Mobile phone inventor made first call 50 years ago

[onthedarkside]

 

On 3 April 1973, Marty Cooper stood on a corner of Sixth Avenue in New York and took a phone book from his pocket.

 

He then punched a number into a large, cream-coloured device and put it to his ear while passers-by stared at him.

 

Mr Cooper, an engineer at Motorola, rang his counterpart at rival firm Bell Laboratories, to triumphantly tell him he was calling from "a personal, handheld, portable cell phone".

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65112048

 

[Purdey]

Amazing the effect on society and conversation. 

[TKDfella]

Yep, the start of 'being in when you are out'.

[brucegoniners]

I don't know whether to love him or hate him.

[Lucky Bones]

A simple mobile phone would have been fine.

Pretty sure what we have now is destroying my 10 and 6 year old step grandchildren.????????

 

[Yellowtail]

And dude is (I think) still alive. 

[Lucky Bones]

39 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

And dude is (I think) still alive. 

Called him today......got voicemail.????????

[thaibeachlovers]

Has it been that long? I remember the bricks well.

Apparently some just had a handset that they pretended to have a conversation on, to give themselves status.

 

Seemed to me that the first to have mobiles in Bkk were bargirls, as Nana was full of girls with a bulge in the back pocket of their jeans.

[Yellowtail]

I got my first one in 1999/2000. It was a Nokia, and as I remember, it was something over ฿18K

[dingdongrb]

On 4/3/2023 at 10:33 PM, Lucky Bones said:

Called him today......got voicemail.????????

When I think of voicemail I think of phonemail which reminds me of ROLM....  The greatest company to work for!

[dingdongrb]

The first time I used a mobile phone was in the 1980s. My brother was a Field Engineer and his company took back their pager and provided him with a mobile. And honestly it was not that big and bulky.

 

[Salerno]

41 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Apparently some just had a handset that they pretended to have a conversation on, to give themselves status.

Many moons ago I was chilling in a peaceful café on the shores of Lake Geneva relaxing with a coffee and a delicious pastry and drinking in the view when some <deleted> pulled out his phone from a briefcase (similar to the brick in the OP pic with the ariel you had to pull out) and started chatting loudly, obviously trying to impress the patrons (based on the way he was looking around and the smug look on his face) but just pissing us off ... until it actually rang, startled the crap out of him and he very quickly sheepishly legged it to the counter to pay and leave as the rest of the patrons pissed ourselves laughing 555

[Salerno]

45 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I got my first one in 1999/2000. It was a Nokia, and as I remember, it was something over ฿18K

We got it roughly around the same time. I hated them originally, vowed never to get one, but I got a freebie and the rest is history.

 

In fact ... yep, still got it (I really need to get around to cleaning out my "just in case" bits and bobs drawer 555).

 

 

Can't remember when I changed the cover to black though, always preferred the red. Miss the size of it to be honest.

Edited April 5, 2023 by Salerno

[dingdongrb]

1 minute ago, Salerno said:

We got it roughly around the same time. I hated them originally, vowed never to get one but I got a freebie and the rest is history.

 

In fact ... yep, still got it (I really need to get around to cleaning out my "just in case" bits and bobs drawer 555).

 

 

Can't remember when I changed the cover to black though, always preferred the red.

I just tossed mine last week....... I replaced it with a Sony Ericson (tossed last week as well) which I thought was cool as it has an MP3 player built in. Then I had to give that up because it was 2G. 

[Salerno]

18 minutes ago, dingdongrb said:

I just tossed mine last week

Mines going to be heading to a recycling box next time I'm out. I actually used it for years even after I got a company phone (way bigger so just used the SIM in my Nokia) until I managed to swing a Sony Xperia Z from work (the fact it was waterproof in the shower swung it 555). Still remember the bar owner at my "local" in Bangkok totally freaking out after one of the girls spilled a beer on it on the bar, I thought she was going to have a heart attack when I grabbed it and leaned over to wash it under a running tap!  Lost it on another trip to Thailand, extremely pissed off as I ended up in KL for four days on the way back without contact details of friends there.

 

Was still in mourning about losing years of contact details when work eventually replaced it (another Z) and was ecstatic to find out that as it was a company phone they'd synched contacts with Outlook; they didn't actually tell us that but not long after firing it up my contacts all appeared (soon changed the settings as some of the nicknames I used may not have been "work safe" nor did I appreciate, after the joy wore off, the invasion of privacy).

Edited April 5, 2023 by Salerno

[Yellowtail]

36 minutes ago, Salerno said:

We got it roughly around the same time. I hated them originally, vowed never to get one, but I got a freebie and the rest is history.

 

In fact ... yep, still got it (I really need to get around to cleaning out my "just in case" bits and bobs drawer 555).

 

 

Can't remember when I changed the cover to black though, always preferred the red. Miss the size of it to be honest.

That looks the same as the one I had, it was a company phone.

 

Apparently, it was a popular model as one of the office girls wanted it after I got a new one. 

[dingdongrb]

2 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Apparently, it was a popular model .......

It was a very popular model. Back in the day Nokia was 'THE' phone manufacturer of the world.

 

Matter of fact a colleague of mine used to work for Nokia in North Carolina. He was a Process Engineer.

 

He told me that they had setup a Continuous Flow Manufacturing production line and in so many seconds a finished phone would roll off the line. 

 

He further stated that when the production line came to a halt for any reason and production stopped the Factory Manager of that facility would get an alert and he would then go to the production line barking out orders until production started again.

[Salerno]

9 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Apparently, it was a popular model as one of the office girls wanted it after I got a new one. 

Yep, an iconic phone for sure. Resurrected in 2018 (?) with a more rounded version around 2022, still available with a massive 31 day standby time!

 

https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-3310?sku=A00028228 

[vandeventer]

Maybe he can tell us how to get kids unattached to them?

[dingdongrb]

1 hour ago, vandeventer said:

Maybe he can tell us how to get kids unattached to them?

Don't sign them up to a monthly data plan and turn off the WIFI.... 

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, dingdongrb said:

Don't sign them up to a monthly data plan and turn off the WIFI.... 

Or just set an example and a few rules for them. 

[thaibeachlovers]

22 hours ago, Salerno said:

Many moons ago I was chilling in a peaceful café on the shores of Lake Geneva relaxing with a coffee and a delicious pastry and drinking in the view when some <deleted> pulled out his phone from a briefcase (similar to the brick in the OP pic with the ariel you had to pull out) and started chatting loudly, obviously trying to impress the patrons (based on the way he was looking around and the smug look on his face) but just pissing us off ... until it actually rang, startled the crap out of him and he very quickly sheepishly legged it to the counter to pay and leave as the rest of the patrons pissed ourselves laughing 555

That's so funny. Unfortunately it doesn't happen enough.

[thaibeachlovers]

21 hours ago, Salerno said:

Yep, an iconic phone for sure. Resurrected in 2018 (?) with a more rounded version around 2022, still available with a massive 31 day standby time!

 

https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-3310?sku=A00028228 

I inherited my mother's phone ( one of those ) but I hadn't realised that they were special. I don't know if it still works as haven't used it for many years.

The first mobile I ever had was a second hand one from a friend that I paid 10 quid for. Dropped it and broke it shortly after- d...m!

Now people just throw them away.

[thaibeachlovers]

20 hours ago, dingdongrb said:

Don't sign them up to a monthly data plan and turn off the WIFI.... 

Are there not phones that can only be used for emergencies to give kids?

Times must have changed- when I was a kid my father just wouldn't have given us one and that would have been that.