The Nokia "Aeon"?

Nokia maintains a Research and Development website that is usually filled with, well Research and Development stuff. Mostly it's just boring images of scientists and r&d people at work - at least until you scroll to the top. That's where the images of Nokia's latest "research concept" phone are currently housed.

The "Aeon" seems to be your "typical" razr-thin candybar form factor cell phone with no actual buttons. No, it's not the next generation of Nokia's L'amour Fashion Collection. The bottom half of the prototype pictured here is actually a touch-screen display that can change (I might be going out on a limb here) into any kind of menu, button, keypad, whatever. It's so damn cool that I'm almost speechless. I mean, yeah, the touch screen method brings up a ton of quirky problems - like causing damage to the display with those pointy thumbs of yours, among others - but it's also so innovative and (brilliantly simple) that I can't even associate it with the Nokia name. What happened to those super thick oversized fatso phones that Nokia keeps churning out?

So the Aeon got me pretty excited about what's coming in the future of wireless technology. Of course, by the time this phone actually comes to market (if ever), I'm sure Motorola will have similar devices available, all with those really annoying vowel-less names that nobody wants to pronounce. I really hope their next set of phones are called KRPR or something. It'd be more fitting.

I'm still drooling over this thing.

Tags: aeon

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