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Gadgets now and then – part 1

Bosch SE OF 7 vs. Motorola RAZR V3


On the picture above you can see a ‘transportable’ Bosch phone from the end of the 80’s and a modern Motorola RAZR. Did you know that you have to carry around 54 RAZRs to carry the same weight as the BOSCH phone? 5.2 kilograms (11.5 pounds) vs 95 grams (3.35 ounces). Here’s a couple of other funny comparisons of Gadgets now and then.

Car stereo

Pioneer QP-400 8-track vs. Pioneer AVH-P7500DVD
The coolest thing you could have in a car in the end of the 60′ and to the mid 70’s was the 8-track tape stereo, which could play the popular 8-track cartridge (surprise! hehe). In the US you could buy 8-track cartridges until the mid 80’s so it was quite a longlasting format. The 8-track was created by Bill Lear in 1964.

Above you can see one of the top models – the Pioneer QP-400 from the Quadraphonic 8-Track Car Decks page:
Quadraphonic 8-Track Car Decks [members.cox.net]

Today you can find tons of different car entertainment system, but let’s just take an example. Here’s the Pioneer AVH-P7500DVD an in-dash DVD receiver with 7″ LCD touch screen (which is retracted into the dash when it’s not used) and capabilities of delivering a stunning audio (and video) experience.

Pioneer AVH-P7500DVD [pioneerelectronics.com]

Removable storage

BASF 5 1/4 inch diskette vs SanDisk Ultra II Compach Flash 8GB
In the end of the 80’s the most popular removable storage media was the 5 1/4 inch diskette, capable of storing 360 KB (later 1200 KB). If you compare that to a big compact flash card of today, you could store close to 25 000 diskettes on ONE 8GB CompactFlash card…

The 5¼-inch minifloppy [Wikipedia.org]
SanDisk Ultra II CompactFlash 8GB [Sandisk.com]

Mobile Phones

Bosch SE OF 7 vs. Motorola RAZR V3
On the image above you can see a Bosch transportable phone to the left. It’s from the end of the 80’s and weighs 5.2 kg – 11.5 pounds (!) and has the following dimensions height: 26cm width: 23cm depth: 12cm. To the right is one of the smallest mobile phones of today – the Motorola RAZR V3 – weighing in at 95 grams (3.35 ounces). That means that you can carry around with a plastic bag containing 54 RAZRs instead of one Bosch SE OF7. And if we look into specifications the old brick phone can’t match anything…!

Dick van Toorenburg’s transportables [samhallas.cwc.net]
Motorola RAZR V3 [motorola.com]

Kitchen TV

JVC Model 3100D vs Audiovox VE-706
When you look into the segment of small Kitchen TVs, the race is actually quite even. Here’s an old 7 inch kitchen tv from 1978, and a modern 7 inch flat screen from Audiovox. Sure, one screen is flat ant the other one is fat – but since they are so small the difference isn’t that big. I guess many actually would prefer having the old JVC Model 3100D (left on the image above) since it’s so much cooler.

Television History 1970 to 1979 [tvhistory.tv]
Audiovox VE-706 7 Inch Ultra-Slim [plasma.com]

Videogames

Atari 2600 and the Atari classics - 10 in 1 joystick
One of the hottest early gaming platforms was the Atari 2600 which was introduced in 1977. The initial price was $199 and at the release day you could purchase 9 different games. It could display graphics at a resolution of 160 times 192 pixels with up to 128 colors (4 colors per line) – it had a RAM capacity of 128 bytes – yes bytes – but the cartridge could hold up to 32kilobyte.

Today you can purchase the ‘Atari classics – 10 in 1 joystick’ for $7.99…
The Atari 2600 VCS [ataritimes.com]
Atari classics – 10 in 1 joystick [jakkstvgames.com]

Atari 2600 Tennis vs XBOX 360 Top Spin 2

Another way of doing the comparision is to compare actual games from now and then – and even though many of the old games are funny and playable, the graphical side can’t be compared at all. The screenshots above come from the Activision game ‘Tennis’ and ‘Top Spin 2′ for the XBOX 360.

Tennis for the Atari [ataritimes.com]
Top Spin 2 for the XBOX 360 [xbox.com]

for more Gaming – now and then comparisons, check out my article Gaming – now and then.

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Update!

Gadgets now and then – part 2

If you like the latest shopping online for the latest gadgets like DVD players and portable DVD players, get your movies from our online
shopping site today.



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