Top ten gadgets of yesteryear

In the not-so-distant past, gadgets weren't as slick as they are today. Today, I'd like to take some time to look back on the less-fortunate gadgets, which were either replaced or just didn't take off.

Get ready for a trip down memory lane, as we check out Luke's top ten gadgets of the past:

10. The fax machine.

These little beauties were once the staple of many offices, and are still used in some though they're mostly taken over by email. I have fond memories of sending faxes or crudely drawn pictures to other geeky friends in the nineties. They seem to have been used a lot for circulating wanted posters in cheesy 90's cop movies. Maybe these are not truly gone, but they're certainly in their death-throes.

9. The Viewmaster.

When I was a (young) kid, the Viewmaster was the height of cool. As long as you've got teddy, molly, and your Viewmaster, you're set for a night of fun with your Disney pals. OK, maybe this isn't really a gadget, more like a toy, but it did have a satisfying lever-operated mechanism. A special mention here, also, for the Magnadoodle - a close runner-up to the Viewmaster.

8. The boom box.

The shoulder-mounted boom box hit its peak in the 80s with kids on the street jiving to the fresh sounds of Grand Master Flash and early break-beats. These things have seen something of a revival in the past few years, with their retro-cool value on the increase. Possibly the best thing about them is the coloured lights that bounce up and down to the beat. So fresh.

7. The pager.

These things may still be used by some, but have mostly been replaced by mobile phones and internet devices. Television hospital dramas would have me believe they're commonly used by doctors, whose private lives are interrupted at the most unfortunate times. These were a sort of preview to the world of text-messaging, but you couldn't text back.

6. The calculator watch.

For mathematicians on the go, came the truly amazing calculator watch. Before we had phones to work out our share of the power bill, those with calculator watches were considered nerds well-equipped. Normal watches were mere timepieces compared with these things, which were large, square and (I would imagine) uncomfortable to wear. Just because you can combine two gadgets, it doesn't mean you should.

5. The Walkman (and cassettes).

Now, I'm not going to start a riot and start saying cassettes (or vinyl) are dead. Some people still love them, I would imagine for nostalgic reasons. People used to cruise around with these bulky things strapped on, enduring chewed tape and short battery-life. These are, of course, the evolutionary step before the Discman and the mp3 player. I can remember listening to a Walkman on a bus trip from Napier to Wellington once, which chewed through two sets of AA batteries.

4. Virtual reality headsets.

These were supposed to be the next big thing in the late 90s around the time that virtual reality was showing its slow-loading face. VRML worlds allowed you to move around in a virtual space with other geeks, giving out your age, sex and location willy-nilly and loving it. Unfortunately, the people watching you in real life thought you looked like a dork. A few games came on board with the headset, including one of my old favourites, Descent. Player feedback on the experience included cases of motion sickness and vomiting.

3. The 8-track.

These beasts of the audio world were designed in the 60s and were used right up until the 90s by some, until the digital audio world forced its way on to the scene. Ahh, nothing cooler than cruising down the highway, listening to your Lynyrd Skynyrd 8-track with the wind rushing through your long, unruly hair. At least that's how I imagine it was, anyway. Fly on, freebird.

2. The Flowbee.

Is your hair getting out of control? Need a haircut, but not willing to shell out for someone who actually knows what they are doing? Well then, the Flowbee was for you. It's basically a vacuum cleaner combined with hair clippers. As you sucked your hair into the vacuum pipe, it would be clipped to a certain length, no mess, no hair in the eyes, no style. I never had the honour of a Flowbee haircut, to my discredit.

1. The brick phone.

Before the days of small phones were... well... large phones. A mobile phone used to involve two parts - the handset and the rest of it, which was carried as a fashionable man-bag or purse (which weighed several kgs). Anyone who was anyone in the business world had a mobile phone. These things would have added a whole new dimension to the intrusive and annoying mobile phone conversation on the bus, in the elevator or in the foyer. On the plus side, they could be used as a weapon to defend yourself in case of bandits.

So that concludes my list, what do you think? Were you the proud owner of any of these gadgets? Do you still use them? Did I miss anything here?

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Leo   #1   08:27 am Nov 25 2009

Just a note on the pagers, they are in fact used quite a lot in the medical profession, my wife is a midwife, and her and the bulk of her colleagues use pagers...

paul clarke   #2   08:43 am Nov 25 2009

let us not forget the laser disc, quadraphonic sound, hypercolor t-shirts (for those workout bunnies), betacord and the often unheard of philips 20/20 video format, and my all time favorite novelty of the 90's spray on hair for the folically challenged.

Shane   #3   08:51 am Nov 25 2009

Most of those I would agree with but the faxes are still used a lot n schools, that's probably a funding thing and I would still buy a Viewmaster for any kid under about 7.

They were around when I was a kid 40 years ago and when my daughters were young ten years ago. Ya just can't kill them off.

DC   #4   08:57 am Nov 25 2009

Blackberry started out life as a pager huh?

Faxes still rule for "draw and fax" rather than "CAD and email" on building sites etc, and I cant see that changing in a hurry.

paul   #5   09:15 am Nov 25 2009

Casettes are making a big comeback in the indie-music scene as a cheap distribution method. There's a company in Australia that manufactures blank tapes - and they say they have never been busier.

You could have also included:

- VCR's. Sure some people still use them to tape TV - but with TV Ondemand, MySky and TIVO coming VCR's are going out real quick.

- Camera film. Both for still photography and video. I don't know of any camera manufacturer that still makes film capable cameras, and the film itself is becoming harder to source. In the early days of digital cameras a lot of professionals continued using film - because the tech just wasn't good enough. But as you blogged the other day DSLR's are the bomb now.

- CRT TV's, Computer Monitors... no one makes these anymore. I think I bought the last CRT flat screen TV ever made and that was 10 years ago.

Vickie   #6   09:25 am Nov 25 2009

Remember the very first cell phone, the one that attached to your car, and when it rang your car horn beeped? Not exactly mobile.

My partner made a case to hold a car battery and hooked his up to that, taking it onto job sites with him. Of course, you needed a second mortgage to pay the phone bill if you used it, and it was heavier than your average tool box to carry. But it was cool at the time! lol

Lanthanide   #7   09:38 am Nov 25 2009

Faxes will never go away. With faxes you can: 1. Get someone to sign a document. 2. Send it somewhere else very quickly.

You can't do that with email scanning it and emailing it. Faxes do it all in one one.

Furthermore, signatures on faxes are legally binding contracts. Signatures on documents that have been scanned and emailed are not - because computers can manipulate scanned images easily. This is why lawyers and finance companies still use fax machines.

Nuku   #8   09:46 am Nov 25 2009

Faxes are great for covering up signatures that are an image and not actually signed. whoops did i say that out loud?!?!

Laser discs, lol. I had an Etch-a-Sketch (not a Magnadoodle)when i was young, that was cool.

LK   #9   10:42 am Nov 25 2009

I bought a whole bunch of CASSETTE TAPES recently - Yay! Off TradeMe. Because I have a cassette player in my car.

Because I wasn't the driver when I was growing up (and the driver chooses the station/tape in my family) I had never realised a fairly obvious drawback - get into a hot car on a hot day, put a hot tape in the player and push play - and you've just killed your tape. Who knew that the tape in those things was so easily stretched when it gets too hot?

My partner bought me a tuner so I can use my ipod. It was cheap and effective. Can't believe I didn't just do that in the first place.

Nati   #10   10:42 am Nov 25 2009

Pagers used by Fireman nationwide- alerts fireman before siren goes off at station

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