Swedish packaging firm builds cardboard pianos

It’s a mover’s dream and sure to capture the fancy of anyone who tickles the ivories: a grand piano made only of cardboard that sounds almost like the real thing.

But don’t expect to find one at your local music store just yet. Researchers with Swedish packaging company SCA only have built a few, and those are still being used for tests.

Ulf Carlsson, SCA’s head of development and research, said the cardboard piano featured all 88 keys. Press one, and the circuit beneath it sends a signal to an external loudspeaker, which plays the appropriate sound.

“It sounds almost like the real thing, but it is much cheaper — and lighter,” Carlsson said.

There are no immediate plans to market the piano. Rather, Carlsson said, it’s being used to show off the development of next-generation printing techniques.

Technology

Telecom price hike draws 80,000-message protest

A mobile phone subscriber sent an average of 2,580 text messages a day in May to protest a price increase.

Allowing eight hours for sleep every day, Fraser Ray, 24, zapped off 80,012 messages from his phone after Telecom Corp. decided to end a deal giving subscribers unlimited text messaging for $6.29 a month.

Ray said he was angry with Telecom because he had swapped cell phone providers to take advantage of the text messaging deal, which he believed would be in force until 2010.

Beginning this week, Telecom customers can text no more than 1,000 times a month without incurring extra charges.

At a maximum rate of 20 cents a text message, Ray would have tallied a bill of more than $10,060 for his protest.

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