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."

Comments

Interesting Thought

[Oculus Habent]

Internet access - presumably high-speed, if you are downloading a song and not expecting to wait 20 minutes - and portable storage connectivity could be good, but it will be interesting to see how the technology works out.

I'm envisioning someone figuring out how to boot off an iPod and using spare hard drive space to trade pirated software.

Hmm... Warezchalking?

Re:Interesting Thought

[Anonymous Coward]

It's absolutely the dumbest idea ever. Just integrate the damn wifi ability in the MP3 player. Direct music downloads that get charged to your account automatically.

Re:Interesting Thought

[ScrewMaster]

Nah ... warjiving.

Re:Interesting Thought

[johansalk]

"I'm envisioning someone figuring out how to boot off an iPod and using spare hard drive space to trade pirated software."

Why? what's the point?

Why would anyone want to do that?

Re:Interesting Thought

[Oculus Habent]

If I have pirated software on my computer, you can charge me. If it's sitting on British Telecom's hardware, can you prove it's mine?

Sure it's far-fetched, but it could happen. High-capacity music players are good at this sort of thing. The seemingly innocuous activity - just like anyone actually buying music, offers the opportunity to set up a significant means of anonymously sharing data.

I'm not saying that it'll be a huge problem, nor that the devices will be insecure enough to boot from an external drive... It's just a thought.

Why? What's the point? Why would anyone want to do that?
Trading software locally yet anonymously with minimal personal risk or legal exposure, not to mention the "because they can" factor.

Re:Interesting Thought

[Anonymous Coward]

Wi-fi in a portable music player is BATTERY DEATH. Why do people keep mentioning this?! There's no reason, especially when you're in a kiosk to use Wi-fi.

Unless you can get everyone carrying around five pounds of batteries to support the wi-fi music transfers that WOULD NEVER SELL, there is no point. A $2 wire is faster, cheaper, requires no additional hardware for the user, no additional expense for the manufacturer of the player, and already works.

Wi-fi isn't meant for device-to-device communication. The iPod isn't a computer, and I don't really envision someone taking the 2 minutes to set up a secure wireless connection between the iPod & host to transfer a song when they could slap it in the dock, click a button and have it in one second.

Re:Interesting Thought

[Anonymous Coward]

A physical connection means if the the kiosk is damaged (or sabotaged), it can send a power spike into the data port and damage the mp3 player. I would never connect a device to a public kiosk via a physical connection, though I would use such a service over a wireless connection.

Re:Interesting Thought

[iamacat]

Are you saying iPod's battery will be drained in less than a minute it takes to transfer an mp3 album over 802.11? The radio can be turned off when not in use and take zero power, you know?

The point of course is not syncing with your own computer - you need to charge over a wire anyway. But WiFi would be perfect for this service, MPEG4 camcoders unloading to the 40GB hard drive and a specially for somewhat less politically correct pear to pear "sync" of songs.

Re:Interesting Thought

[Anonymous Coward]

No, eCommunication (from the summary).

To the summary submitter, just f*ck you for subscribing to marketing non-words. Don't spread them, not on Slashdot where techies rule over bean counters and buzzword bozos.

(If it was somehow "ironic" in the summary, somebody please hand my ass back to me.)

Re:Interesting Thought

[Anonymous Coward]

" Wi-fi in a portable music player is BATTERY DEATH. Why do people keep mentioning this?! There's no reason, especially when you're in a kiosk to use Wi-fi."

Yeah, because we see laptops and other devices with significantly reduced battery life due to WiFi usage ALL of the time. Also, I don't know how your life is, but most of my time isn't spent in a kiosk. Maybe you like to hang out in phone booths or something?

"A $2 wire is faster, cheaper, requires no additional hardware for the user..."

You mean besides the kiosk itself? 802.11b can transfer at upwards of 11Mbps, I think that's fast enough for what this would be used for.

"Wi-fi isn't meant for device-to-device communication. The iPod isn't a computer, and I don't really envision someone taking the 2 minutes to set up a secure wireless connection between the iPod & host to transfer a song when they could slap it in the dock, click a button and have it in one second."

WiFi is meant for whatever you can use it for, that includes peer to peer connections. Who is limiting this to just the iPod anyways? There seem to be a lot of options from Creative, Dell, Sony, Archos, etc. Transferring music via WiFi wouldn't be much slower than a physical connection, unless you're thinking about having kiosks that provide bandwidth greater than 11Mbps, which would be ridiculous to assume. You're also forgetting that you actually have to STOP to use the kiosk. While a WiFi device would allow you to transfer music while walking, hanging out with friends at your establishment of choice, whatever. If you want to grab a song, the availability is right at your fingertips instead of ten city blocks away.

Re:Interesting Thought

[commodoresloat]

Why does this need to be device to device? There's this thing called the Internet, and you can connect to it without a kiosk. An mp3 player with the ability to buy songs off wifi from iTMS (or wherever) would be a hell of a lot better than a kiosk. I mean, if I wanted to go to a kiosk to get music, why wouldn't I just go into, I don't know, a record store?

Re:Interesting Thought

[Oculus Habent]

significantly reduced battery life due to WiFi usage ALL of the time
Considering laptop batteries are usually capable of playing a full DVD, you probably don't notice the time loss of Wi-Fi. But, it is real. When you have devices that aim to squeeze every last second out of their batteries, you're likely to see some seriious decrease in battery life. You're talking about 200mA @ 5V if you want it in the kiosk, and up to 500mA if you expect to download while walking around (based on PCMCIA cards).

most of my time isn't spent in a kiosk
Apparently you missed the article about buying songs in phone booths. That's what this is about; Buying songs... in phone booths.

Yes, it's unlikely that the internet connection of these devices will be faster than 11 Mbps, so the speed is irrelevant. However, it's likely that you wouldn't receive the song on your device until it is locally downloaded, so the kiosk-to-device transfer slows you down, not the Internet download. In that case, 400 or 480 Mbps is comfortably faster than 11.

that includes peer to peer connections
That still requires a substantial investement of software for the limited interfaces that portable players have. Let me take two scenarios:

1. Wireless kiosk connection:
Your player must establish an encrypted 802.11 connection with the low-range transceiver in the kiosk to prevent other people from getting the same song. This is a music industry-satisfying step. To do this, you select the network from any available - or enter the network name for closed networks - and enter a passphrase or code. Now we're looking at a video game-style interface for data entry, which is cumbersome. It works, but so do a lot of things that are inconvenient and poorly implemented.

2. You add the full software for accessing whatever music store your devices recommends or perhaps any store in general on top of what you had in the previous scenario; requiring a web browser to be installed on your player, complete with SSL. Not even going into the massive design effort in formatting that information for your tiny scren; the overhead of getting to the song will use a fair chunk of battery life as will the continuous activity of transferring the song.

I can' speak for other players, but the original iPod battery is 1200 mA @ 4.5 volts where a replacement notebook battery is around 3600 mA @ 14.8 volts. There's a pretty big difference there; I'm no Electrical Engineer, but I'm sure someone here can offer better insight into the differences. Power consumption means a lot more on a portable player than it does on a notebook. While it's technically possible, and would be a cool capability, I don't envision MP3-players with integrated Wi-Fi making it in the marketplace for years to come. Between the lack of applications and the detracting factors, it's not something that any company is likely do build in. You might see an add-on built for any given player, but I can't imagine who would bother, unless, as is the case with PalmOne, the MP3 player is a feature of a device, not its sole purpose.

Re:Interesting Thought

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm invisioning the ipod dying and the nomad zen finally being recognized as the best mp3 player on the market.

Common already...

[Hallje]

Can somone say $hit or get off the pot? Geeebus, as if people don't take long enough at the phone booth.

Re:Common already...

[Anonymous Coward]

Can somone say $hit or get off the pot? Geeebus, as if people don't take long enough at the phone booth.

When was the last time you even saw someone at the phone booth? When was the last time you saw a phone booth? Part of the reason I gave up and got a mobile phone again is because I can't find a damn phone booth when I need one.

Re:Common already...

[davesplace1]

Yea it is not a good plan. I can't see waiting 1/2 an hour because someboby is downloading Porter Wangners greastest hits, when I need to call a towtruck.

Re:Common already...

[MrNemesis]

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.

Re:Common already...

[mesach]

Hey man, I'm just trying to get the latest BT through BT!

Re:Common already...

[djdavetrouble]

When was the last time you even saw someone at the phone booth?
no more phone booths in nyc more like phone stalls. phone booths just get pissed in. The phone stalls get pissed in too. Its all really pretty disgusting, between the strangers mouths and ears that have been touching the phone and the urinal factor.... yet they still get tons and tons of use and abuse.

Re:Common already...

[Pope]

I have to use them because I don't see the point in having a cell phone. In fact during the summer, I was trying to get ahold of some friends because the pub we were going to meet at was overrun with visiting football (soccer) fans, so we had to go somewhere else. I ended up running into one at the corner phone trying to leave a message, and he was going to use the phone to see if his girlfriend had gotten home yet.

Super

[mboverload]

Now I can get 16 kbps quality music for 10 cents a minute and 2 bucks a song.

Re:Super

[Anonymous Coward]

It already works in the US. And you can get the songs for free. Download this little hack. Each new customer gets the 3 first songs for free, this hack creates random customer IDs at the push of a button. Works on Motorola phones.

Re:Super

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, forgot to mention there's a Linux client (CLI controlled) in that package too. For your laptop, Zaurus, or what have you.

Re:Super

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks!
I've been four different people already! :-D There was even some good music, not just the usual top 40 crap.

But doesn't this violate the DMCA? Does the file being hosted in the UK have sth to do with that?

Old News

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw this at e0d.com two weeks ago.

Interesting idea but financially inviable

[Raul654]

Think about it - they are tergetting a niche market (Ipod owners) with an even nichier product (downloading songs on the road). And, to top it off, how often will a given person do it? Maybe once or twice, for that one time you are own the road and need a particular song. Otherwise, you'd get most of your music at home. I mean, they are losing money with telephone calls (where you might actually get repeat customers), and that doesn't even require them to pay for a high speed connection. No, I suspect this project is doomed already.

Re:Interesting idea but financially inviable

[Technician]

No, I suspect this project is doomed already.

Nobody mentioned the music industry thinks their product is gold plated.. The phone company isn't going to get the content for free.. Far from it. By the time the phone company tries to make a profit, it'll be ignored on the street the same way CD's are now for being so overpriced.

If the phone company were smart, they would offer a product that didn't take all the income so they could earn some. Getting a big markup on songs isn't a good idea if the resulting price kills all traffic. They need a margin and traffic. I can't see them doing it with the royalties they would have to pay for songs and ringtones.

They should just offer net access so travelers can check e-mail on the road, re-schedule flights, etc. There are enough sites online that already offer ringtones and music downloads. Adding phone booth costs to these would not be a high volume sales plan.

Re:Interesting idea but financially inviable

[Viceice]

Exactly. What would be a better app would be this:

As it is, most new MP3 players nolonger require drivers to hook up to a host, as they identify themselves as 'USB Mass Storage Devices". So as long as you have a USB port, regardless of weather it's XP, MAC or Linux, all you have to go is plug it in and there you go..

So now imagine if MP3 player makers could add just a bit more firmware and made those players identify eachother. With a cheap $1 USB male -> Female adaptor, you could connect 2 players togather and transfer almost anything between eachother.

I can almost imagine the RIAA shitting themselves if this happends...

Re:Interesting idea but financially inviable

[R.Caley]

they are tergetting a niche market (Ipod owners)

Er, no they aren't. The set of people with any kind of digital music player is rather larger.

They aren't losing money on telephone calls, they are losing money on having the hardware standing around not earning money, so anything they can do with little or no more hardware which drags in a few more users will probably be a small win.

Not that I think this is going to be very profitable. Mostly I expect this is just an advertising press release, designed to draw attention to their kiosks.

Mind you, the people who buy ringtones might be a market. The latest thing on phones seems to be MP3 ringtones, presumably rather bigger than midi ones. So perhaps the kind of peron who changes their ringtone every other day (bizzare IMO) might be tempted to get anew one every time they walk past the kiosk in the shopping centre.

Re:Interesting idea but financially inviable

[Anonymous Coward]

If the phone company were smart, they would offer a product that didn't take all the income so they could earn some.

Handjobs?

Re:Interesting idea but financially inviable

[Anonymous Coward]

Not just a niche, but a disappearing market opportunity as well.
They're putting so much on the success of the iPod, but there are a large number of special factors in the success of the iPod that aren't guaranteed for other online music sales.
And even in the case of the iPod, the best days are already over according to Apple's own accounting. Apple's music sales peaked several months ago and they have been steadily declining since.
You could argue this is explained by the entry of cut-price competition. But that competition hasn't come anywhere close to the success of Apple in terms of sales numbers.
I think the bottom line is that anybody with broadband can get music for free is they pay for the ISP connection fees. This phenomena of free music, unlike paid music downloads, shows no signs of slowing. Not only are P2P numbers as strong as ever despite all the legal attacks, now we have a huge upsurge in streaming audio recording and techniques for recording off of satellite radio as well.
Given these factors, the real price of music is probably closer to a few cents a song at best and a few thousands of a cent at worst. This is closer to the reality of the overall market than the iPod sales figures that they're using for their projections.

Socially beneficial?

[Dancin_Santa]

Like providing drug dealers an untraceable line to conduct dealings? When is the last time anyone ever used a public telephone, with its disease-smeared receivers, for anything other than illicit activities?

But now we can download songs? Well! That's something new and useless. Why would I want to do that when I could 1) do it at home more easily or 2) do it at a record store with more selection?

Like many "dot com" ideas, it's a solution looking for a problem.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[CestusGW]

The last time I used a public phone was probably only a couple months ago, when I was out without my cell phone and needed to phone somebody. Believe it or not, not everyone has a working cell phone on them at all times, and the ability to make phone calls from a public place at a nominal fee really is useful.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Not everyone has a cell phone.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[Anonymous Coward]

untraceable? wrong. the number is known, so you can ask around for descriptions on people there are the given time, or checkout any possible CCTV in the area.

as for the last time, probably 1997.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[dukeisgod]

Sometimes when you're traveling you find out that your provider dosen't work in a certain area. That or your phone decides to die. Not everyday happenings, but they sure as hell seem beneficial to you then.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[ZzzzSleep]

Quoth Dancin Santa

When is the last time anyone ever used a public telephone, with its disease-smeared receivers, for anything other than illicit activities?

I used one about a week ago to call the RACV (Royal Automobile Club of Victoria) to open up my car after I'd locked my keys inside. I had no idea how long I'd be on hold for, so I chose to use a payphone for 40 cents instead of wasting all my mobile phone credit.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[Anonymous Coward]

The pay phone doesn't have a time limit per "credit"? Interesting system.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[Anonymous Coward]

who the freakin hell modded this "Insightful"?

Re:Socially beneficial?

[beallj]

Not all of us either care to or can afford to carry a cell phone with us everywhere we go.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[JeffTL]

Payphones oftentimes have decent mics and need no batteries. And moreover 800 numbers can be quite costly on a cell compared to a pay phone (where in my experience they are sometimes free!).

Re:Socially beneficial?

[1u3hr]

Like providing drug dealers an untraceable line to conduct dealings?

You forget to mention TERRORISTS. And while we're at it, we should ban email, personal ads, and the Post Office is a proven mode of delivery for anthrax. Anyone speaking in a foreign language had better not try that in public either.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[Denyer]

I tend to use payphones in pubs when a mobile runs out of batteries, but the same principle operates -- cellphones require coverage (which isn't total) and charging every few days. Payphones are also generally a lot cheaper to dial into, and potential lifesavers in emergency situations.

Whilst not the big thing they used to be, keeping a few in service is worthwhile.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[zakezuke]

But now we can download songs? Well! That's something new and useless. Why would I want to do that when I could 1) do it at home more easily or 2) do it at a record store with more selection?

I think that's rather the point. Because of mobile phones it seems like the phone booth is less nessicary than it once was. I have to admit, the reason I got a mobile again is simply because because i'm not seeing as many public telephones as i'd like. So why the hell not offer a useful service from these places that are otherwise not as profitable as they once were.

So why the hell not offer some form of useful service. The street locations are already alocated, they have power and phone lines attached to them, why not let them do something. Not nessicarly offering .mp3s for a fee but anything will do, like wifi access just for example. Anything really to justify their existance if for nothing else but 911 access.

Public telephones... more than just for drug dealing.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone including drug dealers can buy a cell phone and a prepaid calling card and be untracable.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[iamacat]

Are you saying people shouldn't be able to protect their identity when making phone calls, sending e-mail or mailing a letter? Like maybe you want to call a suicide hotline but would rather not be forcibly confined and medicated? I am scared to live in your country and more affraid I probably already do.

Re:Socially beneficial?

[DrHyde]

Plenty of 0800 numbers don't accept calls from payphones, because they are charged a considerable amount more for the incoming calls. There's even a bit defined in the SS7 protocol for "I'm a payphone, ignore me".

Re:Socially beneficial?

[leon.gandalf]

Then could I offer you a great deal on a cell phone?

Practical

[FiReaNGeL]

Cause its so more practical to load music at a phonebooth, in public, than in the comfort of your home. I don't see the point here, honestly. An Ipod hold so much music that you'll always have something non-boring to listen to anyway.

Re:Practical

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh.. A phone BOOTH.

I was like "what the fuck is a phone box"?

Then again, how many telephone "boxes" do you really have in the UK? In America, it's becoming more and more difficult to find. You actually have to undertake considerable effort to find one in most places, unless you're in the very heart of downtown. Even there, it's a bit hard to come upon one.

Re:Practical

[Triv]

how about putting kiosks in a mall? I mean, you're probably their to shop anyway, and it's a helluva lot more convenient that buying a cd, bringing it home, ripping it and uploading it to your 'pod.

I realize that apple doesn't make such a thing easy with the way the iPod's updating works, I'm just saying a booth like this isn't TOTALLY impractical.

Triv

Re:Practical

[Rie Beam]

"Cause its so more practical to load music at a phonebooth, in public, than in the comfort of your home."

I guess you could pay for your song in quarters...that is, unless the song was recorded outside of your area code...

Re:Practical

[supabeast!]

Agreed -- this is another one of those tech companies snowing clueless investors out of millions of dollars by describing ways technology can make life even more inconvenient. What's even more amazing is that they're pushing this idea in the UK, a country where the weather is not conducive to standing around loading files onto a music player. Whoever is investing in this scam must have no clue of what an mp3 is, or how much easier it is to just do this in a nice warm house as opposed to a cold, wet London streetcorner.

In twelve month the only web site talking about this one will be Pud's.

Re:Practical

[djupedal]

I guess you could pay for your song in quarters...

No way - just whip out your MCI phone card and deduct the cost before downloading.
You have 68 songs remaining...press the star key to add more song downloads using your credit card"

Re:Practical

[artifex2004]

I guess you could pay for your song in quarters...that is, unless the song was recorded outside of your area code...

As the article pointed out, the boxes use credit or phone cards, etc., over there.

Re:Practical

[soda160289]

I Have always thought in a phone booth, "Dam i wish I could get songs here"

Re:Practical

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh.. I was THINKING.

I was thinking "what the fuck does 'I was like' mean?"

Then again, the AC is from 'America' (USA?). So with minimal effort on my part, I made the tiniest allowance for cultural differences, understood what the AC meant, and saved myself from looking like a clueless wanker.

How Do They Plan To Support All Players?

[FlipmodePlaya]

"Under the plans, anyone owning an iPod or portable music player would be able to go into a phonebox and download a song while out shopping or on a lunch break."

Well, just about every player has a different method of song transfer. Many require databases to be constructed, and there are so many obscure models out there... Most don't have Line-Ins to record off of, so what are they going to do?

Re:How Do They Plan To Support All Players?

[hool5400]

If i were doing it, i'd get the file to buffer in the phone (hard drive or ram) and then set it up to automatically transfer it to any removable storage medium that's plugged into the phone. This would mean either the phone has a hardened usb cable attached, or you have to carry one around, with the added negative of only working on players that actually mount as a USB storage device.

That's the sensible way to do it, but still not good enough to be effective and easy.

Or they could have a plug in memory card reader, but that would target even less devices.

It's just not a practical fusion of existing technologies.

This is a silly idea... BT should just....

[Osrin]

... face up to facts and do away with phone boxes. They could use the money that they save to launch some satellites and give us all 1Gb worth of free bandwidth each.

Re:This is a silly idea... BT should just....

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Not all of us have cell phones.

Re:This is a silly idea... BT should just....

[zoid.com]

What they should do is auction off all of the Phone (Boxes??) Booths on ebay. I woud love to have one in my arcade room.

Re:This is a silly idea... BT should just....

[Osrin]

You've just identified yourself.... no cell phone, you must be George from Newcastle.

Re:This is a silly idea... BT should just....

[uberdave]

Until they develop a cell phone that works reliably in a basement apartment, I will not be getting one either.

demand?

[discontinuity]

Can't say that I speak for everyone, but I really can't imagine using this service. How often do you find yourself walking down the street thinking "man, I'd pay anything just to listen to some Moby right now"?

And it's not so much the cost. Who wants to stand there, navigate a bunch of menus and wait for a download just for a 3-minute song?

Maybe I'd pay for general internet access, but I can do that at a coffee shop. If I'm tired of what I've got on my iPod, I can always listen to the radio. The concept just doesn't seem to fill a desire.

Re:demand?

[D Ninja]

Mmmm...I see what you mean...

...I can't imagine wanting to listen to Moby either.

Re:demand?

[Anonymous Coward]

...I can't imagine I care about your musical preferences.

Re:demand?

[Anonymous Coward]

Moby sucks, pass it on.

Re:demand?

[ManeeshBrash]

It makes a whole lot of sense for travellers. If you're on a long trip (4+ months) it would be nice to be able to update your iPod along the way. Phone booths might not be the ideal place for it, but I think that this idea definitely does have a market.

Re:demand?

[TheRaven64]

I almost certainly would not use this service, since I have broadband at home. I can, however, see that this would be useful to modem users. Downloading an album from iTMS or wherever over a modem takes an hour or so, and ties up the 'phone line while you are doing it. Being able to pop into a 'phone box and download a couple of albums would be a far better solution.

uses for phone booths

[belmolis]

Downloading music seems a little narrow. If they can provide the infrastructure for that, why not make them into more general network access points? Since phone booths are so prone to being vandalized, it probably won't work to provide a computer, but they could provide ports to which people could plug in their laptops, PDAs, etc. as well as devices like iPods. Maybe a wireless access point too.

Re:uses for phone booths

[TheRaven64]

They already provide web and email access. This is just another service added on top. I don't imagine that wired network access in 'phone boxes would be popular, since it would result in them being tied up by one person for a long time (and they're not exactly comfortable places to use a computer). Wireless access might be feasible, since the set-up cost is small, although I doubt that pay-for-use access points are commercially viable in the long term - too many places are offering free WiFi access to anyone who buys coffee (or coffee-substitute) from them.

BT phone boxes seem to be like...

[Osrin]

...that guy out of star wars, every time you think they're dead they just seem to come back stronger than before.

Re:BT phone boxes seem to be like...

[Anonymous Coward]

...did the guy from Star Wars usually stink of piss too?

Will there be...

[mboverload]

a beep in the song every minute reminding me to put in 2 quarters?

2600 Magazine

[XST1]

I can see it now

2600 Autumn 2004 Edition
NEW MP3 Phone Box CENTERFOLD POSTER INSIDE!!!

(In case you didn't know 2600 (aka the Hacker's Quarterly obsesses about every type of telephone box))

phone box, huh

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting. I've never heard it called that.

Re:phone box, huh

[ScrewMaster]

You must have never watched Dr. Who, who would frequently use lifts to go from floor to floor and would occasionally open the bonnet on a car or put something in the boot. Did I get all that right? I'm not British after all ... I just like a lot of your TV shows.

Re:phone box, huh

[dcstimm]

its a Non US thing, hence the BBC, and "planned development in the UK"

Re:phone box, huh

[david.gilbert]

In England, people can be a bit funny about the terminology they use, which can be confusing for foreigners, especially those from the USA.

I'll give you an example - in English sports, there are several competitions involving teams from throughout the WHOLE COUNTRY, and not one of them is known as the 'World Series'.

Re:phone box, huh

[Anonymous Coward]

Dr Who used a police box. Similar thing, except that instead of being able to dial anybody, these had a direct line to the Emergency Services. They were phased out in the 1960s and replaced with general purpose phoneboxes.

Won't it sound kind of crappy...

[Anonymous Coward]

...after coming down a 'phone line and all?

Yes, I know, -50 Dumb Troll but at least I spelt everything right. (-:

Social Ramifications of "On Demand"

[reporter]

Is anyone concerned about the social impact of the Internet? Everything seems to be on-demand. If you want to hear the song, go to the nearest phone booth and download it into your iPod. If you want phone sex, dial the 1-900 number and whip out your credit card. If you want pornography, type the correct Web link.

Has anyone noticed how impatient the current generation is? Could there be a correlation between its attitude and the on-demand nature of current technology.

Re:Social Ramifications of "On Demand"

[mboverload]

No? Quick respond NOW! As I am one of the Y generationn I can't wait for more than 10 SECONDS!

Re:Social Ramifications of "On Demand"

[Orgazmus]

So, you want a 3 day waiting period on phone sex and internet porn?

Re:Social Ramifications of "On Demand"

[Vash_066]

Man don't even joke like that....

Re:Social Ramifications of "On Demand"

[hool5400]

How do you avoid the lameness filter then?

Re:Social Ramifications of "On Demand"

[ScrewMaster]

No, as you are one of the Y generation your attention span is less than ten seconds.

Re:Social Ramifications of "On Demand"

[ScrewMaster]

It's okay ... I doubt too many Bible-thumping bureaucrats read Slashdot. At least, I hope they don't. There are way too many bad ideas like that here that they probably couldn't think up for themselves.

Re:Social Ramifications of "On Demand"

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this reporter guy running some sort of automated essay generation script? These comments read like one of those pages that a link spammer puts out where they take your google search terms and make it look like the page is relevant but then it makes no real sense at all. Go away, reporter troll. Yahoo message boards are more appropriate for you.

trust?

[Chuck Bucket]

but with all the viruii, and fake viruii announcements from fedora-redhat.com, can you really trust a box left out in the open? I'd think it'd be a ripe offer for tampering. I can just image the 2600 articles now...

CB*($@#

Re:trust?

[Anonymous Coward]

"viruii"?

This is the worst one yet. In latin you would drop the -us, not the s. Then you would add one and only one i. Viri. But there isn't a plural for virus in latin, it's an uncountable thing. So you don't use a latin plural in english either.

It's viruses. You can say octopi, but you can't say viri, virii, or viruii(!).

Re:trust?

[Anonymous Coward]

don't be havening a aneurism

Re:trust?

[Chuck Bucket]

awesome, that's the second person that freaked when I used 'viruii' in a post. Note to self: keep doing it.

CB#@$$

I’ve actually RTFA

[Pan T. Hose]

Kudos for the time-travel-was-only-phase-1 dept. for writing a story that made me actually RTFA, because even after reading it few times in a row I didn't understand a single thing. Now, when I have RTFA and know what are we talking about, I have an idea. Why cannot they install CD-R burners and CD/booklet printers in booths of some sort to allow buying the same music as a customly composed CD having only to reload it with CD-Rs, paper and ink once in a while, while making every single song ever recorded available in the most convenient way imaginable and for relatively low cost and minimal overhead?

Re:I’ve actually RTFA

[Anonymous Coward]

They would just stick gum in the cd slot.

Yeah, now gums blocks your dimes AND your CD!

See a concert, take it home on your iPod.

[Suburbanpride]

On their recent tour, the Pixies offered CDs of the show recorded and mized live to fans walking out the door. I could see a kiosk at concert venues allowing fans to downlaod the night's show to their iPod. It would proably be faster than burning CDs. A phone both however, is not something I currently associate with music, and I don't thing it would catch on, but i buy most of my CD's at concerts, where I know the money is going to the artist. Apple is going to realse a U2 special edition iPod next week, and is rumored to be working on A sub $200 flash player. How long till digital complete overtakes cd's?

Re:See a concert, take it home on your iPod.

[Motherfucking Shit]

On their recent tour, the Pixies offered CDs of the show recorded and mized live to fans walking out the door.

A minor nit to pick: most likely it was ClearChannel, not the Pixies, offering (and profiting from) the CD. IIRC, ClearChannel even went so far as to patent the process of recording a concert and selling the CDs immediately afterwards. Of course I'm not saying you shouldn't buy the CD if you liked the show!

Re:See a concert, take it home on your iPod.

[gcaseye6677]

The fact that ClearChannel can own any patents whatsoever is proof that the patent system is in desperate need of reform. ClearChannel does no innovative research of a scientific nature; they are purely a marketing firm. Anything technical that can be patented in AM/FM radio has already been patented, and concert venue management is not science. This being said, I'm sure there is an easy workaround for ClearChannel's recording patent unless the patent is broad to the point of being unenforceable.

Re:See a concert, take it home on your iPod.

[jrumney]

Apple is going to realse a U2 special edition iPod next week

Perfect for putting these MP3s on. Or these ones, which will suit any non-RIAA approved device.

Total crap !

[Anonymous Coward]

I preffer they allowed to downloads songs using mobile phones. CDMA / GSM / GPRS etc ..

This will be real market. A bunch of people are using mobile phones. Thus - if GSM companies will allowed to speedup download by using caching at near base stations - this will work.

No needs to search for public phone - use one at your pocket.

As well - I've forgot to say - payment using mobile phone will be trivial !!

Phone Box? Those Brits say the Strangest Things.

[Anonymous Coward]

Including this abhorrrent call for the assassination of Pres. Bush:

"On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod's law dictates he'll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?"

from:http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/tvradio/ st ory/0,14676,1335307,00.html
(Note: The Guardian has taken down their offensive page now...)

Re:Phone Box? Those Brits say the Strangest Things

[Anonymous Coward]

Fucking bastards! Stay the fuck out of our election. We kicked your asses out of our country for a reason.

It is about price point...

[nayigeta]

At the end of the day - it is about price point, if it is technically feasible in the first place - like waiting time to download, and comparable to rival method to download music.

Up take for niche services like these requires very low entry requirements - like low price, little registration hazzles, ultra convenient - in order to gain momentum.

And btw, if wireless internet over cellular ever gets realistically cheap - it should just kill off this phonebooth music downloading idea easily.

Re:It is about price point...

[Wtcher]

Yeah, I actually had this idea a while ago - it would be neat if instead of having to carry around an mp3 player, you could just get a handsfree cellular phone device, switch your phone on and stream music over the network from your home machine or perhaps some huge online database where you can pay to have access to music. Then you wouldn't have to worry about having your mp3 player stolen, the amount of space on it, or even what to bring (not that 20GB is big enough for some of you folks out there, eh?).

A'course, there are already dial-a-song businesses out there... and I'm told that the bandwidth just isn't there yet for streaming music over cellphones?

uhhh....

[Anonymous Coward]

How long till digital complete overtakes cd's?

Re:uhhh....

[ScrewMaster]

... and never mind that a CD is a digital medium.

Re:uhhh....

[Anonymous Coward]

That was my point...

What did you think I meant?

)cipotffO ,1-:erocS(

[Anonymous Coward]

.yad etisoppo s'tI !yarruH

Re:)cipotffO ,1-:erocS(

[Anonymous Coward]

That's right. Today, YOU! fuck Soviet Russia in the Ass! And All your base aren't belong to us. Now go vote for Bush, you Republican fudge-packer. BUSH SUX! Vote Kerry!

Re:Phone Box? Those Brits say the Strangest Things

[Anonymous Coward]

The Brits have no say in our affairs. Neither do any other people, other than the American people. So, if you're not American, sit down and have a nice warm cup of STFU.

This will give new meaning...

[ardustry]

...to the term "Boom Box"! Will it never cease?

Snipped

[Space_Soldier]

The music on those mp3s might be sound of a sniper cocking his riffle. Do you remember Phone-Booth?

Mod Parent Down - Trolling drug dealers

[Anonymous Coward]

Drug dealers are people too!

Wrong Target Audience

[dedeman]

This sounds to me as thought they are trying to create a market where one will just not exist. What idealist idea makers need to realize that not every haribrined idea with buzzwords like "MP3" "internet" "wireless" and "download" should be given some sort of press release and targeted at kids/gadget hipsters with too much time and money.

From the product offering it sounds like the idea was given life from a bunch of yes men, and not things like demographic surveys and similar technologies that are currently in place.

I'm not suggesting stifiling innovation, but to me, this sounds like a sales pitch that will prove worthless in the long run, and come to think of it, in the short run. People just don't need instant gradification under every circumstance. Imagine that, Mr. marketer.

Re:Wrong Target Audience

[TheRaven64]

The target audience for this is people who have a digital music player but not broadband. Typically, this kind of person will have bought their player to store all of their CDs on. Downloading music from the Internet at home is too slow to be much use, but buying it in a 'phone box saves them the step of ripping the CD when they get home. Broadband is still not universal in the UK, particularly in rural areas.

Local calls are flat rate in Australia

[Chuck Chunder]

Stay on all day if you like.

Dr Who

[guard952]

How about being able to download old episodes of Dr Who from a phone booth... how cool would that be?

Other possible things to dispense from a phone booth:

• Phone Chargers
• Prepaid Mobile Phone Credit
• Ringtones

Re:Dr Who

[contagious_d]

Forget that stuff, I would rather have phone booths dispense things like:

• Rum
• Marlboros
• Fried Chicken
• Baby Oil
  
• Bratwurst
• Ski Masks
• Roller Skates
• Spermicide
  

Re:Dr Who

[tonsofpcs]

You should be able to purchase these using your mobile phone, and the charger, thats a good idea :), but its gotta have an outlet.

Re:Dr Who

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay!

Re:Dr Who

[R.Caley]

How about being able to download old episodes of Dr Who from a phone booth...

Dr Who had a police box, not a phone box. Presumably phone box would sell you the Superman theme, and possibly allow you to order lycra body stickings and underwear online for really quick delivery.

Anyway, around here the police boxes have all turned into coffee kiosks. I'm not sure what test to run to find out if this is real or if they have fixed the chameleon circuits.

this is not new

[pookguy]

They had something like this in Hong Kong Since 2002. And it shows how slow the west is.

Re:this is not new

[Darthmalt]

No actually the reason the west gets evrything after places like Japan is because we are less tolerant of faults and less tech savvy generally. They get the 1st gen devices that still have bugs in them. We get the 2nd gen devices that have the major bugs worked out and are more stable.

Re:this is not new

[iyliki]

I always got Windows late and with bugs! I don't want to imagine what it would be like in Japan...

Re:this is not new

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Hong Kong isn't Japan. It's not the same market and doesn't have the same products.

Re:this is not new

[TheRaven64]

Actually, the main reason we don't get things like this at the same speed as Hong Kong is that practically nowhere has the same economies of scale as Hong Kong. The population density there is insane, so relatively small infrastructure investments can reach huge markets. I have a friend there who has a 10Mbit Internet connection at home, and is paying about half what I pay for a 750Kbit in the UK. On the other hand, a flat the size of mine would be a long way out of my budget if I lived in Hong Kong.

Re:Phone Box? Those Brits say the Strangest Things

[Anonymous Coward]

Why doesn't that apply to the Americans regarding Iraq's own affairs?

Silly idea

[syousef]

Phone booths are for making phone calls. I don't want to download mp3s, read my email, or order takeout from my public phone. For starters I'd like to be able to make calls. With mobiles so prevalent public phone boths are being scrapped and falling into disrepair everywhere. There aren't many places in my local area I can even make a public phone call from a booth anymore.

What advantage does public phone mp3 offer over at home internet access? If you're on the road there are Internet cafes everywhere already - many of them with 24 hr acces - and provided they'll let you hook into their computer you're all set.

I'd be more excited about wireless broadband downloads on a small mp3 player like the ipod. All you'd need is the wireless modem built in, plus a simple interface to have a music store in your pocket. THAT would be more worthwhile.

Phone booth mp3 downloads are old .com bomb thinking all over again. "I know. Lets put in lots of infrastructure for a small return and wonder why the share price doesn't continue to skyrocket while our losses mount."

Re:Silly idea

[syousef]

Sorry I mean buy takeout. I might well want to use a public phone to order takeout, but it doesn't need to be a vending machine.

Re:Silly idea

[Thai-Pan]

I see what you mean. I carry a cell phone now, but when I didn't, I was finding it very annoying at how phone booths are disappearing. They're handy to have, but apparently there just isn't enough need for them anymore.

Perhaps if phone booths were integrated into other electronic devices it could effectively minimize the cost to add cell phones at regular intervals. Imagine if every intersection in a downtown city had a phonebooth that also operated as a hub for wireless connections to a citywide network. Maybe not as efficient as towers, but I'm just tossing ideas out ;)

Re:Silly idea

[Thai-Pan]

Oops I made a typo, meant to say phone booths, not cell phones.

Re:Silly idea

[Jardine]

I see what you mean. I carry a cell phone now, but when I didn't, I was finding it very annoying at how phone booths are disappearing. They're handy to have, but apparently there just isn't enough need for them anymore.

Personally I don't see phone booths disappearing all that quickly. I still see individual booths at many gas stations and I see banks of them in malls. A local call is still a quarter too. I'm guessing this is different in different parts of N. America and Europe.

Re:Silly idea

[Feanturi]

Phone booths are for making phone calls. I don't want to download mp3s, read my email, or order takeout from my public phone.

I'm with you, but there's a problem with pay phones only being able to make phone calls. They cost money to maintain, and aren't being used as much as they once were. I can never seem to find one near when I want one, as I don't have a cell phone. If there were more reasons to go deposit money at the same location, like you can do some high-speed casual roving internet activity, those locations would generate more income. Hopefully enough to be covering their more exotic nature, but at least keeping the availability of a working phone at that location.

Mod Parent Up!

[Anonymous Coward]

Link is not only informative but provides AWESOME pictures!

I especially love the one with miton's feet in it. Her cute toes sticking out of the holes in the fishnet stockings... *drool*

Has existed for ~10 years already

[Thai-Pan]

When the original MPMan came out in Korea, these little booths popped up close to 10 years ago. I think it succeeded over there, but I don't see it being a big enough market on this side of the ocean.

Re:Has existed for ~10 years already

[Technician]

I think it succeeded over there, but I don't see it being a big enough market on this side of the ocean.


Where copyright is disregarded openly, offering access to content can be profitable.

On the other side of the ocean where royalties have to be paid on content, the resulting price either sucks off all the profit or raises the price to the point you don't have enough volume to make a profit.

This is what is preventing $0.25 cent downloads of music from legal sites.

It's the cost of the content. Otherwise competition for marketshare would have forced the prices down long ago.

Terrible idea

[www.CowBiscuit.com]

Shouldn't be making these things any more useful. Publically available land lines for voice communication should be outlawed. If everyone were required to talk over wireless, the government (specifically the NSA) could do a better job at tracking down terrorists that are scouting around our country, using public phones to report their progress. There would no longer be a need for cooperation from the obstructionist telephone companies. Powerful satelites would be able to pluck everything from the air.

Real Networks

[FreeHeel]

"a leading provider of digital music content"

iPod compatible? Sounds like Real Networks to me. But I still don't know how they will get the music into your iPod catalog w/o iTunes integration, which Apple is unlikely to give up...

eCommunication

[verbatim_verbose]

Perhaps the lauded benefits of eCommunication are just beginning to be felt

Well, finally.

Now I just can't wait to see these supposed places where millions of people anywhere in the world can share information and ideas.

Sweet!

[Anonymous Coward]

I still use payphones, and now I won't feel as dirty for not having a cell because I can just say I'm downloading music.

Re:Sweet!

[Deliveranc3]

Buy expensive PDA... use skype. Instant really cool really cheap cell phone.

The Infrastructure may already be there...

[complete loony]

The phone boxes may already be using VOIP, contain sufficient CPU power, and USB host support might be a no brainer. These phone boxes may already contain a small PC.
TFA also says they will start with their information kiosks which already have net access.
This may be an obvious next step, and a simple software change (though I agree, it seems pointless)

Yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

thats freakin messed up. Its not a box. A box is a temporary container for goods. Like a shoe box, or a refrigerator box. After its served its original purpose it can be reused as a container for other things, or dissasembled to provide a break dance floor. But never used to hold a pay phone. That is booth. Hence the name of the movie "Phone booth".

Re:Yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

Creative "hacking" of words has always been an element in spoken and written English culture, long before Shakespeare.

'Speketh in pleyne, we yow preye, so we may understonde what ye seye,' said good old Geoffrey "Flying" Chaucer, and the phenomenon goes way back before him. Old English chroniclers -- not poets, but just reporters -- loved to use (the equivalent of) "whale-road" instead of the simple "sea". And so on.

You really should learn to think outside the booth.

Re:Yeah

[Nexus Seven]

Err, not its not. A box is a hollow shape, typically with a rectangular base and four perpendicular sides.
In this case "booth" and "box" are synonyms, since both have the definition: "A small, separated compartment in a public space"

Re:Yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if they're complete and unimaginative morons. In which case, they'll likely be voting for Kerry in the very naive hope that he'll actually provide jobs (what a laugh - unless he creates MORE welfare programs).

How would you download to an iPod?

[Aqua OS X]

I don't quite understand how iPod downloads would work given Apple's DRM.

Yeah

[cubicledrone]

The .com bubble has come and gone, but the great ideas and implementations are starting to come through thick and fast now.

And look! Everyone's still unemployed! The entire fucking economy is using computers, and the average technically-intelligent person has about as much chance of finding a job in technology that lasts longer than five weeks as they do of pulling a Faberge egg out of their ass.

Same old dot.com mistakes

[argan0n]

but the great ideas and implementations are starting to come through thick and fast now.

No there not. These are the same kind of half-thought thru idea's that wasted everyones time in the '90's. Utimatly no one will use it for it's developed purpose and it will fade.

This would make an Apple DRMed song an "orphan"

[Colgate2003]

iPods allow you to load songs onto them, but don't let you take them back off with out resorting to third-party software.

This probably doesn't apply to most of the people here, but the average iPod owner doesn't know about this software and therefore has no way to get music off of the device. For most people, this setup will result in a song that can't be copied to your computer. Since you can only download an iTunes song once, you are be stuck with your one iPod-bound copy unless you buy it from your home computer.

Re:This would make an Apple DRMed song an "orphan"

[TheRaven64]

iPods allow you to load songs onto them, but don't let you take them back off with out resorting to third-party software.

Like the finder? Or iTunes? That kind of third party software? iTunes doesn't automatically import music from your iPod, but it's easy to click on import songs and select the ones from your iPod you want and then have them appear in your iTunes music folder. Or just copy them to your disk using the finder (or explorer if you're on Windows).

Re:Phone Box? Those Brits say the Strangest Things

[Anonymous Coward]

Because we're top dog. I'm not saying it's right, but that's how it is. When you're number one, you get to do what you want. Even if half of you doesn't want to do it.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the next two weeks. I'm hoping the Supreme Court will have to "elect" us a President again. And of course, the decision will be 5-4 for Bush, straight down party lines like it was last time. Partisan politics, even at the very top...especially at the very top. *sigh*

Re:Phone Box? Those Brits say the Strangest Things

[Anonymous Coward]

What's worse? Americans telling Iraq what to do, or liberal whiners like you telling everybody how to think?

WiFi Phoneboxes

[newandyh-r]

BT already has quite a lot of WiFi-enabled phone boxes using the "Streetzone" label within their "Openzone" brand.

Would be quite useful, except for the fact that most of them are positioned in locations that have nowhere within range suitable for sitting with a laptop ... and especially no nearby car parking spaces.

Re:WiFi Phoneboxes

[LinuxHam]

Good to see a comment like this, finally. I was coming in here to mention that Verizon gives free 802.11 access throughout New York City to their existing DSL customers. WTF would someone want to plug their iPod into a public phone just to download MP3s? Unlike your complaint, however, I see people sitting on benches and low walls all the time near hotspot payphones. You can spot the booths because they have an antenna the size of a hockey puck on top (and they have "Verizon High Speed Enabled" written in huge letters, too) From a high enough room at the Hilton in midtown, I often hit two or three different booths. Nice big warning about being insecure at the sign-in page and they even place a dot on a map to show you the specific hotspot you've just logged into.

This is free to all Verizon DSL customers nationwide, so if you're visiting from out-of-town, try it out.

Phone Booth in the US...

[bergeron76]

When I read "Phone box", I pictured the big type of "phone box" that I used to hook my beige box up to before blue boxing.

I'm in the states and here we call it a Phone 'Booth'. A phone box here is a junction box outside of a building (or better yet, a neighborhood).

Fun times... but damn, I think I'm getting old.

Re:Phone Booth in the US...

[Anonymous Coward]

A phone box here is a junction box outside of a building

We call them junction boxes.

bit3H

[Anonymous Coward]

In 8atio of 5 to iirecoverable

Or how about this idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

You go to the phone booth, call a number, ask them to play a song, they use some kind of transmitting device to send the song through the air, and you have some kind of receiving device which you could use to listen to the song. We could use advertising to subsidize it and...the best part of all...is that anyone can pick up the song on _their_ receiving device!

They should install wireless

[Colin Smith]

Is what they should do with the phone boxes. Something with a little more range, security and bandwidth than 802.11b (suggestions?). Lets face it, voice is just data and the boxes are already connected to a digital network.

HFS+

[hexdcml]

Well, I hope it supports the Mac iPods because plugging them into Wndows reformats them.
That would piss off... well not that many people, but still. I wonder how they're goi~g to integrate the new" music with the databases of existing music.
Are BT going to have to take iTunes apart in order to get it to talk?

Personally, I think this is an absolute crap idea. I'd be extremely surprised if it ever takes off and manages to provide an adequate level of service.

BT can't do away with all their phoneboxes...

[lxt]

...BT can't actually do away with all their phone boxes without a massive public outcry. I remember BT planning to remove a phonebox right next to a very high bridge (with quite a high suicide rate), and were effectively ordered by the council to continue operating it. I'm not saying all phone boxes should stay - their are too many phoneboxes, simply because many were required when few had mobile phones.

Re:BT can't do away with all their phoneboxes...

[biglig2]

It's a big problem for BT. They are required to maintain the phone box network (and rightly so, about 15% of 999 calls - 911 calls for our American friends - are made using those), but now everyone has a mobile phone there's no way to make money on all but a few boxes at Railway stations etc. They've managed to get the Govt. to allow them to close a lot of phone boxes, but lots remain. It costs £2500 a year to maintain a rural phone box...

Hence the proliferation of ingeniuos ways to make more money. e-mail in phone boxes; putting city mobile phone masts on top of them; now this.

Re:BT can't do away with all their phoneboxes...

[Anonymous Coward]

why is it 999 anyway - there should be an international standard on this I remember trying to dial via a pbx (9 for external) with a sticky 9 key on the handset.

Re:BT can't do away with all their phoneboxes...

[Jo Owen]

There is an international standard, 112 will take you to the emergancy operator.

Stupid idea

[Anonymous Coward]

This idea sounds horribly stupid to me. With the advent of UMTS nobody in their right mind would want to even think about going to a phone box to download something when they can simply use their mobile device instead. Has someone at BT been sniffing glue for a bit too long?

What I want

[xmda]

What I want is this:

* A mobile phone that can play mp3-files and that have memory to store at least ten songs
* A mobile phone service provider where I can pay a fixed amount of money each month for "unlimited" bandwith

That way I could download songs into my mobile phone from my server at home, where I have my whole mp3-collection. I think we are almost there but I know of now mobile phone operators that have this kind of deal. Yet.

Re:What I want

[daybyter]

Over here, you could get a MDA3 from T-Mobile http://www.heise.de/mobil/newsticker/meldung/48653 / , add a 512MB MMC card and use (mostly free) WLAN at railroad stations etc to get webradio. Add an app like streamripper and store 100+ MP3s on your phone. Or just connect to your server at home to get the files. With 2-3 MBit connections, it's not an issue.

Re:What I want

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, T-Mobile has unlimited bandwidth in the US fro $20 a month. 'Course it's on GPRS, not whatever fancy stuff you Swedes are using now. Dunno if I'd want to download MP3s over it.

eek.

[sandman_eh]

And how long befor some enterprising hack , fixes the phone box so that it always downloads Malware into your ipod ?

Plus the cost

[gilesjuk]

Knowing BT it will be cheaper just to walk into a shop and buy the CD.

Why would I need this?

[greggman]

Even IF I wanted to download music on the road wouldn't a better solution be from my cell phone? All cell phones in Japan can be used as modems using a cheap cable. The AU phones here do 2.4megabits down.

affiliate program?

[wild_berry]

Signing up to iTunes affiliate program doesn't cost much... and they get a free pod of every five phones. ;)

iRiver iHP-3xx

[wild_berry]

I believe this device can connect to cameras and the like as a host to transfer files. Job done.

Music is an impulse buy

[Andy_R]

The reason I think this will work is that music is an impulse buy. The newest British phone boxes already have a big (17") colour screen, fast net access, and the guts of a PC, so all the extra hardware this will need is a USB socket (which makes sense if they want business users to move files around anyway). The revenue model is very nice for BT, they might make *something* on the bandwidth, but make a lot more selling advertising on that colour screen that's already there for internet access.

If a kid is walking past a phone box that is showing that video he saw last night on TV, can hear a 20 second clip by lifting the handset and can buy a download of the song right there and then, then I think we finally have a decent 'bricks and mortar' replacement for the record shop.

Why 999

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe 999 was arrived at because in the old days although 111 was quicker to dial on the rotary dial of the phone, pulse dialling line noise was a problem. Line noise frequently consisted of a single pulse so many false 111 calls were made.

Re:Phone Box? Those Brits say the Strangest Things

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummm, no. No you didn't. You didn't beat us in that war. One group of us beat another group of us.

Re:I've actually RTFA

[kaleco]

I would love to see a similar idea for books and print media. Printing/binding on request would save a LOT of storage and manufacturing costs, even if it does increase the cost of maufacturing each book.

Possible

[Pan T. Hose]

I would love to see a similar idea for books and print media. Printing/binding on request would save a LOT of storage and manufacturing costs, even if it does increase the cost of maufacturing each book.

Something like Lulu or iUniverse should probably be possible to set up nearly some large book store. It wouldn't be as fast as burning a CD but probably doable in some reasonable time.

Re:Phone Box? Those Brits say the Strangest Things

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it was not just British settlers that beat you. In fact, quite embarassingly for you, we were helped by the French! Ha ha! You got beat by a group of ill-equipped, poorly-trained farmers and the French! Sucks to be you!

Shame on BT

[norfolkboy]

An absolute disgrace!

BT are busy shutting down phone boxes all over the rural countryside. They leave councils little time to appeal their decisions, and require a seperate case for leaving phone boxes for each single box. Councils can't handle this in the time given, and so the closures go ahead.

BT are wasting money on this tosh! Same with their video and internet payphones.

A disgrace!

Another stupid idea

[Blitzenn]

With wifi all over and growing fast, even in rural areas, this seems to be a clossal waste of money. Put the money toward the new tech and scrap the old useless one.