The Times — the Home & Garden section, of course, not Circuits — has an article about those Pokia handsets, the retrofitted old-style phones that occasionally show up for sale on eBay. More art pieces than products, the idea behind Pokia, says creator Nicolas Roope, is to challenge the mobile industry to free themselves from the sci-fi styling rut and start taking more aesthetic chances with the form factors of our phones. It's a cute hack — although I doubt there's a burgeoning trend in it — and I have to say I agree with the general sentiment. Who wouldn't like to see a phone made out of wood, or copper, or meat?

Roope has even created a special edition Pokia to take advantage of the publicity commemorate The Times' profile.
Read - A Cellphone for Calling Butterfield 8 [NYTimes]
Read - Product Page [Pokia]
Read - Pokia Peckham Cottage [eBay]

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