Take your iPhone back to the 20th Century.
"And iRetroPhone, the goofiest $2.99 I've spent so far, draws an old-fashioned rotary dial on the screen."
- Saul Hansell (New York Times - Bits Blog)
A real rotary dial for your iPhone. And it really calls.
Put your finger in a hole, turn the dial to the metal stop and let go. It spins back on its governor, clicking ten times a second, and lands with a clack. Dial the number, tap the green button, and your iPhone places the call. Or pick someone from Contacts and watch the dial do it for you, digit by digit.
Never used a rotary phone? Tap the question mark and a ghost finger shows you how: into the hole, round to the stop, let go.
iRetroPhone went on sale on July 10, 2008, the day the App Store opened. Version 3 rebuilds it from the dial up.
THE DIAL
- Drawn, not photographed, so it is sharp on every iPhone
- The letters above the numbers, as on the classic dial: ABC, DEF, GHI, JKL, MNO, PRS, TUV, WXY, and OPERATOR over 0
- A brass finger stop and a paper slip under the centre cap
- You pull every digit yourself, as on a real phone. Prefer to tap a hole and let it dial? Turn on Tap to Dial in Settings.
THE SOUND
- Every tooth of the ratchet clicks as you turn, so a quick turn zips and a slow one ticks
- A pulse every 30 degrees on the way back, then the clack of the dial landing
- The landing clack and the hang-up are the original 2008 recordings
- Haptics follow every click, the stop and the landing
- Plays with the ring switch off, like a music app. Sound and haptics can each be switched off in Settings.
MAKE IT YOURS
- Type your own exchange and number on the slip in the middle, the way real dials carried them, like LAkewood 3697
- Set the dial on black, graphite, green felt, oxblood or navy
- Letters on the dial, or digits only
IN YOUR LANGUAGE
English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese.
NOTHING COLLECTED
No account, no ads, no analytics, no network requests. Contacts are chosen with the system picker, which hands the app only the number you pick. Calls go through the Phone app.
