Miniphone

Barron reached into his sportjac pocket (a gun? Howards thought wildly in a moment of pure panic), and put what looked like a small transistor radio with two speaker-grids down on the desk. One of those new Bell miniphones, Howards thought. “That’s why,” said Jack Barron. “Recognize it, don’t you? It’s one of those new miniphones that feed directly into the phone-satellite circuit, and it’s been picking up every word you said, feeding it directly back to New York to three separate vidphone recorders.[…]”

What I want for chrismas^([sic]) is: Scooter samantha, million dollars, miniphone, make up, bracelet, pajama with bears on it, Gooze, cotton candy maker, nail set, cappucino^([sic]) set, ration set, new groovy shoes, teaset, jewelry set, P. S. I love you

The “miniphone” would be voice-activated, with a minimal keypad, and would run on methanol-powered fuel cells, with recharging needed only once every two weeks.

Besides coming in several hippie-ish colors (i.e. not black) and being almost impossible to cradle under your chin (a harbinger of the cellular miniphone if there ever was one), the single most telling characteristic of the Ericaphone was that it did not ring.

Zenor wondered why they all insisted on shouting so much, even though they all had miniphones in their ears, allowing them to stay in constant communication with each other.

After decades of watching Dick Tracy, George Jetson, Captain Kirk and other characters talk into their tiny wrist communicators, the day has finally arrived where you, too, can have a miniphone on your wrist.