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When Phones Were Fun: Motorola StarTAC (1996) - YouTube
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this video is sponsored by surf shark
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to understand how this phone became one
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of the most
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popular of all time it helps to remember
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that not
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too long before its debut mobile phones
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were basically
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bricks with antennas so when the
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motorola star tack hit the scene
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25 years ago with a footprint smaller
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than an audio cassette
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and a design straight out of star trek
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it upended
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the entire industry from clip-on
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accessories to
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unauthorized sequels to lawsuit spawning
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knockoffs to branded companion products
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to bizarre revivals as late as the
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mid-aughts
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it's no exaggeration to say that the
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star tac
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launched the era of the fun phone
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[Music]
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now i sourced a lot of startax for this
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video
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but this model 7868w for verizon
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it's a family original yeah this one
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belonged to my brother
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the eponymous blakester from about 2000
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to 2002
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and despite being over two decades old
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it's in remarkably good shape
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part of motorola's value proposition at
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the time was durability
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this was the same period it was building
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phones for nextel users who
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weren't above using their phones as
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hammers so motorola made the star tac
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from the same
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tough plastic that doesn't damage easily
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and
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hides it well when it does and unlike
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today where it sometimes seems companies
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will take any excuse to omit options
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the startac retained many standard
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features of its time
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the battery built into the flip was
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removable came in several sizes
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and depending on model was one of the
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first lithium ion power packs to be used
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in mobile phones
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the 2.5 millimeter earphone jack was
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standard for an era when
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bands on driving while talking were just
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starting to hit the books
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the antenna extended for ideal reception
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and to tell you whether or not you had
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cellular coverage
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you had a service led that flashed green
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for service yellow for roaming
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red for none fun fact the tack in the
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name stands for total area coverage
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an acronym that goes all the way back to
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the dine attack of 1984.
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oh and while the ringtones are typical
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of the late 90s
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aka soul piercingly terrible
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the star tech was the first cell phone
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to give you an alternative
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yep you know vibrate mode well you can
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thank motorola for being the first
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company to bring it from pagers
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to cell phones
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[Music]
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when you cram all those features into a
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package that even today
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seems remarkably compact well it's
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basically a license to print money
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the first star tech launched at an
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eye-watering 1 000 us dollars
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despite being an analog only phone that
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could only handle voice calls
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now within about a year prices came down
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as carrier partnerships were signed
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around the globe
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resulting in over 60 million star tax
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being sold over the next few years as
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digital variations hit the market my
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brother's 7868
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was one of the cdma versions for
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carriers like verizon
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but much more interesting to me are
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these anomalies
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from across the sea now these are two
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different takes on the
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rainbow star tac model which i teased in
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the intro as an
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unauthorized variant because at first
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motorola did not want it made
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this story comes to me from ben wood
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over at the mobile phone museum
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apparently in 1996 motorola's european
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team
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had two things a bunch of leftover
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plastic from a colorful phone called the
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motorola flare
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and inspiration in the form of
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volkswagen's limited-run harlequin from
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the same year
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the story goes that the european
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motorolans asked chicago headquarters
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if they could use that surplus plastic
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to make a phone with this colorway
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and when headquarters denied that
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permission
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well the european team took the admiral
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kirk approach
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the word sir the words is no
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i am therefore going anyway yep the
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folks at motorola's easter inch plant
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and scotland
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made it anyway despite the fact that it
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was more difficult to build because the
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different colored plastics had different
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durability characteristics
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that's why only one color configuration
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was offered and only
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on the cheaper startac 70 with its
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inferior display and lighter weight
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build quality
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nevertheless it was eventually
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authorized and motorola would go on to
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sell between
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70 000 and 125 000 units
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all during the summer in which it was
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released
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so why does it appear as though i have
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both a rainbow star tax 70
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and a rainbow star tac 130
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because this one is counterfeit
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[Music]
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yep the star tac legend is so widely
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worshipped even a quarter century later
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that a robust market exists
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for fake star tax of which this is one
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that's also true of other vintage brands
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such as the razer by the by so
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as always i urge you to be vigilant when
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shopping for mobile artifacts like this
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that same appetite for all things star
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tac drove an absolute
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avalanche of accessories and branded
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tie-ins when the phone was still on
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shelves
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i'll show you those plus a knock-off so
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similar that motorola
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sued qualcomm over it after a word from
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my sponsor
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[Music]
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okay to understand this accessory you
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need to understand the limitations of
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even late model star tax like my
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brothers
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sure you can customize the banner text
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even connect to the internet through a
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tiny browser
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but for calendars reminders even a
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humble note-taking app
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no way you're out of luck see in the
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early 2000s if you needed that kind of
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functionality
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well you typically carried a pda like a
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palm pilot
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motorola couldn't fit that kind of
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functionality into the phone
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but sensing an opportunity it built a
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pda of its own
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that plugged into the startx accessory
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port and ran on two big coin cell
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batteries
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with the clip-on organizer you could
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manage a calendar keep a to-do list and
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store a thousand
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contacts even dial them directly from
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the organizer
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sure typing without a touch screen was
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an exercise in frustration
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but it came with desktop software
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interactive cd-rom
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so you could do all that work on a
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windows 95 pc
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there's not much more to this thing i
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just love how motorola's approach to
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this early phase of smartphone
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development was to literally build a pda
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that you could clip to the back of the
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phone
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it's perfect other companies got in on
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the fun in
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weirder ways star tac passion on
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instagram sent over a pair of star tac
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calculators which i guess were sold as
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novelty items
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of course everyone and their brother got
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into the belt clip and case game
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a particularly shameful period in mobile
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phone fashion
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folded over a piece of leather stuck
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together with this elastic
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mid band so it could expand then these
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would get like kind of instantly ratty
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and dusty and stuff and
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they didn't hold their shape when they
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were oh
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god i there's just nothing that would
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instantly cheapen a phone back in the
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day
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as putting it in one of these crappy
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cases
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even this is brand new this is brand new
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and it's already just
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malformed misshapen lump
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let's get rid of this
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and on the higher end apparently fossil
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group
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licensed the startac brand for a special
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edition
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wrist watch it doesn't do anything
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special it's literally just a watch
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dressing up as a phone
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and it's possible it never went on sale
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and was only issued to motorola
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employees
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but it's just one of scores of examples
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demonstrating
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the pervasiveness of the startac brand
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at the time
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and in a true snake eating its own tail
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kind of thing
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i probably don't need to remind you that
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the star tac was the first phone to come
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close to replicating the flip top
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communicator from the original star trek
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series of the 60s
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but you probably didn't know this when
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the props department had to devise a new
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communicator for star trek enterprise
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the then newest star trek spin-off in
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2001
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the signal and battery graphics on that
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communicator
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were copied directly from the motorola
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time port
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the startech's close cousin it's a
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wonderful case of art
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imitating life imitating art
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now one company that was acutely aware
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of the power of the star tac was
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qualcomm yep the very same company that
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makes
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millions of snapdragon chips powering
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modern smartphones all over the world
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at one time made mobile phones itself
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and
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this was one of them eventually i'd love
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to do an entire episode on the q
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phone which was basically a showcase for
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qualcomm's cdma technology that powered
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sprint and verizon's networks
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but for today the key takeaway is that
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the q phone
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looked a lot like the star tac so much
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so that motorola
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sued qualcomm over it calling the design
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quote an
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intentional effort to copy the design
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and to confuse consumers
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unquote this spawned a series of
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additional suits and countersuits
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and at pretty much every stage it was
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qualcomm that prevailed
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with judge napoleon jones dope name by
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the way ruling essentially that the
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phones
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were different enough and that motorola
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was not entitled to a monopoly on the
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clamshell form factor
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considering my own long history with
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excellent clamshells from other
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manufacturers
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i gotta say i'm pretty glad this went
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the way it did
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the startax white hot glow would
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eventually fade but that decline was
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reluctant and prolonged with motorola
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authorizing
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two spin-offs for the korean market this
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one from 2004
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and another as late as 2007. yeah the
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same year the first iphone came out
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today it's an archaic callback too old
[646]
even to be legally activated on a
[647]
wireless network
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utterly unusable in a text and data
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first world
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but 25 years ago it's no exaggeration to
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say that the star tac
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changed the nature of the mobile phone
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i was able to speak with motorola
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engineer glenn schultz whose first big
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project
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at the company was the star tac and
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the thing that he told me that stuck out
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was that on his first day
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he was placed with a mentor at motorola
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who kind of pulled him aside and said
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look
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if you remember one thing remember this
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nothing we do here is easy everything
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is hard and personally i think a big
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part of the reason motorola continues to
[689]
endure
[689]
in a very competitive market despite
[692]
multiple takeovers
[693]
is that it keeps doing the work despite
[696]
the work being
[697]
incredibly difficult like cramming a
[700]
folding screen into a rebooted razor for
[702]
the 2020s
[704]
that's one of the things that cements a
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legacy
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being the kind of company that then and
[709]
now
[710]
keeps phones fun
[716]
special thanks to ben wood of the mobile
[718]
phone museum mobilephonemuseum.com
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and also to david chow the blakester
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startechpassion on instagram who sold me
[724]
a ton of this stuff
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and motorola which arranged that
[727]
interview with mr schultz
[729]
as always motorola had no editorial
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input into or early preview of this
[732]
content
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and provided no payment in exchange for
[735]
its production
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hey if you owned a star tack share your
[738]
memories down in the comments i'd love
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to hear them
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until next time thanks for watching and
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remember to stay safe and mask up when
[745]
you're around others
[746]
as you stay mobile my friends
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