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Motorola Unveils Phone That Bends

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the flexible-communications dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to CNET, who are out at 3GSM in Barcelona, Motorola has unveiled a phone that bends in order to make putting it up to your face more comfortable. The Motorola Z8, as the bendy phone is called, runs on a Symbian based platform and also displays video at up to 30 frames per second."

17 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. About time by iamacat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Usually it's users who have to bend over for cell companies.

  2. Nice Astroturfing by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yawn.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:Nice Astroturfing by rossifer · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yawn.
      Indeed.

      The only thing that might be newsworthy about a Motorola phone is if they decided to license Nokia's interface. Every time I think back to the last (so far only) Motorola phone I had the misfortune of spending a fortune on, I recall the glee and joy when I smeared that phone between a rapidly dropping 20 pound sledgehammer and a large granite boulder at midnight under the full moon...

      My rage and fury were all about the absolutely horrific user interface. Yes, it was that bad.

      The beer consumed in preparation for the demolition of the hell spawn (Mot 770) was rather tasty, however :)

      Ross
  3. Better pictures by yknott · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are some better pictures at engaget:

      http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/12/motorolas-motor izr-z8-a-symbian-kick-slider-with-hsdpa

    1. Re:Better pictures by maxume · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Do you pivot your elbow? Or maybe you articulate it?

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  4. Wow! It does all that? by ArcherB · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can you make phone calls with it?

    (Yo dog! Where you at?!!?)

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    There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
  5. And the point is? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The phone is a slider. All I see here is a slider made to emulate the bend of your everyday flip phone. If you notice, it has about the same bend that a RAZR does when open.

    Seriously though, what exactly is the point? It's not as if getting the microphone 1 centimeter closer to your face will make much of a difference, and for people with oily skin it just makes more of the phone get dirty. I see absolutely no functional value whatsoever in making a slide-phone bendy.

    1. Re:And the point is? by Jim+Hall · · Score: 4, Informative

      And interestingly, the Z8 doesn't magically bend as the subject implies, but it has a hinge. Slide the face up (neat) and you give the hinge room to move. It's not bendy, it's hinged.

    2. Re:And the point is? by LihTox · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Seriously though, what exactly is the point? It's not as if getting the microphone 1 centimeter closer to your face will make much of a difference

      Psychologically speaking, putting the microphone closer to the mouth might convince some people that they don't have to shout into the phone.

  6. beaten to the punch by President_Camacho · · Score: 4, Funny

    Motorola has unveiled a phone that bends in order to make putting it up to your face more comfortable.
    I can already accomplish "kick & slide" functionality with my treo 650. Which is usually what I want to do when it crashes.
    --
    Wizard Needs Food, Badly
  7. What else can they get to bend? by Radon360 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now if they can only make it bend the RF signal over that damned hill in front of the cell tower...

    1. Re:What else can they get to bend? by hereschenes · · Score: 3, Informative

      They do that already... it's called 'knife-edge diffraction'.

      eg http://www.smeter.net/propagation/diffrac1.php

      --
      More like... nerdular nerdence!
  8. Hmm by Lithdren · · Score: 5, Funny

    if this thing has an option to vibrate, instead of ring, they got a winner on their hands! What? Why are you looking at me like that..

    1. Re:Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      that would be the Motorola Sybian based phone

  9. Verizon will diable the bend. by KodaK · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder how much Verizon will charge to enable the "bend" feature.

    --
    --J(K) DOS is like Unix in exactly the same way that a pinto is like an aircraft carrier.
  10. Kinkyphone! by mrbluze · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, kinky! A bendy phone that runs on a syb.. oh, a symbian! nevermind!

    --
    Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
  11. Kiss my shiney plastic... by straponego · · Score: 4, Funny

    Man, I want a bender phone. One you can bend to any angle: 30 degrees, 32 degrees, you name it. 31...