back to article World's first bamboo smartphone to enter production

A British student will see his bamboo blower blueprint brought to market, after backers took note of the ADzero, an eco-friendly smartphone carved entirely from the fast-growing wood. ADzero bamboo smartphone Conceived by Middlesex University scholar Kieran-Scott Woodhouse, this lignum-lined Android blower is around half the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nice

    Wow, I really quite like the look of that. I hope someone involved in the design or backing knows something about designing antennae and has sense checked that this is actually viable for a usable phone.

  2. Ralph B
    Happy

    Wooden you have guessed it ... ?

    Android software forks, and now the hardware splinters.

  3. mikeyboosh
    Joke

    'Wood' you believe it!?

  4. Mondo the Magnificent
    Go

    Note to self!

    Keep my new bamboo phone the hell away from the pet panda!

    In all seriousness, good to see bamboo making it to the tech industry, sure it's not everyone's cup of tea, but "nature's carbon fibre" is certainly starting to feature nowadays

    Admittedly they've done a nice job on that handset, I'm not a great fan of wood finished products, but if they were to stain that bamboo black or other colours I reckon that phone would look ace!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm waiting for the first bamboo graphics tablet

    Are you listening, Wacom?

  6. Graham Bartlett

    It's not wood

    It's grass. (Yeah maaan...)

    1. Ru
      Headmaster

      "not wood"

      But the material is still *called* wood, and can be used as such. It is even made of cellulose and lignin.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not sure about the Eco-friendliness

    It's just a bamboo back, the battery is still lithium, the touchscreen still has Indium...

    And what about the workers cutting and processing that bamboo all day for a couple of peanuts?

    At least Gorilla glass is made in the US.

    1. Euchrid

      re: Not sure about the Eco-friendliness

      "At least Gorilla glass is made in the US."

      It's made in the USA and Japan. Corning started manufacturing in the latter because so many of the manufacturers that it supplies are in the Far East - shipping from North America takes too long by sea (IIRC 3 weeks) and although air freight is quicker, it's greatly eats into profits.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      At least Gorilla glass is made in the US

      @AC - and why exactly does that make Gorilla Glass eco-friendly? Oh wait, there's no pollution from freight coz the US is the only place in the world you can buy and use a mobile phone. Sorry, cellphone.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I'm sure the workers at the Corning factory in the US (and Japan) are better treated than the ones in Chinese bamboo processing factory.

        Eco credentials of either are meaningless since most of the other components will account for >90% of pollution. Freight FROM the US to China is also almost zero cost, since all those ships and planes had to go back to China anyway.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    mmm

    An eco-friendly smartphone CASING perhaps but certainly not the phone. Like the person above said the battery is lithium and no doubt the phone itself is chock full of rare earths. Then there is the question of what factory it was made in and the conditions the workers are in etc. The phone is also non bio-degradeable. Eco-friendly.... hardly.

  9. Simon Rockman

    Wooden mobile

    Fujitsu has made some phones out of sustainable tropical hardwood:

    http://www.fussfreephones.com/2011/11/the-shape-of-things-to-ring/

    It's Symbian, so I'm not sure which is more retro, the case or the OS.

  10. nichomach
    Thumb Up

    I think

    that regardless of its eco-credentials, that's the first phone I've seen which made me even think the word "beautiful". No Fruit-based phone's ever done that, nor really has any android or Winmo device.

  11. James 47

    Looks really nice

    But where's the antenna?

  12. bdam
    Happy

    At last someone's twigged

    It high time someone took a leaf out of natures book and branched out like this. No doubt the nay sayers with shallow roots will bark and holler about it, but they know knot what they are talking about. That old chestnut of all mobiles needing modern materials only should be stuffed away in an old trunk forever. Some people just can't see the wood for the trees, and I for one will never be bamboozled into using a plastic case again.

    1. John Gamble
      Coat

      Re: At last someone's twigged

      Not only that, but it's back looks like it would make an excellent cheese-cutting board.

  13. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

    A British Student?

    Nice job reverse engineering the case dimensions. If that's really how it was done.

    Manufacturers (notably Apple) tend to keep specs for their products proprietary. Too bad. The aftermarket for such mods, cases, etc. for various products could really be interesting if they'd support third parties with limited* engineering drawings.

    *Not enough to knock off your own product, of course.

  14. Yobgod Ababua
    Thumb Up

    It's just better

    I'm not sure what exactly it is (probably related to porousness), but wood and leather just *FEEL* nice to hold and use.

  15. kabuki.usb

    is it me or has the world gone mad

    What a load of crap, no hang on I've just had a brilliant idea wooden reading glass frames in mahogany or wooden TV remote in pine,no forget that, tooth brush,yes thats it what stroke of genius.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      We should start a company

      Sent from my mahogany crapper (beta)

    2. Marvin the Martian
      Stop

      Wasn't that the nineties?

      I remember in the late nineties a spate of wooden computer attributes --- keyboards, monitors, mice etc. Expensive-ish, low four figures for keyboards (peanuts compared to ugly bling-encrusted ones).

      1. Torben Mogensen

        I saw a wooden keyboard in a shop the other day. It looked nice, but the price was around 2000 dkr (ca. 150 gbp).

  16. anaru
    Paris Hilton

    eco-friendly?

    Given there's no "About" page on the website, and the "press pack" is just images, where did el Reg get the "eco-friendly" idea from?

    Cos as others have said, a wooden phone is just a wooden phone, and that seems to be all we know about it.

  17. John H Woods Silver badge

    Here's looking forward to ...

    .. cases made of other materials. Brick?

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