Reg Hardware

Comments on: Nokia unwraps bendy nanotech phone

Neat, but... 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 11:27 GMT

... will it work with the bluetooth in my hover car?

Shape-shifting and elusive 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 11:41 GMT

I can't help feeling that something like this will end up dripping through a hole in my pocket.

Be useful for when you sit on your phone 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 11:51 GMT

Unbreakable! Relatively.

Unless I see a video... 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 12:36 GMT

Thumb Down

its not true.

Its like all these wonderful concept cars.

@ Rob Grant 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 12:51 GMT

Sitting on a phone that can change its shape might not be such a good idea. What if the nanotech decides to reshape to fit the available orifice. Now whilst some might find this to be a good, nay enjoyable experience........

@ TEQ 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 13:31 GMT

So the real question is... does it vibrate?

Graphics class asignment 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 13:35 GMT

Thumb Down

Ok class, today we are going to mock up a phone made from components that theoretically may exist in the not so near future (if the hype about nano technology is almost entirely realised).

Proof or STFU 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 13:56 GMT

Coat

Title says it all, without a video they could be pics of anything or nothing.

Hey! Now that we know how to make a phone... 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 14:16 GMT

Flame

... we could have a phone made out of morphing nano-materials, if only we knew how to make morphing nano-materials.

What a gyp. This thing doesn't exist in any sense of the word. We can all sit around and pluck ideas for magical devices out of whichever orifice we most favour, but that doesn't make it a "design". This is pure made-up hype, it's no more real than the artificially intelligent talking yoghurt that that BT futurist nutjob was going on about a while back.

Not all hype 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 14:17 GMT

Thumb Up

From Nokia's FAQ on the phone...

Q. Are there currently any physical examples of the concept phones?

A. There are physical mock-ups available, as well as animations and concept designs that help explain what Cambridge University and Nokia are developing. There are also real examples of each individual concept and physical demonstrations are available. However, we are not yet ready to integrate them into one device. That will take a few years.

hmmm..... 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 14:50 GMT

concept only, in other words, it only exists on someones PC someehere. If it does have a physical existance it will indeed be like those none-functional concept cars that the motor manufacturers are so enamoured of and haul at great expense around car shows. If the project runs true to form expect to see a product roughly resembling, but essentially nothing like the concept in question in any way..... just like the car industry ....in about 10 years time (just like the car industry). File under marketting fluff.

Concept cars or vapourware?? 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 15:24 GMT

Gates Halo

The big parallel is sitting on a computer near you - Vista!!

Wow.. looks like a Goa'uld hand device 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 16:33 GMT

Alien

Will it be able to do mind torture if you have a well charged battery?

re: not all hype 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 16:50 GMT

so what they're saying is they have mock ups of the devices in seperate states, and they they're saying, we'd start with it looking like this, and then, with nano-magic, it'll look like this

but they don't actually have the nano-tech working yet

tsk

it's just like prototype cars just as Andy says

Nothing new here - Morph has been around since the late 70's 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 16:50 GMT

Coat

http://www.aardman.com/morph/

Gerald Morgan -ReadyPeople IT Recruitment

I can see this going awry 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 17:22 GMT

So, it can change shape ..... that's not necessarily a point in its favour. You can mistake anything for a polymorph!

The only "new" feature I want in a mobile phone, and one that nobody seems to offer, is for nobody to be able to call it with their number withheld. This is the telephonical equivalent of sneaking up behind someone while wearing a mask and grabbing them, and it damned well ought to be illegal. If someone knows my number, I have a *right* to know theirs.

My phone can already do that 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 19:52 GMT

Coat

If I take a hammer to it, I can "morph" it to any shape you want.

I know....already out the door

How about.. 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 22:58 GMT

Flame

..we get some basics sorted first.

I'd suite like something to keep my ear cool during prolonged conversations, maybe some sort of clip at teh top of teh phone so instead of haivng a sperate device I can just hook the bugger to my head (or stick it under headphones as I do at the minute)

Then there's basics of GUIs. Anyone who's used a Sony Ericsson and mistyped a word knows how annoying the "OH dear, I couldn't find the word you were looking for, so instead of just doing nothing or just printing rubbish I will display an annoying popup for a few seconds". And the fact I can;t save (or even sort) text messages by WHO sent them has annoyed me since.. well since phone were able to hold more than 6 messages.

Can I even back the texts up on my computer? No. Can I at least get a big text dump of them? Not easily I shoudln't imagine.

Instead people get paid to say "Look. IT'S BENDY! (*in 7-15 years)". Pfht.

Proper nanite-based stuff is far more "flexible" than that anyway, I shoudl be able to download a new schematic for a phone layout and have my phone organise itself into that, not just some pre-programmed settings. Having a phone I could just bend around my wrist would be cool though. Don't wear a watch when I have phone.

/rant

dude, where's my phone? 

Posted Monday 25th February 2008 23:41 GMT

Joke

and heaven help you should it adapt to the tool you need most at any moment, or to shape itself to fit the owner's mood or disposition...

"Honest, I didn't have a knife a few minutes ago!" you proclaim as airport security summons Betty Bighands for that invasive body-cavity search...

@ Martin 

Posted Tuesday 26th February 2008 11:12 GMT

"Can I even back the texts up on my computer? No."

Last time i checked (Yesterday) that can easily be done onNokia phones with PcSuite....

Neat, but... 

Posted Tuesday 26th February 2008 11:50 GMT

...does it have 5 megapixel camera???

Blasphemy! 

Posted Tuesday 26th February 2008 12:01 GMT

Coat

Yeah but it's nanotech and that's immoral innit!

@Martin Lyne 

Posted Tuesday 26th February 2008 12:30 GMT

Happy

You need a Nokia N series. You can sort messages in many different ways. You can also backup texts to a PC as Chris said.

I just hope android is as good or even better!

But...what does it look like? 

Posted Tuesday 26th February 2008 16:05 GMT

Coat

OK, after only the title I'd best be going then.

nano tech 

Posted Tuesday 26th February 2008 18:40 GMT

werent we promised one of these in the 60s, along with rocketcars and moon houses. :( where my moon house!

Flexi-everything 

Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 11:14 GMT

For a start, we'd need flexible batteries (already exist, I know) flexible speaker & mic, flexible little motors with eccentric weights (vibra-thingies), and, more importantly, a market that actually demands flexible mobile phones. The "smaller phone=greater sales" trend is so 2005 as the success of behemoths like the Nokia N-series, E-Series etc can demonstrate. How can I use a QWERTY hologramic keyboard on a phone that insists on bending whenever I press a pseudo-button?

I'm very firmly with the gimme-the-hovercar-first faction.

Nokia already make a morphing phone... 

Posted Wednesday 27th February 2008 12:06 GMT

Joke

Any current N series... leave it long enough and bits break off, fall off, come loose and the phone begins to take on all sorts of new shapes than when you first bought it. Leave it a few months and it will even rattle enough to be used as a nice percussion instrument.....