A portable telephone in a nerf or soft casing that can be tossed playfully to another person to talk. Also should be waterproof to use in the swiming pool (battery powered). All the features of a regular remote household telephone. Can be colorful and imaginative. A ball or animal toy type casing.

There's an entire generation out there that would desperately need mobile phones, but they are more or less barred from their use. I'm talking about elderly people who would love to have a mobile for certain situations, but today's phones are so small and the buttons even smaller that they simply can't use them. What I am thinking of is a simple device with just a couple of picture buttons - one for calling the doctor, one for a taxi, one for the grand daughter etc. The grand children...

I've noticed led lights popping up in all forms nowadays. The latest I've seen is one that fits onto your usb port on a computer and makes a handy night light for your keyboard. Not my idea obviously but, how about one that fits in your phone socket utilising the free power source of the phone line. You could have it on a bulldog type clip and use it to illuminate your phone ot your notepad by phone. I'd buy one for a few quid.

It is now possible to use triangulation from base stations to determine the position of a mobile phone. A useful application of this would be to create 'no-phone' zones, where a signal could be sent to the mobile to switch it off when it is within a designated area. This could apply to theatres, hospitals, military bases: indeed any location where the user is instructed to switch their mobile off.

When you put a call thru to someone whose line is busy or they have call waiting but choose not to answer your call why not have some device to automatically connect you to their answering machine, or maybe this is already available.

How about a light as an accessory on a cell phone. You would press a button on the side of the phone and the light would go on, thereby allowing you to read a menu, a show program, or see your key hole at home or at your car in the dark. I know that many cell phones have "lighted" faces, but it's not enough light and is not easy to direct it to an area to help you see in the dark. This light would run on the cell telephone battery. This would be a very simple addition, and would be very...

How often have you rung a telephone number, an answering machine replies, and you hang up because you don't want to leave a message? Is it possible to design the system so the ringer is alerted by a particular ringing tone that an answering machine is switched on and will come on in say one minutes time if nobody answers the phone? We would then have the option of hanging up before the machine answers the call. It would save a lot of money. For example, in Australia where I live, if...

At work the other day some co-workers expressed a desire to listen to personal music, but we could not do that without earphones, at which point we would no longer be able to hear if our phone rang. I suggested a CD player with a phone headset instead of regular headphones. The CD player would also have a place to plug in the phone, so when the phone rang it would ring through so you can answer the phone (or continue to listen to music, if you're avoiding work). This way you don't miss...

Using todays mobile phones, a simple software upgrade to allow the callers, number, or if stored, name to be annouced when they call. Save you looking at the phone, also great addition to those who are blind or have very poor eyesight.

A device that would record the user, time, date and length of each call that is made on a specific telephone so that you can compare it to you telephone bill to ensure that the telephone billing is correct. As it is now, the telephone company could add a small un-noticed charge or route a call via a more expensive route and charge consumers more for the same call to the same place and who would know? This would help keep the telephone companies "honest". Also, each user would have a ID...