Back to the Future 3.19: Cell Phones!

Photo from: http://bit.ly/cIkQe3

"I like my new telephone, my computer works just fine, my calculator is perfect, but Lord, I miss my mind!" - Anonymous, but funny.

What’s 2 pounds, has to be recharged after every half-hour of use, and costs $3,995?

Why, the first cell phone of course!

Hitting the markets in 1984, Motorola’s first cell phone DynaTAC8000X, was more than 12 inches long -- Imagine trying to fit that in your pocket.

We’ve obviously come a long way since then. We now have phones capable of lasting days without being recharged, we can send messages, we can take and send pictures – all on one handy, less than 2 pounds 12 inches, device.

Even with the glitz and glamour of the current phones on the market today, we are constantly dreaming up new ones. Phones with projectors, phones that can transfer talk to text, phones that will gather all of our news and read it to us, phones that can do our math homework: WHATEVER. The crazy thing is, these dreams can be reality. It was the late great Dr. Seuss who said “Oh the things you can think up if only you try;” try we do, and succeed we will. Phone technology is becoming faster, smarter, quicker, better and it’s becoming more and more personalized, which is just what we, as consumers, crave.

A 2009 CNN-Technology article discusses how the cell phone is battling to become the only thing taking up space in our pockets. (That still wouldn’t have helped the DynaTac8000x. Seriously? Did you have to carry a separate bag for that thing?) “Some analysts say that within five years, mobile phones in the United States will be able to make electronic payments, open doors, access subways, clip coupons and possibly act as another form of identification.” (One slight problem-these phones would make Identity Theft for Dummies a whole lot simpler: steal the phone!)

This article on huffingtonpost.com is called “Future Phones: The 17 Coolest Concept Cell Phones.” They are not kidding, some of these things are awesome. Necessary? Probably not. Superfluous? Probably. Awesome?

Absolutely.