This was a unique point in time when people had cell phones but had to carry a phonebook because there was no mobile internet. Some time between 1992 and 2005?
Anon uses a phone book
Submitted 3 months ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to greentext@sh.itjust.works
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/db244e32-64ee-4cf9-b6ed-9b87bdebcd5d.png
Comments
DrBob@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
Even once mobile internet was introduced, it was really expensive and many businesses didn’t have a web presence that would work on mobile. It’s only since maybe 2011 that someone could look up a business on their phone and be relatively confident that they’d find contact info on a mobile friendly page and not blow out their monthly data allowance in the process.
x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
boonhet@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Even in 2005, mobile internet was so shit, it might as well not have existed. 2007-2008 was when 3G was starting to get rolled out I believe, but even that was pretty damn slow and expensive. 3.5G in ~2010+ is when things were usable enough that you could perform a Google search without giving up before the your first result loads.
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 months ago
WAP was a bit of an attempt, but in truth you couldn’t do much of anything with it.
ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 3 months ago
I remember in 2005, pulling over and calling my sister for directions on my flip phone because I got lost.
I didn’t get mobile internet until like 2010. And also Google Maps was a website, not a app.
boonhet@lemm.ee 3 months ago
since “mobile-friendly” was non-existent.
And now everything is mobile-first.
WIsh we could go back to the time where mobile-friendly was a thing, but using a desktop browser was a valid option too.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
I remember paying a ton because I enabled mobile data in 2009 to check the score on a football game. My normal bill was ~$50/month for unlimited talk/text, and a few megs of data to check the score on one game doubled my bill that month.
It wasn’t until 2011/2012 until I had a plan w/ data, and even then it was kind of expensive and slow. I remember switching to Google Fi pretty early on because it was only $10/GB, which was a really good deal at the time.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 months ago
There was also goog411 from 2007 to 2010. It was nice for finding phone numbers quickly and for free, but in hindsight, they were collecting vocal data.
SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Around that time I was a swamper on a moving truck, we had been just using a map book, worked fine. The owner decided TomTom was the future, and wanted us using it, no arguments!
We’re going down the highway, fully loaded, probably going a bit faster than we should, and TomTom, in it’s infinite wisdom, yells “Sharp left here!” This is Canada, and we were halfway between exits, a sharp left turn would have put us through the concrete barriers and into oncoming traffic. Needless to say, we turned Tom off, and carried on with the map book…
tiramichu@lemm.ee 3 months ago
In the UK at least, mobile phone ownership per household was only 16% in 1996 and didn’t reach 50% until the year 2000.
To have a phone in '92 you’d need to either be wealthy or have it through a company for business.
By dad had a phone in 95 for work and it was an absolute brick.
As for mobile internet, that wasn’t really a thing until smartphones happened with the iPhone. Yes we had WAP and other precursors to the full internet but it was awful and nobody used it, ever. In 2007 I was a nerd at uni doing Comp Sci and had a Windows Mobile PDA in a belt holster, with full internet! But almost everyone had no Internet until about 2009-10
ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 3 months ago
Do you mean the Cisco iPhone from the 90s or the Brazilian iphone from the early '00s? I’m totally just taking the piss though, I know you mean the Apple one from the later '00s but it wasn’t that rare to have mobile internet before it, they were just riding the wave that was already breaking across society.
Apple had a major advantage though, lots of people were already eyeing their popular mp3 player, if a phone could be a phone, internet, and a good music player you can sync easily, it won for a lot of people. I couldn’t justify the price and really liked physical keyboards, by the time those became rare I disliked Apple too much to try them.
Somewhere I have my old BB 8320 from 2007, it was awesome because it had WiFi so much better speed when WiFi was available.
refalo@programming.dev 3 months ago
The T-Mobile sidekick had a full browser in 2002 and was wildly popular with younger people.
A large part of DangerOS’s architecture was later used to create Android.
espentan@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I first bought a phone as soon as the first GSM networks opened, in Norway, in 1993. My first phone was a Pioneer PCC-D700 and, if memory serves, it cost 2995 NOK / ~300 EUR.
Before GSM became a thing, phones were crazy expensive, though. Almost as expensive as an iPhone, he.
tiramichu@lemm.ee 3 months ago
In the UK at least, mobile phone ownership per household was only 16% in 1996 and didn’t reach 50% until the year 2000.
To have a phone in '92 you’d need to either be wealthy or have it through a company for business.
My dad had a phone in 95 for work and it was an absolute brick.
As for mobile internet, that wasn’t really a thing until smartphones happened with the iPhone. Yes we had WAP and other precursors to the full internet but it was awful and nobody used it, ever. In 2007 I was a geeky nerd at uni doing Comp Sci and had a Windows Mobile PDA in a belt holster, with full internet! But most people didn’t have Internet until about 2009-10
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
later than 2005 for most people, the first iPhone was released in 2007, first Android phone in 2008, those things made a lot more people practically able to access the Internet from outside, and even then it took until 2009 to 2011 for many people to get one
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
Google maps didn’t exist prior to the iPhone/android period as well, so people with blackberrys didn’t have access to that before Android/iphone 07-08
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I don’t think anyone took a phone book with them. This is the first time I’ve ever heard it suggested.
deltapi@lemmy.world 3 months ago
My Father had a ‘car phone’ from 1990-1999ish and switched to a nokia 3210 or similar. While he had the ‘car phone’, he kept a phone book in the car. By the time of the Nokia, his outbound calling was predictable enough that he either had it saved on the phone or he used ‘411’ to have an operator look up the number.
Trollception@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
I had mobile internet around 2002/2003 I believe. It was slow as shit and pages were just text but it was internet.
DrBob@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
You should have seen the internet before 1993 lol.
HawlSera@lemm.ee 3 months ago
I miss the forbidden R-Word
yogurtwrong@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I just like how it punches. But I acknowledge it’s been used by horrible people in the past and I just don’t wanna say it since it reminds me of Hans Asperger and American eugenics society every time I hear it
HawlSera@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Is that why we don’t call it Asperger’s anymore?
Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 3 months ago
It rings in my head every time I meet a Trumper.
Sanctus@lemmy.world 3 months ago
For me, which I dont use it outside of discord, it means people with a perfectly functioning brain who chose ignorance. They choose to believe that all.over the nation schools are putting litter boxes out for furry kids or some stupid ass, easily disprovable, GQP bullshit.
edwardbear@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Toxic mom doesn’t want to visit dad’s favorite steak joint, pins it on the kid.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 months ago
It’s OK, that was only the car phone book. The phone book everyone kept in the car. Which was a perfectly normal thing everyone did.
otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
Even functional, a boss move. 🤣