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

from the uh,-okay dept

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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  • identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      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

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      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

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        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.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          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.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2007 @ 12:53pm

        Re: Re: Same old tricks

        Relax, Dorpus is trolling again.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michael, 16 Jan 2007 @ 1:09pm

    First post! Pr0n! W00t!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    The Swiss Cheese Monster, 16 Jan 2007 @ 1:26pm

    I'll bet you can guess what kind of cheese scented sheet I would appreciate.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Jan 2007 @ 1:56pm

    mikey yur number 6 retart

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      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.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    horndog, 16 Jan 2007 @ 2:21pm

    Pussy

    I want my cellphone to smell like snatch and t*tties!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    zeromus, 16 Jan 2007 @ 4:19pm

    Dorpus is unique among trollers. I always appreciate his barely irrelevant and only slightly factual first posts.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    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

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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