I hate cordless phones. So when Gizmodo reader ournextcontestant asked why Obama was using a corded phone instead of a cordless phone in this photo, I felt it was our duty to explain.
First off, yeah, we’re aware that the main point of being cordless is that you can take the phone with you around the house. That’s one point in its “positive” column. Here are the negatives, in no particular order.
• Security. The president needs to make sure some bozo out on the lawn can’t eavesdrop on his phone call with a baby monitor.
• Interference. “Hold on Putin, the kids are microwaving some popcorn.”
• Sound quality. Being able to actually hear inflections in people’s voices is kinda important when dealing with international crises.
• You have to charge it. Aides can probably do it for him, but it’s a pain.
• It’s easy to lose
• It requires power. If the White House ever completely loses power (including whatever generators they might have), he wouldn’t be able to make any calls from his desk.
• Corded phones have more features. The most gadgety reason is that that current phone, which is probably by Cisco or Avaya or someone similar, and has tons and tons of features. There’s probably even an Optimus Prime voice changer on that thing. No way will a cordless phone be able to match that.
To be honest, I had to check my calendar when writing this post, since this whole topic of cordless vs. corded feels like I’m back in 1993. You kids and your beepers! And your V-Chips! And your closed captionings! [NYT]
Ned
Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 11:25 PMMaybe the giant company I work for is still stuck in the past, but in our offices we still all have corded phones. Why would he have a cordless in the office? Does anyone actually have cordless phones in an office? I’ve worked for a few banks, IT companies, and a government department over the last few years, and none have had cordless! Cordless is something for the home consumer … corded is something in the office (granted, with fancy screens and buttons and stuff)
FlamingCowboy
Friday, January 23, 2009 at 6:16 AMActually, landlines are no longer self-powered in most parts of North America, that features went long ago with “upgrades” to the telephone system a long time ago…
I would be quite surprised if Washington DC was not at the top of the list for areas that were “upgraded”.
Aside from this, it’s pretty likely that some or all of the “extra” features on the First Phone will require external power…
Remember, at the very least this phone is guaranteed to have state-of-the-art encryption and exceptionally-high-quality microphone/speaker (for loudspeaker use) – both of which will use a fair bit of power (particularly the former) by phone standards.
Anthony
Friday, January 23, 2009 at 8:58 AMLand lines do need power. If the white house loss power, the PABX system would also lose power. All corded and cordless phones would be dead.