Turbocharging the home phone

The other day I was talking to Alessandro Germano, an innovation director at Telefonica Brazil, about how I thought the home phone needed some serious re-thinking incorporating a lot of the cool features found in the mobile world. That's when he told me about Orby.

Orby is a product that is being developed by Telefonica to become the ultimate home digital smartphone. The idea is to turbocharging the home phone with a hi-speed connection, the convenience of touch screen and cool design. The concept comes with unique features like the ability for the user to choose his phone number online. The phone screen can be used to access YouTube, online radios, use as a slideshow for family photos or to check your stock portfolio.

It seems like the type of innovation that has the potential of becoming the centerpiece of home automation (control lighting, turn on air conditioning, lock/unlock doors or activate security cameras). Telefonica is making Orby open source allowing anyone to develop aditional applications, similar to what happens today with IPhones or Android.

Launch is expected to happen later this month. Perfect time for me to update our old home phones.  Can't wait to try it out.