Interesting read. I grew up with traditional phones (land lines, coiled plastic wires, plastic behemoths, big yellowing number pad, before internet, before email)--the very thing the author describes positively in this article (it being a physical, intimate thing, mouth pressed right against it, cradling it against your head) is one of the biggest things I disliked about traditional phones. It was gross, especially when you had to use a phone other people shared. Public telephones were the worst.

One thing this article didn't touch upon is a fundamental reason why I hate the current state of cell phones: it's all voice and response, call history, incoming, outgoing... Google Voice is the best I've found, but even then it has a lot of failures (it's translation feature can be lacking). I'd prefer, if my phone is a small computer like an iPhone, that it handle the display of phone calls and messages in a completely different way than is currently standard, for people whose brains are more visual than auditory.

Pagers, though--anyone remember pagers?