Buy a snack with your phone

This vending machine – and hundreds like it in the Stockholm area – not only accepts coins and paper bills, but you can also send the machine a text message to buy an item.

Text the number on the machine then the code for the item you want to eat. The delicious snack is dispensed and the amount of your purchase is added to your phone bill.

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The machine below is advertising an offer for a rebate. If you purchase five Cokes with your phone before Midsommar (June 21, the longest day of the year, is a big holiday in Sweden) they’ll give you a free purchase worth 20 kronor (about $3 US).

They can do this, you see, because the vending company’s computer knows how many Cokes you have bought and when and where.

Most machines also sell condoms in case, well, make up your own scenario.

These two photos also show the difference between the cameras on the iPhone 3G (above) and the iPhone 4 (below).

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