Remember when phones where free?

[Flopsweat]

You can do most anything on ur phone now. My phone is used for probably 95% of the things I used to do on computer I would guess, thus my computer time is reduced probably by that amount or close to it.

Random example the other night I wanted to see those satellites that run in a "train". Downloaded one of the many free apps that tracks them in about 30 seconds or so. Held my phone up to the stars using the free "star chart" to see where they were going to be relative to the few stars I could see. That app let you see all the stars with names on your phone as you hold it up towards the sky. Went out at the right time and took video of them with phone (very dim here where I live due to light pollution).

I wonder if there is an app that lets you see infrared that woudl let you see them better? Everything starts like that, "I wonder if there is an app that lets you do X" and nearly all the time there is already an app for that and most of the time they are free.

There are a lot of fake ones, but you need a thermal sensor for it to work properly.

10 Best Infrared Camera Apps For Android & iOS 2023

Here are the 10 Best Infrared Camera Apps For Android & iOS iPhone iPad. Read on...

elixrapp.com

You can hack a webcam to do it though.

ESA Video Shows How to Hack Your Webcam to See Infrared Radiation

The European Space Agency's "Teach with space" video series explains how to convert a webcam to view objects in infrared light.

www.space.com

A few years ago, there used to be an inexpensive camera that had infrared mode but with certain clothing, it would produce a remarkably realistic see-through effect. The feature was dropped rather quickly.

 

[Member 52301]

You must not be that old, Lady Cate. I remember 5 cent payphones. BUT, if you hit the coin return plunger just right, when you dropped the nickel, you'd get your nickel back, and your phone call.

I think (?) that I am OLDER than you are. I turned 72 years old this summer.

I only remember DIME public telephone calls in the 50's and 60's.

Maybe it was different where you grew up. Beats me. NO problem!

Chesapeake and Potomac - JUNE 1883 - I looked it up for history (OLD Bell Telephone companies.) was my telephone company in MD. We always had a HOME TELEPHONE growing up.

The old and former C&P served MD, Washington, D.C., VA and WVA.

They did NOT have that name in PA to the best of my memory.

But I knew public telephones because MJ used one since he had NO home telephone due to being poor growing up.

I always had SPARE money on hand for a telephone call (EMERGENCY call.) and street car - bus money when I did not walk. We walked or used public transportation even further out of the city. Plus in the city when my parents sold the one house further out. We had street cars AND busses where I grew up. City and suburbs.

I do not remember the name of the one telephone company in New York and we moved to MD when I was one year old for my Mom's new job at Johns-Hopkins.

Sometime in the early 50's or even before that time frame some of the bigger telephone companies asked for RATE hikes and they got them according to what I looked up.

ALL of those old telephone company names have changed on the East Coast (Born and raised.) and even in the Great Lakes region where I lived for over 30 years.

C&P Telephone - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Bell System payphone took nickels (5¢), dimes (10¢), and quarters (25¢); a strip of metal along the top had holes the size of each coin. This made possible a mechanism causing each coin to make a different series of sounds as it fell into the cash box; thus an operator listening could tell how much had been inserted.[citation needed]​

On average, payphone calls generally cost 5¢ into the 1950s and 10¢ until the mid-1980s. Rates standardized at 25¢ during the mid-1980s to early 1990s. The Bell System was required to apply for increases through state public service commissions. Therefore, the actual increases took effect at different times in different locations.[31]​[32]​

Different times for increases and different locations.

Interesting OLD LINK from DECEMBER 1981!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1981/12/14/bell-pushes-25-cents-as-nationwide-pay-phone-rate/4f7219ce-b1be-415f-a88f-0f219f3d23e8/

Bell Pushes 25 Cents As Nationwide Pay-Phone Rate

SNIPPET:

QUOTE:

"Before the 1950s the coin-phone charge throughout the country typically was five cents. In the early '50s, it climbed to 10 cents in most areas as the Bell System asked for and won rate increases.

(I was born in 1950.)

In the early 1970s the company tried to get the coin charge set at 20 cents. Some jurisdictions approved the request; others refused and a few compromised and adopted 15-cent rates."

The 10-cent coin charge is still in effect in 28 states. Five others have 15-cent rates -- besides D.C. and Maryland, they are Nevada, North Dakota and Oklahoma. States that have 20-cent charges are Virginia, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Vermont and Wyoming."

OLD article but interesting to me.

Take care!

Cate

 

[Jay Walk]

I purchase nice used Samsungs on Ebay for $150 which includes a 90 day warranty.

What's an I-Phone?

 

[Member 52301]

Pepperidge farm remembers

Wasn't that an OLD commercial?

Cate

 

[Member 52301]

I purchase nice used Samsungs on Ebay for $150 which includes a 90 day warranty.

What's an I-Phone?

NO clue.

I have a DUMB telephone - a plain land line at home now. When I built this house 10/11 years ago - I wanted a LAND LINE connection for the house telephone.

We do not own any cellular telephones.

Some of those smart or fancy cellular telephones cost WAY, way more than my former (Back east.) ship to shore radios for our sail and power boats!

Cate

 

[made in china]

I've had my $189 Moto G Plus for nearly 3 years now. Runs a lightweight version of Android, battery lasts way more than a day.

I smugly look down uponst the sheeple who are easily parted with $1k on a regular cycle.

The ONLY thing an iPhone does better than my phone is it's camera is very good. I make do.

Oh, and BTW nothing's free!

 

[Cavedweller]

I can remember these while growing up.

View attachment 1272973




PS.......But then, maybe my parents were actually "leasing it". And, had to pay for it along with the additional monthly phone service fee. Yeah.....the phone company was ruthless, back then. And, there were no Govt. subsidies to "HELP".

That's right. The telephone company (there was only one, Ma Bell) used to own all the phones. When you discontinued service, they used to come get it. I don't remember exactly when you were first able to buy your own telephone. Sometime in the '70s? @Catherine1, I bet you would know. Few people remember how it used to be. Long distance calling was really expensive. You counted the minutes and kept your calls short. Nowadays people think nothing of talking to someone anywhere in the country for as long as they want. Of course, you pay much more up front for basic service. But, taking inflation into account, maybe not so much more. Things have definitely improved in terms of personal communication, at least technologically, except that it's much easier for them to eavesdrop on you.

Here's an interesting article for you youngsters who have no idea how it used to be:

Breakup of the Bell System - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[DeanMk]

Seriously!

Apparently Apple released another phone today. Starts at $1000. Goes up from there.

I understand these things are basically super computers in the palm of your hands, but I sure wish they started to make a dumbed down version with longer battery life that costs something closer to $200!

I remember my first contract back in the day. Got a free Motorola Razr I want to say. Went through three or four free phones for at least a 10 year period. Then iPhones came. It's been downhill since then!

There's always Tracfone.
I bought my last one a couple of years ago. $29.95.

 

[made in china]

BTW Apple apparently has decided to use 3D NAND memory from YMTC China in iPhone sold outside US market. Has US lawmakers on alert.

Generally companies will collaborate with vendors on tech, and this is high end stuff that the US isn't comfortable with China mastering.

As usual, buying items from US companies like Apple or Ford, for example, is only empowering a Communist adversary.

US Lawmakers Concerned About Apple's Decision to Use YMTC's 3D NAND

Marco Rubio: Apple is playing with fire by adding YMTC to its list of suppliers.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[boattail]

I have had a cell phone since 1991. I hate them with a passion but must have one for work.

I didn't start texting until a few years ago and got my first home computer on 2006. I grew up before phones and computers were a thing and hate them all but understand we must have them. Cell phones replaced the home computer, home phone, cameras, and maps just to name a few.

Necessary evil

 

[made in china]

Sometimes when I forget my phone I have a little panic attack.....a short while later I'm doing just fine without it.

These smartphones are having a knock-on effect with other things in our lives... like vehicles, it's becoming common for vehicles to not have navigation because they can use the smartphone with Android Auto or Car Play.... additionally it's becoming rare to even see a CD player anymore as at the very least people stream music from their smartphone over Bluetooth or AA/CP.....

So, if that's how you do it in your vehicle, forgetting your phone has even more consequences....no music or navigation!

 

[DeanMk]

Seriously!

Apparently Apple released another phone today. Starts at $1000. Goes up from there.

I understand these things are basically super computers in the palm of your hands, but I sure wish they started to make a dumbed down version with longer battery life that costs something closer to $200!

I remember my first contract back in the day. Got a free Motorola Razr I want to say. Went through three or four free phones for at least a 10 year period. Then iPhones came. It's been downhill since then!

TBH, the only free phones I ever got were the Trimlines I used to use back in the land line days.
However, the wording of your question reminded me of something my mom told me once.
Mom was from Japan and it was a very different country when she was a little girl (1920-'s-1930's).
She told me electricity was mainly something you used to light up the house. People hadn't figured out just how useful it was yet (although her father was an electrical engineer and built a radio they had. He also built heating coils for the bath tub, so he could soak a little longer without the water going cold).
However more to the point of this post, all light bulbs were offered by the government.
When you blew a light bulb, you didn't toss it. You took it to a government office and turned it in.
They issued you a new one!
Then you went home and screwed it back into the socket.
That one always floored me.

 

[trevi]

Damn things are amazing compared to what we had just a very short time ago. The phone I have now cost about a C note and it is a small computer and decent camera I carry in my pocket. Pretty damn impressive to me still. Just the damn Camera alone can do a hell of a lot of stuff I never have bothered to learn. Have watched the Wife a few times doing stuff with it that you used to have to buy expensive software to do. Now its all in the phone!

C note?

 

[trevi]

I agree the cost is getting excessive, and I hate computers and electronics with a passion, but these new phones have made Business a lot easier these last 10 years. I'm pretty sure without this phone and Mapquest I'd still be lost somewhere in the Beaverton Tigard Hillsboro area so to me it's well worth the cost

Mapquest still a thing!?

 

[Alexx1401]

C note?

Sorry, forget I am getting old, $100.

 

[Alexx1401]

Mapquest still a thing!?

I still find myself calling it that too when I use my phone to find something. All my life I have been "blessed" with NO sense of direction. My Mother would get lost if she got 3 blocks from home after she lived in the same place for years. Only difference is she would panic. I just get mad at myself. When I first got online Mapquest was GREAT, so great I still tend to call the google on the phone by that name when I turn it on.

 

[ScatPackLife]

Wow. You guys must be really, really old!

 

[Mikej]

Wow. You guys must be really, really old!

Sometimes.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

I heard they were coming out with a new "dial" system. It uses something new called a "dial tone"

 

[Flopsweat]

I still find myself calling it that too when I use my phone to find something. All my life I have been "blessed" with NO sense of direction. My Mother would get lost if she got 3 blocks from home after she lived in the same place for years. Only difference is she would panic. I just get mad at myself. When I first got online Mapquest was GREAT, so great I still tend to call the google on the phone by that name when I turn it on.

Mapquest is still around. I have it on my phone because it's not Google. Works fine.