[BRIEF NOTE] Miracles and Wonders

[rfmcdonald]

They’re probably best known for their tires, but lately Finnish industrial conglomerate Nokia’s been making a big push into the wireless biz with its Mobira subsidiary (best of luck with that, Nokia!). Mobira just introduced its latest ultraportable cellphone, the Talkman (positively no relation to the Walkman, so don’t sue, ok, Sony?); clocking in at a mere 11 pounds, this bad boy will have you walking and talking in no time. Too heavy? Just have a junior exec carry it around for you!

lifein2x3 earlier this week linked to an interesting posting at the Engadget weblog, "Engadget 1985." Adopting the format of a mid-1980s BBS, complete with VGA-quality graphics and monospace type, the Engadget bloggers take a mildly satirical look at the cutting-edge technological toys of the era, everything from laptop computers to digital cameras. The posting's interesting for two reasons.

• It shows that many of the technological goodies we treat as quotidian have a much longer history behind them than we might want to think.


• It shows that these toys were rather more limited in function and far more expensive than we're used to.

Genealogies are nice.