Microsoft's First Phone... From 1998

Support the channel on Patreon to get early access to these videos!
/ michaelmjd
Microsoft Call Manager: archive.org/details/Microsoft...
XLink Cell Phone Adapter: amzn.to/4cnp1hB
● Gear I use to make these videos: www.kit.co/mjd
Camera: amzn.to/3ipyKc5
Tripod: amzn.to/3pqxycn
Microphone: amzn.to/35UbkXb
Editing Software (Premiere): amzn.to/39kawfS
Thumbnail Editor (Photoshop): amzn.to/3lVqVN6
● Affiliate Links:
Get a FREE 30-DAY TRIAL of Amazon Prime: amzn.to/2xVmMB3
Get a FREE TRIAL of Audible: amzn.to/44CX7tN
Amazon: www.amazon.com/?tag=teammjd-20
● Music/Credits:
Background Music:
from the KZbin Audio Library
by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com
Outro Music: Silent Partner - Bet On It
Circuit City Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/1054240...
Used under a Creative Commons license
Amazon Affiliate Notice: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. All Amazon links that I provide will use my affiliate code with Amazon.
Some materials in this video are used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allows "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, and research.
#MichaelMJD #Microsoft #Phone

[@ciach0_]

To the man who gave the disc scan - thank you for making this video possible!

[@kakariekuu]

@@Devo1987 They are members so they can watch early

[@ciach0_]

@@Devo1987 I'm traveling in time... Jokes aside, being a channel member grants you this perk

[@jackjack0145]

Wow

[@fiveinfive]

Yeah that was so cool of him! I think it's awesome KZbin has this little community of people that love this stuff like I do and make it possible for people like Michael to make these videos!

[@whats2by2]

no problem

[@ram_stick_samurai]

The Windows phone, before the Windows phone.

[@Polo4413]

Both flopped 😮😢

[@NigelMontezuma]

But the new Windows Phone exploited how expensive the iPhone was to make IT flop 😂

[@rafapenson]

Exactly 🤔

[@gentuxable]

With Cortana before Cortana.

[@christopher9727]

Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Holy Spirit Can give you peace guidance and purpose and the Lord will John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

[@megan_alnico]

This was an enterprise level technology that someone thought the average person would use. Upper level managers in large corporations would probably think this was the best thing ever, because it's something that they would use all the time.

[@beko1987]

It would be quite powerful back in the day I imagine, makes a neat setup

[@xandercruz900]

I bought one of these from a Goodwill in 2003 for 50 cents. I still have no idea what it did, I just thought it was cool.

[@kreuner11]

This video shows

[@FatherMcKenzie66]

Hell yeah man

[@iso12337]

how did you brought it for only 50 cents?

[@xandercruz900]

@@iso12337 Goodwill Outlet had flat 50 cent pricing back then.

[@albertwiersch9852]

@@iso12337 he probably gave 50 cents to the cashier.

[@ExtremeNS0]

I ACTUALLY have one of these things. Back then, my dad says that this was easiest phone he used at the time. He replaced it with a Nokia 3310 in 2001. Good ol' days.

[@WarthogRacer]

All the phone lines at Black Mesa are busy? That's probably not a problem, probably.

[@thereisonlymusic]

You can call Black Mesa. That was a joke, haha, fat chance.

[@TheLivingCatastrophe]

"BLACK MESA CAN KISS MY BANKRUPT-" Cave Johnson: 1970's

[@huhwhatumean]

Why do we all have to use these ridiculous phones!

[@Bfdi1245]

@@thereisonlymusic quote from Still Alive from Portal 1.

[@pastedtomato]

"Gordon doesn't need to hear all this, he's a highly trained professional!"

[@eugiblisscast]

Microsoft haven't been really lucky with phones, have they?

[@eugilinx]

To the point of bringing down Nokia with them.

[@burts06]

ikr

[@vanCaldenborgh]

They still manage to spread similar tech pain with Microsoft Teams.

[@JcGross93]

With smartphones, the issue is they tried pushing it towards the windows experience and not what the natural evolution of phones were going.

[@rastas_4221]

@@eugilinx Nokia is doing ok. They are doing 5G infrastructure. But yeah they aren't big anymore.

[@supasimon]

"a hardware product from 90s Microsoft, intended for a market that Microsoft wasn't in yet, that only sold for about a year" ah, yes- The MJD video checklist

[@axa993]

We need the crazy ass Microsoft hardware from the 90s.

[@keiganthetennessean1796]

I don't remember this phone specifically, BUT I turned 10 in 1998 and was going to Circuit City, CompUSA and other stores with my grandfather browsing computer stuff. He retired in 2000 and jumped into computers hardcore and we had a hobby of going to various thrift stores and getting the stuff they were going to throw out and taking it to his place and getting it running again in his basement. In one of our trips in 2001, we found a like-new SNES with about 30 games in a Corona beer box and I told him we better swipe that before they put it out for sale and they sold it to us for $20 because the SNES was considered "old" by some after the N64 and Gamecube had arrived. The TL;DR of this post is people like me, who grew up with this stuff really appreciate all you do for the preservation of older technology. I'll never be able to afford being a hardcore collector because I work in I.T. at a State College which doesn't pay as much as I.T. everywhere else, but it's okay because I get to help the future of our society. But channels like yours, LGR, the 8BitGuy, and many others, give my sons an opportunity to see the things I grew up with. So thank you. I could have said this alot quicker.

[@cloudycolacorp]

Older relatives super into computers were always so cool

[@keiganthetennessean1796]

@@cloudycolacorp I agree. I relive what I can through virtual machines and emulation other than the handful of stuff I still have (like my high school PC still running WIndows XP Pro)

[@nrnoble]

I worked at MS during that time period. One thing people did not like was that it required a dedicated PC to be on 24x7. If the system had problems it would not answer ecord messages. It did not always work well running in the background, such as while playing a game.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Yah, people weren't used to leaving their PCs on 24/7 then -- partly existing habits of turning things off when not in use (to not waste electricity), and partly because home versions of Windows (especially 3.x and 95) were not entirely stable enough to be left on. And even if they didn't crash from general instability, there was still a Windows timekeeping bug that would crash it after a little under 50 days uptime. Windows 95 and 98 (and I think MS-DOS before them) had an internal clock counting the number of milliseconds since boot. And since it was only a 32-bit integer, it would roll over to zero after 2^32 ms -- or 49 days + 17 hours + 2 minutes + 47.296 seconds -- if not rebooted. (By contrast, 2^64 ms is more than 58 million years.)

[@hydorah]

Not exactly on topic, but related: I had one of the first Windows mobile phones. It was shocking. It was like whoever had engineered the OS had never ever used a mobile. If someone texted you and you were reading that text, you couldn't then ring them from there. It was mental. Full of idiotic dead ends and things that didn't join up as a journey to getting things done

[@MissMTurner]

I agree. My husband briefly had one and it was so counter-intuitive and not user friendly.

[@dad_hoc]

I had an LG Windows Phone 7 and I distinctly remember it being pretty ass, lmao. Some of the games on it were fun but that phone made me hate Metro UI styles

[@backwardshalos6036]

@@dad_hoc windows phone aint the same as windows mobile, winmo was ass in comparison

[@Aura_Mancer]

"Do not make illegal copies of this disc" lol

[@gabriledyt]

It's for necessity

[@joshuabrazile]

I wanted one of these so bad when I was a kid back in 98. One of the Microsoft product discs had a video about it and I was obsessed. I remember having the software running on my computer (it was a demo or a trial) and setting it up the answering machine function then making the mistake of leaving it connected to our phone line one evening when we went out. We came home and all of the calls had been answered by my computer. Some people just left voice messages, but others were confused because they didn't hear my aunt's usual greeting. Got into a bit of trouble over that. 😅

[@nathanbush6781]

I love this! Parents were so bitchy back then, LOL

[@MarcBaggett1]

I remember Circuit City! Great video on the Microsoft Phone!

[@HydragonDX]

The predecessor to Windows Mobile and the actual Windows Phone itself.

[@thebear128]

OMG Michael MJD! I was actually a beta tester for this way way back in the day! I actually forgot this was a thing. Testing this thing was awful. It stopped working before the beta test was even over. I was originally on the beta teams for Windows 9x and then Windows Me. They offered this to me and I accepted. I remember hating this thing. I'm pretty sure I tossed it shortly after it went RTM and I sort of wish I had kept it just for historic purposes. But I was like 18 at the time so I was too dumb to think that far ahead. Thanks for another great video!

[@silverknight532]

I don't know what it is but I love 90s. Computer boxes, everything back then just had these beautiful looking screenshots of like the software and stuff.

[@thefray123]

I miss circuit city man 😭

[@kakariekuu]

Yea

[@AidenShogun2020]

Even I missed all Windows phones sigh 😢

[@burts06]

i think everybody does :(

[@AidenShogun2020]

@@burts06 yeah personally I wish I could make a video of how Microsoft just discontinued the Windows phones

[@guidoretro]

Oh man, I was really hoping I could listen to Freeman's voice finally. So sad he wasn't available.

[@luie1]

Stuff like this brings back memories even though never owned this phone, but because my parents bought me a computer in 2000. I was intrigued on technology introduced to me at the time. I remember the laser focus on products to revolve around the PC. At the time, it was the future. I never got any cool tech as I was a teen and I didn't have the money. But like always, thank you for the video. Keep up the excellent work!

[@drygnfyre]

I think this product was ahead of its time. Apple tried something similar earlier in the decade with having their Mac (a specific Quadra, IIRC) replicate your phone, answering machine, fax, etc. I think in the 90s, people just weren't ready yet for one device doing everything. Both this and Apple's attempts probably would have worked out better if they showed up in the early 00s, when the idea of the smartphone was less exotic.

[@beko1987]

That phone adapter box is wicked! I missed most of your video after you showed that as I realised I can use a retro cool phone, hook it into my home assistant and speak commands to it. Next pointless but fun project sorted, thanks so much! Tbh that phone looks kind of cool, I can see that being handy for the home professional back in the day, so many features we take for granted or were cutting edge and now obselete

[@BRBTechTalk]

9:56 I can remember having a US Robotics Supra internal modem in the Windows 95 era that let me set up mail boxes for my family and each one had a different password so only the person that the message was for could retrieve it, it was quite an elaborate voice mail system that ran on a 486 computer. I spent a fair bit of time setting it up. I also had 2 lines at the time and one was dedicated to data. I had some kind of hardware switcher that knew voice calls over data calls.

[@rockpie.squashfs]

6:03 Why call Gordon Freeman? He's mute!

[@紅]

That’s actually really cool

[@ZaCaptain1229]

Well now you have to get a 900 baby monitor and see if that actually works

[@ST0NE_206]

I didn’t even know Microsoft made a phone, but to be fair I wasn’t around in the 90s

[@jackjack0145]

Yo same!

[@Tetsuo90210]

I had one and the phone was amazing and the features worked pretty well. Thanks for posting this, what a memory!

[@SvenDaFurry]

I actually saw this in the files of the Windows 98 setup CD a few months back

[@FatAlbertFanClub]

I've been waiting for this video since the community post.

[@Markimark151]

I remember these type of internet phones were made to help allow people to still make phone calls while they’re on dial up internet! I feel Microsoft didn’t care enough about of letting people use their own phones while they’re connected online. That was the biggest problem internet users had during the dial up era!

[@joshuauriarte452]

This tbh was mainly a software thing. Back then my family had one of these phones, not Microsoft branded. They were still able to use the internet from the same landline while making a call. The software used worked with a small number of phones and you were able to do this, transition from computer to phone and back. My grandma was a nurse so it helped a lot when she was at home and we wanted to use the computer.

[@friedgpu]

I remember the promo video for this phone in the Windows 98 Install CD

[@zariy2164]

5:25 I love that Portal reference

[@TheWandererGhost]

Don't forget the Half Life reference with Black Mesa & Gordon Freeman but also the Team Fortress 2 reference with The Administrator.

[@JacksonGaming092]

Imagine it just says the BSOD in text to speech when it isn't working

[@50shadesofbeige88]

Wow, what a neat phone. Great video!

[@MrTysky008]

Really thought their first phone was windows mobile! Nice video btw

[@darman2204]

The Ringtone of the Phone sounds like Mr. Game & Watch in Super Smash Bros. 😂

[@drygnfyre]

I was going to post, "Wow! That's a pic of my local Circuit City!" Then I realized every single Circuit City looks exactly the same.

[@davel231]

I had one of these! Still do, techinically, somewhere in my garage. It had some pretty cool features, though the handset stopped charging after a few years.

[@burts06]

this video was released just after my new motherboard arrived for my socket 775 motherboard arrived. thank you for making my xp build better :)

[@AlexF931]

It does remind me of some old Philips cordless phone that my parents used t have in the early 2000’s

[@jjay350]

This is actually really cool. Sort of like using a smartphone before the concept.

[@davidsanchezbarragan2947]

I'm really impressed by how advanced the system was for that time

[@tcarreon]

I remember getting this. I also remember how it would slide off the dock too easily because of the curve.

[@mikeyitalian1981]

Omg i saw one of those at a store years ago thats so cool thanks for the video.

[@lupinzar]

That "all circuits busy" recording sounds like it hasn't been updated in several decades.

[@obroni]

Next from Microsoft: A way to store recipes on your PC!

[@PKZAIT]

I remember this! I seen this product on Microsoft CD Sampler on Windows 98 SE Installation CD-ROM.

[@nicolasportela5513]

Even if it wasn't that successful, you gotta love the innovative nature of the 90-2000s when it comes to tech :)

[@enter_made_up_username]

Amazing. It reminds me a lot of the call transfer capabilities between Apple devices

[@richardestes6499]

Fascinating. I think the main thing I remember about this was the advertisement for it that came on the Windows 98 CD, but this video was more comprehensive.

[@FlatEarthDisciple]

This actually reminds me of this awesome Compaq all-in-one PC I had back in the day. It started with Windows 3.1, which I upgraded to 95. It has an insane built in Phone/Answer/Contact/Recording suite. I miss that old computer.

[@Lucio-qi9lk]

imagine calling dominos from the microsoft phone, that would be interesting to see.

[@MAXIMILI]

Discontinuing any project after a year of doing nothing is the most Microsoft thing.

[@911delorean]

I only remember these from the Windows 98 interactive sampler. Showed off a bunch of their products at the time. Peripherals, games, etc.

[@Ilikecats731]

I need this in my life.

[@SamsonSilvo]

The first I ever heard of this thing was from a commercial for it Microsoft included on the CD for Windows 98 SE as part of that "Interactive CD Sampler" catalog.

[@vincentjonesvr]

Man, combined with that bluetooth device, I actually kind of want one of these. Like, I would legitimately use it. Upsetting that there aren't any out there.

[@nlaumeyer]

I really enjoyed this very much so.

[@branscombe_]

Very very cool, great idea for video. I never knew Microsoft made phones that early on, but of course they did. :-)

[@appleiphoneuser1]

you know what day it is? MJD DAY!!

[@kneel1]

this is awesome, but would have been a small market just like you said. Great for tech people back in the day but there were much less of us back then

[@davidleeashkenazi8992]

That's some over engineered answering machine

[@ChrisChromeYT]

Another option to get a phone line without, yk, getting a phone line Voice over IP ATAs (Analog Telephony Adapter)

[@jonglass]

The box this thing comes in reminds me so much of the "If Microsoft designed the iPod packaging" video!

[@imark7777777]

This is pretty cool I remember seeing it once or twice but didn't know about the voice command function. Mac OS X had a voice commands function for the system back on OSX 10.3 but it wasn't integrated with the phone. I also had a Compaq desktop computer with voice modem and it came with a pretty sophisticated answering machine speakerphone software that could do some of what this could do. Although the cordless phone and voice commands addition is kind of nice. It's not really a big deal if the Computer goes off it would just be like in the olden days when the power went out your answering machine and cordless phones didn't work but your corded phones did. Having it come back up and restart restart on power failure and re-open the software would be a requirement but if it was that mission critical you probably should've had a UPS anyway. There was also this nifty little software called Willow phone from Willow media which had some of the same functions as the speakerphone call, Contact management that was freeware but I could only get it to work on certain systems with certain voice modems which was annoying, And then everything went soft win modem. I always thought it would be really cool to have a laptop with voice modem that could act as a mobile speakerphone that I could bring with me and just plug in at somebody's house. This all sort of pre-dated the time that people would leave there Home computers on all the time. and Also very few people had caller ID because that was a usually an expensive up charge from the phone company.

[@The.arab.mapper]

Hey man I've loved your content since forever, can you make the development history of windows 11 and 10X combined in 1 video maybe?

[@randomemail-p6y]

sorry that i am late love your videos mjd!

[@davinp]

Back in the '90s, the Windows PC was in its infancy, so not many people had a Windows PC at home back then.

[@danimayb]

I think something like 40-45% of Americans had a computer at the latter end of 1990s. and by the 2000s it was over 50%

[@FatherMcKenzie66]

I did not know this flopped! My dad had one of this at home and at his office, also many of his colleagues had it and used every day. I wonder we still have it at home

[@aayanbaig4775]

Amazing!!

[@MagnusPaul1976]

Today it is called VOIP... 👍

[@ColorWindows92]

Who do you want to call today? -this phone 1998

[@EvertG8086]

All circuits are busy now, now thats something i haven't heard in a long time.

[@Elmantukas]

I feel like even today this is so wicked and cool, must have blown some minds back then, but sometimes things are just not meant to be eh. I remember how amazing it was when skype came out and we could call our friends, it was magical. Maybe people just weren't aware of its capabilities. Anyway, cheers to the guy for making this possible, it was a great watch!

[@z9cubing574]

I saw the community post for this one. ;) :)

[@MisterMitic]

in 1957 this was far future science fiction

[@forgottencameras]

It reminds me of the old Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad; it's the perfect companion device.

[@adamlee333]

The x-link also works with old push-button and rotary phones. With the software you can also choose UK or USA dial Tone and Ring-Blips.

[@jasonmetcalfe4695]

I totally could have used something like this in the mid 00s but I don't think it was sold in New Zealand at all

[@ferrisr]

Pairing the voice commands with some X10 swag would have been sweet for the 90s

[@allthegoodnamesareinuse]

Wow, this is actually pretty slick! Too bad they clearly had no idea how to market it, or to whom.

[@rabbi4skin666]

Damn my dad used this for his general contracting business from the 90s to about 2006. He loved the thing and kept a old win98 laptop hooked just for the phone after he upgraded his PC to windows XP.

[@nascarandjeff123]

So this was basically the modern Windows 11 Phone Link app but the 1990's version!

[@sondrayork6317]

A scanner was able to do that too because the 900 MHz band is also shared with the 33cm ham band. So in reality, it was not secure at all.

[@randomemail-p6y]

hey sorry that i am late but i love your videos hope you have a good day

[@Aeduo]

What a wacky device. They put all the complexity on software that you'd have to depend on a 90s PC and windows 9x to handle.

[@jeremiefaucher-goulet3365]

What would be cool, is if it detected your dial up Internet was active and prevented you from unhooking the phone and dialing out. Imagine all the dialup drops we could have prevented back in the day.

[@MickeyMousePark]

6:28 back in the early 2000's that was my VM message lol

[@NickyClassicBackArchives]

yes! THE VIDEO!

[@windowsnt63official]

Another Michael MJD video that I missed early access to... How do I not?

[@alicelunastudios87924]

...i would love this thing

[@RupaSchomaker]

I had one of these. It was a fun gadget.

[@JeSuisUnePatate]

Asking everyone in the house : «Don't use the phone I'm on the Internet!» Microsoft Phone : Taking the line. Me: ...

[@konaDuvall]

This is kinda like the windows phone link app nowadays but its cool that this stuff was possible in the 90s

[@shaunclarke94]

So the audio runs over serial? That's pretty impressive.

[@TheCoolDave]

Not sure if you played with it, Microsoft also made a program called Microsoft phone that was sold with Sound blaster modems, this program supported TAPI (Microsoft's voice system in Windows), and later on, I got it working with Windows 10 with a USR voice modem, and still worked well.. Till I finally got rid of my home phone line (cell phones work in the house, why do we need a phone?) Neat product and I think it was more advanced software wise.

[@NigelMontezuma]

Featuring Microsoft's Sa ftware Genuine Authority Security Stable Reputation