Nogramming: Jack Ferris
For this assignment, I thought it would be interesting to go through the history of my cell phones (7 of them) from the very first one I received to my current one. Cell phones have seen dramatic changes and improvements in our lifetime and I thought it would be cool to look at the ones I owned in particular. In completing this assignment, it was rather fun to try to find all the phones I owned and think about what features were cool about them. I also included a few facts about each of the phones. I included pictures of all them below.
Motorala StarTAC
Facts from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_StarTAC
Released: 1996
Estimated time I owned: 2001-2002
*94mm x 55mm x 19mm
*88 grams
*smallest cell phone available a its release
*one of the first cell phones to use vibrate
I remember getting this cell phone in 5th grade. I definitely did not need a cell phone and was pretty much the only one of my friends that had one. I believe the only reason I got one was because I was jealous my older siblings got them. What did I think was cool about it? I thought it was cool I could make songs from the key tones.
Samsung SPH-A500
Facts from http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=158
Released: 2002
Estimated time I owned 2002-2004
*88mm x 50mm x 23.4mm
*102 grams
*downloadable ringtones/wallpapers
*internet access
The majority of time I can remember having this phone was in 7th grade. This phone was definitely cool for its time. Few of my friends had cell phones, so I remember almost exclusively using it for its games and its Internet access. The Internet was absolutely terrible from what I remember. I remember only certain websites being able to load and they would take forever to load them. But hey, I could use AOL instant messenger and send/receive maybe one message every 5 minutes. That was better than the 0 IMs my friends could send/receive without a cell phone.
Sanyo PM-8200
Facts from http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=508
Released: 2004
Estimated time I owned: 2004-2005
*85mm x 47mm x 25.9mm
*103 grams
*camera (res: VGA 640×480)
*waterproof?
This was one of my favorite phones I owned. I used this phone in 8th grade and many of my friends started getting phones at this time. I remember this phone having text messaging, but I don’t remember ever using it. I think actual phone calls were preferred at this time (imagine that). What was really cool about this phone was that there was a screen on the front that displayed the camera when it was shut. I was able to take creepy pictures/videos of people in class when it was closed and I remember having a good time with that. I also remember dropping it in a hot tub and it was not phased…take that iPhone.
Motorola i860
Facts from http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=559
Released: 2005
Estimated time I owned: 2005-2007
*88mm x 50mm x 25.7mm
*135 grams
*25 MB internal storage
*video (up to 10 seconds!)
I had this phone for the first half of my high school career. This phone was built like a fortress. It was very durable and could take some damage (I tested this). I remember it having a button on the side of the hinge that flipped it open, so I thought I was cool doing that all the time. The display was definitely an upgrade from my previous phone with an impressive resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. I was also able to capture some awesome 10 second videos.
Samsung UpStage M620
Facts from http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=1112
Released: 2007
Estimated time I owned: 2007-2009
*103mm x 44mm x 9.4 mm
*73 grams
*53 MB internal storage + 64 MB card
*MMS
I had this phone for the remainder of my high school career. This phone was the definition of looking cooler than it was. This was probably the worst phone I ever owned. At first, I thought the fact that it had two sides with two screens (one side was meant for music) was cool, but it proved to be extremely inefficient and annoying. The screen on the side that had the keys on it was about a half an inch in height, which made it impossible to read more than 2 lines of text, so you had to flip to the opposite side to read texts and then flip back to write texts. That wouldn’t have been that bad if it didn’t consistently freeze on flips. It also had Internet that never worked. The only thing was good about this phone was that it was extremely small and lightweight.
iPhone 3GS
Facts from http://support.apple.com/kb/SP565?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Released: 2009
Estimated time I owned: 2009-2011
*115.5mm x 62.1mm x 12.3mm
*135 grams
*32GB memory
*Wi-Fi, 3G
*video recording
*3 megapixel camera
Getting an iPhone was revolutionary in my cell phone history. It was the first time I had a phone with working Internet. The iPhone replaced my iPod and any kind of hand held gaming system I used. The amount of applications available was overwhelming and let’s face it, I was obsessed.
iPhone 4S
Facts rom http://support.apple.com/kb/SP643
Released: 2011
Estimated time I owned: 2011-NOW
*115.2mm x 58.6mm x 9.3mm
*140 grams
*32GB memory
*Wi-Fi, 3G
*8 megapixel camera
*retina display
I can’t really say that much has changed between the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4S. The 4S is pretty much the same, just faster, a different look, and a few extra features like Siri. I love this phone and could not see myself diverging from the iPhone line. The elegancy and simplicity truly makes it a great device.
