We all know that a cell phone isn’t really just a phone anymore (c’mon, you’ve seen the Sprint commercial I’m sure). It takes our pictures, sends and receives our emails, plays our MP3s and it even keeps track of our hectic lives with advanced calendar functions.

Yes, a cell phone isn’t just a phone.  But before there was this all-encompassing smartphone, we turned to other gadgets to take our pictures, send our emails, play our music and keep track of our personal calendars.

What were these gadgets?  Gadget Lab recently reported the five devices“killed” by today’s cell phone.  After an explosion of responses, the blog shot off even more gadgets replaced by the cell phone.

So here are all 12 of the replaced gadgets. Have they moved on to that better place?  Check your closet.  I’m sure you’ll find some of them collecting dust in there.

1. PDA- When you have your contacts, addresses, numbers and calendars all in one place, why get a PDA to hold the exact same data?
2. Camera- Cameras on phones are becoming more and more advanced.  Have you seen a picture taken with the iPhone? Remarkable.  The best part?  You always have it on you.
3. Landline- Although the big operators will still pressure you into purchasing a phone line with your cable and Internet package, don’t give in.  If you’ve got a cell phone and a decent minutes plan, there is really no dire need for a landline.
4. Web Browser- Why wait to surf the ‘Net from your computer when most phones today come equipped with a browser, giving you anytime, anywhere access to all the information on the World Wide Web.
5. Instant Messenger- First came SMS text messaging allowing one person to send a short message from his phone to another cell phone.  Many of today’s mobile phones not only offer SMS text messaging and its multimedia cousin MMS for messages with photos and videos, but also come equipped with applications for popular instant messaging services.
6. MP3 Player- With all of your music in one place, it’s more of a hassle now to lug around an MP3 player.
7. Pager- With of course the exception to the medical field, no one can remember the last time they heard someone say “page me!”
8. Wristwatch- You’ve got your time right on the front of your phone, why would you need it on your wrist as well?  Plus, if you have an even more advanced mobile you most likely have an alarm clock and timer, too.
9. Pocket Calculator- The usage of these have become practically obsolete thanks to calculators coming standard on every cell phone.
10. Satellite Navigation- Google Maps, anyone?
11. Books – ’m still not completely sold on this one, but it would appear as though a massive number of cell phone users are reading from their mobile instead of the old fashioned dead-tree.
12. Handheld Game Consoles- With all the games you can play on your phone now, what’s the point in spending more cash for yet another device to lug around?

And if you’ve ever wondered what happed to a lot of these gadgets you can be sure they have a home here at MuMoh.

The Philco, a shortened version of The Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, was a pioneer in early radio and television and an early manufacturer of transistors, starting in 1953 with the famous Surface Barrier type (SBT).

The Philco in our collection originally belonged to Nancy Foltz (her name is still visible on the leather case) and is in remarkably good condition.  If you turn it just so, you can still pick up a pretty decent radio signal.  Not bad for a gadget pushing 50.

Compare that to when the first iPod was launched. Steve Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put “1,000 songs in your pocket.”

I remember when I finally gave in and purchased my first iPod, albeit a mini (turquoise blue!), but nevertheless still an iPod.  I thought it was the most revolutionary piece of equipment to hit the market since the bread slicer.  Something tells me Nancy Foltz was thinking the same thing back in 1959.

Now with my 120GB sixth-generation iPod, I consider myself at the forefront of portable media technology, but also still scratching my head at how familiar the Philco transistor looks.

A while back BBC News reported on these same similarities in an article comparing the Regency TR-1 transistor radio to the iPod mini.

If you put the two side by side, they look incredibly similar; same rectangular shape and roughly the same length.  Of course the iPod is lighter, but not by too much.  Both offer (or offered) a multitude of colors with accompanying cases.  I guess when you think back to technology 50 years ago, you’d expect it to be far more different. Here’s a line-up of an iPhone and the Philco:

Not exactly what you would call uncanny.

So next time you cruise the streets with your latest and greatest MP3 player, just try not to get too caught up in your trendy ways.  Because let’s face it, Nancy Foltz was doing the same thing 50 years ago with a device that looked just like yours.

We’re culture junkies here at MuMoH. Not only do we live and breathe mobile and wireless but we also enjoy the history of a wide range of topics, including politics, local and national history, punk and new wave music and general pop culture.

Sometimes these cross paths and make for an interesting mash-up of technology and culture.  For instance, we were surfing YouTube for a Flintstone’s clip and came across an entire episode called “Swalkie Talkies.”

Now, if you’re a true pop junkie like us you will realize that this is the later Flintstones from the early 1970s when Pebbles and Bam Bam are teenagers and the show was a bit “groovier” than the original. But no matter – the content is still very relevant to our world.

How? The gist: Bedrock citizens obtain walkie talkies [OK, so they’re not cell phones – this WAS prehistoric times remember] and hilarity ensues.

We love it when we find mobile technology in the least likely places, like an old copy of the Flintstones someone actually videotaped from their TV screen and posted on YouTube.

We’ll be posting more as we find them [here’s a hint: Inch Eye Private Eye and Dick Tracy both utilized mobile technology before there was cell phone usage].

Where are some unusual movies or even cartoons you’ve seen a mobile phone or mobile technology featured? Ping us and we will post.

Enjoy the clip.

Museum of Mobility History – Mattel Football from Mobility Public Relations on Vimeo.

Every once in a while we will grab an item from our collection and showcase it with video. This post features Mattel’s Football game – a product near to our heart. We fondly remember getting the game as a holiday gift, ripping it out of the box, playing it, and figuring out the defense by that morning.

Originally released in 1977, the game was originally shelved by Sears, its distributor, due to low sales. They noticed that sales bumped a bit, re-released it, and sold millions of units.

The same game was actually re-issued in 2000 as an exact replica – and is even now offered as an app on the iPhone.

If you ever happen to stop by MuMoH and you want to challange us to a game of Football – you’re on!

Twenty-five years ago on October 13, 1983, the first commercial cellular call was placed to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell in Germany from the president of Ameritech Mobile Communications at a ceremony held outside of Soldier Field in Chicago.

Weighing nearly two pounds and 13 inches long, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X used on that historic day only had a mere 30 minutes of talk time.

A “two-pound phone with 30 minutes of talk time” sounds improbable what with today’s Lilliputian offerings and if we didn’t actually own some of the earlier incarnations of cell phones I wouldn’t believe it either. Some phones in our museum are so heavy and clunky they make our arms ache if we carry them too long.

So what else has changed in the last 25 years in cell phone technology besides smaller phones with more power? CTIA has released some interesting facts on just how different the technology has changed. In fact, it’s changing so quickly that we can usually spot the age of a photograph not by a person’s hairdo or clothes they are wearing but by the cell phone they are holding.

Here are some compelling stats from CTIA on how far we have changed since 1983:

• Today, there are more than 262.7 million wireless subscribers— 83 percent of the total U.S. population. That equates to 2,869 times more subscribers today than in January 1985.
• During the last 21 years, wireless subscribers’ average local monthly bill has decreased by nearly 50%.  What started as a nearly $100 monthly bill in 1987 averaged just $48.54 in June 2008.
• In 1985, the first year CTIA surveyed the wireless industry, wireless revenues amounted to less than $500 million dollars. Now, wireless service revenues have reached $143.7 billion in the last 12 months, with wireless subscribership reaching 262.7 million on June 30, 2008.
• Wireless data revenues – from games and music to text and photo messaging, mobile TV and web-browsing — in the U.S. now amount to more than 20% of all wireless service revenues. Just a mere five years ago, wireless data revenues amounted to only 2 percent of total service revenues. How many articles were even written about mobile applications a couple of years ago? We’re guessing not too many.

What kind of cell phone did you have five years ago? Ten years ago? Fifteen years ago? We were digging through the desk drawers at home recently looking for spare change and came across a cell phone from 2000. It looked like it was from another universe. But in 2000, it was top of the line and did a great job. Great as in it made phone calls. In public. And not from home.

Where will cell phone technology be in another 25 years? Share your ideas and memories with us! We’d love to hear from you.

MobHappy’s Russell Buckley has a wonderful post that points to a presentation from 2000 that forecasts the future of mobility. Some of the technology:

• Wireless headset? Check.
• Pocket MP3 player? Check.
• Digital camera with built-in modem? Close.
• Glasses for watching DVD movies? Not quite yet – though on the way – we saw one at CTIA last April.

Slides from a presentation given by O2 – just a mere eight years ago — also show a mock-up of a mobile worker [done tongue in cheek but still pretty spot on] and how users will be using mobile devices.

Our museum is chock full of mobile devices that look like they’re from two decades ago but in reality are only a few years old. Years from now I suppose my toddler will get a nice chuckle at the expense of my iPhone [“You had to use your finger to move text?”].

Any guesses on where the mobile space will be in 2016?

The evolution of portable computing as told through advertising.

1983

1986

1988

1989

2006

2008

The XO-1, previously known as the $100 Laptop or Children’s Machine, is an inexpensive laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to “explore, experiment and express themselves” (constructionist learning). The laptop is developed by the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) social welfare organization, and manufactured by the Taiwanese computer company, Quanta Computer.

The laptops can be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. Pricing is currently set to start at US$188 and the goal is to reach the $100 mark in 2008. Approximately 500 developer boards (Alpha-1) were distributed in mid-2006; 875 working prototypes (Beta 1) were delivered in late 2006; 2400 Beta-2 machines were distributed at the end of February 2007; full-scale production started November 6, 2007. Quanta Computer, the project’s contract manufacturer, said in February 2007 that it had confirmed orders for one million units. They indicated they could ship 5 million to 10 million units this year because seven nations have committed to buy the XO-1 for their schoolchildren: Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand, and Uruguay. Quanta plans to offer machines very similar to the XO machine on the open market.

The rugged, low-power computers contain flash memory instead of a hard drive and use Linux as their operating system. Mobile ad-hoc networking is used to allow many machines to share Internet access from one connection.

The OLPC project had stated that a consumer version of the XO laptop is not planned. However, the project has established the laptopgiving.org website for outright donations and for a “Give 1 Get 1″ offer valid (but only to the United States, its territories, and Canadian addresses) from November 12, 2007 until December 31, 2007. It has been rumored that they are planning to put a modified version of Windows XP into their newer laptops.

Specifications

• Manufacturer: Quanta Computer
• Connectivity: 802.11b/g /s wireless LAN
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• MMC/SD card slot
• Media: 1 GB flash memory
• Operating system: Linux (with Microsoft version planned)
• Built-in still/video camera (640×480; 30 FPS)
• Power: NiMH or LiFePO4 battery removable pack
• CPU: AMD Geode LX700@0.8 W + 5536
• Memory: 256 MB DRAM
• Display: dual-mode 19.1 cm/7.5″ diagonal TFT LCD 1200×900
• Dimensions: 242 mm × 228 mm × 32 mm
• Weight: LiFeP battery: 3.2 pounds; NiMH battery: 3.5 pounds

References

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1
• www.laptop.org/laptop/

Ask people familiar with telecommunications history and they’ll tell you that the first text message sent from a mobile phone was sent in 1993. But MuMoH has a phone that sent text messages more than 75 years before that!

The Kellogg Switchboard Supply Company field phone, model 1917 (and we’ve also seen model EE 3) provided American soldiers in WWI a portable telephone and telegraph communications in a single box. Cased in wood and carried by a leather shoulder strap, the battery powered phone could be carried into trenches or to base camps to provide communications. The phone also has a hand crank generator called a magneto for an additional power source.

US infantry soldiers would deploy a twisted pair of wires from one location to another. After the wires were connected to a field phone on each end, information about enemy strength and location of enemy forces, ranging information for artillery and other communications were possible. Telegraph codes could be sent as far as 20 miles away, and voice communications would travel a somewhat shorter distance. Soon battlefields across Europe were strewn with wires.

References:

• www.museumofcommunications.org
• www.telcomhistory.org/index.shtml
• www.landships.freeservers.com/new_pages/ewarfare_in_ww1.htm

Introduced on April 3, 1986, the IBM PC Convertible was IBM’s first laptop computer and was also the first IBM computer to utilize the increasingly common 3.5 inch floppy disk drive. Like modern laptops, it featured power management and the ability to run from batteries.

Weighing in at 13 pounds (5,8 kg), the PC Convertible was based on the Intel 80c88 CPU (a CMOS version of the Intel 8088) running at 4.77 MHz, 256K of RAM (expandable to 512K and later 640K) and featured dual 720K 3.5″ floppy drives, a monochrome CGA-compatible LCD screen and a proprietary snap-on expansion system.

The PC Convertible was priced at $2,000 for a standard configuration. An internal modem could be added for an additional $450. Snap-on expansion adapters could be added , such as a serial/parallel adapter for $195 and CRT display adapter (640 X 200) for $350.

All of these adapters “convert” the Convertible into a more useful machine, but with all of them installed, the system grows an extra 7 inches in length and the weight increases from 12 pounds to 20 pounds, making it rather long and unwieldy.

Introduced into a marketplace that included faster Intel 80286 CPU-based portable computers, many that sold for approximately half the PC Convertible’s $2,000 price tag and others that featured hard drives, the computer sold very poorly. In reviews the PC Convertible’s screen, keyboard and proprietary expansion system were also widely criticized.

Still, with its power management, battery power pack and folding design, the PC Convertible helping establish many of the important features for portable computing that exist today.

Specifications

• Introduced in April 1986
• $2000 with 256K RAM
• RAM expandable to 512K originally, and later 640k
• Intel 80C88 CPU (CMOS version of Intel’s 8088)
• Monochrome LCD display, CGA resolution, able to add external monitor
• IBM PC-DOS with custom icon-oriented shell interface
• Dual 720K 3.5″ floppy drives
• Proprietary snap-on extension in rear for various expansion modules and snap-on peripherals

References

• oldcomputers.net/ibm5140.html
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Convertible
• www.seasip.info/VintagePC/5140.html