Significant Anachronisms

It had to happen eventually.

In September 2009, I noticed that a modern smartphone or PDA of some sort had somehow ended up in a photo on the cover of the 1960 French edition of Chester Himes' Imbroglio negro (All Shot Up). So I posted my discovery to HiLobrow.

After that, without even looking for them, I found anachronistic smartphones/PDAs in two pre-1950s films — Otto Preminger's Laura (1944) and Frank Capra's Platinum Blonde (1931).

My discovery of these time-traveling devices has...