I had lunch with my good friends Anna and Andy today. We were attending a yearly seminar for criminal defense attorneys in the French Quarter, and had taken a walk together to get some lunch. After lunch, Anna introduced us to her newest holiday gift – a POP Phone Handset attachment for the iPhone.

Wow! My first thoughts were, “Where has this been all of my life?”, and “How have I never seen this before?” This thing is awesome.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m talking about soft plastic phone handset modeled after a retro 80’s style phone receiver that plugs into an iPhone, or other mobile phone. It allows for you to have a digital phone conversation on your iPhone, while looking (and feeling) like you are having a conversation on the ultimate analog device. They come in a rainbow of colors – this one was red – and are made by a company called Native Union.

I hope I’m getting this for Christmas

Well, I had to try it immediately for myself, and it did not disappoint. First off, it’s awesome in a kitchy-retro-stylish kind of way. I was strolling through the French Quarter in New Orleans talking to my wife (telling her, in fact, that I was going to ask Santa to bring me a POP phone handset for Christmas) looking like a lawyer on an old-school office phone  – except that I was walking down street, and this phone happened to be bright red. You will note all of the above in the photo to the right, taken by Andy as we walked back from lunch.

As a criminal defense lawyer, I spend a lot of time on the telephone for work, and I’m a bit of a tech geek when it comes to gadgets, apps, etc. I am also somewhat of a fashionista generally, and this phone has all the geek-style appeal you need. It screams, “Hey, I’m kind of a tech nerd, but I’m also really cool.” (Apparently I’m also a little slow on the uptake with this new trend. A quick search of the web led me to photos of Lenny Kravitz and Sarah Jessica Parker using their Native Union POP Phones.)

Aside from the stunningly rad stylings, the handset was actually quite useful. It was easy to hold handsfree between the head and shoulder, and unlike the $500 iPhone tucked safely in my pocket, it wouldn’t shatter if I dropped it. There is also the safety benefit of using a handset – keeping potentially harmful cell phone radiation that much further away from your head.

The big question I had was where to put it when I finished the call. There is a reason we buy mobile phones that are small enough to fit in our pockets. Anna carried her’s in her purse when she wasn’t using it. I suppose I could carry in in my briefcase and pull it out as needed. But that’s not really very convenient, and I don’t always have my briefcase with me anyway. Chances are, I would be breaking it out mostly just for fun on the go.

I think I would use it plenty in the office, however. Even though I have a land line there, I find myself using the mobile more than 50% of the time – receiving calls on it, dialing directly from my mobile contacts, or using my google voice account. The POP phone handset would make an excellent addition to my law office for those occasions. I hope my wife is out getting me one right now.

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