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MP3s From The Phone Box
An Economist writes "The .com bubble has come and gone, but the great ideas and implementations are starting to come through thick and fast now. The BBC reports on a planned development in the UK - download MP3s (or the like) from the phone box. Walking along the street and fancy a song - just plug in your iPod/MuVo/iRiver/whatever... awesome! Perhaps the lauded benefits of eCommunication are just beginning to be felt - plus it increases the viability of old-tech phone boxes, which are socially beneficial but financially challenged."
I saw this at e0d.com two weeks ago.
Perhaps you're not familiar with the newer UK phone booths.
What with the huge uptake in mobiles over the last 5 years, phone boxes have become rather redundant neglected by the vast majority of the indiginous population, and BT have been reinventing them in order that they remain profitable.
As such, many of the phones in large cities and towns are DSL-enabled and have little embedded web kiosks that you use to browse the web using your change, phone or credit card on a pay-as-you-go basis. Never used one myself, but I can't imagine it'd take long to download some DRM-encrusted WMA offof some dedicated service. The only problem would be enabling the phone boxes with USB and firewire connections.
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