When Phones Were Fun: AOL Mobile Communicator (2001)

Sponsored by Noom. Click here https://noom.com/mrmobile to take your free Noom Evaluation. [WHEN PHONES WERE FUN: AOL MOBILE COMMUNICATOR, 2001] If you were a middle-class US citizen getting your first taste of the internet around the turn of the century, odds are the ISP on the other side of your modem was America Online, which since 1993 had bombarded every mailbox and retail counter with enough free-trial disks to amass a market value of over $200 billion at its peak. But AOL wasn’t content to stay synonymous with the desktop internet. In 2000, it tried to redefine what it meant to “be online” by selling a rebadged BlackBerry that would live alongside the phone on your belt ... so that you would never have to be offline. This is the story of the AOL Mobile Communicator. [SUBSCRIBE TO MRMOBILE] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSOp... [ABOUT WHEN PHONES WERE FUN – AOL MOBILE COMMUNICATOR] This is the sixteenth in a series of MrMobile videos exploring the mobile tech world's most vibrant period in design and experimentation. In “When Phones Were Fun,” Michael Fisher re-reviews cellphones from the golden age of mobile, the decade-long span from the turn of the century to approximately 2009. When Phones Were Fun: Episode 16 features two AOL Mobile Communicator devices purchased by MrMobile / Future plc and one COMPAQ-branded BlackBerry Inter@ctive Pager 950 on loan from an anonymous friend of the channel. No manufacturer or carrier paid a fee or otherwise offered compensation in exchange for this coverage (nor did any such company preview or approve this content before publication). [LINKS - BOOKS] Losing The Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry [Amazon]: https://www.amazon.com/Losing-Signal-Extraordinary-Spectacular-BlackBerry-ebook/dp/B00Q20ASVS Harvesting The BlackBerry: An Insider’s Perspective [Google Books]: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Harvesting_the_Blackberry/oSaoNQcFTzMC?hl=en [LINKS - PRINT] PCMag, February 2001 [Google Books]: https://books.google.com/books?id=B1w4ife5noQC Popular Mechanics, August 2001 [Google Books]: https://books.google.com/books?id=bc8DAAAAMBAJ RadioShack Catalog 1999 [RadioShackCatalogs.com]: https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/1999_radioshack_catalog.html [LINKS - WEB] AOL Mobile Communicator – A Piece Of History! [Idealistically Caspan]: http://caspan.com/2016/02/aol-mobile-communicator-a-piece-of-history/ AOL Mobile Communicator User Guide [Archive.org]: https://web.archive.org/web/20081011090515/http://help.anywhere.aol.com/ Wireless Data: An Opinionated Buyer’s Guide [Forbes]: https://www.forbes.com/2001/03/15/130.html?sh=6311ca4a772d AOL Mobile Communicator Review [PCMag]: https://uk.pcmag.com/first-looks/31822/aol-mobile-communicator AOL Mobile Communicator Review [BetaNews]: https://betanews.com/2001/02/12/review-you-ve-got-aol-mobile-communicator/ AOL Anywhere: https://www.tvtechnology.com/opinions/its-not-just-cable-its-aol-anywhere RIM BlackBerry 950 Review [The-Gadgeteer]: https://the-gadgeteer.com/2001/02/26/rim_blackberry_950_review/ AOL Mobile Communicator vs RIM BlackBerry 950 [FlyerTalk]: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/282717-anyone-use-blackberry-device-2.html AOL Cuts Mobile Communicator Price [ZDNet]: https://www.zdnet.com/article/aol-cuts-mobile-communicator-price/ AOL Mobile Communicator Going Dark [e-Week]: https://www.eweek.com/mobile/aol-mobile-communicator-going-dark AOL Anywhere arrives, giving users expanded access [Chicago Tribune]: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2001-02-04-0102040346-story.html [LINKS - VIDEO] AOL Mobile Communicator Commercials: https://youtu.be/P19ehtaDBqg https://youtu.be/rW5OjAMtHLo AOL Commercials: https://youtu.be/1npzZu83AfU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iGJMdkkicE AOL Dial-up Sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7eDRXrs Interview: Frank Sandtner [TWICE]: https://youtu.be/D3A4XlN5cSI [SOCIALIZE] http://facebook.com/themrmobile http://instagram.com/themrmobile http://twitter.com/themrmobile http://mrmobile.tech [DISCLOSURES] This post may contain affiliate links, which afford MrMobile / Future plc a commission if you make a purchase. Additional information concerning MrMobile’s ethics policy can be found here: https://mrmobile.tech/ethics #aolmobilecommunicator #whenphoneswerefun #aol #americaonline #throwback #retro #notstalgia #retrotech #2000 #2001 #blackberry #blackberry950 #pager #beeper #mrmobile #noom #noomfluencer