Memo Pad Phone - One pro, many cons...

An industrial-design exercise from designer Arthur Se at Yanko Design (via Gizmodo), the Memo Pad Phone simply puts a memo pad around the keypad of a phone. Let's itemize the usability pros and cons for this one:

PRO: It puts a memo pad right where you might need it, if you're scrambling to get down some info on a hastily-answered call.

CON: Much of the writing space is virtually unusable, since writing in the upper and left areas would cause your hand to mash the keys, making a symphony--no, cacophony--of tones for your unfortunate listener.

CON: This makes the aforementioned unusable paper a nasty waste - very non-green!

CON: Just to nitpick, ID folks never seem to make phones look like phones. Especially the handset - if this thing were ringing, I might not know quite where to "pick it up!"

CON: ...And who uses landline phones like this anymore, anyway?

Looks like this one fails by a score of 4 to 1. But one good idea isn't bad!