My ancient cellphone: All that is clunky eventually becomes cool again
I’m not a serious cellphone user; it’s basically a necessity for certain mundane family management tasks, and that’s all I use it for. Email, that’s my bag. (Yes, I know that tags me as the fortysomething I am.)
So I’m still using this fairly clunky old Motorola V-60 that Verizon gave me way back when. No camera, not even color, but hey, it works.
And now, it turns out, this very phone has made Kevin Kelly’s excellent Cool Tools site:
If 1960s cars can be fashionable in Hollywood, surely late-1990s phones must stage a comeback at some point. When people look with surprise at my “piece of junk,” I tell them I’m just ahead of my time.
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June 26th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
If forced to choose, I’d have to put the devices in the same order. The thing is, I really don’t want to have to choose. My digital dream is to dismiss that choice by turning my TV and cellphone into my computer. I want internet access everywhere and everywhen, no matter where I happen to be. I want to get my TV shows as easily as my email.
That’s what makes the iPhone exciting. It may not actually deliver on all it promises (we’ll see), but the concept is definitely where we need to be going. There shouldn’t be any barriers between those three worlds and I’d really love to see the day when the walls come down.
P.S. The Motorola V60 is in no way clunky. It’s still one of the best designed cell phones ever, with elegant lines that belie the fact that it’s built like a tank.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
[...] a few knocks. I have used Thinkpads until their plastic cases began to disintegrate, and I have an unusually durable cellphone — an antediluvian model with a black-and-white screen. But in general, our PDAs, Ipods, [...]