How Often Have You Wished You Could Control How Your Cell Phone Smells?

from the uh,-okay dept

Tue, Jan 16th 2007 12:04pm — Carlo Longino

A couple of years ago, one of the ideas Vodafone Japan tried to reverse its death spiral was to sell mobile handsets that had "costume covers" which, among other things, could make your phone look like a lump of cheese. Now, with Vodafone having sold out to SoftBank, NTT DoCoMo is looking to one-up its rivals by releasing "aroma phones" -- handsets that feature "scented sheets designed to relax the users while making calls". Forget the development of i-mode, the first launches of 3G networks and stuff like that: it's moves such as this that make it clear Japan is on the cutting edge of mobile technology. No word, though, if any of the sheets are designed to smell like cheese.

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16 Comments

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dorpus, 16 Jan 2007 @ 12:19pm

Same old tricks
Softbank in Japan, run by a Korean gangster named Masayoshi Son, came under legal trouble recently because it put out huge ads for "0 yen calls" on their cell phones, then charged customers anyway. Son also runs the pro-North-Korean news site OhMyNews. He tried to debut a Japanese version of the same site, but was mocked to death by 2ch nationalists, so he doesn't talk about it anymore.

Of course, NTT is its own mafia empire, charging $800 "permanent deposits" for customers who want to set up a phone account. Local calls still cost 10 cents a minute on land lines.

In the past month throughout East Asia, there has been a fad of murders butchering people into pieces, and fetishists are said to be swapping images of body parts on cell phones.
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2007 @ 12:38pm
  
  Re: Same old tricks
  man that all sucks...but what in the world does it have to do with this article?
  people like you should consider thinking before speaking
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2007 @ 12:39pm
  
  Re: Same old tricks
  man that all sucks...but what in the world does it have to do with this article?
  people like you should consider thinking before speaking
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  - Bumbling old fool, 16 Jan 2007 @ 12:48pm
    
    Re: Re: Same old tricks
    The dorpus does not think.
    The dorpus only trolls,
    for that is all the dorpus knows.
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    - Dosquatch, 16 Jan 2007 @ 1:46pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Same old tricks
      The dorpus does not think.
      
      The dorpus only trolls,
      
      for that is all the dorpus knows.
      
      I have reason to believe that dorpus is a Google-linked copy of Eliza.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2007 @ 12:53pm
    
    Re: Re: Same old tricks
    Relax, Dorpus is trolling again.
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Michael, 16 Jan 2007 @ 1:09pm

First post! Pr0n! W00t!
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The Swiss Cheese Monster, 16 Jan 2007 @ 1:26pm

I'll bet you can guess what kind of cheese scented sheet I would appreciate.
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PhysicsGuy, 16 Jan 2007 @ 1:36pm

Re: Re: Re: Same old tricks
trolls usually say something in relation to a topic that has very polarized views that people take seriously. dorpus... well... i wouldn't call him a troll. i don't think there's a word to describe his posts. the most that can be said is that, well, he's dorpus.
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misanthropic humanist, 16 Jan 2007 @ 1:54pm

I'll take the tuna
Hmm. Surely a phone, especially one set to vibrate, which smells of cheese or fish could lead to....questions? Oh God, lets bail out of this topic, where's the eject lever?

Seriously though. Olfactory technology (smelly stuff) involves some quite unusual and potentially troublesome organic chemistry. What the hell goes into these things? Plasticising agents like phenol phtalates I would guess. I wouldn't want to give these things to young kids who would put "strawberry" flavoured phones in their mouths, no way. Check out the literature on the fertility effects of ptalates. I hope they get rigorous safety reviews by the FDA or whatever the proper authority is.

Dorpus, what's with the anti-asian sentiments man? Sorry if I'm not reading you right, but you seem to have it in for them.
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2007 @ 1:56pm

mikey yur number 6 retart
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Paul, 16 Jan 2007 @ 2:15pm

um...
I actually see people spending a lot more time spamming on this article than commenting on it. I actually thought the comments on the ownership of the cell phone company was interesting, whatever their tint, and far more so than the article itself.
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- dorpass, 16 Jan 2007 @ 3:35pm
  
  Re: um...
  I actually see people spending a lot more time spamming on this article than commenting on it. I actually thought the comments on the ownership of the cell phone company was interesting, whatever their tint, and far more so than the article itself.
  
  Umm... may be you missed the part where dorpus at best uses half truths in his posts and most of the time just takes his information completely out of context and out of time? Information can only be useful if it's true, run along now Paul.
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horndog, 16 Jan 2007 @ 2:21pm

Pussy
I want my cellphone to smell like snatch and t*tties!
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zeromus, 16 Jan 2007 @ 4:19pm

Dorpus is unique among trollers. I always appreciate his barely irrelevant and only slightly factual first posts.
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benji, 16 Jan 2007 @ 9:02pm

AWSOME!!
my father being in the military means i get to travel alot....i got the privlage to spend the last 3 years in japan...and let me tell you..you think american phones are great!! well guess what theyre Sh*t compared to the phones in japan....trust me...i had to get over the fact that i had to let go of my 60 dollar 3megapixel ...lcd dual display phone....and!! it was on prepaid cards...you cant beat that...vodaphone is the sh*t...docomo was alright to...but voda and au were the best providers i think.....no dropped calls ever and....service everywhere...but on top of mt. fuji
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