Portable Talkman cell phone (1988)
That was around $3370 today.
This was made by Nokia, branded as the Talkman. It could sound your car horn when you get an incoming call.
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7 replies
What did the “horn alert kit” do?
Also I love this catalog format, so much nicer than modern shopping
Never saw one of these, but I believe it toots the horn when you get an incoming call.
That’s awesome actually
Hopefully you’re not too far and it isn’t night lol
Because the neighbours would torch your car after a few calls.
Rightfully.
I remember my dad occasionally bringing a portable car phone home from work when he was going to travel to see customers in the early ’90s
I went to highschool with a kid who had an old shit beater, but it came with a functional car phone.
Teens were just barely starting to have cellphones, maybe like 25%. And he obviously wasn't paying for it to be in service.
But we always used to joke we called him, but he must not have been in his car.
So while honking a horn for a phone call sounds stupid, at the time it would have been a good feature. Obviously if it didn't keep honking, but having a switch to make it honk once if it got a call made sense if you were expecting one but weren't going to be in the car.
Otherwise you had to physically be in or right next to the car.
I could imagine it'd be a great feature for workmen on job sites, too.