The First Cell Phone, Oh How Far We Have Come

Dyna-Tac



The first cell phone was invented by in 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper. Dr. Martin Cooper worked for Motorola and worked on inventing portable products. Dr. Cooper and his team at Motorola made handheld radios for the Chicago police department. Then ten years later Dr. Cooper and his team made the first mobile phone, which was at the time called a portable phone which made more sense due to its enormous size compared to today's cell phones. There was also another company competing to make the first portable phone this other company was Bell labs. On April 3, 1973 Dr. Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call on a Motorola Dyna-Tac near the Manhattan Hilton Hotel in New York City. The phone call was rumored to be made to his rival Joel Engel who was the leader of the Bell Labs research team. The first cell phone was bulky  it was 2.5 pound, 5 inches wide, 9 inches long and 1.75 inches thick. The phone also had to be charged 10 hours for only talking 35 minutes. The first cell phone and many models after that could not send text messages and didn't even have screens. The cell phone was invented in 1973 but cell phone's didn't become popular until the late 1990 when they weren't bulky and had screens and better battery life.

 

Dr. Martin Cooper (inventor of first cell phone) with first cell phone (Dyna-Tac)



The Dyna-Tac dwarfs modern day cell phones



ITunes 10 and Ping

Apple has released has released ITunes 10 and with it Ping. Ping is a music based social network Ping resembles twitter in a way because you can follow artists and see their recent updates and also slightly resembles facebook in its layout. You can also follow not just celebrities but other users like you. You can also choose to have people not follow you and there are other privacy options like this. You can access Ping with the new iPod touch 4.1 firmware upgrade by enabling Ping on ITunes 10 and then syncing your iPod. You can add your favorite music and it will be displayed on your profile and music you recently bought will also be displayed on your profile. I don't believe though that it will display music that you just added to your library that hasn't been bought from ITunes. It is surprising how many musicians are already part of Ping and post regularly. It is beneficial for musicians to be part of this new music based social network so they can get their name out there and have their voice heard. The benefit of Ping is probably why so many musicians are already part of this recently released social network. Ping is fairly easy to sign up for if you already have an apple account it just takes about thirty seconds since a lot of information is already filled out. The only things you really have to do are choose the music you want to display on your profile (if any) and your privacy settings. When you add people as friends you can see the music they have bought and what music they like just like they can see the music you like and the music you bought. It will be interesting if and how much this social network increases music sales on ITunes and if new artists are discovered by using Ping.

Super Wi-Fi

There was talk yesterday about faster Wi-Fi that may soon be available. Two years ago in the US the FCC voted to open up the airways between TV channels for numerous uses. Super Wi-Fi was one of the uses that were suggested because of the airways that are now available. Canada is unfortunately lagging behind in the digital switch over so unfortunately super Wi-Fi won't be available until Canada switches over to digital broadcasting Canada will switch over to digital broadcasting on August 31, 2010 this is a full two and a half years after the US switched to digital broadcasting. Super Wi-Fi is supposedly going to be able to travel for miles and have speeds of 15 to 20 megabits. The speed does depend on the Ethernet cable it is hooked up to and a lot of residential connections are not this fast. Broadway and other places that use wireless microphones such as churches, theaters and karaoke bars are concerned about interference that this new technology may cause. The FCC plans to put aside two channels for wireless microphone users to solve this problem. They also plan to include big wireless microphone users like Broadway and sports leagues in their database so devices will no to avoid these airways. There are also issues with TV broadcasting problems but the FCC is trying to solve this possible problem by mapping signals. By mapping signals the devices using super Wi-Fi could be GPS enabled so they know to switch to the right frequency. There are many opportunities that come with this super Wi-Fi technology such as sending video to television sets and computers simultaneously and providing Internet to places where landline or Internet by cable is not available. On September 23 the FCC is having another vote to resolve the issues with this super Wi-Fi technology. The technology industry can't wait for the vote so they can start making devices that are compatible with this new super Wi-Fi technology.

Wireless Communications are the Future

Every year the number of cell phone users increases. At the end of 2008 there were approximately 4 billion mobile phones in use. Many developed countries more than 100% of their population have a cell phone this is because many people have more than one phone, often people have a work and a personal phone. Even in less developed countries cell phones use is increasing. For example in Africa the use of cell phones is increasing by 50% every year. In many places there was little or no communication now people have the ability to communicate with anyone, anytime and anywhere in the world. In a lot of developing countries the government is investing in wireless communications instead of wired communications. Countries are investing in wireless communications because it is a cheaper to build cell towers than to lay phone lines. A lot of the population of these countries is rural and would make it even more expensive to lay phone lines. Cell phones not to long use to be just a mobile phone without the ability to send text messages (SMS) or browse the internet. Now people can have access to the internet anywhere and anytime. The ability to access the internet anywhere and anytime has benefited business people so they can receive important emails anytime and anywhere. There is also now mobile internet sticks that work with laptops so you can use the internet almost anywhere.

IPod Touch and IPhone Game Centre

Yesterday the 4.1 software upgrade was released for IPod touch and IPhone. With the software upgrade game centre was included. This application provides users the ability to play games with friends or strangers. Currently there is a small list of games that have game centre capabilities most of the games are not free and need to be purchased from the app store. The only free game that has game centre capabilities is farmville. Game centre was only released yesterday and because of this it is not fully operational yet. Supposedly game centre is in beta now and will only be fully operational in early 2011 ( this is only a rumour and more accurate information will probably be released soon). I just downloaded and installed the new update and farmville wasn't showing up in game centre games so it might take a few days. This is a great idea for an app and it is great that you have the option of playing against strangers and adding friends and playing with them. It is unfortunate that most of the games that can be played on game centre do cost money and aren't the cheap ones that cost around $1 the games on game centre are at least $4. Hopefully the amount of games compatible with game centre increases and there are more free games that work with game centre.

Face Time Future or Fad?

The IPhone four has come out a month or so ago and with it Face Time was released. Face Time is a "revolutionary application" in the words of apple but the truth is similar features have been on less popular phones that there hasn't been a huge hype about unlike the IPhone 4. Face Time lets the user video call someone using the IPhone 4's front facing camera. In the next few weeks Face Time will also be released on the new IPod touch 4. The commercials for the IPhone 4 were quite impressive and really showcased situations where the feature would come in handy. The truth is though that Face Time only works with  WiFi so it would only really come in handy mostly at home or at a cafe or somewhere else you can get WiFi access. It is not the kind of on the go application that some may think it is. There would be only some situations where this application would come in handy. You can also only use this application if the other person has an IPhone 4. This application might be more impressive if you can use it to talk to people on MSN or facebook via web cam.