By Sean P. Aune |
E3 2012 is now in the rearview mirror, and while it brought us lots of cool new games, what was the show like when it started way back in 1995? We heard all about the Wii U, Halo 4, The Last of Us and ton…
By Sean P. Aune |
This 1989 Radio Shack commercial for “transportable phones” is just delicious in how quaint it seems.…
By Sean P. Aune |
Not only was there a time where people were excited for a physical QWERTY keyboard, but they wanted them so badly they would go out and buy an add-on to their phone to have one.…
By Sean P. Aune |
You can keep all of your modern gaming systems because I will argue until the end of time that the Super Nintendo was one of the best gaming systems ever released. Whether you call it the Super Famicom in Japan or the Super Nintendo in…
By Sean P. Aune |
I think we can officially say that the early days of Apple were definitely not as polished in video production as they are now. A few months ago we brought you a video from Apple of the 1980′s called “Leading the Way.” It was, to…
By Sean P. Aune |
You know what I’ve always dreamed of? A low resolution camera that prints to thermal paper. Thank goodness Nintendo already took care of this for me.…
By Sean P. Aune |
Hailing from 1983, we find this lengthy video sent out to RCA dealers to promote the upcoming line of Selectavision monitors. Even in the early 1980′s consumers were already getting to the point where they had more items to attach to their televisions than they…
By Sean P. Aune |
April 12, 1981 is a day I’ll never forget. I was only nine-years-old, but it’s hard to forget the first time you saw the Space Shuttle take off. I had always been fascinated by space, and I had been reading everything I could about the…
By Sean P. Aune |
Ah, the Mini Disc. Yet another in a long line of failed formats. I’ve made a few references to the Mini Disc over the course of this column, but I realized I’ve never actually included a video of it. Shame on me. While this video…
By Sean P. Aune |
It’s amazing how actors like Leonard Nimoy will sometimes take any acting job, even if it means talking to a glowing rock. Think of this as a continuation from last week’s Flashback Friday about video discs. I made a brief mention of Magnavox’s entry into…
By Sean P. Aune |
Ah, the video disc. Yet another example of a failed format that companies tried to push on consumers. Often confused with the laser disc format, video discs came around in the very late 1970′s and early 1980′s as the next big thing in home entertainment.…
By Sean P. Aune |
It’s hard to believe there was a time where the idea of dialing across the country without assistance required a 10 minute film to explain it. This 1951 short from Bell Systems – which eventually would be AT&T – talked about the amazing advancements in…
By Sean P. Aune |
There was a time, not all that long ago really, where everyone had to have a set of Encyclopedia Britannica in their home. As we all know, that era came to an end this week. After 244 years, the Encyclopedia Britannica will no long be…
By Sean P. Aune |
Next time you pick up your phone to send a text to someone across the country, or even the world, it might be fun to remember this video. As a rabid texter, it’s amazing to think how much work it would have taken years ago…
By Sean P. Aune |
We know Apple today as a company with slick devices and memorable ads, but back in its early days, even they were capable of some pretty horrific video as well. As we await the debut of the iPad 3 next week, I stumbled across the…
By Sean P. Aune |
In this age of chrome and aluminium clad gadgets it may be hard to believe that at one time the height of electronic elegance involved wood. Well, more accurately, fake wood, but still, it looked like wood. The other day while having a conversation in…
By Sean P. Aune |
For a film produced by Bell Systems, it’s amazing how they don’t get to the part about phones until the 4:50 mark in this video. Filmed at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, this short film from Bell Systems showed off some of what the company…
By Sean P. Aune |
Is it truly possible that there was a time where people had to be trained en masse to use a phone? Yep, it happened. Last week we brought you a detailed 1990s Motorola video on how to use your cell phone, and this week we…
By Sean P. Aune |
It’s a bit amazing to think that in the early 1990′s cell phones were still such a novelty that people needed training films to use them. I stumbled across this gem of an early 1990′s Motorola phone demo video on YouTube the other day, and…
By Sean P. Aune |
It’s always so much fun to take a look at videos from the infancy of a technology revolution. Whether it be the first “portable computer” that clocked in at a whopping 50 lbs, or some of the first mobile phones, it’s always good for a…
By Sean P. Aune |
While everyone has been buzzing about Windows 8 this week, some of us (namely me) took it to task that it might just be too much, too soon. Due to the pretty significant changes in the interface that will first greet you (yes, you can…
By Sean P. Aune |
Earlier this week we ran an article about the new TiVo Premiere Elite. This monstrosity of a DVR sports four tuners and enough recording space for 300 hours of HD programs. And that got me to thinking back to just how far this technology has…
By Sean P. Aune |
With it looking like Mac OS X Lion will launch next week, it seemed like a good time to take a look back at the introduction of the OS itself, all the way back in Jan. 2000. It’s hard to believe that the same operating…
By Sean P. Aune |
With the news this week that Hulu is up for sale, I just can’t help but wonder if we won’t be writing the service’s obituary in the not so distant future. Launched in March of 2008, Hulu seemed like the perfect solution for the networks…
