Yes, we do know that getting blue collared help around the home could prove to be an expensive “investment” to make, but a necessary one if you happen to lack the basic DIY skills required. However, we are quite sure that most folks are able to decipher assembly instructions correctly – otherwise, Ikea would not have been where they are today. A team of researchers from the High-Low-Tech group in MIT have come up with a DIY cellphone. The team behind this DIY cellphone created and shared open-source designs for the phone’s circuit board and case, and it is with this hope that users will eventually create and personalize their own cellphones.
This would translate to freeing consumers from the dictates of mass production, but then again, it ain’t that bad having someone do all the designing and thinking on our behalf, is it? It frees our minds (and time) to do other stuff. If you are still interested in the DIY cellphone, it would be good to know that the prototype merges a custom electronic circuit board with a laser-cut plywood and veneer enclosure, and will be able to accept a standard SIM card while playing nice with any GSM provider. The total cost in parts? $150 thereabouts.
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