The evolution of the mobile phone

Okay so I am a self confessed addict when it comes to my mobile phone, I am rarely seen without it and don't handle it very well if I leave it behind. But where did it all begin? In such a short time (like a lot of technologies in the 21st century), it exploded into our everyday lives!

The first mobile phone ever invented was unveiled to the world in 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper when he made a phone call with it from a street in Manhattan. It was bulky and heavy in its design and costs thousands to make.

Initially it was bulky and out of the price range of most people, however as the technology became more refined and the devices got smaller, they began to take off. In the mid nineties they became increasingly popular and by the turn of the century they were beginning to infiltrate everyday lives.

My first ever mobile phone, Nokia 3210

As the mobile phone became more popular the features of the phone began to move further away from the phone, what was initially invented to make a call, became your instant messenger, your radio, your camera and in more recent times this has blown out of proportion with the invention of smart phones. In just 40 years the mobile phone barely resembles its former self. No longer content with the capabilities of our phones the big mobile technology giants such as Blackberry, Apple and Samsung have created such amazing technologies to the point where actually calling someone is such a minor feature of what the mobile phone is capable of. Between constant internet access, emails, gaming, cameras, social networking, satellite navigation and an endless supply of applications covering anything from the weather to acting as a pedometer, they have thought of everything. The mobile phone has moved on from being a phone, to being so much more.

The world is literally at our fingertips. For a lot of people (not to name any names) the basic mobile which allows you to call and text people is more than enough. They have laptops and desktops for anything else they could ever need in life, but not me. While I do have access to computers, I couldn't imagine being without my smartphone. I have the taste for it now and I can never go back. It allows me to instantly look up the name of that actress in that film or to locate the cafe I am supposed to meeting a friend at. It has revolutionised my everyday life and I have no intention of going back.

For me however its main function remains as a means of communication.  I know there is a concern out there that mobiles are creating barriers in real life social situations, but I think that all depends on the person. My contact is on multiple levels from calls to texts to emails to social networks to instant messaging. While I am an avid user of my mobile for many things, predominantly it allows me to just easily send my friend up the road a text and instant message a friend half way around the world. How could you not be in love with such a technology? I know it gets a bad rep sometimes, but it is one of the great advances of our time and it can only get better and wackier from here...

Can you remember what your first mobile phone was?

Curiosity - What's Inside The Cube?

The British game designer Peter Molyneux as part of a new start up "22Cans" has released a new app for the Apple and Android Market, Curiosity - What's Inside the Cube?

The premise is to dig through the surfaces of a mammoth cube to get to the centre. The player is presented with a rotating cube, when they zoom in (a lot) they realise it is made of many milions of smaller cubes called "cubelets". The purpose of the game is to tap on these cubelets to make them disappear. Players must dig through each layer of the cube one at a time, but one layer is millions and millions of cubelets. Along the way players are rewarded with coins for every cubelet tapped, which can be cashed in for tools to speed up the process. The game is multi player, in that every person who is playing the app is chipping away at the same layer simultaneously in real time. However this is not to say it's a team activity, all players are in competition with one another to be the one who chips away the very last cubelet to "find out what truly amazing things lie in the centre". 

The developers are calling it a social experiment (the first one of 22). It is fascinating the huge surge in popularity of the app, since none of the players have any idea what the purpose of the game/experiment is or where it is all leading. But as the experiment suggests, their curiosity is getting the better of them. Is it their competitive nature coming out or a case that people enjoy being part of something bigger, feeling like they belong? It will be interesting to see how long it takes to get to the centre, will it be as amazing as the developers are making it out to be? Or will people get bored before they even get there?

To keep up with the latest developments in Curiosity and for any new experiments released, check out 22Cans website.

Jimmy Kimmel's YouTube Challenges

Jimmy Kimmel in the last year or so has set his viewers a variety of challenges in the form of pranks which they are to record and post on YouTube.

The most recent edition was the "I Told My Kid I Ate All Their Halloween Candy Again". Similar to last year Jimmy gets parents to tell their kids that they ate all their candy when they were in bed. While we shouldn't laugh at these poor innocents, it does make for some funny viewing.

The last few kids were real troopers!!

Some other YouTube Challenges set by Jimmy Kimmel over the last year...


I Gave My Kids a Terrible Present

Hey Jimmy Kimmel, I Sprayed My Dad With A Hose (for Father's Day)

And the original from last year - I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy