Evolution of cell phones

[maxaroni]

I am no expert on this but speaking from a personal stand point....

We knew people that had a "car phone", something that was installed in your car. I was quite amazed at that but didn't have one. We first got on the bandwagon of "car phones" with the bag phone, plugging it into the cigarette lighter. Wow, were we something. LOL. As the transition to actual portable cell phones, we started with a Nokia bar phone. Loved it. Thought this was really the cutting edge! LOL. I was excited as DS24 was starting kindergarten and I could be off doing things, always reachablle if something happened at school or he got sick. Went through several Nokia bar phones, winding up with the screen being in color, as opposed to black and white.

Talk was then going to "camera phones". Oh heck, why do you need that? We have a camera, I just need a phone. Oh yes, forgot the flip phones and had a Nokia flip before winding up with a pink Razr. Loved that phone, but being as though I was late in the game with the Razr, always 2 steps behind, I didn't have the phone too long when I got a phone with an actual keyboard. Still no camera but loved the phone, as I know longer had to hit each button several times for a letter.

Blackberries seemed to be a huge deal and was in awe when I had my first "smartphone" and a camera, I believe. Still not sold on a camera phone but to have the internet...wow. Plus a keyboard!! What more could you want?

DS was the first to get an iphone after his blackberry crashed and burned. Soon, I was to get an iphone and this made the blackberry feel archaic.

As we are at the 10 year anniversary of the iphone, I have a 6S and love it. Can't imagine my world now without one. DS24 is contemplating getting the new anniversary edition, or just going with the 7S plus. None of us have the plus size and have been against it, due to size. Have now started to like it as we do so much on our phones.

Edited to add: Now, may times we just use our iPhones as our cameras. Silly me, all those years ago to ask why we needed a "camera phone".

Where will we be in another 10 years?

 

[kimblebee]

It's hard to imagine where we will be in 10 years. I can't see there being anything new, just improvements on what we have now.

I currently have a 6 and my contract is up in March. I will wait until the 8s are free and then upgrade. I really hope they went back to having a headphone jack. I know you can use an extension in the charging hole and I'll do that if need be, but it just seems like an extra step.

 

[amberpi]

I had the first iphone within a few days of it coming out and remember people asking me about on a July 4th 2007 WDW trip. I thought it was super cool and in some lines people asked us about them as we gotten them the day or so before we went and were trying to figure them out (especially me - he was in tech). I remember we either had, or my ex did for some reason, change us to AT&T at the time, it was great, and led me to eventually getting rid of Comcast. I was also carrying my company issued Blackberry - I'd had one pretty much since 2001, when I was straight out of grad school at 21. Blackberries were amazing! But I also had a bunch of fancy, at the time, flip phones including the first Razr the day it came out. Before that the cool phones in college where the small, not original, Startacs. Before that the Nokias my first personal phone).

My folks had "car phones" and - the ones you describe that were installed in a number of cars. My first car, in fact had one...a hand me down 1992 Maxima when I turned 16 in 1996. I totalled it not long after and got a new car and the Nokia. My mom, when she got a new car when I got her old one, called her Nokia the car phone for so long, I think she just left in there for a week at a time. Remember how those things held a charge for SO long and you had to think about the minutes all the time?

This is a fun trip down memory lane OP!

 

[disneychrista]

I think I got my first Nokia bar phone in 1999/2000. Had many flip phones. Got my first Smartphone (cheap Android) in 2014 and switch to an iPhone 5 within 6 months. Then got a new position within my company and got a company iPhone 5s. I am still using this 2.5 years later.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My DH had a phone installed in my car after I had a road rage incident (and fortunately made it to the police dept with a wacko following me). I loved that thing!

I know it's hard for some to imagine what life was like before we had cell phones available to us at all times! Very different! It's interesting to my kids when we watch older movies and someone's on a land line or *gasp* making a call on a pay phone! But yeah, that's how it was, lol.

I think there's a downside of all this "connectedness". Teens today are developing curvatures of their necks and spines known as "text neck", which is sad. They also don't always know how to talk to people in person, or even make a phone "call". And other issues.

 

[indimom]

My kids are in awe that DH and I traveled without phones or credit cards. lol.

I was certainly "behind the times," I got my first smart phone in 2015. I love it. Kids got theirs in 2016. DH is still sporting a flip phone.

 

[Shanti]

Where will we be in another 10 years?

I hope we'll have cell phones with great sound, and that never drop calls.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I remember the bag phones for cars. We got one when we moved and thought we were so lucky. When DH went to get the regular house phone, they said we'd have to wait almost a week (maybe the fact that we'd moved to a different state made it take longer). Yet, we got the bag phone the same day. Wow, a phone in our car-how advanced!

 

[DisneyHardin]

We got a bag phone for the car in 1995 I believe (I was in high school). I then got a Nokia portable phone when I started college in the fall of 1996 (remember when your coverage area was just a tiny little part of the state around where you lived?).

 

[SueInBoston]

I was at the Newseum in DC and saw my first cell phone. It was a Motorola Star Tac in 1993.

 

[Domo]

In ten days Apple will release the iPhone 8, with (expected) facial recognition, dual camera, much faster processor, more modern form factor, new system, smaller bevels, contactless charging, more battery life and more.

Sadly, I think it will be the new Macintosh, or the next NExT Cube. Everyone will want one, no-one will be able to afford one...



The original iPhone changed everything. It wasn't all new, it wasn't all pioneering. But it was Steve Jobs' baby. And he could create things that people loved. And people loved their iPhones. It was magical.

 

[kimblebee]

In ten days Apple will release the iPhone 8, with (expected) facial recognition, dual camera, much faster processor, more modern form factor, new system, smaller bevels, contactless charging, more battery life and more.

Sadly, I think it will be the new Macintosh, or the next NExT Cube. Everyone will want one, no-one will be able to afford one...

View attachment 266569

The original iPhone changes everything. It wasn't all new, it wasn't all pioneering. But it was Steve Jobs' baby. And he could create things that people loved. And people loved their iPhones. It was magical.

It's so pretty..

 

[Domo]

It's so pretty..

$999 pretty? That's the rumoured asking price.

If I could afford it I would get it in a heartbeat. But then again, I'm an Apple fanboy!

 

[kimblebee]

$999 pretty? That's the rumoured asking price.

If I could afford it I would get it in a heartbeat. But then again, I'm an Apple fanboy!

Nope lol

That's why I said I'd wait until it's 'free' before I renew my contract next year.

 

[goofyernmost]

We got a bag phone for the car in 1995 I believe (I was in high school). I then got a Nokia portable phone when I started college in the fall of 1996 (remember when your coverage area was just a tiny little part of the state around where you lived?).

We had a bag phone around that time as well. My wife was commuting from Vermont to Boston on a weekly basis and we both thought that having a way to contact someone in an emergency was a good plan. There were places that they just didn't get a signal though, so sometimes we could call while driving around Jacksonville, Florida to Vermont with no problem, we might be within 15 miles of home with no signal. It did seem amazingly advanced still to talk to someone on the phone while driving down the highway at 65 mph.

 

[RangerPooh]

Just this afternoon I was talking with DD12 about my first cellphone in 2000, a Nokia. No games (unless you count Snake), no internet, you had to press the number keys in order to text. I still have the phone in a box somewhere. DH got the iphone on launch day and prefers it. He recently switched to something else and regrets it. He's counting the days to the next release and is debating whether or not to switch back. Won;t shock me if he does.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

In a decade, hard to say. My expectations would be batteries that last days without needing a recharge even when using the phone at full capacity. A camera that has a significant optical zoom which will be good enough for casual photographers to get the scenic/animal shots they want. And hopefully a phone that is fully capable of running entirely on voice commands so that you don't even have to text/type ever.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I had a bag phone in 1996---when we lived on a ranch far from town and had an infant---you could go a couple of hours with no one driving by if you got stuck heading into town and that didn't seem like a safe thing.

5 years later that infant was in kindergarten and had their own celll phone, one that was small enough to fit in a backpack qith ease. Things changed fast indeed.

I held out against a smart phone until two years ago mostly because being accessible via email, etc all the time puts so many more demands on me. But, eventully I had to join the modern age. I like it for Pokemon Go thoough!

My DH has to have iPhones as it iis who his company contracts with---I hate them. My brain just does not work that way, and I don't much like their company "ethics" either so I doubt I will never have one. Androids for me it is.

 

[MillauFr]

Nope lol

That's why I said I'd wait until it's 'free' before I renew my contract next year.

Why not just get one of the no contract plans so your monthly bill is around $30 per month?

 

[kimblebee]

Why not just get one of the no contract plans so your monthly bill is around $30 per month?

Because, Canada.