Someone is going to get rich off this idea:
Pros: Inexpensive, doesn’t need a battery. Cons: It’s a rectangular slab of plastic that does absolutely nothing. I’m talking about the NoPhone, which — as the name implies — has no camera, no screen, no music and, you guessed it, no phone. (It is, however, toilet bowl-resistant.) The product of a successful Kickstarter campaign, the NoPhone comes in three models. There’s the completely featureless $5 NoPhone Zero (aka “the least advanced phone ever created by mankind,” according to its website), the $10 NoPhone (with fake buttons and ports) and the $15 NoPhone Selfie, which comes with an adhesive-backed mirror. All are guaranteed to do absolutely nothing, just like the Pet Rock from 1975’s holiday season. “NoPhone simulates the exact weight and dimensions of your most beloved gadget in order to alleviate any feelings of inadequacy generated by the absence of a real smartphone,” Van Gould wrote on his personal webpage. Gould is the co-founder of the company behind the “device,” also called NoPhone. The slab of plastic could be the perfect stocking stuffer for (a) your loved one who already has everything, (b) that person with extreme digital device envy or (c) someone you’d just as soon never hear from again. So far, the NoPhone has sold more than 4,000 units, according to Gould, who also happens to be an art director for a New York ad agency. For whatever reason, Gould received a bulk order from Reunion Island, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. “I didn’t even know this place existed,” he told me.
Want to get one for that special someone on your Christmas list? Here’s the online store.
And today we celebrate...