A mobile phone, also known as a cell phone, is a portable electronic device which is generally used for distant communication between people. Of course, since technology has evolved quite a lot, a cell phone is now used for more than just making and receiving calls. People buy cell phones which allow them to listen to music. Others pay a lot of attention to the integrated camera as they like to have a portable device that will allow them to take pictures. Other people care about the capabilities to surf the internet or to check their e-mails. The important thing is that cell phones can cover a lot of communication possibilities.

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But how much do we really know about the first cell phone? For example, did you know that the first cell phone was absolutely huge and very different from the regular cell phones that we use in our days? The mobile phone became portable on the 20^th of February 1942 when American Donald Mitchell requested the issue of a patent for his mobile phone which he then referred to as a “portable radio for transmission and reception”. This gadget would work by using short radio waves and it has quite a limited area in which it would function. Like I said, the device used to be huge and the first cell phone was as heavy as 2.5 kg. It’s been no less than 35 years until mobile phone became usable by us, the regular people. Martin Cooper is considered to be the inventor of the first cell phone. He was manager at the Motorola Company back then. He was the one that made the first call from a cell phone back in the year 1973. Dyna TAC 8000X was the first commercial mobile phone in the world.



As you know, most people in the entire world own at least one cell phone. The thing is that they come in all shapes and sizes and you can most likely find one which is affordable, even if it doesn’t come with a lot of high end features. Back then, the Dyna TAC which was the first cell phone that became commercially available cost $3500 and you can understand why there were not a lot of people that could afford it. Smart guy this Martin Cooper. But what do you really know about him? Martin Cooper grew up in the city of Chicago and he earned his degree in the field of electrical engineering. He studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He served 4 years in the navy and then we worked at a telecommunication company. In 1954, he was hired by Motorola to work as a project manager for developing portable products. Since he was pretty good at his job, he ended up leading the Motorola cell phone research.



Well, since cell phones are definitely one accessory that we can’t live without, you could say that Martin Cooper invented one of the coolest gadgets in the world. A big round of applause for Martin Cooper!

Grace has announced a new portable Wi-Fi radio, the Allegro GDI-IRD4000, which has a built-in charging circuit for NiMH batteries and can go for eight hours on a single charge.

The first portable model in iHome’s Studio Series line will hit stores in early spring 2010 with a list price of $169.

Originally posted at 2010 CES

Cydle is launching their new in-car multimedia system at CES this January. Previously only available in South Korea, the Cydle P29 is a portable multimedia player with HD radio and subscription-free Mobile DTV.

Cydle is known for their media devices in South Korea, but are relatively unknown here in the U.S. The P29 will sport a 2.9-inch touchscreen interface, and runs on an ARM9 CPU. Reportedly available in 4GB or 8GB, expect to start seeing them this coming spring with an MSRP of $199.

[via Electronista]

So I just stumbled upon the Myinee Abbee. It’s a combination FM radio+portable music player. The idea is simple enough: you tune the radio into a station, plug in the portable music player, then it records the audio directly to said player. Now you can walk around with a collection of songs that an overpaid, out-of-touch program director has put together based on his company’s national playlist. Wonderful.

The $250 device itself seems fine to me. My only hang-up is that it only works with FM radio, which is compressed like nobody’s business. So you can sit there and record a couple of songs, then walk around and hear all sorts of artifacts in there. But that’s probably not an issue for the people who still listen to FM radio.

There’s a bigger issue, though, and that’s that FM radio is garbage juice. If you leave the recorder on for a few hours, you’re going to run into the same seven songs at least three times. That’s not the device’s fault, of course, but is more of an indictment of commercial radio these days.

Get ready, 2010 might just end up being the year of HD radio. Rumor is that we’re going to see something like eight new portable HD radio devices at CES this January.

Now, we saw some HD radio devices last year at CES too, but this time they think you’ll really REALLY like them. HD radio seems to have an awareness problem, honestly. The HD radio manufacturers want you to buy their devices this time, and the hope is that by targeting the Zune/iPod crowd by coming up with add-ons, you’ll bite. We should also start seeing some headphone based units as well, and some are even going to include HD AM as well.

You can get HD radio receivers currently in the Zune HD, from The Shack, and Best Buy even has their own headphone style unit already on the market.