The first cell phone ... take a look!

talon

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http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/0....ap/index.html

And beleive it or not youngsters - before 1984, there were NO cell phone
.... not to sure if there were chordless home phones either. I even remember before push button phones... you had to use a dialer - and in my home town, we only had to dial 5 digits for the area - thee just weren't that many phones around. I also remember going to afrinds farm and them having a "party line" Basically means that only one person can use the phone at a time. Kinda of like having pyou phone number in all the houses up and down the street. One person calls, and you can all answer, or all talk.

I feel old now .... going to take my gertiol....
 

ali012281

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Originally Posted by berylayn

that was the cell phone Zack from Saved by the Bell used to always carry around with him.
YES!!!!


Boy Im glad I don't have to lug one of them in my handbag lol
 

cheeseface

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That was a cool article. It reminds me of the first cordless phone we had in our family when I lived at home. It was a tank, but it was waterproof!
 

mybabies

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Originally Posted by Talon

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/0....ap/index.html

And beleive it or not youngsters - before 1984, there were NO cell phone
.... not to sure if there were chordless home phones either. I even remember before push button phones... you had to use a dialer - and in my home town, we only had to dial 5 digits for the area - thee just weren't that many phones around. I also remember going to afrinds farm and them having a "party line" Basically means that only one person can use the phone at a time. Kinda of like having pyou phone number in all the houses up and down the street. One person calls, and you can all answer, or all talk.

I feel old now .... going to take my gertiol....
I remember the old dial phone! I also remember the first TWO being letters like OV and then the third and rest were numberes. I also remember party lines, and how when you wanted to use the phone and people were gabbing
you would get angry and want to tell them off BUT when you were a bored kid it was sometimes fun to listen in on their conversations.
 

valanhb

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LOL The leading edge in technology!

I remember dialing on a rotary phone, and wishing that my parents would get with the times and get a Princess Phone.
But back then buying a new home phone was expensive, so they didn't for the longest time. And we had a party line too. I think it was us and 4 or 5 other houses in the neighborhood. Thank goodness THAT was gone before I reached my teenage talk years! But I do remember when I was younger having someone else outside of my house pick up and tell me to get off the phone because they needed to use it, and picking up the phone and hearing someone else's conversation.
 

rapunzel47

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Yup! I remember party lines. The good news was that there was only one other subscriber in our "party"; the bad news was that it was our downstairs neighbours and they were a) rude about wanting the phone when we were on it and b) took for ever to get off once they had it. In those days, the exchange was a name abbreviated to two letters, followed by four digits. Ours was EL (for Elwood)-8763. (We probably had a party at our previous number, too, but I was too young to care -- I did know the number though: CA (for Calumet)-8482 -- OK I'm showing off now -- I'll go back in my cage
)
 

jennyr

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In London we had three dial letters to start the code - MAY for MAyfair, WIM for Wimbledon etc. But I remember in 1986 when I was first given a sort of cell phone to use for work - I was a TV journalist and it was the first time I was able to keep in touch with the office when away from a landline! It was huge and really only worked properly when attached to the car battery (it did have an enormous charger but it didn't last very long on battery). But we all thought it was amazing. Mind you, my journalistic days go back to before video, when we shot everything on film, had to get it processed overnight, edited next day and sent it out by post, then still called it 'news'!
 

graykittenlove

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That picture made me smile. I work for the cellular division of a communications company. I can remember when no one I knew had a cell phone because they cost so much money...now everyone I know has one. And if I meet someone who doesn't have one I'm always surprised. My how times have changed.
 

gemlady

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The only way we got a push button was when the old dialer broke down and the phone company replaced it because they owned it. Took all of about 20 years! Now we are replacing phones every 4 or 5 years!

Our old exchange was WAverly. Evansville had HArrison and GreenRiver. And we had 4 number dialing until 1990 or so.
 

rarepuss

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wow... how much the technology changed, it's amazing
I saw the new razr yesterday, my boss had one. I like it, but it wasn't comfortable in my hand - too thin/too wide/too heavy.

 
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