The device was a prototype Motorola DynaTAC (for DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) and it was 9 inches tall, 2½ pounds, with 30 circuit boards. You could talk for 35 minutes, and it took 10 hours to recharge.

Today’s cell phones are light, small and have operating systems. Smartphones can do almost anything a PC can and sometimes even more, mostly because of soon-to-be common geo-referencing features. Which allows us to experience true mobility. Uhmmm… wouldn’t it be great if carriers could share that info with marketers so they could reach their target more efficiently through local ads? Naaa… never mind.

Anyway… Martin Cooper thinks cell phones are just getting too complicated. He believes cell phones are meant to place and receive calls, and that’s pretty much it. The extra-features are meant for computers. And who knows, maybe the threat of viruses’ attack on smartphones OS’ will prove him right.

At 80 years old, he sees the perfect cell phone as a device you could fit inside your ear and would “tickle you” instead of ringing.

I find this fascinating, although you can’t really show-off something that sits inside your ear, and besides people like to hold stuff, I guess. It’s that feeling of ownership. I sure wouldn’t mind one of these Nokia-Reuters Mobile Journalism Toolkits: N95 8GB + SU-8W Bluetooth keyboard (foldable) + Tripod + Sony directional microphone + solar charging system. Now that’s cool.