infinity machine
n. A mocking reference to a smartphone or similar device, particularly one connected to the Internet and its seemingly infinite resources.
Examples
2015
My infinity machine sits there on the table in front of me. I dislike it and want it out of my sight. It’s like chocolate — impossible to resist, so better to not have it around.
—Alec Sharp, “Resisting the Infinity Machine,” Contributing to the Problem, March 28, 2015
2014
—Alex Roddie, “Ditching the Infinity Machine — going smartphone-free in the hills,” AlexRoddie.com, October 14, 2014
2014
—“Read this on your infinity machine,” MetaFilter, March 25, 2014
2014 (earliest)
On my morning bus into town, every teenager and every grown-up sits there staring into their little infinity machine: a pocket-sized window onto more words than any of us could ever read, more music than we could ever listen to, more pictures of people getting naked than we could ever get off to.
—Dougald Hine, “What good is information?,” Aeon, March 06, 2014
Posted: June 12, 2015