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Article Excerpt
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We have a come a long way since Alexander Graham Bell uttered those famous words, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you." It was 1876 and while I did not personally know Bell or Antonio Meucci (another believed to be the first inventor of the telephone), I have no doubt that, were they with us today, these early inventors would be confused and amazed about the cornucopia of telephone features now available.
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The original cell phone, developed by Motorola in the early 1980s, was a "brick," weighing in at 2 lbs. It provided 1 half-hour of talk time for every charge and sold for $3,995. Lots of companies and overpaid executives bought these first phones to get rid of the wire tether and avoid scrambling to find a pay phone. In today's technology world, both the weight and the price of cell phones have dropped so low that they have practically eliminated the need for pay phones.
Today, an ever-expanding assembly line of manufacturers makes lots of inexpensive cellular phones. Smartphones come from a smaller group--Apple (iPhone), Research in Motion (BlackBerry), Palm (Centro), and HTC (G1 using Google Android).
Since the invention of the telephone, many technological advances have inserted electronics into our lives: refrigerators, dishwashers, cars with automatic transmissions, radios, TVs, VCRs, CDs, DVDs, digital home entertainment, home automation, and global positioning systems (GPS). Computers have been downsized from mainframes to minicomputers to desktops to laptops and now handhelds. But no matter how techie the times, we consumers still get to decide which of these devices to use and which to ignore.
In the latter half of the 20th century, computers resided behind heavy security surrounding glass-walled computer rooms. Fastforward to 2008. Lots of folks have more computing power in their homes and office cubicles than were available to even large companies just a few decades ago.
Portable computing had its origins with the portable typewriter, which consisted of a keyboard, a place for paper and ink, and a carrying case. In the 1980s, companies with names like Compaq, Osborne, and IBM created computing equipment with the capability of being "portable." These 30-pound oversized attache cases were affectionately called "luggables." Whatever their drawbacks, they did manage to introduce the idea of transporting computing to where you were (as long as where you were had a power cord). Today's work support equipment has a whole lot more functionality and clearly a lot less weight and size.
The days of weight-lifting exercises to move computers have now evolved to handhelds with features never imagined 25 years ago. Today, users are moving much of their computing needs to the cadre of equipment that integrates features from both the computing and cellular telephone industries. The generic term currently in vogue is smartphones. These devices can support our personal and working lives with features ranging from serious to inquisitive to fun to irritating.
The smartphone can do many things including, but not limited to, reading and sending email, sending and receiving text messages, finding a nearby Starbucks, checking a stock portfolio, taking a picture, recording voice memos, playing games, accessing any internet site, maintaining a contact list, keeping a calendar, listening to music and audio books,...
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