Screen grab of Rotary Dial app for iPhone
One of my favorite iPhone apps is Rotary Dialer. There’s just something fun about making the latest and greatest device act like something from the 60s. Rotary Dialer isn’t like the “classic” phones from Pottery Barn, where the buttons are just laid out like a rotary phone. You have to make a circular motion from the number you want to the metal thing at the end. (Anyone know what that’s called?) And just like on real rotary phones, if you slip you have to start all over. It took me 1 minute and 2 seconds (and three tries) to dial my own number.
“Dial” is one of those words that still hangs in there, despite a lot of changes in technology. Most people haven’t “dialed” phones in this country in two decades. When I was in Minnesota, the local phone company made it impossible. It was costing them too much to maintain the equipment to detect the pulses, so they forced everyone to Touch Tone.
Some other words and phrases that are hanging in there:
- Film, rolls. We film events, even though a lot of that is actually on DV tape or recorded on an SD card. Hollywood still makes actual films, but many of those are now going digital. Apple refers to the recent pictures on the iPhone as the “Camera Roll”.
- Rewind. Back in the day, the VCR had to physically rewind the tape to show a scene you missed. Now you hit rewind, but you’re probably just going back through a buffer.
- Albums. Vinyl has all but disappeared, but album art is still with us.
- Turn off the the TV. With no more knobs to turn, we’re actually pushing it off.
- Washboard stomach. I think I might have seen a washboard in a museum, but I can’t be sure. At least we still have six packs.
Tape: this is how Jackie and many others I know refer to recording programs on our DVR. “Did you tape the Tour de France?”
Comment by Clint Pidlubny — July 15, 2008 @ 8:27 am
I’d like to point out that washboards are alive, well, and certainly in use. Maybe not for their original purpose (washing), but just go down to Nawlins and pop into any bar on Bourbon Street and you’re guaranteed to see (and hear!) one.
Comment by Kristin — July 16, 2008 @ 8:52 pm