Cell phones – of the past

As I was looking at an old cell phone that my kids use a a toy, I have realized that I’ve owned a lot of mobile phones.   Here is a quick look in my phone history:

OKI 1300 series (Circa 1995) :  This was my first phone and my first cell phone.  I took my first job interview on this thing.  Back when 30 min of cell time cost you an arm and a leg.  (Thank goodness I got the low paying internship)

Motorola StarTAC (circa 1996-1997) :  First Flip phone I had.  Easy to use lived on one charge forever.  I think I even had more than 30 min of cell usage.

Nextel i1000 (circa 1999-2000):   I ended up switching to nextel to be connected to the team members I worked with.  At the time it sounded like a great concept, click to instant talk.  The issue was that the phones were huge, and the usage of 2way faded.  This was a pretty robust phone.  I dropped it a few too many times and it still continued to work.

Sony Ericsson T610 (circa 2003) : First smart phone.  If you can call a symbian os a smart phone.  This was the first phone I can remember actually really texting on and also getting email (That I was able to read) – I actually purchased my first bluetooth headset when I had this phone.  (WikiPedia t610)

Audiovox SMT5600 (circa 2004):  My first windows mobile phone, windows mobile 2003.  You could sync exchange and really read email.  it was the same small form factor and had a camera you could actually use.  I can remember that it was actually worth sending images from.  The rocker button on this phone eventually stopped working.  What  a great little phone.  Review from CNET

Cingular 2125 (Circa 2005): The audiovox broke and I replaced it with the Cingular version of the similar phone. If I remember correctly this one had better reception and the upgraded Windows OS. Not to mention the better resolution.   So you could now read 10 lines in the email instead of 8.  In the end this phone had an issue with the power button.   Review from PC mag.  My kids still use this phone as a play toy.  It even fires up still.

Samsung BlackJack (circa 2006):  This happens to be the only phone that I have owned with a full keyboard.   At the time everyone was hooked on crack berry’s and I really enjoyed windows mobile.  It came with windows mobile 5.  At the time Windows Mobile 6 came out.  I used a non-standard rom to upgrade to winMo6.  So I guess this was the first time I hacked a phone.  I also used internet tethering with this phone over 3g, and it was great on car rides to have laptop internet usage.  It had a roller / rocker on the side that you could scroll down a page.  This was a great feature on a phone with out a touch screen  This phone came with an extended battery to make it look huge… Cnet Review

iPhone 3G (circa 2009) :  My first iPhone – (blog post).  I still have this, it’s being used as a pandora juke box.  I really liked the switch from the Black jack.  IOS was and is very easy to use.  I did a jailbreak very early.

iPhone 4 (circa 2010):   new iPhone. This is a great device. My older iphone 3G became slower with each ios release.  This is a very good phone.  It has saved my butt a few times with th eapps.

At some point I got a few other phones.  Either as backup or for the wife.

Qualcomm QCP-2760 Cellular Phone (Circa 2005):  This was a phone to just make calls.  I think I actually sold the fist one back to the cell phone company after 2 years.   This was prior to craigslist.

Nokia – I purchased this as a pay as you go phone for the wife.  I used it as a backup phone in case that one broke.  Pop out the sim card and call away.

 

Overall that is a lot of phones, I may have actually missed a few.  What I have realized is that over the years the cell phone has become a very important part of my communication.    It is my main line for my business and also the best way to get ahold of me personally.  Back when I ran a datacenter it was also my pager.  Today, I find that it is the most frequent way I check email.

At one time if  a person had a cell phone they were seen as powerful or rich (1996). Over time, everyone has come to have cell phones.   At this in my life, I can’t imagine not having a cell phone.

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