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A downside of the cellular phone era

I was talking on the phone to Mike (I’m not sure why I’m bothering linking to his blog, which hasn’t been updated in three months and counting), when I realized a major shortcoming of the cellular phone era.

Remember when people had phones that had a handset and a base? You picked up the handset, dialed numbers that were on the base of all places, and then talked into the handset. When you were done, you signaled the phone company to end the call by returning the handset to the base.

This system had its flaws, mainly that you were tied down to an area with a radius of a few feet, but it had one wonderful advantage: when you were in the midst of a fit of rage, you could end the call unexpectedly with a satisfying crash of the handset hitting the base — a crash heard both by you and the other member of the phone conversation.

Now, if you want to hang up angrily, you have to settle for hitting the hangup button with a little extra force, or close your flip phone with a little extra force, but being careful not to break it. This comes across silently to other end of the conversation — so your fit of rage might be responded to by the other person calling back and informing you that the call was disconnected. Then, you have to explain that you did not get disconnected, but that you rather forcefully hung up.

I propose that cell phones have a “angry hang up” button that sends a crashing sound both out of the ringer so that you can hear it and to the other party so they can hear it.

Some people want bluetooth and wi-fi on their cell phones; I want an angry hang up button. Is that too much to ask?

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Using a phone card with your cell phone can save you money on your international phone calls. An even cheaper alternative is to use a VoIP phone for your international calls with free VoIP software.

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Tue November 8th, 2005 11:31 pm

Filed under Gadgets, Life