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Cell Out
Mobile Phone Backlash Hits the Hip Crowd
by Nathan Ellis
FWD Fashion Wire Daily
July 23, 2001
Excerpt from the article
... But the cell phone still has its loyalists. Fashion technologist Victor Chu, designer of the infamous Modo.net pager, loves roaming the city and calling people to get things together for a project or event, as well as having one, all-access phone number. Citing an ex-girlfriend who was "notoriously on the phone when we were together," he admits phone etiquette is often lacking in Manhattan. But Chu asserts that the backlash is just as much about stale design. "In Japan, they already have full-color video phones and their regular phones are half the size of Motorola's V-series. They have customized ring tones and graphics. Here, it's basically caller ID and voicemail." he quotes. Chu is setting up a research and development lab at Parsons dedicated to electronic accessories and is pairing up technology companies like Samsung and Nokia with apparel companies like Donna Karan and Nike. He also taught a "Wearable Technologies" class at Parsons School of Design this spring in which students designed concepts for the 2005 market - like the Mood Phone, which changes color according to conversational topic and tone and has an astrological interface.
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