My Cell Phone’s Better Than Your Cell Phone…
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Today’s controversy about the IPHONE price cut got me to thinking about when cell phones first made their appearance back in the mid 80’s.
I was working in radio then, and back in the day, if you were out in the field, you had one of two options if you wanted to go live. You could use a 2-way radio, or a telephone; the old land line. That meant either a pay phone or a hard-wired phone in some location.
Both had their drawbacks. Walkie-talkies had signal and range limitations– and it was hard to find a pay phone out in the middle of a rural area when some major event was happening.
Then came the cell phone…….
….It was a beast in a briefcase.
The insides of the case were filled with a metal shell that contained all of its electronics. It weighed 17 pounds!
But it was portable.
My beast proved its worth about a week after it was issued to me when a youngster was lost in the woods overnight. The next morning, I was with one of the search crews when they happened upon the boy huddled under a tree. We were miles from nowhere. Out of radio range.
But, the beast in the briefcase came through.
I was on live, with-in seconds, with a report about the kid being found safe and sound. As we trudged through the woods heading back to civilization, we had a live interview with the exhausted but otherwise safe lad. His parents later told me they heard him live on the radio back at the command post nearly a half hour before we made it back to base camp.
They were thrilled to hear him. I was thrilled too– because we’d beaten the daylights out of the competition with the combination of a little luck and some new technology.
With-in a year, the beast in a briefcase was an antique.
Technology had reduced the cell phone to the size of a brick.
Yes, it was still big, and awkward. And you could stab yourself in the eye with the giant, hard plastic antenna. But, it had an optional carry strap so you could sling it over your shoulder.
WOW! Lightweight Portability!
About a year later, the brick became a doorstop.
Now, we were all carrying the flip phone.
A revolutionary concept.
No, it wasn’t like the nice, sleek little phones we carry today— but it could fit in your pants pocket.
It came in one color. Grey. And all it did was make calls. But, now you could charge it via the cigarette lighter in your automobile. With the brick—you had to plug the charger into a wall outlet.
Today, our cell phones can do everything but make us dinner.
Well… maybe that’ll change. I hear Apple is working on one that will not only make dinner– but goes to the store and buys the groceries for it as well…
—Steve
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The iPhone also brings to light issues reagrding the responsibility of a device manufacturer to make a new device accessible to all people, including the blind and visually impaired. People who are blind and many with low vision are unable to respond to prompts of a flat touch screen. There is no tactual element of flat screens that allows someone to orient themselves without the use of vision. This is a very, very large problem with new Flat Screen Point of Sale systems without a traditional keypad that are proliferating throughout retail stores and the subject of several negotiated and ongoing structured negotiations in lieu of litigation. Certain manufacturers o the devices are being quite cavalier about this issue knowing that the law in the provate sector only allows consumers to seek remedies from the direct providers of services tohe consumers (in this case the retailers) and not their suppliers.
Good luck with the blog…….