Thanks, Google, for putting up your 2001 search index because otherwise we wouldn't have found the true iPhone, a forgotten gem from the last century. Back then it wasn't made by Apple, but with its 56K Built-In Modem, high resolution display, QWERTY keyboard and 800-entry address book, it got a Best of CES award and provoked exactly the same reactions from haters and fanboys all over the world:

functional and inexpensive
by imagesbyamy, May 08 '00
Five star rating

Pros: easy to use, quick dial-up, cost efficient
Cons: not a cordless (woot!?)

think that at 1/3 the cost of a computer (bare minimum model), the iPhone is very functional. This product enables the non-technical person to access all information on the internet as well and send and receive e-mail, do online banking, and even...

Iphone= piece of cr*p
by diverdown , May 08 '00
One star rating

Pros: NONE
Cons: ALL

I know I have already written one review on this product, but I feel the need to vent some more.
The iphone is one of the worst technological items I have used.
I warn anyone interested in it to stay away.....far away.

Some things just don't change.

Here's a mini-review from a retro-Brian Lam at net4tv:

The iPhone is another information appliance that found its way to many members of the press and CES attendees. infoGear placed several of its second-generation iPhone units in the press rooms and the show's surrounding areas so that people can surf the web and check e-mail on the go while sampling the device. I was glad it was free to use, because at a hefty $399 I was not impressed by the 16 color grayscale display and the 7.4" touch screen. According to infoGear, the unit has been available since July 1999. The prior version shipped in January 1998. It has been through six software upgrades to date. We discovered that the unit's browser is Mozilla version 1.1-compatible. As a result, it does not support Java, JavaScript, RealAudio (or support for any audio on the web for that matter) and even background images on webpages! The e-mail application was plain-vanilla; it was unintuitive to set up and switch between separate e-mail accounts. The phone felt small for my hands as was the dialing pad. At the rear of the unit were two jacks for separate phone lines so that anyone can stay online while using the speakerphone or headset simultaneously. The iPhone was the only so-called webphone that was in full use at the show as there were no working alternatives from competitors.

And like the iPhone, it was available in black or white for $399. [Epinions and Lifetrends - Thanks jopari!]

Do a quick trawl through Microsoft advertising history and you find something interesting: as weird as the Gates/Seinfeld comedy duo Microsoft ads are—weird enough to get them set aside for the "I'm a PC" campaign—they're just following in the footsteps of earlier ads. Check out this one, dubbed "Soar," for Windows XP: what does it tell you about the software's capability? Not much. But the Madonna sound track isn't too shabby, and apparently using Windows can make you fly. Hmmm, that's pretty odd... but then there are even more obscure ones.

"Everybody is looking for the door to the new economy. But actually, it's a window." That Windows 2000 ad tagline has a bit of punch, and was pretty timely back then. But there's a guy crashing a tractor into a tin shack (oh, the irony), there're chickens and (just what every good computer advert needs): a bleating lamb. That's way more confusing than Windows-induced flying.

No lambs in this Windows 95 ad...but we do get a leaping tiger, and fast cuts of wrinkly old men and smiling kids interspersed with glimpses of hot spreadsheet and Word document action. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with what this ad's telling me: should I go out and make trouble? Or "just do something amazing" since, after all..."this stuff is powerful." The flight-sim glimpse of the Twin Towers is just an unfortunate coincidence, but adds to the shower of strange imagery.

And then there's this one. Okay, so it's for Office XP, but it's glorious, and the best of the bunch.Microsoft taking the mickey (albeit gently) out of the moments when its own security techniques get right on your tits *ahem*.

So, do you feel better about Gates and Seinfeld now? I actually like those ads, weirdness included. Ditto for the "I'm a PC" one, complete with Deepak Chopra's insightful ramblings. They tell me nothing, nada, zip about Microsoft products...but they're just brand adverts, and they make me laugh. And they're right in line with Microsoft's advertising heritage. [Microsoft]

[The Chase Factory via Wooster Collective via MAKE]

See, there's the legendary scroll wheel right there on the side of the Inter@ctive Pager 950, for instance, which is basically a shrunken version of the same piece we've been seeing for the last 10 years. This could be a sign of getting things right the first time, or perhaps the Pearl trackball vs. clickable scroll wheel debate may still be raging harder than anyone realizes, somewhere in the bowels of BBerry fandom. With the release of the Bold imminent, it's a good time to remember the old days for a minute. Anybody here from the monochrome display, "two-way pager" days? [CRN via CrackBerry]

Sure, they're masterfully painted, but more interestingly come from a time when Apple, a more innocent underdog, could portray their products as fine art without coming off as arrogant. I'm not saying that this campaign wasn't at least partially born of hubris, but the effect - especially this many years later - is more strange and hilarious than anything else. Details and a full gallery are available here. [MyOldMac via Cult of Mac]

A little more analog than the amazing HD trash projectors we've seen, but that's exactly the point; Tichy described his trash cams as being the only way to add enough poetic imperfections to photography, describing his philosophy with the fantastic maxim: "If you want to be famous, you have to do whatever you're doing worse than anyone else in the whole world."
His subject matter was mostly regular folks in his small Czech town doing what they do, and naturally he gravitated toward the ladies, who look great in Tichy's proto-Lomography style.
There's currently an exhibition of Tichy's work at the Centre Pompidou in Paris that looks fantastic. Check it out if you're in the vicinity. [The Online Photographer, Tichyocean.ch, Centre Pompidou via Kottke]

"No motors, no noise and no moving parts to wear out," just computer-designed "electronic memories"... fabulous, especially since I remember hunkering down before our old TV to swirl the dial. My Dad used to get me to change the channels, as a kind of intelligent remote control. Nowadays my cat brushes past the touch-controls on my flat-screen LCD TV and does that job for me. [Paleofuture via Boing Boing Gadgets]

In addition to gracing the shoulder of one of America's finest looking athletes, the Kinesio tape also boasts magical properties, like the ability to assist and support muscles without inhibiting a joint's range of motion. Kinesio tape has actually been around for a while, and is available for a range of uses, but it took the modern-day Olympic games (and the right "spokeswoman") to see orders shoot up from 250 a month to 1,600 in a weekend.

John Jarvis, director of Kinesio USA, says the tape has graced the bodies of Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, countless baseball and football players, and cycling superman Lance Armstrong.

Surprisingly, Forbes notes that athletes comprise only 10% of Kenesio USA's customers. The largest market is pediatrics, where doctors have been helping children deal with neurological disorders for the past 25 years. With disorders like cerebral palsy, for example, the tape is used to help strengthen weak muscles. Kerri Walsh is great and all, but that's the real reason I can get behind this product. [Forbes]

It's a little puzzling as to how something like this could find its way to a derelict desert in the middle of nowhere, but with NASA's budgetary fluctuations, I guess sometimes you have to rip and run. The whole thing has a definite abandoned-seconds-before-the-apocalypse kind of vibe.

If anyone has any idea what kind of machines we're seeing here, fill me in. More pics: [Richard Harrington via FFFFOUND]

1876 - Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph, a precursor of the photocopier.
1908 - Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It's the Wright Brothers' first public flight and the French public goes wild.
1910 - The US Army installs the first tricycle landing gear on the Army's Wright Flyer.
1929 - The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight.
1946 - First flight of the Convair B-36. The B-36 was the largest mass-produced piston engined aircraft ever made and the biggest wingspan combat aircraft ever built.
1974 - Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his resignation, effective the next day.
1989 - Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission - Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.

[Wikipedia, Gawker 2008 Olympics Coverage]

What you should take from this demonstration: upon timely delivery of your package, the Deadline Courier will yank a special cord and explode all over the client's doorstep. [via Inventorspot and adsoftheworld]

By the time Blumlein's patents were put to use—nearly twenty five years later— the prolific inventor had already passed away. In 1942, while testing radar technology, Blumein's plane crashed in Wales and killed everyone on board. He left behind a legacy of 128 different patents, one for every six weeks of his working life.

The person in charge of restoring Blumlein's recordings, sound engineer Roger Beardsley, called the transfers “incredibly historic.” He used digital remastering to remove crackles and hisses from 78 original pressings, allowing the recordings to sound the way they were originally meant to. Check out the BBC for a fun little video of Blumlein and colleagues walking through a room counting to demonstrate the technology. [BBC]

That was in 1978, and he's talking about creating hydrogen with solar power and not polluting. Screw Al Gore and get me Jack. This guy was telling it exactly how it is, but 30 years ago. Seriously, the people in America and the oil companies and the whole world can't handle the truth! [Treehugger]

The wall material, roughly an inch thick, is made out of pressed newspapers, glue and varnish—which keeps it waterproof. After finishing the walls in 1924, Stenman began using paper to build things around the house. He would roll newspapers up until they were roughly half an inch thick, and then cut them, glue them and nail them to create one-of-a-kind pieces of papercraft.

All furniture in the house is made out of paper, except for the brick fireplace and the insides of the piano. Stenman's grandniece told local reporters she had no idea why her granduncle decided to embark on the project, but quipped that it could have been because paper was cheap—everyone gave him the materials for his house for free. [The Contaminated]

Gakken's 8mm camera hasn't even been announced, so pricing and release date information are not available. Not to worry though—you can still take a trip down memory lane by hitting the link to check out out OObjects list of 20 classic 8mm cameras featuring famous selections from as early as the 1930s. [Trends in Japan and OObject]

And now, the obligatory 80s reference you were all waiting for:

Love, exciting and new
Come Aboard. We're expecting you.
Love, life's sweetest reward.
Let it flow, it floats back to you.

Love Boat soon will be making another run
The Love Boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure,
Your mind on a new romance.

Love won't hurt anymore
It's an open smile on a friendly shore.
Yes LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! It's LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! (hey-ah!)

Love Boat soon will be making another run
The Love Boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure,
Your mind on a new romance.

Love won't hurt anymore
It's an open smile on a friendly shore.
It's LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! It's LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE! It's
LOOOOOOOOOOOVE!
It's the Love Boat-ah! It's the Love Boat-ah!

Come on, sing it. You know you want to. Sing it! [stuff4restaurants—thanks Lola]

The "Real Total Horn" consists of two cavities, each three feet deep and 31 feet long, functioning as horns and driven by eight 18-inch woofers each. It releases more than 110 dB/1W/1 meter sensitivity starting from below 10 Hz aimed at the listening position. Let me tell you, there's not a better suited sound system in existence for producing an effective brown note.

And really, frequencies that low are barely audible, but I have no doubt that this thing will make action movies shake his living room way more than any other sub out there. I'm not sure I'd want to do this to my own home, but I'd certainly give it a test run. [Royal Device via DVICE]

From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.

Let me give you my experience from yesterday.

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.

These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

They are not filtered by the system ... and so many of the things are strange.

I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.

I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?

So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.

Doesn't Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?

Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.

This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.

So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn't use it for anything else during this time.

What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.

Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night — why should I reboot at that time?

So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.

So I got back up and running and went to Windows Updale again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.

So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.

What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.

So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.

At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.

So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like "Open" or "Save". No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.

The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.

So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.

It is not there.

What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.

Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.

What an absolute mess.

Moviemaker is just not there at all.

So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.

I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.

I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.

I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.

So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just love that root certificate message?)

When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.

When Seattle Pi recently asked Gates about the email, he replied, "There's not a day that I don't send a piece of e-mail ... like that piece of e-mail. That's my job." There was no mention as to whether or not Gates had time to take names. [Seattle Pi]

The Mattel Agent Zero M Sonic Blaster 5530 fires compressed air with a deafening blast. Our measurements top out at 157 dB—above a level that can do permanent damage to the hearing of an adult. We rate the toy Not Acceptable.

You can't make up stuff this good and Consumer Reports has a whole section of their site devoted to the vintage tech. How we lived, breathed and loved before today, we do not know. [Consumer Gallery via bbGadgets and Laughing Squid]

The question here is: Why the hell would anyone want to build such a device? Microsoft's justification for the project is that PCs can often do the same things that dedicated devices can do (like cellphones), but there is a learning curve involved :

User studies carried out on a number of users have shown that entertainment, communication and information retrieval are the three main motivating factors for people to use devices like a personal computer. However since a personal computer is a general purpose device, some amount of learning is associated with achieving the same task as compared to achieving the same task using a special purpose device like a telephone, a music player, or the like.

For example making a telephone call using a computer involves knowing what application is used on a computer to make a call, starting the application and figuring out how to use it using input devices attached to the computer like keyboard and mouse. Instead if the device had a hardware keypad that is normally used in a telephone, along with appropriate software then dialing a call would just involve pressing “Dial” button, followed by the numbers to be dialed on hardware keypad and the required software will come up and complete the call for the user. In this way the interaction of the user with the device would be the same as the interaction with a special purpose device for making a telephone call.

So, instead of focusing on user friendly smartphones and portable PC software, they have basically duct-taped a cellphone to a laptop. The future is here...today! [WIPO via Unwired View]

If you are old enough to remember, NeXTCubes were high-end workstation computers built in the late '80s and early '90s that featured a die-cast magnesium case. Magnesium was an attractive metal because it was strong and light—but as any high school chemistry student with a penchant for pyromania can tell you, magnesium burns with a brilliant white light. Naturally, this lead some to wonder what would happen if you set one ablaze.

Back in '93', Simson L. Garfinkel, then Senior Editor at NeXTWORLD Magazine, indulged his curiosities and discovered that, with some effort, it will generate a magnesium fire. The pictures are the main attraction here, but Garfinkel's quest to burn the cube is a definite must read for retro geeks and people who get a twisted pleasure out of watching things burn. Hit the link for the full story. [Simson via Macenstein]

• After nearly going bankrupt in 1927, Buckminster Fuller moved his family to a Chicago slum so he could spend his days in the library reading works from the likes of Gandhi and Da Vinci. By 1928, he had compiled 2,000 pages of notes into a 50 page manuscript entitled "4D Time Lock." It was basically described as incomprehensible nonsense. From here, Fuller began work on his Dymaxion line of inventions focused around utopian living.
• The Dymaxion Car, built in 1933, was blimp shaped, sat on three wheels and had a periscope instead of a rear window. Fuller had a vision that the evolution of housing would lead to pre-fabricated homes that could be put anywhere, so people would be living in places like Antarctica or the Sahara, and would need an all-terrain vehicle to get around. The car could turn 180 degrees on a dime, and would often cause traffic jams from slack-jawed onlookers. Future designs for the car called for it to fly using a VTOL mechanism, but a fluke accident at the Chicago World's Fair killed production of the vehicle in 1934.
• Fuller viewed the (still popular) individual homebuilding process as inefficient and antiquated, which gave way to his Dymaxion Home project. He thought homes should be built like cars; constructed in a day, exactly the same as the rest. The Dymaxion Home would have all the necessary amenities and would be installed in lightweight towers. The towers themselves would be constructed in a central location and transported to the building site via Zeppelin, where a bomb would be used to excavate the land. When a family was ready to move, the home could be packed up, removed from the tower and taken to the next site. Unfortunately, Fuller was unconcerned with the availability of the technology he called for, which made building these homes nearly impossible.
• The Dymaxion Bathroom was intended to be built like a refrigerator, with a sink, toilet and bath condensed into a modular unit that could be placed anywhere in the home. Thirteen models were produced before production was nixed in 1936.
• Bucky's most bizarre concept was his Cloud Nine project, which consisted of communities built inside ginormous, super light spheres covered in polyethelyne. Apparently, when the sun hit the spheres and created enough hot air, they would rise up into the sky, essentially creating cloud cities (sans Billy Dee Williams). I don't think further explanation is needed to show why this never happened.
• But Fuller's most realized innovation were his Geodesic domes. Utilizing aluminum struts and fiberglass panels, Fuller made a dome which covered 93 feet and only weighed 8.5 tons, catapulting him to design fame. His services as a speaker and thinker became popular from universities and the Pentagon alike. Obsessed with the shape for their volume optimizing qualities, Fuller wanted to house entire cities under domes and shield residents from the elements, where energy would be conserved and money saved. His envisioned Manhattan covered in a two-mile dome, and more domes in the Arctic, Antarctic and Tokyo Bay.

Buckminster Fuller's failed inventions aren't the only things worth reading about. There are plenty of great anecdotes about his eccentric life — like how he was expelled from Harvard using his tuition money to entertain a group of chorus girls and spent a significant chunk of time only eating prunes, steak, tea,and...umm...Jell-O (unmentioned is that he also served as the second president of MENSA). Basically, he was awesome. [The New Yorker]

Instead of solid lights, the analog rotating signal shows you exactly how much time you've got left in a green or a red, allowing you to better time your "floor it, we can make it" so as to not run the light and get caught by the intersection cameras. It's an easy solution that can be rigged into current light schemes by putting a countdown number in each light instead of just a solid color. I need to patent this. [Infosthetics via Make via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Anyone want to give it a go? Email our tips line with your clip and "Oh, Those 1980s and Their Telephones!" in the subject line.

Lazy Bones (1950) - According to Electronic House, it was the world's first commercially available TV remote control. It could only flip through channels by triggering a motorized knob. Needless to say, its secondary skill as a tripwire caused problems in the living room.

Flash-Matic (1955) - Billed as "absolutely harmless to humans," this focused flashlight could be aimed at one of four light sensors on the TV itself, in order to turn TV on or off, change channel or adjust volume. But like Gyration mice and other gestural devices of today, it was a challenge because people forgot where and how to point the thing to activate each function. Also, sunlight really played havoc with the sensors.

Space Command (1956) - A much better system than Flash-Matic and as comfortable as a pack of Benson & Hedges in the hand, the Space Command used ultrasound—ingeniously generated without batteries by plungers hitting aluminum tuning forks—to change channel, turn TV on or off, and adjust volume. It did have one problem, though: Some dogs couldn't stand the noise.

Check out EH's "A History of TV Remote Controls" for the full story. [Electronic House]

While a bit smaller than the average map, when the driver exceeded the map's limitations, they could simply swap it out for another and continue on their journey. Coming with 20 maps, the Wristlet Route Indicator ran £5 in 1927. With inflation, that number is the equivalent to about £50. Compared to the average cost of a GPS receiver today, that price doesn't sound all that bad, especially because the device is about 100 times more charming than the "turn LEFT in FIFTY feet" lady. [DailyMail via GizmoWatch]

Difference Engine No. 2, designed in 1847, was designed to calculate and tabulate values run through polynomial functions up to the seventh order. It, along with the other Babbage Engines, is considered to be the first automatic computing machine.

For those who slept through all their math classes, think of an equation like y=x^3+4x+4, where you're given a list of integers and asked to solve for y in each instance. Babbage was tired of repeatedly doing this by hand and wanted an automated way to solve polynomial functions. He thought there was too much room for human error, so he put together the Difference Engine, which acts like a super-powered calculator.

The machine is powered by a hand crank, which gets the various gears, levers and springs moving, and uses giant mechanical rods representing number values around to push around a bunch of numbers until—presto, change-o—you have your answers printed on a piece of paper (technical, I know).

The Difference Engine No. 1 design, created in 1821, is one of the earliest concepts for a computer. It was able to handle 16-digit numbers run through polynomials up to the 6th order and print them out in tabulated form. It required 25,000 parts, would have stood eight feet tall and weighed 15 tons.

Difference Engine No.2, finished in 1849, was a sleeker, more powerful beast (similar to the difference between Iron Man's Mark 1 and Mark 2 suits). It was designed to handle numbers 31 digits long, only required 8000 parts, and in addition to printing paper results, could imprint tables into a plaster mold for future reproduction. The specs called for it to stand 11 feet long and weigh 5 tons.

The machine design even features built-in error detection, where the machine jams if it comes across a non-whole number at any point in the process. I'll avoid getting into the nitty-gritty of the forumlas and equations, because frankly, its neither as interesting or impressive as the mere fact that Babbage concocted this in the 1800s. But you can read up on the full computational breakdown here. [Computer History Museum]

1184 B.C.: During the Trojan War, the Greeks depart in ships, leaving behind a large wooden horse as a victory offering. It is hauled inside the walls of Troy, and Greek soldiers descend from the horse's belly after dark to slay the guards and commence destruction of the city.