2008 CES: The Neonode N2

by Chris Hardwick     Department: Technology

While eating at a schmancy sushi place in the Venetian, I noticed a Nordic looking fellow when he pulled out what looked like the result of an iPhone accidentally knocking up a CB radio mic. The bastard device in question was the Neonode N2, a cellular phone of Swedish citizenship with no carrier in the US yet. At first, I thought this might be the greatest thing in the world, but since CES I have heard gripes a plenty. Wired associate editor Joe Brown told me that the voicemail was impossible to find and someone else threw in that the battery life was the opposite of awesome. Still, it's a nascent platform and if given the time to develop could be the phone every slickster at a loud Hollywood bar pulls out while trying to "make love to" intoxicated wannabe actresses. After they all get tired of it, the normals might enjoy it as well.

*HUGE SIDENOTE...I mistakenly referred to the iPhone as "pressure sensitive." This is a complete lie. The iPhone is not, in fact, a resistive technology but rather a capacitive one. Whenever your finger touches or comes close to touching the screen it disturbs the electrical field like a jerk neighbor. I apologize to Apple and Science for this fatal blunder for which I shall never forgive myself.

Tags: iPhone, mistake, Mothra, Neonode