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In the 1940s during WWII, soldiers would use short-range mobile radios to receive messages from the trenches. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/from-the-brick-to-the-iphone-the-cellphone-celebrates-50-years-180981910/ -
The transistor, a small device that amplifies electrical signals that are heard through speakers, is invented. Later that decade they were upgraded to using longer lasting 9-volt batteries, calling them transistor radios. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/from-the-brick-to-the-iphone-the-cellphone-celebrates-50-years-180981910/ -
In the 1960s, car phones were invented. Original car phones weighed 80 pounds, and connected people with switchboard users who could only access the service in major cities. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/from-the-brick-to-the-iphone-the-cellphone-celebrates-50-years-180981910/ -
Short for Dynamic Adaptive Total Coverage Area, the DynaTAC weighed 2.5 lbs and was 9 inches long. In order for it to be fully charged, you had to wait 10 hours to communicate on it for 35 minutes. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/from-the-brick-to-the-iphone-the-cellphone-celebrates-50-years-180981910/
https://historycooperative.org/first-cell-phone/ -
The Mobira Cityman 900, Nokia's first cellphone, appeared on the market in 1987. https://historycooperative.org/first-cell-phone/ -
Samsung release their first cellphone, the SH-1000, which was a car phone. https://historycooperative.org/first-cell-phone/ -
In 1989, Motorola released the first flip phone, the MicroTAC 9800X. It wasn't the usual flip phone you think of today. Instead, the flip cover only covered the buttons, so the screen was always visible. https://historycooperative.org/first-cell-phone/ -
Nokia gave the world the very first mass-produced mobile GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) phone, the Nokia 1011. https://historycooperative.org/first-cell-phone/ -
In 1998, the Siemens S10 was the first cellphone with a colored screen. https://historycooperative.org/first-cell-phone/ -
Apple released the first iPhone, known as the iPhone 2G. This iPhone has a touch screen display and the best web-browsing experience. https://www.cs.odu.edu/~tkennedy/cs300/development/Public/M01-HistoryOfPhones/index.html -
In 2020, the European Union was working on FUNGAR project, a smart technology that would use fungal based materials to sense and react to environment changes. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/from-the-brick-to-the-iphone-the-cellphone-celebrates-50-years-180981910/