back to article Nokia unwraps bendy nanotech phone

Nokia and the University of Cambridge jointly designed a concept mobile phone that allows users to mould the handset into different shapes. Nokia_morph_2 Nokia's Morph: formed from shape-altering substances Dubbed Morph, the handset has been designed to demonstrate the possible future benefits of nanotechnology for mobile …

COMMENTS

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  1. John Carney

    Neat, but...

    ... will it work with the bluetooth in my hover car?

  2. Nick Rutland

    Shape-shifting and elusive

    I can't help feeling that something like this will end up dripping through a hole in my pocket.

  3. Robert Grant

    Be useful for when you sit on your phone

    Unbreakable! Relatively.

  4. George
    Thumb Down

    Unless I see a video...

    its not true.

    Its like all these wonderful concept cars.

  5. TEQ

    @ Rob Grant

    Sitting on a phone that can change its shape might not be such a good idea. What if the nanotech decides to reshape to fit the available orifice. Now whilst some might find this to be a good, nay enjoyable experience........

  6. Ben Mathews

    @ TEQ

    So the real question is... does it vibrate?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Graphics class asignment

    Ok class, today we are going to mock up a phone made from components that theoretically may exist in the not so near future (if the hype about nano technology is almost entirely realised).

  8. Dave Murray
    Coat

    Proof or STFU

    Title says it all, without a video they could be pics of anything or nothing.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Hey! Now that we know how to make a phone...

    ... we could have a phone made out of morphing nano-materials, if only we knew how to make morphing nano-materials.

    What a gyp. This thing doesn't exist in any sense of the word. We can all sit around and pluck ideas for magical devices out of whichever orifice we most favour, but that doesn't make it a "design". This is pure made-up hype, it's no more real than the artificially intelligent talking yoghurt that that BT futurist nutjob was going on about a while back.

  10. Rob Moss
    Thumb Up

    Not all hype

    From Nokia's FAQ on the phone...

    Q. Are there currently any physical examples of the concept phones?

    A. There are physical mock-ups available, as well as animations and concept designs that help explain what Cambridge University and Nokia are developing. There are also real examples of each individual concept and physical demonstrations are available. However, we are not yet ready to integrate them into one device. That will take a few years.

  11. Andy Enderby

    hmmm.....

    concept only, in other words, it only exists on someones PC someehere. If it does have a physical existance it will indeed be like those none-functional concept cars that the motor manufacturers are so enamoured of and haul at great expense around car shows. If the project runs true to form expect to see a product roughly resembling, but essentially nothing like the concept in question in any way..... just like the car industry ....in about 10 years time (just like the car industry). File under marketting fluff.

  12. xjy
    Gates Halo

    Concept cars or vapourware??

    The big parallel is sitting on a computer near you - Vista!!

  13. oxo
    Alien

    Wow.. looks like a Goa'uld hand device

    Will it be able to do mind torture if you have a well charged battery?

  14. Gerald
    Coat

    Nothing new here - Morph has been around since the late 70's

    http://www.aardman.com/morph/

    Gerald Morgan -ReadyPeople IT Recruitment

  15. jai

    re: not all hype

    so what they're saying is they have mock ups of the devices in seperate states, and they they're saying, we'd start with it looking like this, and then, with nano-magic, it'll look like this

    but they don't actually have the nano-tech working yet

    tsk

    it's just like prototype cars just as Andy says

  16. A J Stiles

    I can see this going awry

    So, it can change shape ..... that's not necessarily a point in its favour. You can mistake anything for a polymorph!

    The only "new" feature I want in a mobile phone, and one that nobody seems to offer, is for nobody to be able to call it with their number withheld. This is the telephonical equivalent of sneaking up behind someone while wearing a mask and grabbing them, and it damned well ought to be illegal. If someone knows my number, I have a *right* to know theirs.

  17. Martin Lyne
    Flame

    How about..

    ..we get some basics sorted first.

    I'd suite like something to keep my ear cool during prolonged conversations, maybe some sort of clip at teh top of teh phone so instead of haivng a sperate device I can just hook the bugger to my head (or stick it under headphones as I do at the minute)

    Then there's basics of GUIs. Anyone who's used a Sony Ericsson and mistyped a word knows how annoying the "OH dear, I couldn't find the word you were looking for, so instead of just doing nothing or just printing rubbish I will display an annoying popup for a few seconds". And the fact I can;t save (or even sort) text messages by WHO sent them has annoyed me since.. well since phone were able to hold more than 6 messages.

    Can I even back the texts up on my computer? No. Can I at least get a big text dump of them? Not easily I shoudln't imagine.

    Instead people get paid to say "Look. IT'S BENDY! (*in 7-15 years)". Pfht.

    Proper nanite-based stuff is far more "flexible" than that anyway, I shoudl be able to download a new schematic for a phone layout and have my phone organise itself into that, not just some pre-programmed settings. Having a phone I could just bend around my wrist would be cool though. Don't wear a watch when I have phone.

    /rant

  18. Rick Brasche
    Joke

    dude, where's my phone?

    and heaven help you should it adapt to the tool you need most at any moment, or to shape itself to fit the owner's mood or disposition...

    "Honest, I didn't have a knife a few minutes ago!" you proclaim as airport security summons Betty Bighands for that invasive body-cavity search...

  19. Chris

    @ Martin

    "Can I even back the texts up on my computer? No."

    Last time i checked (Yesterday) that can easily be done onNokia phones with PcSuite....

  20. Ryan Greenaway

    Neat, but...

    ...does it have 5 megapixel camera???

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Blasphemy!

    Yeah but it's nanotech and that's immoral innit!

  22. Philip Cheeseman
    Happy

    @Martin Lyne

    You need a Nokia N series. You can sort messages in many different ways. You can also backup texts to a PC as Chris said.

    I just hope android is as good or even better!

  23. DV Henkel-Wallace
    Coat

    But...what does it look like?

    OK, after only the title I'd best be going then.

  24. black_triangles

    nano tech

    werent we promised one of these in the 60s, along with rocketcars and moon houses. :( where my moon house!

  25. Edward

    Flexi-everything

    For a start, we'd need flexible batteries (already exist, I know) flexible speaker & mic, flexible little motors with eccentric weights (vibra-thingies), and, more importantly, a market that actually demands flexible mobile phones. The "smaller phone=greater sales" trend is so 2005 as the success of behemoths like the Nokia N-series, E-Series etc can demonstrate. How can I use a QWERTY hologramic keyboard on a phone that insists on bending whenever I press a pseudo-button?

    I'm very firmly with the gimme-the-hovercar-first faction.

  26. Monkey
    Joke

    Nokia already make a morphing phone...

    Any current N series... leave it long enough and bits break off, fall off, come loose and the phone begins to take on all sorts of new shapes than when you first bought it. Leave it a few months and it will even rattle enough to be used as a nice percussion instrument.....

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