Gizmodo: rotary

The Fossil Record Now Includes Outdated Personal Electronics

Jack Loftus — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:00:00 EDT

I never really thought I'd ever type out the phrase "fossilized Walkman" or "fossilized PlayStation controller" in my lifetime, and yet, here I am Sunday morning, doing just that. Hooray?

Of course, these specimens aren't really fossils. They're concrete mostly, with cool Latin names, made from molds and with a technique that mimics true fossils. Artist Christopher Locke has also created neat little backstories for each fossil, like this one for the once proud and powerful Ambulephebus sonysymphonia (that's Walkman to we laypeople):

Ambulephebus sonysymphonia is first found in the late 1970s, and is often found in close proximity to Asportatio acroamatis, suggesting a possible symbiotic relationship. This species rapidly evolved into many other forms, including a large round version (Ambulephebus discus) and the rare Ambulephebus minidiscus.

It is theorized that the entire genus of Ambulephebus was virtually wiped out by the sudden appearance of Egosiliqua Malusymphonicus near the turn of the century. Some Ambulephebus remain, but not in the numbers once seen.

As you can probably guess, that dastardly Egosiliqua Malusymphonicus, the bane of the Walkman's existence, is better known as the iPod.

Other "modern fossils" include the aforementioned controller, a Game Boy, NES controllers (they died side-by-side, *sigh*), a rotary telephone, and a hard drive. [Christopher Locke via Neatorama]

Video of iDial Application for iPhone

AddyDugdale — Mon, 19 May 2008 05:55:00 EDT

It seems as if we are being bombarded with ingenious applications for the iPhone, and iDial is no different. Basically a rotary dial on the touchscreen, it's probably more time-consuming than useful, but chapeau for coolness. Shame the video is so blurred, though. [Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]

Rotary Cellphone Is Retro Fun For Five Minutes

Jason Chen — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:40:00 EDT

While it's true that carrying around this portable rotary cellphone—yes, it's a cellphone—will impress friends and strangers alike, it's unlikely to impress them for more than five minutes. Yes, it supports tri-band GSM, has a SIM card slot and has a rechargeable battery. But the phone costs $499 and you have to actually unscrew the phone in order to charge it. Not very convenient at all, which probably isn't a problem for someone who's carrying around a rotary cellphone for laughs. [Sparkfun via Sci Fi]

Atari "Punk" Console Stuffed in a Rotary Phone

kthompson — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 20:57:32 EDT

Is no gadget sacred anymore? Here we have an old school Ericsson rotary telephone stripped of its innards which were subsequently replaced with a home-built Atari 'punk' console. Did we need a new way to present the Pong box? Hit the jump for the DIY schematic on the console itself.

It's (apparently) a fairly basic experiment in circuitry that you can conquer in a short amount of time. There aren't instructions on how to actually stick it inside a random gadget like a phone, though.

[MAKE: Atari Punk Console]