Retro Tech Tuesday: Radio Shack Cell Phone

And you thought bluetooth headsets were annoying! Here's a look at perhaps the most annoying guy at the golf course and restaurant in the 1980's: Yes, the guy with the "portable" phone from Radio Shack:

Retro Tech Tuesday: A 4k Computer

I could go on and on about the TRS-80 from Radio Shack, I mean we're talking about 4k (as in kilobytes) of computing power! But this gem of an ad sums it up pretty well.. ahh, the good old days...

Radio Shack, We're Pullin' for Ya

Ah, Radio Shack... The butt of many jokes through the years.. From your hyper-need to try to sell everyone batteries, to the now-gone tradition of asking for far too much personal information to sell those batteries. Yes, the technology world hasn't been kind. And of course, there's the age-old conundrum of how you've made it this far. The few times I've entered a Radio Shack in the last few years, I was the only person in the store, and buying less than $10 in merchandise.

But it's the nature of that merchandise that makes us pull for you. Where else can an electronics tinkerer go today and leave with a resistor or capacitor? Yes, the real magic of the store has been reduced to those slide out drawers in the back corner. I remember those Radio Shack golden years of Tandy computers (Tandy 1000 was my first computer ever), and of course, the R/C Car phase, followed now by the cell phone phase. I don't know how many people put Radio Shack on their shortlist of cell phone sellers, but all of that could be about to change.

As it was announced the iPhone would be coming to Best Buy in September, reports also hint that Radio Shack could be next.

Imagine, that quiet little strip mall stalwart could become one of only four authorized channels for the iPhone. Behold, the Radio Shack resurrection could be near. Then again, there's just as good of chance that those trays of resistors and hard-to-find electronics parts are just the kind of merchandise that would disappear to make room for the iPhone and its wall of accessories.