Portable Rotary Phones Get a Cellphone Upgrade

“Rotary” is one of those big words people used to say a lot, but has died off because the tech it was based on is pretty much dead.

In this case, the word is related to the telephones used before the age of the push-button type. You turned the rotary dial each time you wanted to input a number to call. It’s outmoded, and you might wonder why anyone would want to make an article on it now.

Well, what if you wanted to lug around a giant rotary phone and answer calls with it while walking around town, just to see their reaction?

That’s what one company’s tried to do. Spark Fun Electronics has come out with a set of portable rotary phones. In other words, they’ve tweaked it to have its own power supply and allowed it to use your SIM card to both accept and make cellphone calls. You dial the way people used to do before: by turning the rotary dial. You also get to hear the same things heard on original rotary phones, which were bells…loud clanging metal bells.

This is definitely a novelty item, and one for practical jokes. We’re not sure why’d you want it for more than a couple of laughs, but if you have $500 to spare, you can always get one.

“Rotary” is one of those big words people used to say a lot, but has died off because the tech it was based on is pretty much dead.

In this case, the word is related to the telephones used before the age of the push-button type. You turned the rotary dial each time you wanted to input a number to call. It’s outmoded, and you might wonder why anyone would want to make an article on it now.

Well, what if you wanted to lug around a giant rotary phone and answer calls with it while walking around town, just to see their reaction?

That’s what one company’s tried to do. Spark Fun Electronics has come out with a set of portable rotary phones. In other words, they’ve tweaked it to have its own power supply and allowed it to use your SIM card to both accept and make cellphone calls. You dial the way people used to do before: by turning the rotary dial. You also get to hear the same things heard on original rotary phones, which were bells…loud clanging metal bells.

This is definitely a novelty item, and one for practical jokes. We’re not sure why’d you want it for more than a couple of laughs, but if you have $500 to spare, you can always get one.