Retro Gadgets

The iPhone may be Apple’s first “official” phone, but apparently they toyed with the idea 25 years ago. Way back in 1983, designer Hartmut Esslinger, the same guy who made the Apple IIc computer, came up with this phone/tablet prototype.

Writing an electronic check with the 1983 iPhone.

The 1983 version of the iPhone obviously never made it into production, but it’s still a cool concept. Although writing a physical electronic check seems a little silly now that we have online banking. The image is from fudder.de.

BeSocial: digg story | methodshop

7 Comments »

At first glance, this can of Campbells soup might look pretty ordinary, but it is actually a safe that lets you store your petty jewelry without making it look like a prime suspect during a burglary. This will probably be the last place the thief will want to check, unless he is famished and has a love for canned soup. You ought to be able to store a fair amount of dough inside in rolls, so the £12.49 investment is well worth the price in terms of safety. You can also choose from the WD-40 or Sprite can safes.

Product Page

5 Comments »

There are pretty many fans of Steampunk, including me. Some die-hard fans have created modern tech disguised under Steampunk masks.

Also, most of today’s watches are quite boring, and follow the same design line. A clean, simple bezel with a leather or metal armband, seamlessly fit most of the time. Some are nice to look at, the others are dedicated to just being practical.

A Japanese company has decided to cater to our taste and manufacture a whole range of steampunk-themed watches. They all respect the intricate, aged theme of the genre, but are powered by modern Seiko or Citizen machinery.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments »

Even the Swiss are going crazy! Usually, a swiss army knife can be described by one short phrase: minimalistic and practical.

This means that you get a bunch of useful functions out of a small and simple to use device. Well, now, the ’small’ part seems to be totally out. How about 9 whole inches of width?

Of course, there’s an awful lot of functions in there (85 fully functional implements), but none of the tools is now practical, simply due to the ginormous size of this. This really deserves to be categorized as a ‘Wacky Gadget’.

Click on for an extensive list of features. Hell, there’s even a tire pressure gauge in there!

Read the rest of this entry »

9 Comments »

We’ve all seen a flip clock; on a desk, in a movie… those plain wooden or plasticky boxes with a lit ‘display’. The display was actually a set of little plates that moved every 1,10 or 60 minutes, showing the time.

Dutch designer Will van den Vos thought that it was time to refresh it a little, and came to a good idea. The result? cool, desirable, visible if only in the rest of this entry.

Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments »

Does the picture to the left entice you? Classic domino numbers with letters underneath? A sleek-looking keyboard with a beautiful backlight?

If your sense of style is tingling and you feel you need to know and see more, click on…

Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments »

This takes me back some, fuzzy felt, the re-usable picture drawing thingy-ma-jig, is now available in greeting card format.

So instead of sending a plain old static card you can send a fuzzy felt version and let the (older) recipient relive their youth and move bits around, class!

Fuzzy felt greeting cards cost £2.99 (~$6) from the fuzzy felt greeting card shop, surprisingly.

1 Comment »

If you didn’t get your hands on the pong clock and really want an amazing time-telling machine that also brings back memories from the good ol’ times, here’s something that’s even cooler: the Time Machine!

We haven’t been able to find a cool clock that has some real mechanic action since the Wave Clock. This one takes the concept of marbles showing time even further, with an even cooler result: 26 marbles run down 3 lanes, showing the time.
Read the rest of this entry »

7 Comments »