Back in 1997, my employer had me carrying a Motorola doorstop as a leash. It only had a couple hours of battery life and only fit in my pocket because I had big pockets (it was the ’90s!), but it was definitely a cell phone. By 2000 I had a personal cell, a Nokia candybar about half the size of that thing Joyce is holding (which looks to me like it’s actually just a cordless handset).
In my personal world, Jason is offended by people who aren’t proper early risers (if you are not a morning person, then stiff upper lip you colonialist pansy) and so makes sure the dorm phones have a ring tone that sounds like an alarm.
Rabid Rabbit, you’re correct. I should have said cells didn’t exist in a manner recognizable to youngsters today.
A handheld portable phone was considered a gimmick, a “look what I got!” rich man’s toy with dubious utility. Measuring 13 x 1.75 x 3.5 inches and weighing 28 ounces, the 8000X was so big and heavy, even its creators had nicknamed it “The Brick.” Plus, you could only use it for a half an hour before the battery gave out. Who would pay a quarter of the average salary in 1984 — more than $9,000 in 2014 dollars — to carry around such a useless load, especially since payphones were everywhere and only cost a dime to use?
also:
CNN) — In 1973, Martin Cooper changed the world, although he didn’t know it yet.
Cooper and his team at Motorola, the communications company, created maybe the only thing that runs the lives of business professionals and teenagers alike — the cell phone.
It was the size of a brick and wasn’t commercially sold for another decade. But as Cooper demonstrated on a New York sidewalk, it worked……..
If you think about it, this is not a commercial product and if you had to build one it would cost about a million dollars. By the time we built a commercial product, it was 10 years later. We didn’t sell that product until October of 1983, and the phone then cost $3,900. So that would be like buying a phone today for $10,000.
There’s a huge difference between 1984 and 2000. Like I said above, by 1997 I was sometimes carrying one, not as a rich boy’s toy, but as a work requirement because they sometimes needed to call me in in the middle of the night to fix their shit.
By the summer of 2000, when this strip originally ran, I had my own personal cell. It wasn’t any $3900; it cost me $20 with the Cell One contract. I could’ve gotten an Ericsson flip-phone free, but my ex, who worked at Ericsson, strongly recommended that I pay the twenty bucks for the Nokia instead. It wasn’t a toy either; it was my primary phone.
Also, seriously dude, learn how to use the reply function. I think I tried to explain it to you over in the DoA comments once already. There where it says “Reply” in blue letters to the right of the timestamp on people’s comments, that’s a link. If you click on it, your comment will appear indented just below the comment you clicked on instead of tacked on after all of the other comments with no context.
It’s not such a big deal here, where there’s not usually more than a dozen or two comments, but over on DoA half the time I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about because there’s a hundred other comments between yours and the one you’re responding to.
I just really don’t get what’s supposed to be going on in this strip. Mike is sleeping at 8 PM? And his alarm clock is ringing? And this is Joyce’s fault because… someone called her on Mike’s alarm-clock-phone? Or she’s calling Mike’s alarm-clock-phone? Or maybe he’s just pissed because he had to get up and Joyce is the most punchable thing around, and she just incidentally happens to be on the phone? And he’s going to bongo about morning people even though it’s 8 PM? Okay, that bit makes sense, because Mike. But overall I’m giving this strip two and a half WTF???s.
Try these on for size (link)
And it’s still missing one — this one would probably be the first ‘mobile’ phone available to the general public that did not require installation in a vehicle.
Only if the cell phones at the time were smaller by at least half.
Who would be calling joyce? Everyone who knows where she is lives with her.
Everyone who knows WHO she is lives with her.
No, Danny and Joe are still at school. They were fed her cover story.
Everyone who knows she lives is with her.
Like telemarketers care if you live if their corporate overlords have your number on their list.
Yeah, no, it’s only oversized if actual cell phones weren’t actually that big.
Perhaps early 90s. Of course, by 95 my parents had one about half that size.
In 2000 my mobile was around the same size as most feature phones you see today.
It’s always morning, somewhere.
Cell phones didn’t exist then. It was that battery plug in or a pager.
Wall Street begs to differ.
This comic was published in year 2000
The Matrix was published in year 1999
Back in 1997, my employer had me carrying a Motorola doorstop as a leash. It only had a couple hours of battery life and only fit in my pocket because I had big pockets (it was the ’90s!), but it was definitely a cell phone. By 2000 I had a personal cell, a Nokia candybar about half the size of that thing Joyce is holding (which looks to me like it’s actually just a cordless handset).
Are you sure that’s a cell phone? It could be a cordless housephone. That’d be closer to the size.
Also, Mike sleeps until (or more likely, past) 8PM and mistakes phone rings for alarm clocks?
In my personal world, Jason is offended by people who aren’t proper early risers (if you are not a morning person, then stiff upper lip you colonialist pansy) and so makes sure the dorm phones have a ring tone that sounds like an alarm.
Yeah, I thought this was just a cordless handset, too.
Rabid Rabbit, you’re correct. I should have said cells didn’t exist in a manner recognizable to youngsters today.
A handheld portable phone was considered a gimmick, a “look what I got!” rich man’s toy with dubious utility. Measuring 13 x 1.75 x 3.5 inches and weighing 28 ounces, the 8000X was so big and heavy, even its creators had nicknamed it “The Brick.” Plus, you could only use it for a half an hour before the battery gave out. Who would pay a quarter of the average salary in 1984 — more than $9,000 in 2014 dollars — to carry around such a useless load, especially since payphones were everywhere and only cost a dime to use?
also:
CNN) — In 1973, Martin Cooper changed the world, although he didn’t know it yet.
Cooper and his team at Motorola, the communications company, created maybe the only thing that runs the lives of business professionals and teenagers alike — the cell phone.
It was the size of a brick and wasn’t commercially sold for another decade. But as Cooper demonstrated on a New York sidewalk, it worked……..
If you think about it, this is not a commercial product and if you had to build one it would cost about a million dollars. By the time we built a commercial product, it was 10 years later. We didn’t sell that product until October of 1983, and the phone then cost $3,900. So that would be like buying a phone today for $10,000.
There’s a huge difference between 1984 and 2000. Like I said above, by 1997 I was sometimes carrying one, not as a rich boy’s toy, but as a work requirement because they sometimes needed to call me in in the middle of the night to fix their shit.
By the summer of 2000, when this strip originally ran, I had my own personal cell. It wasn’t any $3900; it cost me $20 with the Cell One contract. I could’ve gotten an Ericsson flip-phone free, but my ex, who worked at Ericsson, strongly recommended that I pay the twenty bucks for the Nokia instead. It wasn’t a toy either; it was my primary phone.
Also, seriously dude, learn how to use the reply function. I think I tried to explain it to you over in the DoA comments once already. There where it says “Reply” in blue letters to the right of the timestamp on people’s comments, that’s a link. If you click on it, your comment will appear indented just below the comment you clicked on instead of tacked on after all of the other comments with no context.
It’s not such a big deal here, where there’s not usually more than a dozen or two comments, but over on DoA half the time I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about because there’s a hundred other comments between yours and the one you’re responding to.
I just really don’t get what’s supposed to be going on in this strip. Mike is sleeping at 8 PM? And his alarm clock is ringing? And this is Joyce’s fault because… someone called her on Mike’s alarm-clock-phone? Or she’s calling Mike’s alarm-clock-phone? Or maybe he’s just pissed because he had to get up and Joyce is the most punchable thing around, and she just incidentally happens to be on the phone? And he’s going to bongo about morning people even though it’s 8 PM? Okay, that bit makes sense, because Mike. But overall I’m giving this strip two and a half WTF???s.
It’s Mike. Being Mike. What is there to be confused about?
The punching is the only thing NOT confusing about this strip.
Indeed. Right now, Mike is just wantonly being an asshole just to wantonly be an asshole.
Looks like the Bongo filter works over here too. I approve.
I actually just typed “bongo” instead of “bitch”.
And that did come through unfiltered, so at least as of this moment, it isn’t installed over here.
Try these on for size (link)
And it’s still missing one — this one would probably be the first ‘mobile’ phone available to the general public that did not require installation in a vehicle.
And coincidentally tomorrow’s Dumbing of Age brings up the topic of whether it’s okay to hit girls….