[spiggytopes]

Robert Heinlein, 'Between Planets'

'A few hundred yards further on Lazy shied again, not from a snake this time but from an unexpected noise. Don pulled him in and spoke severely. "You bird-brained butterball! When are you going to learn not to jump when the telephone rings?"

Lazy twitched his shoulder muscles and snorted. Don reached for the pommel, removed the phone, and answered.'

Nothing unusual there - except that this was published in 1951. Heinlein was extrapolating one particular technology trend and got it spot-on, 60+ years before it happened.

There are so many others - H.G.Wells' 'World Brain' for one (aka the Web)

[kabdib]

_Space Cadet_, 1948, references pocket phones as well, with this funny bit about avoiding them -

    Tex Jarman looked at him understandingly. "Your folks always worry, don't they? I fooled mine -- packed my phone in my bag."

The phone usage in Between Planets involved call signs and was clearly projected from Ham radio practices at the time.

My favorite phone technology miss was their total absence from Gibson's _Neuromancer_, something that he's a little chagrined about, and tired of hearing about, too . . .

[pavel_lishin]

Your quote is very hard to read even on desktop - can you surround the quoted text with asterisks instead of indenting it?