Apartment Therapy New York | Penelope Bluetooth Phone by Hulger

Penelope Bluetooth Phone by Hulger

Take a step back in time with high technology. The Penelope Bluetooth phone by Hulger looks like the 1930's but acts like the 2010's.

The phone allows you to use a real, old-fashioned receiver and base for your cell phone and internet calling. We are intrigued because we don't have a land line at home but would love to bring a touch of nostalgia to our phone calls.

Comments (9)

I like this design a lot although the price is a bit steep for me. Why do they sell the handset and base separately? I'm not clear why they would do this other than to make the product even more expensive than it is.

posted by Alex in DC on April 20th 2007 at 6:36am
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This is pretty. And would keep me from hanging up on people when I've stuck one of those candy bar phones between my shoulder and chin . . .

posted by guido on April 20th 2007 at 7:05am
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Do these things have a nice sound quality when hooked to cell? I think this phone is beautiful but I would really like to know...

posted by ria on April 20th 2007 at 7:27am
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Judging from the photos on their site, that mouthpiece looks like it would collect a lot of dirt fast.

posted by Sea on April 20th 2007 at 7:41am
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That is so chic!

posted by chels on April 21st 2007 at 4:51am
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There's something similar from ThinkGeek that I've been thinking about getting:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/8928/

posted by Stratification on April 23rd 2007 at 10:22am
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Hi Alex,

They do that because you can also use the handset with your mobile phone. The base is for connecting it to your computer.

I think it would be better that they also sell an 'empty' base, just for putting the handset on (no feautures) and sell that for a lot cheaper.

posted by AlexHoogeveen on April 26th 2007 at 2:19am
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Yep - the base is for "bluetoothing" a non bluetooth device (I don't have this part). Sound is good - as long as you have a solid connection. I have a double-wireless Internet system (Philly is wireless - so I get the wireless signal from outside into a modem that I have sending a secondary signal to my Mac) so with that, it's a poor quality audio. But...with my bluetooth phone, it's great! (I recieved it as a gift from a friend in the UK)

posted by One Eyed Daruma on April 27th 2007 at 6:45am
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Hi. Just here to answer a few questions. The reason to sell the base separately is because some people use them on desks and tables (usually for Skype / iChat etc) and some use them on the move with their cellphones so don't need a base. With the wired phones the base is also the USB interface which means you can plug the wired phone into the base and the base into your PC or MAC, again for Skype / iChat etc calls. Bit long winded I know. And we're supposed to be simplifying things!

posted by MrHulger on May 8th 2007 at 6:29am
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