YESTERDAY’S HIGH-TECH GIZMOS

TODAY’S JUNK?

IT’S ALL GONE…• Innovation is continuously taking place with

improvements or additions to gadgets.

• In the last ten years, several common gadgets used have gone out of circulation.

• Many commonplace utility gadgets (using electricity as their energy resource) have been dying off faster than one would have imagined.

• Here are some gadgets that disappeared :

FLOPPY DISK• Old computer CPUs had a slot where these drives

could be inserted.

• They were usually used to store text or small pictures.

• Floppies had viruses that infected the PC.

• Added to that was their small storage capacity of 1.44 MB. Nowadays, a single picture can easily take up 1.50 MB.

• They have been replaced by :

CDS, DVDS AND PENDRIVES• Floppies were replaced by CDs, DVDs

and Pen Drives which offered higher storage capacity and were easy to carry.

• They enable high data transfer speeds and are generally virus free.

•Due to the emerging cloud storage, these devices also face extinction.

PAGER• A pager was a wireless telecommunication

device that had a small display and had a number to which a person can send small messages.

• Popular in 1990s, it was the first portable communication device.

• It was used usually to send messages like “call me”, “reached home”, etc.

• They paved way to :

MOBILE PHONES• They took the place of pager when they

became affordable.

•Mobiles offer fast communication.

• Keypad mobiles are losing their significance to the new touch smartphones which are capable of delivering high speed, graphics, storage and multitasking.

VALVE RADIO• They were big bulgy devices, incapable of

portability, and usually had a specific place in the house.

• They had knobs which were used to tune to stations. It never provided a fine tune.

• Often used as a clock, people used to time their schedule according to the commencing or ending of popular programs.

• They were replaced by :

FM RADIO

•Unlike its predecessor, it does have knobs but just for volume.

• They were small and were capable of fine and fast frequency modulation.

•With the onset of smartphones, carrying an FM radio has drifted out of fashion.

GRAMOPHONE PLATE•We usually catch site of these big music

players in museums. There was a stick-like lever that one kept over the disk so that the tiny needle at the end of that lever made contact with the invisible grooves on the disk.

• Sometimes the needle got struck leading to looping of the song.

• They lost their existence to :

MUSIC PLAYERS

•Music Players are of varying sizes according to the user’s need. They have replaced the Gramophones.

• They provide the finest quality of sound and do not have any looping problems.

TV ANTENNAS• These interconnected iron bars sticking out of

the roof were considered to be a symbol of social superiority.

• Positioning of the antenna was a sophisticated task itself. There was one guy on the rooftop and another monitoring the signal, taking a very long time to attain the correct position.

• They were soon replaced by :

DISH (DIGITAL DTH SERVICES)• They took the place of the very

sophisticated antennas. They need positioning once and are capable of providing Full HD picture.

• At a time when a owning a TV was difficult, owning antennas was considered socially superior. Now, when almost each household has a TV, owning a dish is a necessity.

FASCINATING TECHGadgets have always enthralled the young — and young men in particular.

When George Best (legend footballer from Manchester) first started making serious money in the Sixties he insisted on having his house equipped with remote control devices, only to discover to his horror that the electronically controlled curtains would open and shut uncontrollably every time a plane took off from nearby Manchester airport.

Thank You DHRUV MISRA

X-B