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Old Mobiles — the Bad and the Ugly
CrazyPhrog writes "File under nostalgia? This round up of mobile hardware from days of yore includes the Dynatac ("the world's first proper mobile phone"), which looks like something likely clamped to Joan Collins' cheek in an episode of Dynasty; the frankly violent-on-the-eye jade T10, courtesy of a pre-Sony Ericsson; and the unwonderful Siemens Xelibri which looks as if it was designed to give simultaneous ear, eye and finger ache. Thankfully they really don't make 'em like they used to."
It was pretty sleek for its time, 32 MB memory for mp3 files that you could upload via a LPT printer cable :) It fitted me 16 led zeppelin songs on low compression and saved my mornings and a very boring holiday. Battery life was about a day when using the mp3 function. Nice thing: it still works! The headphones broke, though, so I cannot use the mp3 function anymore, unless I get the specific replacement cable which will cost the same as the phone probably :)
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I think what the StarTAC did was the prove you can dramatically reduce the size of the cellphone into a small clamshell unit and still be usable. The form factor has certainly spawned competing designs from every other mobile phone manufacturer, that's to be sure.
I have never had another cell phone that worked as well as my now-departed Motorola brick phone; particularly as an in-car phone it has never had an equal. What is amazing to me is how in just 20 years Americans have been conditioned to accept unbelievably bad phone call quality in the name of "progress".
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You know, I don't think it's that most of us really want a phone with fewer features.
I think it's that we want the durability and voice quality of the older phones back. I had a Panasonic bag phone that lasted over 10 years, with quite a bit of bashing around. A call on that phone sounded like talking on a land line, unless you were really out in the boonies.
These days, I've got a Motorola v551, and I like features like being able to sync my address book with iSync over Bluetooth. I use the Bluetooth headset quite a bit too. I've even had the camera come in handy a few times. But, there is no way this phone will last 10 years, it's not even likely to make it to 5. And, the voice quality is just crap compared to the Panasonic.
I'd probably never buy a ringtone, but I have dumped a few midi and mp3 files on the v551, and I do like being able to tell my phone from anybody else's by the ring (yes, it plays the Imperial March - get over it.)
I don't know if there's actually been a formal study to find out if people want cellphone features or not, but all this other crap is all anecdotal. Almost everyone I know under the age of 35 would like a phone that does it all; GPS navigation, full mp3 player, camera with zoom, etc etc. I know some of you like to carry a phone, camera, and gps in your pockets, but I like them all to be in one teensy device. (Not that I have GPS in my phone yet. Too spendy.)
I also don't want to keep the same device for seven years anyway; I want to be updated, so I can have current features. I want the best! Or the best I'm willing to pay for anyway. I got a RAZR V3i from Edge Wireless for $140 with a two year contract. It has a 1.2MP phone (1280x960), a MicroSD slot, and nearly twice the reception of the V3 which puts it back into the running. It works as an mp3 player and as a halfway decent pocket camera. I use my cellphone camera constantly and I even use the video functionality now that I've tweaked it to record more than one minute of video at a time. (I shot half an hour of video at a wedding, for example; it's dinky but I was the only person with a camera near where I was standing, so I'm sure to have gotten some unique content.)
Our disposable culture is producing recyclable electronics, and I'm into it. I want to have the new, nifty stuff, and so long as I can afford to be not too far behind (so that I can at least participate) then I'm pretty happy. It's a shame that we throw so much away but progress is continual and changing that would probably doom our species to a backslide into true barbarism (as barbaric as we are today, that should frighten people...)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"