A screen in a newspaper box? Hmmm…

June 23, 2007 by Dave Haynes

My irrational fear of electrocuting myself, coupled with my limited IQ, has kept me from joining the community of propeller-heads who like to stick computers and screens into weird places.

The gadget blog Gizmodo shows them the odd time, and today there was one on there that saw a guy stick a flat panel and a Mac into a newspaper street vending box.

The net result is a cool looking mod, but perhaps, as well, the nugget of a neat idea.

As one guy commented, maybe a newspaper uses these in reasonably secure — repeat SECURE — places like train stations and airports and has a Bluetooth gadget inside that would allow payment from PDA and a quick download of sections of the paper.

As an old newspaper guy, I have absolutely no interest in reading a paper on anything other than pulp paper. But there may be an audience for this, even if it is just attracting people over to grab a print copy for 50 cents. Newspapers like single copy sales, and in big cities, rely on them.

I could also see it working well for free publications like higher end real estate sheets or auto sellers, though again the locations have to be ones that can see the units bolted down and security within eye-sight.

Click on the link to see a video of the thing in action.