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Beautiful retro handset base for the iPhone

It's the weekend, which seems like the perfect time for a groovy retro item like this one. The iRetrofone is a handset base for the iPhone that brings an old-school aesthetic to your new-school touchscreen cell phone. We've seen cool handsets before, but this one goes all the way. Any iPhone can sit firmly in that space where the rotary dial would be, you can pick up a dialer app from the App Store, and then there's room for the dock to get plugged in, and the handset itself plugs into the headphone jack.

"But Mike," you may say, "there's no actual value to that. All it does is make the slim and trim iPhone into a bulky mass of resin." And you'd be right. But the shape of that bulky mass of resin happens to bring back some excellent memories for me, of cradling a handset while chatting with friends and family, and hanging the phone back up when it had fallen off the hook, and carrying the base with me while pacing during an important call. While the item on Etsy is now sold out, if it was there, $15 would be a small price to I'd happily pay* to revisit those memories.

[via TDW]

Update: Whoops, $15 is the shipping -- the handset is $195, which seems much more reasonable for a custom-shaped piece of resin wired and ready to go. That's not such a small price, but the memories are still powerful.

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iPhone

It's the weekend, which seems like the perfect time for a groovy retro item like this one. The iRetrofone is a handset base for the iPhone...
 

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axman

$195?? Are they on crack??

May 22 2011 at 9:23 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
hydroshawn

the reason why it is expensive is because people that don't care about American Made products want cheap crappy junk. I will happily pay this cost if it is good ol' fashion American made. At least the quality will last a lot longer. And I already have a spot picked out for it.

September 02 2010 at 1:08 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dianne

This works better for me if I get that retro need:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/7830/

April 24 2010 at 12:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Dianne's comment
Rdnymllnsktr

Haha, I've got that, and I've also got one that is bluetooth. :-)

April 24 2010 at 1:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tuaw

I still have a rotary dial phone connected to my land line. Why? You just can't beat the bell on those old things. You can hear it throughout the house, and even though it's over 50 years old, it still "just works".

April 24 2010 at 11:32 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
aardivark

Now if only they can conceal the iPhone connector and cable . . .

April 23 2010 at 11:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
flv player

great idea , waiting for this product................

April 23 2010 at 10:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jakethepianist

Yes.

April 23 2010 at 9:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jaredgibbs

I'll wait for the Japanese knockoff of this produc... Wait...

April 23 2010 at 8:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
john

Pretty cute idea, though I can't see myself ever paying anything near that much for it. Someone should totally mass produce them.

April 23 2010 at 7:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Manuel L.

people, people, what's with the animosity... take it easy on Mike!

Dude can't be as dumb as me:

I handed my iPhone to some ahole at a carnaval and was too drunk to realize what I had done, nevertheless go after him...

So now I have to choose: $195 for this or $500 for a new iPhone.

Boy if I had been the one to find Gray Powell's phone!

April 23 2010 at 7:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Manuel L.'s comment
Dab

what the HELL are you talking about?

April 24 2010 at 6:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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