Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 7:33AM We previously featured Prodigy here, so it was only a matter of time before its arch-enemy CompuServe would make an appearance. The great thing about this ad for CompuServe is that it also gives us a quick glimpse at another Retro tech: DAT recordings! Enjoy:
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 7:16AM I try to live a life without regrets. I have to tell you though, one regret I will always carry was a chance to pick up a Sony Aibo at an FAO Schwartz going-out-of-business sale for less than $100. Little did I know at the time the Aibo would soon be discontinued by Sony, and the most advanced consumer robot was gone. Sure there have been others since, but nothing has quite matched the Aibo. Although most of them are a fraction of the Aibo's four-figure price.
From YouTube, here's a good look at what an Aibo can/could do:
Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 7:03AM Things can get pretty heated between xBox fans and PS3 fans. But that rivalry has nothing on the days of Intellivision and Atari. The early 1980's was a time of videgoame fever. Sure there might be more people playing videogames today than ever before, but back then, we were experiencing the first wave of in-home electronic games, and there were two camps: The Atari 2600 users, and the Intellivision users. For the record, I was in the Atari camp. And let's be honest here, the Atari offered a far wider selection of games. Still the Intellivision with its nearly unusable joysticks, and easy-to-lose-game-specific overlays, had better graphics, and more complex gaming.
In case you missed the Intellivsion the first time around, here's a look back. Sorry, but the rebate is over:
Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 6:47AM The old trusty rotary phone had quite a life. Some people continued to use them through the 1990's and probably beyond. But as this 1963 clip shows, it never stood a chance compared to the sheer speed of the push button system. Never mind there's really no way of knowing what number these two are trying to dial, just know that the big lights on the wall indicate you'll save minutes, heck hours of your life by making the switch to push button!
Who here grew up with a rotary phone? Do you feel jealous that those dang push button (touchtone) kids get to go and play, instead of spending time dialing!?
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 8:44AM A lot of people say a technology was ahead of its time when things don't work out for it. I know of few inventions that seemed so silly at the time, but only with the passing of a decade made as much sense as the CueCat.
The concept of the Cuecat was to attach a barcode to just about everything. So if you were looking at a sales flyer for example, you could scan the bar code next to an item to learn more about it. All kinds of unique uses were cooked up: you could use bar codes to program your VCR, or to learn more about the major stories in the newspaper.
At the hieght of CueCat mania Radio Shack, a big backer of the device, was even giving them away. There were several reasons the CueCat failed. For one, far fewer people had constant, fast internet connections. The CueCat concept sort of fell apart when you had to wait for your computer to connect via phone modem. And secondly, we were all internet crazy: "Hey, I don't want to scan a barcode to get my information, I want to search the web!"
Yet all these years later, here we are, giddy at the prospect of scanning barcodes with our iPhones, to price shop, make grocery lists, and get information.
Everything old... Here's a look at one of the early intro videos for the device. You should know the late 90's were a big time for floating camera shots. Use Dramamine as needed: