COM 208: iPhones and other gadgets

Origins of iPhone

• Apple created iPhone in cooperation with AT&T Mobility, then Cingular Wireless.
• Development cost: An estimated $150 million over 30 months
• iPhone unveiled to public in January 2007
• More than 73 million iPhones had been sold by the end of 2010, Wikipedia said.
• More than 300,000 iPhone apps have been developed
• 10 billion apps had been sold by January 2011, MacRumors said. “The App Store has revolutionized how software is created, distributed, discovered and sold,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

iPhone 4G – See video

History of mobile phones

• Mobile phones have been around since the 1950s
• Millionaire businessman Linus Larrabee, a character played by Humphrey Bogart, made a call from a mobile phone in the back of his limousine in the 1954 movie Sabrina.

Mobile phones in 1956: Ericsson MTA (Mobile Telephone System A)
Weight: Just 90 pounds

Evolution of cell phone design 
• 1983: Motorola DynaTAC 8000X
• 1994: Motorola MicroTAC
• 1996: Motorola StarTAC
• 1998: Nokia 8810
• 2002: RIM BlackBerry 5810
• 2004: Motorola Razr V3

Discussion points:

• How does technology change the way we work and live?
• What is the impact of growing up with cell phones and other mobile devices?
• What are some of the most amazing iPhone apps? See Apps of the Week

iPad 2 coming out soon
30-second ad
MAD TV parody

Notes:
In class, we also watched a YouTube video of North Point’s iBand. One student said he worried that some people put too much emphasis on technology without learning traditional skills.
Off topic: Lively debate in class over the merits of cursive writing. KETV reports: “Cursive writing has been eliminated from the Common Core State Standards, a school instruction policy adopted last summer by 40 states.”