Merging technologies makes a fun business

Posted in cell phones by Ruslan Ulanov on the January 16th, 2008

Port-O-Rotary

What do you get by merging a half-a-century-old technology (as in rotary dial phone) with a modern technology (as in GSM)? You get a Portable Rotary Cellular Phone or Port-O-Rotary for short. And this is what guys from SparkFun offer at a modest price of $200 (or $250 for a fire-brigade-red model).

They describe their invention in details (along with schematics and programming code) on their website at SparkFun Electronics. It’s a fun and educational read, so head there and read it. There’s a lot of fine pictures there too! :)

To be fair, there were other attempts on a rotary design (like the ones below), but most of them never left the Photoshop stage, so they don’t really count.

Jeremy Clarkson phone Modelabs YoYo prototype Sony Ericsson concept phone