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Dial your iPhone with Bakelite

BakeliteAnyone who is as ancient as me will remember when "dialing" a phone meant putting your finger into a little circular hole in a rotary dial, dragging it to a small metal stop, then pulling your finger out of the hole to dial that number. Rotary dial phones disappeared in the 1970s, but now MildMannered Industries is bringing back the fun with Bakelite 1.0 for iPhone.

As the screenshot indicates, Bakelite provides a rotary dial interface for dialing phone numbers. It even has a feature those old dial phones didn't have -- the ability to delete the last number if you mis-dialed it.

Bakelite isn't very practical, but it's fun! The price is right, too. Bakelite is available from the App Store (click opens iTunes) for free.

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Humor Software Freeware iPhone

Anyone who is as ancient as me will remember when "dialing" a phone meant putting your finger into a little circular hole in a rotary dial,...
 

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dubious

Even if this one is poorly done, the idea itself seems very cool to me.

September 29 2008 at 7:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeremy

I have a rotary dial phone right on my desk here. I found it on eBay a while back. I don't even have a touch-tone phone plugged into my landline. So they haven't disappeared yet.

September 20 2008 at 11:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Doug

The creator just realized that the way of the Zune Phone is the way of the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRKIDdIaFyE

September 18 2008 at 3:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Luna Lovegood

"...remember when 'dialing' a phone meant putting your finger into a little circular hole in a rotary dial, dragging it to a small metal stop, then pulling your finger out of the hole to dial that number.

This explanation goes way over my head.

September 18 2008 at 3:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
LuminousNerd.com

This is a complete rip off of an app that has been in the App Store since day one.

September 18 2008 at 2:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Sternberg

I vote for RotaryDialer as well - hands down the better of the two.
Also, in Bakelite, the letter assignment is incorrect. There is
no "Z" on a period-correct US dial -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rotarydial.JPG

September 18 2008 at 2:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Michael Sternberg's comment
misterrios

Maybe they left the "Z" in so that you could SMS with the rotary dial in a future update?

September 19 2008 at 4:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Sternberg

Umm - how exactly would you text from a rotary dial, say, a "B" (which is present here), or "Q" (which is not)?

Let's face it - this is a gimmick, though with no style to speak of, unlike "RotaryDialer", which takes the idea and executes it much better.

September 19 2008 at 4:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brad Adams

Doesn't this duplicate the functionality of the phone app? When's the real reason for Podcaster getting refused going to come out?

September 18 2008 at 1:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Yos

Here in Germany it got from EVERYONE only 1 star at the App Store Reviews. Reasons:
'' Bad grafik, poor animation, Sound=Joke, Better use alternatives like Rotary Dialer and Retro Phone, Why apple let them put such an App there? ''

Well, they all said the same...
Greetings from Munich, Germany

September 18 2008 at 1:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
brian

+1 for RotaryDialer (1 word). Totally useless but fun--just the thing to show older family members when you're showing off your phone. :-) A recent update added sound. RD was made with a photo instead of an illustration and looks a lot better. Was free, is now $.99.

September 18 2008 at 1:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ianlive

My parents still have an old rotary phone relegated to the basement. These things were a pain in the arse to use (especially 9's and 0's !!) but nostalgia got the best of me and I downloaded the app. I have to say it's weak. Props for the idea but it comes off wrong in my opinion and feel way to digitised. My two cents.

September 18 2008 at 1:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to ianlive's comment
caleb

Pain in the ass maybe, but as a kid I always dialed using the 0 hole and just rotated it as far as need for the number I wanted.

September 18 2008 at 1:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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