Technologies

150 Years After the First Phone Call, We’re Still Looking for 1-on-1 Connections

I spoke to an AT&T archivist about Alexander Graham Bell’s famous transmission. Even though calls have changed, the reasons behind them are still the same.

My interview with William Caughlin, the head of AT&T Archives and History Center, started with an ironic twist. Our Microsoft Teams video call failed, so we ended up talking over the «regular» phone.

Perhaps «regular» isn’t entirely accurate, given the infrastructure. But it was fitting for the topic of our conversation: the very first phone call, which occurred exactly 150 years ago.

On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made a famous exclamation to his assistant: «Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.» That sentence crossed a single copper wire to the next room. Though the technology that enabled the call has changed drastically over the past century and a half, the experience was fundamentally the same. Two people in two different locations were having a conversation — and seeking a connection — in real time.

Caughlin told me that Bell had been working on experiments for a year by then. But even though he was able to transmit speech sounds over copper wire in 1875, it was inarticulate. «Watson could hear noises, sounds, but he couldn’t really make out what Bell was saying. But Bell knew he was on the right path at that point,» Caughlin said.

Those experiments culminated on March 10, when the sounds became clear.

Read more: AT&T Says It’s Pumping $250 Billion Into New Infrastructure Improvements

Artifacts of the future

To celebrate the anniversary of that first transmission, AT&T created a pop-up exhibit at its Dallas headquarters, open to the public through Thursday, March 12.

Some notable artifacts on display from this day 150 years ago include the copper wire over which the message was sent, which in 1914 was wrapped in a loose spool and set behind glass. There’s also Thomas Watson’s notebook, where he recorded those historic first words.

«It’s one of the greatest treasures in our collection,» said Caughlin.

And with its red ribbon and official seal, the original March 7, 1876, patent for «Improvement in Telegraphy,» is said to be the most valuable patent ever granted.

The telephone occupied Bell’s attention for only a few years. Though it launched an industry, Bell was still tinkering elsewhere, according to Caughlin.

«He was a lifelong learner, a scientist, researcher, and even though he left the telephone business in 1878, he continued experimenting.»

Bell considered the «photophone» to be his greatest invention, said Caughlin. In 1880, Bell transmitted a human voice over a beam of light. It was a precursor to today’s fiber-optic cables, which essentially do the same thing: sending pulses of light through glass fibers across thousands of miles. Bell transmitted his voice using mirrors and a parabola receiver 1,300 feet away in another building. It required direct sunlight, but the voice was very clear.

Also in the archive is the original transistor that was invented by AT&T physicists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, which Caughlin says is «the second greatest invention that ever came out of AT&T.»

It’s the technology that underlies most of the items on my desk and whatever device you’re reading this story on. «In your smartphone, you have something like 20 billion transistors,» Caughlin pointed out.

Its 1950 patent is also included in the collection.

Connections then and now

In that Boston lab in 1876, the network consisted of a copper wire running from Bell’s transmitter to the receiver Watson was using. Now, AT&T says it moves an exabyte (1 billion gigabytes, or the storage equivalent of nearly 4 million iPhone 17E smartphones) of data across its network every day.

Voice calls represent a small fraction of that traffic. The technology that connects our phones — 5G networks, fiber backbones, satellite calling — continues to evolve even as the number of calls remains a small portion of how we communicate. Nearly three times more texts than voice calls passed through AT&T’s network in 2025.

I, for one, will almost always prefer to chat via text rather than make a phone call, mostly for expediency.

But phone calls haven’t disappeared. If anything, they’ve morphed into a nuisance, given the barrage of scam calls and now impersonal AI-based customer service systems that get in the way of human connection. Today’s carriers and phone-makers are having to implement more aggressive filtering tools, though with mixed success.

And yet when I want to connect and focus my full attention on someone, a voice call or video call is the way to do it. And unlike days past, I can make a call from anywhere without worrying about long-distance charges. Heck, I don’t even need to memorize phone numbers anymore — I just tap one of my favorite contacts or ask the resident disembodied voice assistant to make the call for me.

Bell no doubt knew the importance of hearing someone’s voice, live, over the phone line. A century and a half later, through incredible advancements in telephony technology, that connection is still just as valuable.

Technologies

OnePlus and Oppo to Raise Smartphone Prices as Memory Costs Climb

Oppo says rising costs for key phone components will trigger price adjustments on some devices starting March 16.

Chinese smartphone-makers OnePlus and Oppo plan to raise prices on some existing models starting next week, according to a 9to5Google report citing GizmoChina and a notice posted on Oppo’s China online store.

In its notice, Oppo said it would adjust pricing after evaluating rising costs for several key components used in its mobile phones. The changes are expected to take effect around March 16 and will affect some of the company’s more affordable smartphones, as well as some OnePlus models.

Flagship devices — like those in the Find and Reno series — are not expected to be affected for now. The reported adjustments currently appear to be limited to China.

The move highlights growing pressure across the smartphone supply chain as component costs climb. Analysts say prices for memory and storage chips used in phones have been rising in recent months as demand surges across the tech industry.

Much of the chip demand is coming from the rapid buildout of AI data centers, which rely on large amounts of high-performance memory.

That pressure isn’t limited to Oppo and OnePlus. Analysts say smartphone brands across the industry are facing rising component costs amid increased demand for memory chips.

As manufacturers shift production toward higher-margin memory used in AI servers, supply for consumer electronics such as smartphones and laptops can tighten.

If component costs continue to rise, manufacturers may face difficult choices later this year, including raising retail prices or adjusting device specifications to offset higher manufacturing costs.

OnePlus and Oppo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Harvard Business Review Study Finds ‘AI Brain Fry’ Is Leaving Workers Mentally Fatigued

Study participants reported increased mental fatigue while using AI tools, but less burnout overall.

Workers who excessively use AI agents and tools at work are at increased risk of mental fatigue, according to a recent Harvard Business Review study. In certain industries, more than 25% of hired professionals report increased mental strain due to their role in AI oversight — though these professionals also generally experienced less burnout than peers who aren’t using AI.

This phenomenon — which the researchers refer to as «AI brain fry» — is described as a «‘buzzing’ feeling or a mental fog» that caused study participants to develop headaches and difficulty focusing and making decisions. Individuals pointed to being overwhelmed by large amounts of information and to frequent task switching as the reasons for these feelings.

Studied individuals experienced more brain fry when they utilized AI agents to manage a workload beyond their own cognitive capacity. When participants used AI to replace mundane, repetitive tasks, managing the growing number of tools led to increased mental fatigue.

Crucially, the study found that fewer individuals who used these AI agents reported workplace burnout.

The researchers predict that this is because burnout testing assesses emotional and physical distress. In contrast, they report, acute mental fatigue «is caused by marshalling attention, working memory and executive control beyond the limited capacity of these systems.»

These are the processes that are taxed when study participants use multiple AI tools in their workflow, according to the researchers.

The Harvard study identifies several business costs incurred by workers suffering from AI brain fry. The foremost consequence is that these individuals may end up making lower-quality decisions. «Workers in [the] study who endorsed AI brain fry experience 33% more decision fatigue than those who did not,» the study reports. Workers who report AI brain fry were also more likely to self-report making both minor and major errors at their jobs.

Another recent Harvard Business Review study similarly found that employees who use AI tools «worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks and extended work into more hours of the day,» but warned that «workload creep can in turn lead to cognitive fatigue, burnout and weakened decision-making.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 11, #1004

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 11, No. 1,004.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Once I spotted «ice cream» and «traffic» in today’s NYT Connections puzzle, I had the blue category all but filled in. But that purple category was even more bizarre than usual. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Bring that back!

Green group hint: Fancy ____.

Blue group hint: Think of a certain shape.

Purple group hint: Sounds like…