Ever since Stella Gibbons’ heroine Flora was found using one at the beginning of Cold Comfort Farm, there has been a widespread belief that home videophones were just around the corner: that satire on the rural gothic novel was written way back in 1938, but the corner may finally have arrived – if anyone really wants their Mum to be able to see as well as hear them – with the news that AT&T Co has joined forces with Compression Labs Inc in San Jose to develop a phone with integrated camera and 3 square screen and will run at a jerky one frame per second; it is expected to cost $1,500 – and won’t be any use unless the person at the other end of the line has one too.
