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Cell phone question


Alpo

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Do you believe that in 1990 your average person knew how to use a cell phone?

 

I know I didn't. I got my first cell in 2000. Before that I was used to a telephone, where you picked it up and it buzzed at you and you dialed the number and it immediately started ringing. There was no "dial the number and then push send" in my experience.

 

Another novel. Guy is raising hell in a restaurant, and has already put down the owner and one of the waitresses, and the hero hands his cell phone to the guy he's with and tells him to call the cops, while he goes over to handle the bad guy.

 

I was just thinking that if it was me he handed the phone to, in 1990, when he got through beating up the bad guy and came back over to me, I would still be trying to figure it out. :wacko::P

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Most likely in 1990 only those who could afford to buy one had one and knew at least the basics as they didn't have many capabilities back then. 

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My boss back in 1987, bought two cell phones. One was for his wife to keep with her and the other was for the company truck.

 

Only two people drove the company truck, the boss and me. There were actually two company trucks. The boss only ever drove one of them and if he was out, the phone went with him. Otherwise, I was tied to the damned thing so he could reach me no matter where I was during business hours.

 

Anyway! They weighed about eight or ten pounds and were carried in a leather bag with a heavy strap.  They were cumbersome and annoying since you had to lug them around like a great big purse!!

 

 I wish I had one of those to keep in the vehicle when I travel! They have enormous range. The one we’re now used to carrying these days depends on close proximity to the many cell towers and is generally “line of sight”.  Those old bag phones had much higher wattage and could work across what today would be considered major voids in service!!

 

 

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7 hours ago, Alpo said:

Do you believe that in 1990 your average person knew how to use a cell phone?

 

I know I didn't. I got my first cell in 2000. Before that I was used to a telephone, where you picked it up and it buzzed at you and you dialed the number and it immediately started ringing. There was no "dial the number and then push send" in my experience.

 

Another novel. Guy is raising hell in a restaurant, and has already put down the owner and one of the waitresses, and the hero hands his cell phone to the guy he's with and tells him to call the cops, while he goes over to handle the bad guy.

 

I was just thinking that if it was me he handed the phone to, in 1990, when he got through beating up the bad guy and came back over to me, I would still be trying to figure it out. :wacko::P

 

I sold those (or at least tried, sales is not something I was meant for, too honest) when they first came out.  The original handsets looked just like a regular, non-rotary, phone.  They were probably easier to use than the "smart" phones we have now.

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From the story.

 

>I pulled out my cell phone and pushed it across the table. It was a Motorola MicroTAC which I got last year to replace my original DynaTAC ‘brick.’<

 

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That is a Motorola MicroTAC. And this is the DynaTAC that he replaced.

 

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I got one in the early '90's 

The city wouldn't spring for them, relying on radio's, but radio's were not in all fleet vehicles then.

My parents were getting on in years and started having health issues, so I bought my own, c/w a belt holster for it.

I still have the same number 30 years later.

 

Blackwater:

Our gang cursed the Sat Phone one of our hunting party carried. We thought we were safely out of contact with our offices, BUT NOOO!

Two of the 6 of us got calls, in the evening, reporting "Issues" that needed immediate attention, in spite of 2 I/Cs and staff that should have been able to handle the problems.

After that, the batteries would sadly die when we got on the road and there was no convenient Current Bush to re-charge them LOL

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11 minutes ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

Our gang cursed the Sat Phone one of our hunting party carried. We thought we were safely out of contact with our offices, BUT NOOO!

Why in the world would you give your offices that guy's sat phone number?

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I had one very similar to this in 1992, I remember it didn't have a lot of coverage area and it was quite expensive to make calls. I mainly bought it to have for emergencies while I was out driving around to appointments all day, sometimes in not the greatest neighborhoods.

 

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40 minutes ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

I got one in the early '90's 

The city wouldn't spring for them, relying on radio's, but radio's were not in all fleet vehicles then.

My parents were getting on in years and started having health issues, so I bought my own, c/w a belt holster for it.

I still have the same number 30 years later.

 

Blackwater:

Our gang cursed the Sat Phone one of our hunting party carried. We thought we were safely out of contact with our offices, BUT NOOO!

Two of the 6 of us got calls, in the evening, reporting "Issues" that needed immediate attention, in spite of 2 I/Cs and staff that should have been able to handle the problems.

After that, the batteries would sadly die when we got on the road and there was no convenient Current Bush to re-charge them LOL

In 2000 or 2001 we all got issued cell phones at work. When I became a manager I was told to keep it in me “at all times”. On my first vacation after the phone was issued I got more calls than I usually got at work. That never happened again because no matter where I was “that darned cell phone just never go a signal.”

 

 

As to using a cell in 1990. The answer would be “Yes”, but only because someone showed me how they worked when I asked him about it. He was VERY proud of his electronic brick. 
 

My first cell phone was one of those Motorola TAC phones but it didn’t have the flip part. What a PITA to carry. 

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35 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Why in the world would you give your offices that guy's sat phone number?

One guys private accounting firm called the other guys engineering firm offices to get the number.

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My current phone is a ruggedized Samsung flip phone, i can slip into my jeans watch pocket.

"They" keep wanting me to up-grade it, but the ones today are going back up in size with 1000 features on them I will never use or want to use.

And they keep breaking them. Or losing them.

Pard lost one inside the fuselage of an aircraft he was inspecting for it's C of A.

Had a heck of a time finding and getting it out.

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56 minutes ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

My current phone is a ruggedized Samsung flip phone, i can slip into my jeans watch pocket.

"They" keep wanting me to up-grade it, but the ones today are going back up in size with 1000 features on them I will never use or want to use.

And they keep breaking them. Or losing them.

Pard lost one inside the fuselage of an aircraft he was inspecting for it's C of A.

Had a heck of a time finding and getting it out.

 

For years I carried a Samsung Rugby II, until the danged thing was worn smooth.  Then I "upgraded" to a Samsung Rugby IV - big mistake.  I thought it was identical to the II, but no... just looked identical.  Slightly larger (wouldn't fit the II's holsters), but worse, in a nod to Microsoft's example, they significantly changed the command function sequences.  Major PITA.  

 

But I adapted, and used it.  Danged things were nigh unto indestructible.  Then one evening about a year and a half ago, I got a call from a very nice young lady with AT&T:

 

"Mister C, I'm sooo sorry to tell you this, but in a few weeks we're no longer going be able to support your old Samsung phone," she said with the sweetest Texas accent.

 

"Miss, I'm sooo sorry to tell YOU this, but I have absolutely no desire to spend a bunch of money on some danged 'smart phone' with a bunch of stuff I don't need!"  I replied.

 

"But, Mister C, we really don't want to lose you; we see that you like Samsung models, so we'll be more than happy to send you a brand-new Samsung 'smart phone' for FREE if you'll just stop using the old one!"

 

She did and I did and life is good.  At least in the area of phones.  ^_^  

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