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Happy 30th, jerk

April 3 rd came and went, and I’m sure everyone forgot the birthday of their favourite toy.

April 3 rd came and went, and I’m sure everyone forgot the birthday of their favourite toy.

On that day in 1973, for better or for worse, a Motorola researcher by the name of Martin Cooper made a call from the corner of 56 th and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.

The nature of that first call was not as benign as were Alexander Graham Bell’s first words on the telephone in 1876. Instead of "Come here Watson. I need you" – a plea to his assistant Thomas Watson – Cooper called up the competition to brag.

The call went through to Joel Engel, the head researcher of AT&T’s Bell Labs. AT&T was focusing its efforts on mobile car phones at the time, and Motorola decided to take a different tack and produce a phone that was truly mobile.

Cooper’s first words? "Joel, I’m calling you from a real cellular phone!"

It wouldn’t be the last time someone with a cell phone acted like a jerk in New York City, but it was the beginning of a new telecommunications trend that helped make the world a little bit smaller.

The phone that was first used was not small at all, however. The main case was over 10 inches long, not including the antenna, and the batteries were only good for about 20 minutes.

Now after 30 years of evolution, with the most significant jumps in service and capability coming in the last five years, the cell phone is ubiquitous. According to Wired Magazine, almost 140 million Americans use cell phones. Health Canada believes there are about 9.5 million cell phones in use in Canada.

Drops in price, the creation of more flexible user plans, and the switch from analog to digital technology in recent years have led to a boom in personal cell phone sales. The fact that people can get service just about anywhere these days, thanks to the rapid expansion of microwave tower networks, has also helped the cause considerably.

The phones themselves are small, and come loaded with a lot of cool features. Some phones have built-in cameras to take and send digital pictures; some phones can connect to the Internet using tiny colour monitors; some phones can function as pagers, walkie-talkies, and instant messengers; some phones can be used to store music and data; some phones can be used to play games. If your cell phone is just a phone these days, you’re usually dating yourself a couple of years.

Still, not everybody loves cell phones unconditionally.

While they do save lives in emergency situations, a growing number of governments and institutions are pushing the line that they actually go a long way in creating those emergency situations – especially when the user is behind the wheel of a car.

According to a recent study in the U.S., cell phones may play a significant factor in more than 2,600 highway deaths and 20 times as many accidents. Why?

Research has shown that people attempting to talk on the phone while they drive have far slower reaction times and experience a kind of tunnel vision. Unlike passive listening to the radio or chatting with a passenger, talking on a cell phone – even using a hands-free device (although they are definitely safer by far) – requires a lot of concentration.

The jury is still out on the potential health effects of pressing a mini microwave transmitter to the side of your skull. Although the link between cell phones and certain types of brain cancers has never been proved, a recent Swedish study of mice and cell phones discovered that the electromagnetic frequencies used can cause a protein in human tissue to leak through the blood brain barrier and create holes.

Aside from dangers, cell phones are also considered to be an increasing annoyance, and local governments are looking to ban their use everywhere from movie theatres to restaurants.

Whatever your feelings are about this technology, chances are if you own a cell phone now, you’re going to be a user for the rest of your life. The convenience kind of makes all of the rest of that bad stuff go away.

For news and views regarding cell phones and other wireless technologies, check out Wireless Week at www.wirelessweek.com.

Putting the ‘e’ in your business

While service is and will always be the core of any good small business, the definition of good service is always changing. Is it friendly, personal service with a smile? Or is it fast, efficient and affordable service, delivered to your door overnight?

Today the definition of good service also includes convenience, and the best way to achieve that is through a Web site.

Web sites provide a unique and open venue for businesses and customers to connect, whether it’s a retail site that sells goods and services, or a marketing site that’s focused on promoting a company.

To help entrepreneurs around B.C. keep pace with the technology, e-Business Connection, in partnership with Western Economic Diversification Canada and the Canada/B.C. Business Services Society, and at a cost of $134,000, has launched a new online tutorial on e-business.

It doesn’t provide all the answers, but it’s a solid primer on the start-up costs, the technology available, and the possibilities for using the Internet as another business channel.

"In this province, SME’s (Small and Medium Enterprises) account for 98 per cent of all business, yet small businesses have been the slowest to adapt to technological change and adopt e-business solutions," says project director Rob Lewis. "Through this easy-to-use, interactive Web-based tutorial, small business owners – regardless of where they reside in B.C. – can learn how their organizations can gain a competitive advantage by adopting simple Internet technologies."

To learn more about the tutorial, visit www.e-bc.ca, or www.smallbusiness.ca