My first cellular phone was the Motorola MicroTac in 1993. My service provider then was *Cellular One. I think it was still analog. It was the first flip phone.
I do remember my first cool phone, however, and that was the Motorola StarTac. That was the first clamshell phone ever. That was my new toy in 1996. I bought it because I was wanting the smallest of everything. PC World put StarTAC at #6 in The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years[1].
So when I got my first PDF in 1997; it was a Rolodex the size of a credit card. Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion, it had Starfish software and could synch with Microsoft Outlook when fitted into the PCMCI slot. at #33 in The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years[1].
I didn’t switch to a Palm Pilot until 1998; at #4 in The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years[1].
I hesitated to learn the Palm Pilot shorthand. Once I did I had one until 2001. By then the cell phones were so sophisticated I didn’t find it necessary to carry a PDF.
Then I had a few Nokias. They were probably the most dependable phones.
My first multimedia phone was the Sony Eriksson. Instead of a flip, the cover rotated to open the phone. It also stored music and it used Walkman technology.
Now I carry a Samsung D870, which is my second camera phone, it had the highest Mega Pixels at the time I bought it last year. I don’t know why I bother; I can’t do anything with 1.3 MP, maybe a postage stamp. It also can store music, again, why bother, I have an iPod. It is a slider phone. #2 in The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years[1].
*Cellular One was bought by Cingular (here in the greater Bay Area) who was later bought by SBC which used to be Pacific Bell, who bought Yahoo and is now all ATT.
I don't like that nowadays you are discouraged to get new batteries by making the cost prohibitive and in some cases they don't even make repacement batteries available.
I now can't stand ATT service. I can't get good signal in Ben Lomond, I used to. I don't understand why everytime I just want to change a phone I have to sign a two-year contract. What, they don't think I'm a loyal customer? I've been with the same system since 1993 when I got my first cell phone.
They have no loyalty to me, I will switch to Verizon when my contract ends in February.
What did we do before cell phones?
The whole list of 50 Greatest Gadgets of the past 50 year.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123950-page,7/article.html
