#Smartphone

3 items

A black BlackBerry Pearl 8100 showing its trackball and hybrid keypad, 2006
Tech 2006–2010

BlackBerry Pearl

The BlackBerry that didn't look like a BlackBerry. RIM shrank the slab to a candybar, swapped the scroll wheel for a glowing trackball, and added a camera — and suddenly people who had never been issued one by an IT department wanted one.

Video thumbnail — Steve Jobs introduces iPhone in 2007
Tech 2007–2008

iPhone Launch (2007)

"Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone." Steve Jobs said it on January 9, 2007, and by June 29 thousands were camped outside stores to find out if he meant it. The lines, the keynote, the $599 price tag — the moment phones changed overnight.

Video thumbnail — Palm Treo 650 Commercial
Tech 2002–2009

Palm Treo

The smartphone before the smartphone: a full thumb keyboard, a stylus, Palm OS, and the then-startling ability to check your calendar in the middle of a call. Built by the PalmPilot's own inventors after they walked out on Palm.