More Steampunk nonsense, this time from London designer Arthur Schmitt. This concept phone is one you program (i.e., place calls) with punch cards. (A 41, I am old enough to have used the last of these.)

I do like Steampunk’s return-to-tactility ethos, and Unplggd’s suggested term for forward-and-backward oriented design: retro-vation.

We love the creativity and innovation (retro-vation?) that comes from Steampunk modifications to modern technology. Some great ideas come from taking a completely new gadget and making it something that looks like, and in this case sort of works like, something from the 19th century. This steampunk cell phone concept has no display. No 3G. No data plan. No games. It doesn’t even have a dial pad. You make your calls with binary-coded punch cards, steampunk.

via Apartment Therapy Unplugged | Steampunk Cell Phone Takes Tech Backwards