telephones

This Wired Article From 2007 About Throwing Away Your Mobile Phone Makes Some Good Points

Everyone gets frustrated with their mobile phones at some point, leading many of us to fantasize about throwing our shit into the ocean and just living without one. And back in the ancient world of 2007, that was a much more reasonable possibility. A Wired article from July 31, 2007 made the case that there…

Tech News Matt Novak

The 1950s Guide to Proper Telephone Etiquette

Phone calls here in 2018 seem to be more and more rare, especially with younger people. But most Americans still know basic phone etiquette, like saying “hello” when you answer the phone, and not hanging up without some kind of goodbye. But in case you’ve forgotten, here’s a helpful guide from 1950 that was produced…

Gadgets Matt Novak

Thomas Edison Predicted Nobody Would Be Able to Make Phone Calls Across the Atlantic Ocean

Never say never. Thomas Edison was both a great inventor and an amusing prognosticator. But nobody, no matter how smart, knows the future. And that goes for Edison as well. Back in 1894, Edison predicted that transatlantic phone calls would be impossible. But his doubts would prove silly roughly 30 years later when the first…

Tech News Matt Novak

AT&T Launches Fake 5G Network in Desperate Attempt to Seem Innovative

Have you heard? AT&T is going to “pave the way for the next generation of faster speeds” with something called 5G Evolution. No, it’s not actually a new 5G network, the much hyped successor to 4G that’s supposed to change the way we connect to the internet. It’s just a re-branded 4G offering, and AT&T’s…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

To Get Customers Acclimated To Rotary Telephones, Theaters Played This PSA

Telephones got their start in the late nineteenth century, connected through exchanges. In the early twentieth century, however, Bell introduced a new dial system, and needed to tell callers how to use it. The new rotary telephones were a major departure from that of early phones, and would soon become widespread throughout the country. To…

Tech News Andrew Liptak

Do You Still Use a Landline?

Reports say less than half of U.S. households are equipped with landlines. I remember when a landline was the best thing that ever happened to me. Do you still have one? What do you use it for? Getting my own landline for AOL connectivity in 10th grade was the ultimate teenage triumph. Only the cool…

Tech News Kaila Hale-Stern

In the ’60s, your “wrong number” was likely the phone company’s error

Dial a phone number. Instead of the person you’re trying to reach, a stranger picks up. After a moment of confusion, you blurt out “sorry, wrong number,” and hang up. Was it your fault? In 1960s America, it might have been the phone company’s error, but AT&T was happy to let you blame yourself. In…

Tech News Bob Sorokanich

Hilariously Useless Comments About Science from the US Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court is not composed of scientists. We’ve seen this before. But they do end up hearing a lot of cases that involve science, and are forced to describe the concepts and technology before them. They do not always rise to the challenge. In general, the issue tend to be a bizarre mix…

io9 Katharine Trendacosta

19th Century New York Was Covered in an Insane Web of Telephone Wires

Alexander Graham Bell may have invented the telephone in 1875, but the first phone installation didn’t come about for another three years. And that’s what makes these photos from 1887 so incredible; this tangled mass of telephone wires had already wound itself around New York City’s streets just seven years after that first installation. Then…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg

That Coke Super Bowl Ad Would Have Been Illegal in 1910s Iowa

Idiots, racists, and old-fashioned xenophobes took to social media this past weekend to express their disgust with Coca-Cola. The international beverage company had the audacity to run an ad during the Super Bowl that featured people singing “America the Beautiful” in different languages. This, of course, was unacceptable to those who believe that the U.S.…

Tech News Matt Novak

Tomorrow’s Telephone and The Leisure Society That Never Arrived

Fifty years ago, the most revolutionary technology of the future was supposed to be the telephone — thanks to some high-tech upgrades just over the horizon, of course. At least that’s what the phone companies kept telling us. Advancements like the videophone and dial-a-libraries weren’t just supposed to make the world feel that much smaller…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Fantastic, Wonderful (and Boring) Future of Phones in 1965

Speed-dialing! Electronic exchanges! Call forwarding! Okay, it’s no gold iPhone, but back in 1965 (when Apple CEO Timmy Cook was just four years old), this was the future of phones! As someone whose job it is to study past visions of the future every single day, it’s easy for me to pull out the flying…

Tech News Matt Novak

The 1960s Phone Button Layouts That Never Were

Certain aspects of the technologies that we use here in the 21st century have been around for so long that we take them for granted. One great example is the way that the buttons on a push-button phone are positioned. In the early-’60s switch from rotary to push-button phones, there was nothing obvious about how…

Tech News Matt Novak

Look at the Insane Number Button Layouts Our Telephones Could Have Had

The year was 1960, and phones were changing. It was the beginning of the end for rotary dialing, and buttons were the future. But engineers faced an important, looming question: what order do you put those buttons in? Turns out there were a lot of options. Note: A ton of these are super wrong. What…

Tech News Eric Limer

New Tech Could Allow Super-Speed Internet on Old Phone Lines

Gigabit internet is fast and amazing. But that “Download entire movies in mere seconds!” line gets real old if you, like the vast majority of the country, don’t have access to those lightning fast fiber lines. But thanks to a new approach from Alcatel-Lucent, your creaky old copper phone lines might be good enough. That’s…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

Listen To Alexander Graham Bell Introduce Himself From 100 Years Ago

It’s not often you get to hear with the 19th century sounded like, but thanks to 3D scanning and old wax cylinders, it’s possible. And now, for the very first time, we know what Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the all-important telephone, might have sounded like when he made that historic call. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-oldest-record-in-history-scanned-and-recrea-5922410 Recordings of…

Tech News Eric Limer

How to Stop Robocalls Once and For All

You’ve just sat down to a nice home-cooked meal with your family when the phone rings. Could be Grandma, you think. She still actually uses the phone for talking. But no, it’s a robocall shilling for some debt relief scam, the fifth in as many days. You know what? You don’t have to put up…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

Finally, a Showerhead That Looks Like an Old Timey Phone

If you randomly asked people what their morning shower is missing most, there’s a good chance they’ll probably lament the fact that their showerheads don’t look like retro phone handsets. A complaint that’s now rendered moot thanks to this novelty showerhead. Instead of relaxing features like massage or pulsating modes, the only functionality this ‘Off…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Was AT&T Trying To Educate or Terrify Kids About Phones In the 1950s?

By 1950 only about 60 percent of the homes in the United States had a telephone. And since one of the best ways to sell a product is by appealing to kids, AT&T created this 18-minute film called Adventure in Telezonia that somehow manages to teach, terrify, and sell, all at the same time. The…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

AT&T’s Hilarious Vintage How Not To Be a Raging Dick Telephone Commercials

Way back in the 20th century, when people talked on phones, the old AT&T Corporation produced instructional movies with a mission: to show telephone newbies how not to be assholes. The strategy? Show a lot of footage of male assholes. The films—1946’s “Telephone Courtesy” and 1972’s “How to Lose Your Best Customer”—center around one theme:…

Tech News Sam Biddle

telephones

This Wired Article From 2007 About Throwing Away Your Mobile Phone Makes Some Good Points

The 1950s Guide to Proper Telephone Etiquette

Thomas Edison Predicted Nobody Would Be Able to Make Phone Calls Across the Atlantic Ocean

AT&T Launches Fake 5G Network in Desperate Attempt to Seem Innovative

To Get Customers Acclimated To Rotary Telephones, Theaters Played This PSA

Do You Still Use a Landline?

In the ’60s, your “wrong number” was likely the phone company’s error

Hilariously Useless Comments About Science from the US Supreme Court

19th Century New York Was Covered in an Insane Web of Telephone Wires

That Coke Super Bowl Ad Would Have Been Illegal in 1910s Iowa

Tomorrow’s Telephone and The Leisure Society That Never Arrived

The Fantastic, Wonderful (and Boring) Future of Phones in 1965

The 1960s Phone Button Layouts That Never Were

Look at the Insane Number Button Layouts Our Telephones Could Have Had

New Tech Could Allow Super-Speed Internet on Old Phone Lines

Listen To Alexander Graham Bell Introduce Himself From 100 Years Ago

How to Stop Robocalls Once and For All

Finally, a Showerhead That Looks Like an Old Timey Phone

Was AT&T Trying To Educate or Terrify Kids About Phones In the 1950s?

AT&T’s Hilarious Vintage How Not To Be a Raging Dick Telephone Commercials

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