Controlled and connected: 50 years of the cell phone

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fifty years on from the first mobile phone call, this programme examines how the device has revolutionised the way we lives our lives. It was 1973 when Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher made the first mobile phone call to his rival at Bell Labs. The prototype weighed 2 kilograms and measured 23 by 13 by 4.5 centimetres. It offered a talk time of just 30 mins and took 10 hours to recharge. Fast forward five decades and checking the phone is the first thing many people do when they wake up in the morning and the last thing they do when they go to bed. How has the mobile phone revolutionised the way we live our lives?

Transcript

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0:00.0	In our restless world, the news never stops.
0:03.1	There's always something happening somewhere.
0:05.2	So catch up with the day's most important news stories
0:08.0	in the Global News Podcast.
0:09.8	The Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:13.0	The latest edition is available now.
0:15.3	Search for it wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
0:19.3	You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:28.1	Hello, motto.
0:30.1	Hello.
0:34.3	In the early 2000s, I was one of the senior developers
0:36.8	who helped create the first iPhone with Steve Jobs at Apple.
0:39.9	I got some special iPhones up here.
0:41.5	They got a little special board in them.
0:43.2	So I can get some digital video out.
0:45.4	And to unlock the phone, I just take my finger
0:47.4	and slide it across.
0:50.7	The device transformed mobile phone use the world over.
0:53.9	But it was a moment five decades ago this year,
0:57.0	which actually kicked off the revolution in communication
0:59.8	that would change all our lives.
1:03.8	The story of the cell phone or mobile phone
	...

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