history

Features

Field Trip App on DROID RAZR M BY MOTOROLA: Wicker Park, Chicago

October 10, 2012 : BY Motorola

Field Trip is your guide to the cool, hidden, and unique things in the world around you. It runs in the background on your phone and when you get close to something interesting, a card pops up with locational details. No click required. If you have a headset or bluetooth connected, it will read the info to you.

With some of the built-in partners, such as BLUEPRINT Chicago for Architecture, Zagat’s for food and drink, Yesterland and Arcadia Publishing for historical places and events, and Google Offers for deals you’ll find plenty to see, do and buy.

Re-Discovering Wicker Park, Chicago
We headed out with a DROID RAZR M to check out eclectic and artsy Wicker Park. Like all places in this city, there’s history all around. This app peels back the layers of time to reveal the realities of the past. Today’s Hoyne Street was once called Beer Baron Row and was one of the first streets in Chicago to be paved after the great Chicago fire in 1871. And those ornate stone mansions still standing on Hoyne are the result of those wealthy beer merchants profits. We also got to peer into the future as we stumbled upon the Bloomingdale trail, an upcoming elevated 2.7 mile linear park that will be situated on a defunct rail line.

This app is all about the art of the wander. Streets you’ve walked down before, or never knew existed, become alive in new ways. A tone and vibration alerts you when crossing another marker.  . Stop, look, listen and above all enjoy your journey.

Tagged as: architecture, chicago, field trip app, google app, history, motorola, nelson algren, wicker park

{ 0 comments }

Features

Motorola: From the Archives

June 29, 2012 : BY Motorola

What do a DynaTAC cellular telephone, a photograph of the first Motorola facility in Chicago, and a service manual for a GoldenView television have in common?

They’re all assets in the Motorola Archives!

The Motorola Archives is a dynamic resource of knowledge that cannot be found anywhere else in the company. It is the central storage location for documents, photographs, advertisements, products and memorabilia, and more recently, digital and audiovisual materials as well.

Though it wasn’t established until 1973, the archives has the entire history of Motorola documented, starting with its founding on September 25, 1928. The archives is much more than a nostalgic look at the past. It helps drive Motorola innovation forward.

“This department is more than a closet of a few file folders.  It is a facility that is dedicated to the preservation of a rich, dynamic history that began in 1928.  I am always actively collecting, evaluating, researching and making resourses available to customers around the world, both internally and externally,” explains Lisa Solak, who manages the Motorola Mobility Archives.

Motorola Mobility Heritage Services has its own professional archivist who manages and provides access to archives collections, which start with the company’s establishment in 2011.  While the Motorola, Inc. Legacy Archives Collection documents the years between 1928 and 2010. The Legacy Archives Collection is shared by both companies and continues to acquire key materials created before the separation.

Tagged as: archives, dynatac, heritage, history, motorola, motorola archives, television

{ 0 comments }

Features

Motorola’s history with TV – experimentally good

May 23, 2012 : BY Motorola

At Motorola, we’ve always pushed the envelope, innovating forward-thinking products and services, like the first pay-TV system.

It was 1957 when the Telemovies services offered people living in Bartlesville, Oklahoma the ability to pay for movies not offered by the regular TV channels and watch them in the comfort of their homes. We designed and provided the equipment that made it possible.  The first subscriber not only got to be the first person to watch their chosen movie at home, they also won a Motorola TV.

In 1960, the Motorola Astronaut television was the world’s first transistorized, cordless portable, large-screen television (at 19 inches!).

Then in 1966, there was the Motorola experimental shirt-pocket television, featuring a 1-1/8 inch picture. This advanced engineering project was directed by DeLoss Tanner of Motorola’s consumer products engineering department.

circa 1968 (Credit : Motorola, Inc. Legacy Archives Collection)

We’ve got a thing for being revolutionary, and you can click here to see all the latest ways we’re working to better your TV experience inside and outside of the home.

What cool things have you thought of that you’d like to see in the future? Tell us about them in the comments.

Tagged as: experimental, heritage, history, motorola, pocket tv, tv

{ 0 comments }

Features

Motorola’s history of innovation: the original RAZR

April 24, 2012 : BY Motorola

If you’ve had a long relationship with Motorola devices, chances are that you toted a MOTORAZR around in your pocket. We’re not talking about the DROID RAZR by Motorola you’ve come to know and love, we’re throwing it back to the original RAZR.

The super-stylish MOTORAZR set a trend for cell flip-phones– starting with its launch in 2004, starting the trend of thin being in. More than 130 million devices were sold, making it the best-selling flip-phone of all time.

But, there’s more to this beloved device than flipping-to-answer and text messaging with T9 word. Innovation was at the heart of the MOTORAZR. The 13.9 mm thin phone used aircraft-grade aluminum to achieve several design and engineering innovations, including a nickel-plated keypad. It was sturdy, strong and stylish.

Our history of innovation didn’t start or stop with the MOTORAZR. Visit our decades of milestones on Facebook to take a peek at the advances that Motorola has made and tell us your favorite MOTORAZR memory in the comments.

Tagged as: flip phone, heritage, history, innovation, motorola, original razr, razr

{ 14 comments }

Features

Motorola : A history of firsts – DynaTAC

April 18, 2012 : BY Motorola

Motorola has a long history of firsts. If you read our recent post about the world’s first commercial portable cellular phone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, you already know this cell phone is remarkable.

Over the 15 years before it went public, the company invested more than US$100 million in cellular technology research and development.

Before it was available for purchase in 1984, a prototype of the same device was used to make cellular telephone calls. On April 3, 1973, Motorola publicly demonstrated a portable cellular telephone and system, just outside of the Hilton New York.

Tagged as: dynatac, heritage, history, motorola

{ 0 comments }

Features, Products

Motorola Milestones: Paging past innovations

April 11, 2012 : BY Motorola

“Page me!”

In 1986, Motorola introduced the Bravo Numeric Pager, which became the world’s best-selling pager. If you were digital minded in the 80s and 90s, you probably sent pages with “911” to get a fast response!

Flash forward to 1995. Motorola introduces the world’s first two-way pager – the Tango Two-Way Personal Messaging Pager. The Tango connected users and allowed them to receive text messages, e-mail, and to reply with a standard response. If you’re a text messaging pro, the two-way pager got America ready with some heavy thumb conditioning.

Pagers were so hot in 90s that even the family pet got in on the action. Were you a former pager owner? Still have one today? Let us know in the comments and visit our Motorola history site to see more of our heritage.

Watch Video

 

Tagged as: heritage, history, motorola, pagers

{ 3 comments }

Features

Motorola Milestones: The Motorola DynaTAC, the world’s first commercial handheld cellular phone

April 4, 2012 : BY Motorola

Think about how easy it to make a phone call, text someone or look up the score of a game, all with the click of a button? Smartphone technology has made it incredibly easy to connect with people across the world and Motorola continues to deliver innovative technology with the new DROID RAZR MAXX by Motorola, the longest talk time of any 4G smartphone. But in 1983, one hour of talk time and eight hours of standby time with a LED display was a truly revolutionary invention.

On September 21, 1983, the United States Federal Communication Commission approved the the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, the world’s first commercial portable cellular phone. Available to consumers shortly after in 1984,  the DynaTAC 8000X weighed 28 ounces and was 13 x 1.75 x 3.5 inches in dimension. Compare that to the DROID RAZR by Motorola which weighs 127 grams and is 130.7 x 68.9 x 7.1 mm and you see how far technology has progressed.

Not familiar with the Motorola DynaTACR 800X? There are some photos above. We also encourage you to check out our Facebook Timeline, where you’ll find photos and stories from more than 50 of our most historic milestones.  Look closely for your chance to win a DROID RAZR MAXX by Motorola! Official Rules are right here.

Tagged as: contest, droid razr, droid razr maxx, heritage, history, innovation, motorola, razr maxx

{ 0 comments }

Features

Celebrating Motorola history: Introducing the Motorola Facebook Timeline Page

March 28, 2012 : BY Motorola

Motorola Mobility is extremely proud of its long history of innovation. For more than 80 years, we have worked to make it easier for you to talk with people all around the world. From providing radio communications equipment that transmitted the first words from the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, to introducing the world’s first commercial handheld cellular phone, the Motorola DynaTAC, Motorola’s heritage is filled with many achievements. And today we continue that legacy with groundbreaking products including the DROID RAZR MAXX by Motorola, a device with 21 hours of talk time, the longest of any 4G smartphone on the market.

Today, we want to share that heritage with our consumers by launching our Facebook Timeline Page, where we hope you will take some time to see how Motorola has helped create a connected world. And as a bonus, we may have a special reward for you involving one of our most recent accomplishments.

While you take a walk down memory lane with Motorola, enjoy a commercial from our earlier days:

Watch Video

Tagged as: contest, dynatac, facebook, history, motorola, sweepstakes, timeline

{ 0 comments }