Aside from the news about the AT&T HomeManager and the OpenFrame phone system, we haven’t been excited about landline phones in years.  We’ve found another favorite today, but not for functional reasons.  The Columbo Two Phone wins us over for its smooth, simple and friendly design.  The Columbo is named after a famed Italian designer who envisioned the world of Space 1999, a British sci-fi TV show airing in the mid 1970s.  While Columbo got it wrong about how our world would appear in the late 90s, he made a brilliant mark on retro futurism as a whole.  The Columbo phone is a tribute to that classic, pre-digital futurism of the 60s and 70s.  [$80 at colloco]