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Tweephone: Analog Twitter client created from rotary phone [video]

tweephone
Image used with permission by copyright holder

In today’s installment of completely impractical technology, Up digital Bureau and Unteleported tech agency have created what they claim is the first-ever analog Twitter client. Dubbed Tweephone, the homemade device allows users to slowly crank out their 140-character-or-less messages using a rotary phone.

The Tweephone uses the popular Arduino open-source microcontroller, which translates the dialing of the rotary phone into letters. So, to write an “a,” you dial the 2 one time. To get a “b,” you dial 2 two times. (Think of typing out text messages on a feature phone with T9 Word turned off.) Once your message is complete, simply hang up the headset, and your tweet is automatically posted to Twitter.

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As you can imagine, typing out a message on the Tweephone is anything but fast. But this could be interpreted as a good thing, we guess. “If you still think 140 characters limit isn’t enough to express oneself, you should try Tweephone — it will change your mind once and for all,” writes Unteleported on its blog.

Unfortunately for all you hipsters out there, Tweephone is a one-of-a-kind device, so you can’t buy one. (Though, with the right know-how, you could build one yourself.) But you can follow Tweephone’s musing on its own personal Twitter page.

See Tweephone slowly write out a tweet below:

Andrew Couts
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…
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