The Mobile Phone You Need To Eat

Bleeding Edge

from the just-don't-burp dept

It was just last week that we reported Nicholas Negroponte was saying companies don’t think he’s far enough out on the lunatic fringe lately in coming up with ideas for products several generations down the road. It looks like he’s trying to adjust that perception. He’s now predicting that we could eventually have mobile phones in a pill form, where you would need to swallow your “phone” every morning and have it work all day. He says that the mobile phone makers would love it, since they would then be supplying consumable goods rather than durable goods – meaning more regular sales. He predicts consumers would like it because it would mean no longer having to “carry” your phone. He also has other mobile phone ideas, such as putting a phone into the form factor of a pen – pointing out that the length from ear to mouth is just about right. As for dialing? You just write the number you want to call on a piece of paper, and let the built-in handwriting recognition do the rest. Of course, this ignores the fact that most people tend to call “stored” numbers from their mobile phone rather than new numbers – but I guess those are just details.