Forget the iPhone: it’s too complicated and it sucks at making calls. What you need is John’s Phone, whoever John may be.
It’s fair to say that smartphones are de rigueur for technology fans these days. But what about the rest of the population? Don’t they deserve to have a funky-looking, well-designed, new phone to play with? Or even a crappy-looking, badly-designed, new phone to play with?
Not everyone wants an iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, or Android phone that allows them to run their whole life while standing in the queue at the supermarket. In fact, some people really only want a mobile phone that, well, takes and receives calls. That is, after all, surely what telephones were designed for when they were invented over 130 years ago.
Which is the thinking behind
John’s Phone, variously described as “the anti-iPhone” and “the world’s simplest phone.” Both of which are fairly accurate.
John’s Phone is a mobile that has stripped away all the extraneous crap smartphones are lumbered with. There is no texting, no Web access, no apps. Just plain old-fashioned making and receiving of calls.
There is the option to store a phone number into each of the 10 keys, but if you need any more than that you’ll have to use the notepad that rests snugly in a niche at the back of the phone. What would have been the stylus is a pen for you to write (an alien concept these days) numbers and notes down.
John’s Phone does have a small digital display and charges via micro-USB, so it’s not for complete idiots. The three weeks battery life is also a nice selling point which makes it the perfect accompaniment for travelers. The phone is available to
buy now from Dutch company John Doe for €69.95-and-up ($95).
This would seem to be a perfect present for parents and grandparents everywhere. And with my dad being called John it would seem even more perfect. However, he’s one of the few over-65s who actually texts on his mobile, so John’s Phone would be too simple for him. Wonders will never cease.
