Yeah, StaceyE, I also remember those early days and it causes me to reflect on my own reactions to cellphone technology as it has evolved through the years. At first these phones did seem superfluous. Through the 90's and 00's (the oughts?) they became indispensable, and I slowly warmed to them, finally realizing I had to have my flip phone and I couldn't live without it. When smartphones first came out I thought,"oh, that's just too much, we don't need to have a computer with us all the time!" Now, of course we're all addicted to our iPhones and Droids.
Ha! Back when the cell phones first came out you just about had to be a big time stock broker to own one! I remember seeing the story on TV (I believe it was entertainment tonight) when the very first cell phones came out and it was almost a thousand bucks to buy one of those bad boys! I also remember my dad saying that it was rediculous, that no one needed to carry a phone with them everywhere. He said it would just be a fad that would never catch on. I wonder what he would think if he were still around today...he would probably have an iPhone 5, and be chatting on Facebook...=)
LOL! Yeah, StaceyE it's funny to think about the status cell phone owners had back in the day. I remember back in the early 90's thinking,"Whoa, that guy's probably a big-time stock broker or something!"
Now that is funny. I can imagine the reactions one would get using it in public! I remember when my company issued me a brick cell phone back in the early 90's...I couldn't wait to show my friends...
O2 Recycle creates "Walkie Talkies" combining old phones and vintage shoes
An artist has created four of the weirdest mobiles yet, dubbed "Walkie Talkies", to show off what can be done when people recycle their old phones – there are 70 million in the UK and 30 million new handsets are bought annually. The designs, created with O2 Recycle, aim to highlight what can be done with these old handsets, rather than being sent to landfill.*
The new phones, created by designer, Sean Miles from iconic footwear that includes a Christian Louboutin heel, a classic men's brogue, a Nike Air trainer and a Hunter Welly, contain old Nokia and LG handsets sent in by O2 Recycle customers who no longer had a use for them.
The Walkie Talkies are "upcycled" by combining recycled handsets and vintage shoes to create fully functional phones that double as pieces of desirable art. Each Walkie Talkie performs exactly as a normal phone would, the keypad being incorporated into the sole of each shoe.
The mobile phone upcycling project – upcycling being the process of converting waste materials or otherwise useless products into a new, desirable item – has been created by O2 Recycle, which pays up to £260 to those who recycle their gadgets.
Designer, Sean Miles, the man behind the designs, said: "I wondered how I could make phones that people might be embarrassed to be seen with into something that would give them a new lease of life – which is what upcycling is all about.
"I hoped that, by turning them into Walkie Talkies, I would raise a smile and perhaps a laugh and create things that people wanted once again. I've been using them while out with friends and they never fail to start a conversation, even when I'm not using them as a phone! I hope that they can get more people talking about the need to recycle old gadgets rather than binning them."
Yes, messy and wet. More adequate for spring-summer then. Do you remember if they mentioned prices in the article? If they are not super expensive it could be nice to have a show phone for some special occasions, then there is no need of too much outdoor walking.
yes, I thought about that, too. As the article is about shoe phones I then discarded the idea of the umbrella phone. Plus taking the boot off on a rainy day to answer a call might be tricky.
@Susan If they're intended for rainy days, perhaps they can just build the phone into the umbrella handle. That would look a lot less awkward than holding a boot to one's ear, especially with Bluetooth technology.
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The smartphone market reached a significant milestone, a breakthrough that may cause vendors to celebrate but could strain the capabilities of IT service desks.
In the fall of 2011, around 160,000 students in 190 countries enrolled in a Stanford-sponsored online course about artificial intelligence. About 23,000 completed the course and got certificates, including 248 who got a perfect score. The university offered the same course the old-fashioned way to students sitting in Stanford classrooms. None of the those students got a perfect score.
As Mitch Wagner discussed today, Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr. The big Internet debate at the moment is whether Tumblr will be good or bad for Yahoo. Regardless of their stances on the future of Yahoo itself, many claim that Yahoo will somehow ruin Tumblr.
Has China stolen a march on the West, developing an Internet architecture that is not only based on IPv6, but is also inherently secure from both internal and external attack?
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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