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.