BlackBox mobile phone IM printer is the dumbest and best idea of all time

Hark:

This is the BlackBox, an IM/text message printer from Joe Doucet Studios and it’s an utter waste of everyone’s time. But not really.

The BlackBox connects to an iPhone, well that’s what’s displayed in the rendered image, and prints out IM threads on what looks like grocery market till receipts. The website describes it as “standard, non-carbon receipt printing
system to create two matching records of any length of conversation,” and makes one very good point: that it’s easier to print out an IM conversation, then it is to convert it to an email and print it out. BlackBox also “offers instant records
of conversations with a second copy that can be shared with the other party.” Handy, or recipe for disaster?

This thing is tiny, looks like a Sony stereo and is not available for purchase right now. Seems to be a render. So what we’ve done is contacted the studio on twitter, looking for results and availability.

@joedoucet hi there. We love the BlackBox. Any idea on release, price and what phones it works with? Please share with the world of tech 🙂

— gearburn (@gearburn) February 6, 2013

Here’s what we think it could be used for. Printing out long chats from loved ones and affixing it to fridges, saving Whatsapp messages for “Blackmail” purposes and for general tree-killing. We’ll keep you updated as soon as the studio replies!