Feel it in your bones
Via Japan.internet.com (Japanese), Japanese cellphone carrier Tu-Ka today announced that it will launch a (the first, because no-one else could be bothered?) phone with a bone-conduction speaker later on this month. The Sanyo TS41's Sonic Speaker will apparently make it easy to hear the person you're talking to even in noisy areas (of which, let's face it, Tokyo is not in short supply).
Amusingly, the Sonic Speaker is mounted on the outside of the phone next to the sub-display, and the suggested usage is apparently to press the closed phone against some bit of your skull, as per the promo photo. Not quite the side-on posture required to talk on an N-Gage, perhaps, but if the photo is anything to go by it will make you look like you're mumbling to yourself while holding a cellphone against your face, which can't be a good thing.
Some photos of the phone itself at K-Tai Watch
Posted by aragoto at December 09, 2003 05:44 PM | TrackBackYeah - "bone conductor". And Sharper Image only sells "back massagers"...
Posted by: mbear on December 11, 2003 02:27 AMThank God, I've been waiting for this. When will it hit the american market? You guys can chuckle but it IS the answer for my situation (extremely noisy construction environments) and many others who must currently leave the work site to make a call.
Posted by: WKiely on December 14, 2003 04:13 AMPeople are calling this the "bone phone", but that term is probably trademarked already in the U.S. The name was used in (I think) the late '80's for a small portable radio or tape player lay around your neck, instead of requiring you to put anything on your ears.
- The Precision Blogger
http://precision-blogging.blogspot.com