Can you hear me now?..................FROM THE GRAVE!!

/got nuthin'

Apple to retroactively sue over copyright infringement.

Nuh-uh, I have it on good authority from the Daily Mail that they were making mobile calls 75 years ago.

strangeguitar: Can you hear me now?..................FROM THE GRAVE!!

/got nuthin'

Implying that grey Fischer Price plastic could be damaged by a mere fall..

Nah, the analog bandwidths were pretty good and they didn't sound like tin cans.

And for $6/minute they better sound good.

Immediately caused cancer.

Hardly accurate. The old Bell system had mobile VHF radiotelephone service that linked to POTS service in the 1940's. The IMTS service which included a brief case phone was around in the 1960s. The first  cellular call maybe was made 40 years ago.

" ... press Star if you want to send a fax ..."

"WTF is a fax?" he asked into the giant thing he was holding to his head ...

How about not so much? Sweden introduced their MTA-system back in 1956, and while it wasn't exactly a run-away hit it did introduce the basics of cell phones as we know them today.

Jost got to love how so many of todays americans seems to think nothing ever got invented outside of the US... and certainly not earlier than in the US.

Early mobile phones were the size of a Lincoln Continental!




So was Frank Cannon, PI

This was my first cell, got it in 1996.


Motorola DPC550, totally pimp flip phone.

sdd2000: Hardly accurate. The old Bell system had mobile VHF radiotelephone service that linked to POTS service in the 1940's. The IMTS service which included a brief case phone was around in the 1960s. The first  cellular call maybe was made 40 years ago.

Behold the Edsel-phone.

The actual electronics filled half the trunk.

My first phone: A Sony Ericsson Z500a on Cingular. Purchased for $50 in August 2005 (about a week before I started college). It lasted a week without charging, had a (pretty crappy) camera, and my brother bought me a snap-on Star Wars faceplate that Christmas.

It was great for phone calls--never dropped one except for the week after Katrina, always had a decent signal wherever I was, and I slammed it onto concrete in a rage and it didn't even get a scratch.

Compare that to my latest two phones--a Motorola Atrix HD and a Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket. Those phones don't even like it when I dial a call, much less try to connect it, can't get a halfway decent signal and constantly drop calls, and if I look at them the wrong way, the screen gets scratched beyond repair. God I miss that Z500...

id10ts: My first "chellular" telephonic device, circa 1993.
Damned thing was nearly 8 pounds and I know the antenna is partly responsible for my baldness.
[2.bp.blogspot.com image 400x451]

My grandmother had one of those in her Mercury Grand Marquis (1996, I think). That sucker was huge (both the car and the phone), and I remember first seeing it and thinking "What the hell is that for?" In the five years she had it, I can't remember anyone ever making a phone call on it...

Clemkadidlefark: " ... press Star if you want to send a fax ..."

"WTF is a fax?" he asked into the giant thing he was holding to his head ...

Faxes are 19th century technology

AMPS was awesome in its own right for call quality and distant coverage. Now voice quality and coverage mostly sucks compared to the early days of cellular, but we have Angry Birds.

Sonic screwdriver....

Jiggery-pokery......

Cell phone calls in 19 B.C.....

id10ts: My first "chellular" telephonic device, circa 1993.
Damned thing was nearly 8 pounds and I know the antenna is partly responsible for my baldness.
[2.bp.blogspot.com image 400x451]

But, you never dropped a call.

/dropped birds within a fifty foot radius, tho

In those days they didn't have as many tinfoil hat types protesting cell towers, so the call probably went through just fine.

sdd2000: Hardly accurate. The old Bell system had mobile VHF radiotelephone service that linked to POTS service in the 1940's. The IMTS service which included a brief case phone was around in the 1960s. The first  cellular call maybe was made 40 years ago.

Came to see if anyone posted this.

Leaving satisfied.

I didn't buy a cell phone till pay phones started being hard to find because of them.

I keep mine turned off most of the time unless I plan on calling someone, because it is for MY convenience, not yours.

Even into the mid-200s I can remember using the huge analog bag phones when I worked on a cattle ranch in New Mexico.  WATTS of power means the calls go through even in difficult reception areas.

So when the FCC allowed mobile phone operators to shut down the analog networks there was a pretty big outcry in that area I worked because it meant mobile phone coverage was going to be completely turned off for a lot of people.  The carriers replied with "Digital phones are much better, try one of those" and the only response the ranchers could give was that fancy digital phones don't mean jack when you can't get a call to go through PERIOD because you are out on the range, or in a valley.

mrmopar5287: Even into the mid-200s I can remember using the huge analog bag phones when I worked on a cattle ranch in New Mexico.

So that time-travelling thing is true!

You have a collect call for Mrs. Floyd from Mr. Floyd do you accept charges?

JohnAnnArbor: Did they go to Iridium phones?  Expensive, but work anywhere you can see sky.

Not that I know of (haven't been back there to ask any of the locals).  Cattle ranching didn't bring in the money to pay for things like that.