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Dial M for mobile monster
SCOPE is delighted to reunite Barry from Zoo with his childhood phone – one of the earliest mobiles. It might be mobile, but it’s not pocket-sized. In fact it’s rather large, about the size of a brick. “It’s back! The giant phone!” he says. “It’s like one of those phones nowadays from when they wind up people,” says Barry, trying to fit it into his jeans pocket. “It doesn’t go. The size of it!” Barry’s first phone number started with 088 and he remembers getting the phone for Christmas. “It came in a big, green oval shaped box,” he says. “It was the best thing ever. I was ringing all my mates Christmas morning.” People didn’t use text messages when they got mobiles first. Even when phones first got text capability it took a while for people to start using it as a way of communicating. Looking important So was Barry on the phone all the time? “Always!” he says. “I always had plenty of people to call, always had the big phone to my ear, I looked real important. Back then, if I could have downloaded all the games and the tones I would have been one of those kids who has 150 subscriptions.” So what does Barry think of the phone’s features? “On...answer...dial...volume…don’t be asking for any other extras,” he says. “If you were really cool kid you always got one with an aerial.” So would he swap his phone now for this one, a big retro gadget? “Absolutely,” he says. “As I get older I’ll be losing my sight and I’m going to need to be able to see the big buttons.” Mobile phones The history of the mobile phone goes back to the 1940s when wireless phones were invented. It was in the 1980s that hand-held mobiles really took off. They started out being very expensive, but are now an essential everyday item in a lot of cultures. Irish boy band Zoo was launched in Dublin in 2004 with a debut single called Wanted. The band has five members and its second single I Wanna Be Your Lover reached number three in the Irish charts. Learn more: Find out how mobile phones work Learn the history of the mobile phone
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