The Idea Factory: The smellable ringtone

A plug-in for smartphones delivers notifications by scents rather than ringtones

The smellable ringtone
(Image credit: Facebook.com/Scentee)

A new plug-in for smartphones called Scentee delivers notifications by scents rather than ringtones. The "smell dongle," which retails for $35, plugs into the headphone jack and contains a small scent cartridge containing "enough fragrant liquid for 100 sprays," said Robert Sorokanich at Gizmodo. Users can program the plug-in to deliver "a scented puff on timed intervals, as an alternative to audio notifications." Users can even link certain smells — including rose, lavender, and coffee — with specific notifications. So if you use it with your phone's alarm clock, you "really can wake up and smell the coffee."

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