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Microsoft hazes the iPhone with oFone
Proving that even monolithic companies can occasionally have a sense of humor, Microsoft spoofed the iPhone but good the other day, announcing its own foray into the mobile phone market, the oFone. Featuring three "wings" that pivot around a central circular screen, the oFone looks like a three-pronged boomerang, which is apparently a secondary function. One wing has the fully customizable keypad (put the 1 where the 0 should be!), one has a QWERTY keyboard, while the third has media playback controls. I think the best feature is the text messages that appear in spiraling words on the screen.
It's all in good fun, and the simulated talking heads actually do a decent job of fooling you this is a real product — at lest until they start throwing it around. Check the video after the jump.
Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, via TechEBlog and Engadget Mobile
By InfinityDog at 12:25 PM ON 05/15/07
Are you sure this is spoofing the iPhone? I just watched the video, and it seems more like a spoof of how Microsoft always tries to imitate cool new products and winds up making a hash out of them.
By keatspersona at 2:29 PM ON 05/17/07
Hi - lar - i - ous! Doubles as a shirankin!
By Simon52 at 11:28 PM ON 05/17/07
It looks like a stupid joke. A cell phone should be first and foremost a phone - an interchangable piece of reliable hardware that puts the maximum effort into being a reliable means of communications. OK, it's the Cylon in me. But there's something to be said for being nice and unpredictable.
By philospeak at 1:49 AM ON 05/18/07
OK. On looking this up it actually seems to be a MS (Microsoft) joke.
That leads me to two points: (1) the humor in it is pretty good, but if it is mocking MS it is pretty correct, and what good does that say about MS other than "look we can make fun of our problematic innovation culture"? MS, you will never be innovative! (2) If MS did create this video in trying to be cool, get back and spend your time actually CREATING SOMETHING COOL for a change.
Honestly if they were behind this, I don't think it is favorable in any way (other than an inside joke of techies to make them think they are as cool as Apple). Nice try but DING, didn't work. Worth a watch though.
By Laenerin at 1:22 PM ON 05/20/07
The circle text messages would be cool at first, but I think it would get annoying after a while. It also looks like it flips too easily...I don't want to be doing someting and have my phone swinging limp in my hand...that would be bad.
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Laenerin:
The circle text messages would be cool at first, but I think it would get annoying after a while. It also looks li...More »