Father of 'brick' mobile phone Marty Cooper sees dark side but also hope in new tech 'distributed on your body'

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Little did he know when he made the first call on a New York City street from a thick grey prototype that our world — and our information — would come to be encapsulated on a sleek glass sheath where we search, connect, like and buy.

He's optimistic that future advances in mobile technology can transform human lives but is also worried about risks smartphones pose to privacy and young people.

Besides worrying about the erosion of privacy, Mr Cooper also acknowledged the negative side effects that come with smartphones and social media, such as internet addiction and making it easy for children to access harmful content.

But Mr Cooper, describing himself as a dreamer and an optimist, said he's hopeful that advances in cell phone technology have the potential to revolutionise areas like education and health care.

Mr Cooper made the first public call from a handheld portable telephone on a Manhattan street on April 3, 1973, using a prototype device that his team at Motorola had started designing only five months earlier.

The inspiration for Mr Cooper's cell phone idea was not the personal communicators on Star Trek, but comic strip detective Dick Tracy's radio wristwatch.

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From February 28th, 2023