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  • Author Author: tariq.ahmad
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Which Iconic but Obsolete Gadget Would You Upcycle to Relive Your Past?

The Ben Heck Team recently upcycled an old 80s boombox using an Intel Edison kit for Arduino.  The "boombox" or "ghetto blaster" is an iconic product that rose in popularity through the late 70s and into the late 80s.  Back before people were slaves to smartphone screens, before they were blissfully oblivious to the world around them with noise canceling headphones, you could find young inner city kids lugging around portable cassette decks with big speakers on their shoulders, and kids in the suburbs attempting to keep up with them.

 

In the 1980s and 1990s, 'Boomboxes' were very popular. The sight of a person carrying a huge music player on their shoulder was iconic, until the Walkman came along. The team decided it's time for a retro-fit, using the intel Edison, with thanks to its Arduino compatible breakout board, and a USB soundcard it's time to make the Boombox smarter while keeping with its original parts.


The Boombox may have introduced the idea of portable music to the masses but it wasn't until the Walkman was introduced in the late 70s that you had your first truly portable music device. The Walkman allowed you to play your music as loud as you wanted without being a nuisance thanks to the included headphones.  Those headphones were eventually shrunk down in size to earbuds and when the iPod was released in the early 2000s it became possible for most people to carry their entire music collection with them at all times!

 

Some gadgets are so ubiquitous, for a period of time, its hard to imagine a world in which they never existed. The Walkman was one of those products, so was the iPod classic, a product so perfect, at the time you wondered how people ever lived without them. (The phone will never replace an ipod no matter what anyone says)  Throwing on headphones, letting the music take over as the world slips away, and listening as long as you wanted without dealing with intrusive reminders about the world around you.  You know... notifications, messages, phone calls and reminders!

 

There are certain gadgets that remind you of a happiness lost in the bustle of technological progress.  Progress has a price but you can relive the past by upcycling your favorite obsolete products with an Intel Edison Kit for Arduino and joining the element14 Upcycle It Design Challenge on January 31st!

 

 

 

Vote for the Iconic but obsolete gadget you would Upcycle in order to relive your past! 

 

In the comments below tell us how you would Upcycle it or give us an Iconic but Obsolete gadget we forgot!

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  • How in the name of all that is cheesy (other dairy products are available) could an iPod classic really be considered obsolete??

     

    I still have (and still use) a 4th Gen 20GB iPod (not colour either - monochrome with really really poor games. It sits plugged into my Bose Soundock - unbeatable combination for a small setup!

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    I also have an old (bakelite case) 'Reliance Telephone Company' rotary pulse-dial phone - converted for use on modern lines. The only reason that is just decoration is because the microphone is so poor. Maybe I'll sort a replacement one day . . . . .

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    Now I DO like idea of an old polaroid body with the digital camera and printer inbuilt - sweet!

     

    Retro cool!

  • in reply to the-dubster

    I would only call the iPod obsolete because they stopped making them and they're harder and harder to come by.

     

    For my money the 5.5G iPod Video that was 80gb was the last great iPod they made.

     

    They increased the storage but used an inferior sound card with later versions...

     

    As far as a dedicated music player with a simplistic design, there hasn't been anything to replace the void felt when they stopped making them.

     

    Up until recently I'd carry both an iPod classic and a phone wherever I went but stopped doing that when I got a larger capacity phone.

     

    Like you my iPods are permanently docked at my place (they'll last me longer that way) but when I'm on the go I find managing music on my phone annoying.

     

    I find streaming great for discovering new music but I'll always have an old school love for owning my music physically or at the very least having it stored digitally in lossless format.

  • in reply to tariq.ahmad

      Gotta love Spotify, especially when you get 12 months free premium with your phone contract!

  • in reply to tariq.ahmad

    I swapped  the 120GB HD from my ipod to my Zune when the Zune's HD failed.

     

    There was nothing wrong with the iPod, just like the Zune more.

     

    The Zune was a great media player. Mine was loaded with mp4 video. With XNA Game Studio, homebrew games could be deployed to the Zune.

     

    Games could also be written with XNA and deployed to the Xbox 360.

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  • in reply to tariq.ahmad

    I swapped  the 120GB HD from my ipod to my Zune when the Zune's HD failed.

     

    There was nothing wrong with the iPod, just like the Zune more.

     

    The Zune was a great media player. Mine was loaded with mp4 video. With XNA Game Studio, homebrew games could be deployed to the Zune.

     

    Games could also be written with XNA and deployed to the Xbox 360.

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