History of cell phone communications short but innovative

Mona Ridder
Cumberland Times-News

April 06, 2008 12:44 am

— The commercial splashed across the television screen for the cell phone.
The Jitterbug is designed for us older folks and is simplicity itself. Big numbers that you can’t miss seeing and service that automatically catalogs favorite telephone numbers for future use are basic to the Jitterbug ... starting at $10 a month.
“Now, that’s what I need,” said my husband whose knowledge of technological gizmos extends to the fact that a telephone is to talk and a computer is somebody else’s problem. That, of course, excludes his GameBoy addiction.
I don’t have to worry about what he might find on the Internet, he can’t find the Internet.
If he needs to send an e-mail to somebody he asks me to do it. And if he needs to give someone an e-mail address, he gives them mine.
As a result I check my junk e-mail box on a regular basis because that’s where mail goes that is not from someone who is on my communication list.
He carries a cell phone but never turns it on.
I suggested he use his cell phone for business instead of the land line he has in his office because he’s hardly ever in the office. When he does get there, he often has about 20 messages to return.
It would save some money and he could get the messages on his cell phone just as easily, I reasoned.
“I don’t know how to retrieve messages from the darn thing,” he replied.
Oh.
And here I was thinking I wouldn’t mind having a new cell phone, one from which I could retrieve e-mail, look up something on the Internet or maybe take a picture.
Text messaging is definitely out ... I’m too old to learn a new language.
But there are some features on cell phones that I can appreciate; especially as I look back on how far the technology has come in the last few years.
Acccording to information I received recently from U.S. Cellular, hand-held cellular radio devices have been available since 1973 and cellular networks have spread rapidly since then, outstripping the growth of fixed landlines.
Cellular networks are the fastest growing segment of the communications industry, according to the company.
The first cell phone for public purchase made its debut 35 years ago.
The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X phone was a boxy affair that sold for $3,500 and boasted one hour of talk time and eight hours of standby time. It was made for permanent installation in a car, hence the term “car phone.”
Nokia’s first mobile phone, the Mobira Senator was introduced in 1982. It, too, was designed to be used in cars. It weighed in at 21 pounds ... not something I want to carry around.
Motorola StarTAC, on the other hand, was a tiny, lightweight phone that brought home the notion that style was important — a forerunner of the Motorola Razr, if you will. Weighing 3.1 ounces, the clamshell-style phone could easily be clipped to a belt and was the smallest and lightest of its time.
In 2003, LG debuted the LG 6000 cell phone that could capture VGA images.
More and more people are opting for cells and ending their dependence on landlines. Phone calls are made over computers to just about anywhere in the world.
Today’s market of available computers, cell phones and services (both audio and video) seems unlimited and I have to admit the BlackBerry Pearl puts everything I could want from a telephone, computer, a camera and audio/video player right in the palm of my hand.
I see people walking around with earpieces that encapsulate the cell phone technology. It makes them look like cyborgs from “Star Trek.”
The day is probably coming when all of this technology will become so sophisticated it will likely be an implant in our own fertile brains feeding signals directly into the cortex so that we can turn it on and off simply by blinking and thinking our messages.
For now, however, I’ll just settle for my husband turning on his phone so I can call him from wherever I am to wherever he is.
Contact Mona Ridder at mridder@times-news.com.

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