British Pizza Chain To Install Cones of Silence

itwbennett writes "British pizza chain Pizza Express is installing iPod docks and soundproof domes in booths of their new iPizzeria stores. 'The idea is that you can plug in your iPod and play whatever music you like without disturbing other diners,' says blogger Peter Smith. 'But I'm sure it'd work for talking about government secrets and other spy stuff, too.'"

Comments

Why a dock?

[eepok]

Why limit the benefit to customer with iphones and ipods? Why not a 3.5mm and 2.5mm jack (much cheaper to install and replace) so that anyone with any MP3 player or cell phone media player can hook up?

Re:Why a dock?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can hardly scrape useful data off of people's phones through an analog audio port.

Why would someone trust plugging their iPhone/Pad/Pod into someone else's port?

Re:Oh please.

[Chris Tucker]

"WHOOOOOOOOOOSH!"

The sound of the joke flying SO FAR OVER YOUR HEAD, The Space Station is in danger of being hit.

Re:Wizard

[God'sDuck]

Cones of silence in pizza restaurants isn't news for nerds nor stuff that matters. WTF?

1. Mainstream parabolic sound wave manipulation
2. Handheld computation engine orchestras
3. Cheese
4. Pepperoni
5. Sausage

How is every word on that list not newsworthy stuff that matters????

Re:Why would somebody eat pizza at a pizzaria?

[iYk6]

This may be hard for some Slashdotters to understand, but some people spend hours at a time outside of their basement. When they are away from home and haven't eaten, they might buy some pizza at a pizzeria and eat it there, even if they don't like the noise. They probably wouldn't even consider bringing it home. Unless they are intending to head home immediately anyway, it is quicker, more convenient, and saves gas to eat at the pizza place.

No offense, but I find it hilarious that anybody would ask why somebody would eat their pizza in a pizzeria.

Re:Apple specific?

[AndrewNeo]

Oh, please. They're already called "iPizzeria".

More than Music

[Sponge Bath]

I'd be happy to see this just to limit exposure to people who do not have an "inside voice".

If there only was ...

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

A device that allowed you to listen to music without disturbing others. Some kind of very small speakers that you can put very close to your eardrums. Oh well, we'll have to do with freaking cones of silence.

Re:If there only was ...

[DrgnDancer]

You know, sometimes people like to eat and talk with *gasp* other people while they listen to music that doesn't happen to be whatever the restaurant is piping in. Not to say that this idea doesn't have holes; I agree with several people that say it should use 3.5mm connectors so that it's not limited to iDevices (I use an iPhone, but really, why limit yourself to such a small subset of people when it would be trivial to expand the idea). Your objection just doesn't make sense though. Of course if you're sitting by yourself you can use headphones, but I doubt that's the intended use case here.

Re:Why would somebody eat pizza at a pizzaria?

[Straterra]

How does it save gas when you have to drive back home anyway?

Re:Over-engineered?

[Lumpy]

Pres a button... are you INSANE?

It's far more convenient to make your customer connect to the apple app store, find your light app, install it, and then figure out how to use it to turn on the light than pressing a freaking button!

Next you will tell me that making them use the iphone/ipod to flush the urinals is a bad idea....