Payphones, those relics of a lost age of personal freedom and superhero quick changes, are about to get an upgrade. Though over the years the phones (especially phone booths) have slowly been disappearing from our streets and subways, they aren't totally gone. Which is why a company called Smart City 24x7 is making a move to bring them into the 21st Century. To that end, they've not got a contract to install 250, 32" "smart screens" phones in payphones across the five boroughs.
The "smart screens"—which will offer free local information from the internet in multiple languages like "nearby restaurants, store sales in the area, traffic updates, landmark information and safety alerts"—will, in theory, eventually be able to do more online, too—including making Skype calls and acting as WiFi hotspots. However, the internet access from them will be monitored, so yeah. Also, there will be ads—36 percent of the revenue from will, after the pilot program is over, go to the city.
If the pilot program does well the city’s department of Information Technology & Telecommunications could eventually replace all the 12,800 remaining outdoor pay phones with "smart screens." As for sanitary concerns, the company says these machines are made to take a beating and be wiped down with a hose.
And unlike the Square tablets about to be tested in taxis, these machines do not appear to be based on Apple software. Which gives us hope they'll be soon be hacked to high heaven. After all, once upon a time, payphones were what got Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak into computers in the first place.
To learn more about the pilot program, check out this very cheesy introductory video:
