Apple CEO Tim Cook saw an iPhone in a nearly 350-year-old painting

CNBC Tech Transformers ^ | May 25, 2016 | By Arjun Kharpal

[zeugma]

Get back to me when he sees a cell phone tower 300 years ago

Not much would work well on an iphone without GPS and cell towers. And, where the heck are you going to plug it in to recharge?

OTOH, you'd have a long time to wait for an update.

[BenLurkin]

You could play angry birds until the battery ran out.

[Mr. K]

I think it is what the title says - handing her a letter

[minnesota_bound]

#8 The kids today should never ever complain about how tough life is when you see a photo like that.

[Mr. K]

the close-up is certainly more revealing!!

[Sacajaweau]

Right....the chicks got nail polish, too

[Cementjungle]

No wonder Apple is starting to struggle... their CEO is starting to hallucinate.

[jetson]

No way! It is a Multidimensional Zarcon Feedback Matter Displacement Module! Or a MZFMDM back up.

[zeugma]

There is that. You could also use the timer, stopwatch, calculator, and flashlight until it died.

[BenLurkin]

How about this.

Find out which function most impresses which one of the locals and sell the IPhone to that person. Charge a fortune for it.

Don’t forget to skip town right away.

[Seruzawa]

Looks like that ol’ fudgepacker needs his meds adjusted.

[zeugma]

Actually, an iPhone is not what I'd sell them. There are any number of things that would work better. How about a straight up mechanical automatic watch. No batteries required, but it also doesn't need to be wound, and would keep better time than anything that existed in that time period. I suspect you could make a fortune selling just the escapement to a jeweler.

The best way to make money in the past though, is even easier than that. Simply take ten pounds of aluminum ingots, and trade it to someone who deals in commodities straight up weight for weight for gold. They'd think they were getting a heck of a deal, and thus could be trusted to keep their mouth shut, and you'd be somewhat better off as well. Until the advent of electricity so separate aluminum from ore, it was insanely expensive stuff, and like gold, has the advantage of not being subject to tarnish.

[BenLurkin]

Interesting!

[TEXOKIE]

FWIW, Rush Limbaugh’s time travel stories involve kids taking their iPhones to take pictures while they are in the past. No ability to chat/visit obviously. They take them to the past and can use them while they have charge.

[TEXOKIE]

LOL! I just posted something to that effect, except was citing Rush’s fictional kids’ use of iPhones in travels to the past to take pix.

[Swordmaker]

The best way to make money in the past though, is even easier than that. Simply take ten pounds of aluminum ingots, and trade it to someone who deals in commodities straight up weight for weight for gold. They'd think they were getting a heck of a deal, and thus could be trusted to keep their mouth shut, and you'd be somewhat better off as well. Until the advent of electricity so separate aluminum from ore, it was insanely expensive stuff, and like gold, has the advantage of not being subject to tarnish.

Did you know there is still an ingot of aluminium (note the English spelling) amoung the British Crown Jewels? Before the turn of the 20th Century pure metallic Aluminium was that valuable it was considered a precious metal.