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Historic Gadgets Through The Years - Photos

chicagotribune.com — *****

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 9, 2009

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  • driftwoodson, on 01/09/2009, -0/+16Pretty sure they had color photographs in 1989
  • ohnoerino, on 01/08/2009, -1/+13Dugg for boom boxes.
  • 12916studios, on 01/09/2009, -0/+10An almost DVD in 1979? Holy *****!
  • chadsmith729, on 01/08/2009, -0/+9Man these are great, I think the best is the floating radio. It's stylish, AND functional!

    Also Dugg for being all on one page, no need to have a ton of page refreshes.
  • Benjigga, on 01/09/2009, -0/+8I wonder when we'll come up with a gadget to produce colorful photographs.
  • dudestuff, on 01/09/2009, -0/+6dugg for short shorts bike guy. not ashamed to say it.
  • TheDHC, on 01/09/2009, -0/+6why would you feel old. you never experienced any of those object.
  • wassamatta, on 01/09/2009, -0/+6Umm I meant Dragon's Lair.
  • DickyT83, on 01/08/2009, -0/+5Dugg for Charlie Murphy on page 7.
  • TheCash, on 01/09/2009, -0/+5Delta Airlines and KLM used to rent them out on their long flights, sort of like how Alaska Air rents out PMP's now. I remember getting one for the 8 hour flight from Anchorage, Ak to Amsterdam back in '89, and watching Lethal Weapon without letting my folks see because I wasn't allowed to watch R rated movies seeing how I was only 9. The stewardess even let me watch The Terminator.

    Seeing that ad brought that all back... I haven't though of that in like 2 decades. That little player was the coolest thing my 9 year old eyes had ever looked at.
  • danjal, on 01/09/2009, -2/+7its 2009, why can't people make a simple slide show so when you click it loads the next picture, not the whole dame page. Thats just lazy coding.
  • TheCash, on 01/09/2009, -0/+5"Long distance operator Lorraine Berklan modeled with the old and new phones in 1955 at an Illinois Bell Telephone exhibit. Making a call with the one on the right, modern for sure at the time, would be a puzzle to today's youngest generations. "

    I laughed at that, then realized they are totally right. A kid today would stare at a rotary phone the way my dog stares at the vacuum cleaner.
  • zambuka, on 01/09/2009, -0/+4Great list, more than a little nostalgia in there as well for me.

    Also, it's nice to see a multi page slide show that doesn't reload the ads for every page.
  • mcsurvey, on 01/09/2009, -0/+4Hey man I have reservoir dogs on 'almost dvd' it's mad alright. It's like a VHS tape you cant rewind or fast forward with slightly better picture quality.
  • Navicerts, on 01/09/2009, -0/+4I remeber when CD's first came out (before they were popular on the public market). They were called "WORM Disks" for "Write Once Read Many".
  • phantomh, on 01/09/2009, -0/+3Great,I like it!
  • homemadejam, on 01/09/2009, -0/+3Wow, I found that pretty inntresting :)
    It's supprising how much things have changed only after a few years time. Makes you wonder where things will be at in another 10 years or so doens't it?
  • Frecklefoot, on 01/09/2009, -0/+3Laser disc players were analog, not digital. So they looked real cool, but were one par with VHS (slightly better), much better at still frames, but not so much better that people were willing to abandon VHS for it.
  • apena89, on 01/09/2009, -0/+3Sony made a portable video player back in 1988? God damn, what's with all of the Sony hate lately? Look what they've done!
  • wassamatta, on 01/09/2009, -0/+3Dugg for laser disc player...... the brains behind the game Dragon Slayer

    http://spyhunter007.com/spy_history.htm (search for it on that page)
  • globalthreat, on 01/09/2009, -0/+3A lot of these technologies have paved the way for the advanced technologies we have now. Without some of these inventions we'd still be living in the past.
  • dystra, on 01/09/2009, -0/+2dugg for mustaches
  • inactive, on 01/09/2009, -0/+2Very cool
  • alieneggsac, on 01/09/2009, -1/+3I am certain that all of these items spew out enough gamma radiation to give you cancer on your balls.
  • mizled, on 01/09/2009, -1/+3"Electric automobiles have been around since the beginning of cars and only made periodic comeback attempts until recently."

    It's sad that the technology hasn't improved that much like it has with gas/diesel. If we would have only invested more money in the past on EV technology we might actually be able to drive cross country on a single charge by now.
  • inactive, on 01/09/2009, -2/+4That video disc player looks beautiful, very futuristic (dare I say appleish?). I bet it's worth a pretty penny on ebay. Laser disc's seemed far beyond their time.
  • spritom, on 01/09/2009, -0/+2And then later, Space Ace!
  • inactive, on 01/12/2009, -0/+2They really weren't all that.
  • mcsurvey, on 01/11/2009, -0/+2Digital sound for the vast majority though.
  • MrBogard, on 01/11/2009, -0/+2Apple invented all of that *****.
  • avatarpalin, on 01/10/2009, -0/+2I work for Kodak, and I call the chief of photography and he said they did!

    .. he went on to ask if I could stop bothering him with such stupid questions..


  • Frecklefoot, on 01/09/2009, -0/+2And it's amazing that some of the cool-sounding devices never made it. No. 1: Picture phone. Sure, we have cell phones that can take photos, but where's the video phone? Webcam chats are the closest thing we have, and they're hardly ubiquitous.
  • Gizmort, on 01/09/2009, -1/+2That VideoDisc is BADASS.
  • totallyeggs, on 01/09/2009, -2/+3I'll show you experienced.
  • inactive, on 01/09/2009, -0/+1using flash to render the pages/pictures, no a series of HTML pages with different pictures. obviously the man owns a dial up connection and a browser without tabs
  • duggggy, on 01/09/2009, -0/+1I'm glad the price of computers have come down and not up?!?!! (no.19)
  • aljamiat, on 01/09/2009, -0/+1what great photos!
  • hsrd777, on 01/09/2009, -0/+1http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090108/robotic-s ...
    interesting robot..
  • pinoyazrael, on 02/21/2009, -0/+1Great gadgets!

    http://www.gadgetsway.com
  • SolubleFish, on 01/11/2009, -0/+1That was cool, but it seems unnecessary to make photos from the 1980s (even the Sony one from 1988) black and white.

  • themadcracker, on 01/09/2009, -1/+1http://www.roflposters.com/bayonette-chainsaw-yeah ...
  • inactive, on 01/09/2009, -2/+2dugg for what?
  • inactive, on 01/13/2009, -1/+1That's right, Apple invents *****.
  • sonneti, on 04/03/2009, -0/+0Great photos.. the radio printer is brilliant. I can't get the last 12 pictures to show though :( http://www.gadgettiger.com
  • buzznova, on 03/01/2009, -0/+0Gadgets in the future might still have the problems they have today: http://digg.com/design/Can_you_resist_knowing_the_ ...
  • bodohdigg, on 04/04/2009, -0/+0Great pic. Historic of gadget.
    http://jutabiz.com/gadgetshow
  • gzyuxi, on 01/09/2009, -5/+2High-tech once upon a time
    Man these are great, I think the best is the floating radio. It's stylish, AND functional!
  • gzyuxi, on 01/09/2009, -6/+1High-tech once upon a time
    Man these are great, I think the best is the floating radio. It's stylish, AND functional!
  • EchoMike, on 01/09/2009, -8/+2Buried for slideshow.

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