Phone Home

These past 13 years living in France, I've relied mostly on the telephone to keep in touch with my close friends and family in the US. I enjoy catching up on the phone and hearing the voices, especially the laughter of my loved ones. So naturally I'm tuned into any devise that incorporates great design and helps me communicate.

Recently I came across a couple new telephone "gadgets" that made my head turn. They both reminded me of how far we have come in the past 20 years not only in communication but also phone design and liberation from the days of my family's mustard colored, wall mounted, rotary dial devise with a cord span of 2 feet, and the egg timer ticking away the 5 minutes I was allowed to use it.

What I miss most about the telephone of my youth is the feel of it in my hand. Not too large or too small, not too heavy or light and a receiver length that was just perfect to talk into and hear what is being said.

The ePure telephone from Swissvoice combines that retro style with modern telephone technology. The stripped down (icon looking) design is both high tech and timeless at the same time. It has all the pops and buzzes that we expect from a modern day phone, but can ring like an antique. From a design aspect, it's fantastic, but from a comfort aspect, this phone feels just like it looks - angular and lacking consistency (very light weight plastic construction). To me, it's more of a design piece (and conservation piece) for the home or office than something I could see myself having lengthy conversations on. The keypad is located on the underside of the receiver, so be careful when handling not to push any buttons (or accidentally hang up on your caller).

The POP phone from Native Union is the brain child of French designer David Turpin. Designed to fit into any mobile phone, tablet or computer, this retro-style receiver combines the classic look and feel with modern features such as: a high quality speaker and microphone, noise cancelling and one touch call pick up and ending. It's available in a whole slew of bright colors (as well as black). What I like best about this product is the texture and weight. It's silicon cover makes it easy to grip and won't slip when held between the ear and shoulder. It has also been said to be safer than blue-tooth ear pieces. I'm hoping Mr. Turpin will take his idea one step further than this mobile attachment and create a telephone adapted for home or office use. I'll take one in purple, please!

In this day and age where phones come in all shapes and sizes (and are progressively getting smaller), it's comforting to see the return of the traditional telephone design. Do you think there will be a return to traditional typewriter keypads too??