nokias. These sound a lot cooler.. it will be interesting to see how popular they become.

By: Dasein

Dasein — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 00:16:18 -0800

At $20 for an hour of airtime, it doesn't sound like such a good deal to me. Maybe they just couldn't make it cheap enough, or figure out how to arrange service for the phones (I imagine the big companies wouldn't be happy at losing their package deals to the disposable phone).

By: quadog

quadog — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 01:48:30 -0800

Anybody check out that cereal monster "invention" on the second page? This lady has some time on her hands.

By: brettski

brettski — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 01:52:34 -0800

Altschul thought up the invention after being tempted to toss her cell phone out of her car in frustration over a bad connection. She realized cell phones were too expansive to lose or throw away

By: rabbit

rabbit — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 02:04:06 -0800

i used to own the domain disposablecellphones.net. i sold it for $12 i think.... not much future for them. What's the point anyway?

By: yoga

yoga — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 04:16:11 -0800

Color me green, but should we even be producing any disposable techno-gadgetry?

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 04:48:22 -0800

Disposable cellphones are the future. They are a great and IMPORTANT idea. Cellphones are a disposal problem. How many old phones do you have laying around, or have you thrown away? Did you dispose of the batteries properly? Most cellphones have expensive proprietary batteries. They don't last much more than a year. The technology changes rapidly. People tend to replace phones rather than batteries. See why the disposable is a good idea? Outgoing calls only would be attractive to some folks, a waste of time for others. This is a problem with their idea. Can they add a ringer easily enough? What attracts me to disposable technology is the cheaper price. I don't like buying expensive gadgets that are too easily broken. Something you have to hold to use is something too likely to get dropped.

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 07:12:08 -0800

The thing that attracts me to the idea of a disposable cellphone would be the way the minutes worked more than anything else. Especially if they lasted a long time. I'd like to get a cellphone for my car, just in case I run out of gas or blow a tire or something, but the cheapest plans I can find will run me $10-$15 a month just to keep the phone active. Even with so called pre-paid plans, the minutes expire unless you buy more. If I could get a disposable that had minutes that didn't expire for a year or so, I'd buy one, and keep it in the car.

By: daver

daver — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 07:18:51 -0800

In the united states, you can take any old phone and throw it in your car. Even without a service plan you can make a call to 911. It's not just a good idea, it's the law. True in most other countries as well, although I believe the dial string is 112.

By: mrbill

mrbill — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 07:34:11 -0800

These phones are completely vaporware, they've been "coming soon" for at least three years now.

By: terrapin

terrapin — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 07:57:35 -0800

What attracts me to disposable technology is the cheaper price. I don't like buying expensive gadgets that are too easily broken. You kinda/sorta had me up until this statement. The problem isn't that they are too expensive. The problem is that they are so cheap that people change them like underwear and the "old" tech is thrown into the landfill. Who pays for phones now? There is ALWAYS at least one model that is free on activation afterall. Less than needing disposable phones, what we need is the ability to have upgradeable and transferable phones. Now that we (American's at least) can switch phone companies so easily, we should also be able to have phone portability. I shouldn't be required to get a new phone when I get a new service, yet each time I have switched services I have been forced to get a new phone (and a new batery charger, and a new headset, etc, etc)

By: Ogre Lawless

Ogre Lawless — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 09:22:19 -0800

Just in via Slashdot: disposible computers. They say that it will initially "will be used in industrial-specific applications as an enhanced and secure RFID device" which seems silly when you can get cheap, reusable alterantives already. I suppose theres too much hippie and technoelitist in me to consider disposible electronics a -good- thing.

By: Peter H

Peter H — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 09:29:30 -0800

Forgive me but I have to ask. Was anyone else gravely disturbed by this image on page two, discussing the inventor's other patents?

By: Peter H

Peter H — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 09:29:57 -0800

Leave that poor bear alone!

By: Peter H

Peter H — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 09:52:04 -0800

Jokes aside, do you know how old this article is? I saw a piece on this lady on Tech TV - about inventors and failed ideas. In the piece it talked about how she made millions on a 90210 board game and put all the money into the phones, only to have the company she paid to manufacture the design rip her off and leave her penniless with a phoney product. Really sad, actually.

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 12:10:57 -0800

daver - I know about connecting to 911 without minutes. But it's always been my impression that 911 was for, you know, real emergencies that require police or ambulances or something. Not 'I'm too stupid to buy gas' emergencies which are the kind I'm more worried about.

By: obloquy

obloquy — Sat, 06 Mar 2004 15:05:17 -0800

I'm with jacquilynne; I'd be all over this if it actually existed. The fact that it doesn't accept incoming calls (& therefore doesn't ring) is bonus. AAA could give these out with membership instead of a plastic card, preprogrammed with their 800 number.

Although, again, the whole plan sorta falls apart in light of the fact that there's no such thing yet.

By: LoopSouth

LoopSouth — Mon, 08 Mar 2004 13:12:44 -0800

Growing up I was always taught that it's better to have quality over quantity. Meaning... it might cost more in the short term, but it will outlast 5 of the cheap ones. Over a lifetime one can save many (many) thousands of dollars this way.