{"id":23485,"date":"2026-06-11T17:37:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/playing-with-payphones-how-the-ubiquitous-orange-boxes-have-been-gamified-by-fans\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T17:37:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:37:43","slug":"playing-with-payphones-how-the-ubiquitous-orange-boxes-have-been-gamified-by-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/playing-with-payphones-how-the-ubiquitous-orange-boxes-have-been-gamified-by-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing with payphones: how the ubiquitous orange boxes have been gamified by fans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Quaint and often overlooked, phone booths continue to provide an essential public service with millions of free calls being placed each year<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Get our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl\">breaking news email<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/app.adjust.com\/w4u7jx3\">free app<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/series\/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl\">daily news podcast<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A man I\u2019ve never met stands at a payphone in Sydney\u2019s CBD.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA serene small park directly to the right of the payphone,\u201d he says poetically into the receiver. \u201cThere\u2019s a man with an interesting cap sitting down there, and an ibis. I guess they\u2019ll be immortalised in this phone voicemail forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2026\/jun\/12\/payphones-phone-booths-free-calls-australia-resurgence\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/4f517d43643f32ad618f06fb24c1b624a726b3a5\/689_0_6827_5464\/master\/6827.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=d62fd42446ded568f9242d3233b41ba9\" title=\"Playing with payphones: how the ubiquitous orange boxes have been gamified by fans\" \/>Quaint and often overlooked, phone booths continue to provide an essential public service with millions of free calls being placed each year<br \/>\nGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast<br \/>\nA man I\u2019ve never met stands at a payphone in Sydney\u2019s CBD.<br \/>\n\u201cA serene small park directly to the right of the payphone,\u201d he says poetically into the receiver. \u201cThere\u2019s a man with an interesting cap sitting down there, and an ibis. I guess they\u2019ll be immortalised in this phone voicemail forever.\u201d Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quaint and often overlooked, phone booths continue to provide an essential public service with millions of free calls being placed each year Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A man I\u2019ve never met stands at a payphone in Sydney\u2019s CBD. \u201cA serene small park directly to the right of the &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/playing-with-payphones-how-the-ubiquitous-orange-boxes-have-been-gamified-by-fans\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Playing with payphones: how the ubiquitous orange boxes have been gamified by fans<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":23486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23485"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}