20 Vintage Technologies That No Longer Use

Most of the technologies that we have used in the past have been changed by the remarkable technology that we use today. Advances in their design have occurred in tandem with the advances in technology in this digital era, with many large products being redesigned became more simple amazingly small sizes. Some of us may laugh at the fact that anyone ever found this technology to be cutting-edge, we can’t discount its place in history as a forerunner for all of the technology that wouldn’t exist today without its dinosaur ancestry. Here is a quick look through history at vintage technologies that we no longer use today :

1. Betamax

Betamax was developed by Sony in 1975, a year before the ultimately more popular VHS format was invented as a response to Sony’s attempt to control the format of the industry.

2. Laser Disc Players

Initially marketed as “Discovision”, laser discs were the format choice of tech enthusiasts who had the money to put together a collection until the DVD format came out.

3. Cassette Tape Recorders

These devices were considerably less bulky then their reel to reel ancestors, and were used mostly for transcription.

4. Cassette Tapes

The compact cassette was originally developed for transcription purposes, and its users quickly realized that they could use it to record music and make “mixed tapes”.

5. Analog Telephones

While exactly who invented the phone is a topic of debate, the first patent was awarded to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. They have evolved from rotary dial models to smart phones that we can use today to surf the internet.

7. Transistors Radios

Transistor radios typically only picked up on the AM band and were a ubiquitous sight in schools and businesses in the seventies.

8. Boom Boxes

Associated with hip hop, break-dancing, and other aspects of eighties culture, the boom box was introduced in the late 1970’s as portable, all-in-one music devices. Earlier models took huge quantities of batteries and were very heavy.

9. Pagers

Pagers were commonly used from the seventies to the nineties, when widespread adoption of cell phones rendered them obsolete for mass market use. They are still used by emergency responders as they are not subject to network outages or similar disruptions in communication.

10. Typewriters

While some writers still swear by them, most writers remember when they swore at them and have happily moved on.

11. Walkman

The Walkman was invented for the co-chairman of Sony, Akio Morita , who wanted to be able to listen to his favorite operas on plane trips. It was initially marketed as the Soundabout in North America, but the “Walkman” name was used for the product up until the present day.

12. Discman

Two years after the mass production of the Compact Disc, Sony released its portable player for it. While they were popular with audiophiles, who appreciated the quality of recording, earlier Discmans would skip and didn’t allow for the popular “mix tapes” until it became possible for computers to “burn” CD’s.

13. CRT Television

The first widespread use of television was in Germany beginning in 1929, and the German Olympic Games of 1936 were the first to be broadcast on television. Televisions remained out of the reach of the middle class until the 1950’s, when their ownership boomed globally and television shows became more popular. Cathode ray tubes gave way to the technologies that we use for television now, making sets less bulky and furniture-like.

15. CRT Computer Monitor

Just when you thought you were done with vacuum tubes in your computers, they put them in your monitors in the form of cathode ray tubes (CRT).

16. PDA’S

Considered one of the biggest tech flops of all time, the Apple Newton was sold at a huge price point compared to other Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) that were on the market. Personal digital assistants were electronic timekeepers for the times when you couldn’t fit a computer in your pocket. The Newton’s development laid the groundwork for Apple’s hugely successful iPod and iPhone. Who’s laughing now?

17. Portable Televisions

Portable televisions, such as Sony’s Watchman, were an idea that came a little before the ability of the media to catch up to it. With a limited selection of channels, they never really caught on.

18. 8″ Floppy Disc

If you wanted to save one or two word processing documents, you could do it on these. Their smaller relatives are still in widespread use.

19. 3.5″ Floppy Disc

The 3.5″ Floppy took over from its bulkier cousin with larger storage and a less destructible design. It had largely been replaced by the late nineties by CD’s, DVD’s, USB drives and other more convenient computer storage methods.

20. Slide Projectors

These were classroom and office standbys for years, and were replaced by digital projectors and smartboards.