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Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

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Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#44

Post by tmjwid »

optimalsolver wrote: post #38

The most charming of these is the singer Shakira seeing a camera phone for the first time in Japan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1lY3jzsFWU

I'd say her reaction was pretty negative than charming. Her only example of its use is paparazzi which says it all really. It seemed to me she was mortified at the idea and I can understand why.

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#45

Post by glandium »

You know how nowadays you'll see crowds brandishing their smartphone to take pictures or videos? I remember seeing something similar in Japan with flip phones, either in 2001 or 2002. I think one of the moments where I witnessed that was when Koizumi Junichiro was elected in 2001. I definitely have pictures of individuals taking pictures of sakura with their flip phone in the Kyoto imperial garden in 2001.

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#46

Post by glandium »

d--b wrote: post #27

I went to Japan in 2004. I hiked a mountain and at the top saw a woman talk to someone on her flip phone. At some point she said something like “hey do you want to see the view?”, she then turned the phone around and I realized she had been video chatting the whole time. I was so amazed. I bought a Wap-capable NEC that year, it felt so ahead of anything we had in Europe!

Interestingly, I remember people using video chat back around that time in Japan, but despite the fact that it's still supported and even better than back then, I haven't seen people using it in a long while.

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#47

Post by poisonarena »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #30
d--b wrote: post #27

I went to Japan in 2004. I hiked a mountain and at the top saw a woman talk to someone on her flip phone. At some point she said something like “hey do you want to see the view?”, she then turned the phone around and I realized she had been video chatting the whole time. I was so amazed. I bought a Wap-capable NEC that year, it felt so ahead of anything we had in Europe!

It was a weird time, being in the USA and learning that Europe and Japan had all these great technologies in their mobile phones that we didn’t have. It sucked being so behind the times here. It’s interesting that now every country has the same high tech mobile phones, though there are still niche devices that may only be produced for a specific region.

example of country specific niche devices for the curious?

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#48

Post by julian_t »

stevejb wrote: post #6

I just watched this video on a plane, going nearly 600mph at 33K ft above northern Canada. The pace of technological evolution I have experienced in my lifetime is absolutely miraculous.

I often think about this. My grandmother was born at the end of the 1800s (yes, I'm old) and remembered electricity and the first car coming to her rural village in Wales. By the end of her life she'd lived through two world wars, seen men on the moon, could talk to her relatives in Australia on the phone, and been on holiday to America on a 747.

And what always amazed me was that she grew up with people (mainly farm workers) who had never been more than 5 miles from where they were born. I go further than that to visit the supermarket!

Re: Cameras on phones? (2001) [video]

#49

Post by noobermin »

d--b wrote: post #27

I went to Japan in 2004. I hiked a mountain and at the top saw a woman talk to someone on her flip phone. At some point she said something like “hey do you want to see the view?”, she then turned the phone around and I realized she had been video chatting the whole time. I was so amazed. I bought a Wap-capable NEC that year, it felt so ahead of anything we had in Europe!

That with the video of shakira someone posted, it's a shame Japan now has a reputation for being behind the times now, I wonder how much the language barrier had to do with why none of the tech companies in japan other than those tied to video games have an international footprint today.
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