As a kid, what were the "future" gadgets you couldn't wait to come true and did?

[Sequoia]

Internet. Read about the possibility around 1967.

[Oceansaway]

1. color tv...n/t

[Kolesar]

7. Star Fleet communicators

[phasma ex machina]

50. Balls

Balls, where amateurs now launch rockets into the indigo stratosphere and will soon launch payloads into orbit.

[notadmblnd]

2. hover crafts

[Orrex]

45. Mine's full of eels

[C_U_L8R]

3. Snuggies

[bbinacan]

18. LMAO. n/t

[krispos42]

25. Snug-Wow

O8)

[ret5hd]

4. Fire

[derby378]

5. USB flash drives

I wondered what was going to come next after CDs. First time I tried one, it was like voodoo.

[Orrex]

29. Flash Drives are my all-time favorite gadgets

Many here on DU have computer experience dating much farther back than mine, but my first PC had a 20-meg hard drive that was about the size of a stack of five TV Guides. And now 16-gig flash drives are commonplace and cheap. For some reason this advance in data storage delights me more than just about any other electronic gadgetry.

[Tesha]

37. I remember when *12Meg* hard drives were the size of washing machines!

For those with smaller storage tastes, you could get 2.4 MB in a box
that was about 17" x 10-1/2" x 24".

Now, 32 GB fits on a MicroSD card quite a bit smaller than a postage
stamp (and performs a lot faster than those old drives as well).

Tesha

[Orrex]

39. I love talking about this on DU, because so many people have such a long history with computers!

The advances in this particular area are really astonishing. I mean, for raw computing power, my cheap-ass TracFone probably compares quite favorably to a lot of those 12 meg systems!

Great times!

[Tesha]

46. Your TracFone certainly far-exceeds the power of that old computer system.

The particular configuration I was thinking about was:

o A PDP-11/40 CPU (~1 MHz) with about 128 kB of core

o Two Memorex "disk pack" drives rebranded as DEC RPR02 drives.
12 big megabytes each on a ten platter on disk pack, IIRC.

Tesha

[Posteritatis]

58. I still occasionally boggle at the 8GB one on my keychain

I paid twenty bucks for it in '07 and keep flashing back to the 20-meg hard drive one of my first computers had.

[get the red out]

6. Star Trek Communicator

Looked just like the cell phone in my desk beside me.

[meegbear]

8. WHERE'S MY FLYING CAR??!!1?

x(

[tridim]

13. Balloon boy is working on it.

:rofl:

[nickyt]

14. Yes!! Where's my FLYING CAR??!!

[unpossibles]

15. I used to think that until I realized how badly people drive in 2 dimensions

I can't imagine traffic in three dimensions, unless maybe computers take over the driving part.

[enlightenment]

16. I remember reading a "Tom Swift" book as a kid

(because Nancy Drew was boring) that had a scene where Tom and his father were 'driving' from home to work in their automatic car. They punched in the destination on the car's keyboard and it 'drove' at great speed along tracks embedded in the ground - sensors kept all the cars spaced at even intervals while the occupants read, relaxed, or spun their seats around to chat with each other during the trip. I'm pretty sure they were electric.

I'm waiting for that . . .

[LynzM]

62. I'm waiting for that, too.

I wonder if that's where I got the idea. I don't remember the book, but I sure as heck have the idea all thought out in my head. :)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

33. That's what makes flying so tricky.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

34. You and Lewis Black both want FLYING CARS!!

I saw his new movie last week, Stark Raving Black.
He swears that the day after he dies, they will announce that flying cars are available. :D

[krispos42]

28. Right here

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4316243.html


It's a dune-buggy-like thing with a deployable nonrigid airfoil (parachute, basically). When the going gets rough, you go airborne!

[tridim]

9. The video phone as pictured in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Now, I wouldn't be caught dead on one. I don't even own a cell phone or a webcam. :)

[hunter]

22. My kids use "video phones" often.

It's on their computers, it's over the internet, and it's much more useful and presumably a lot less expensive than the videophone of 2001.

[Burma Jones]

10. Compact Disks

[Warpy]

11. Telephones that didn't have cords

TVs that could be controlled from across the room.

Star Trek flip phones.

Gizmos that would answer the phone when you weren't home so you wouldn't miss calls.

Affordable typewriters that didn't kill my arthritic fingers.

Adding machines that could multiply and divide, releasing me from slide rules and log tables.

Power screwdrivers.

Records that would hold more than 23 minutes of music.

Movies we could own.

[rucky]

12. As a kid, easy to access porn.

But you already said that one.

[pscot]

I lived in a perfect world

so I never gave it a thought.

[FSogol]

17. E-book readers. I wanted a waterproof e-book reader & haven't gotten one yet.

Still waiting for:

jet packs
cars that ride on a cushion of air to save rubber (not flying cars)
robot servants
male contraceptives

[TlalocW]

19. PUSH BUTTON PHONING!

Just look at all the great stuff we were told back in 1962 that we were going to get from Bell Labs. (A lot of it we did in one way or another)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6115746202012512830#

This is the version with a human and two robots making fun of it to keep you from falling asleep (Mystery Science Theater 3000).

TlalocW

[Yunomi]

20. TIVO thingies, and Star Trek phasers.

Heh. Don't own TIVO, but still want a phaser for my neighbor's cats.

[TheMadMonk]

38. Catz haz fazers instead. (parse it.) nt

[hunter]

21. Supercomputers.

Today my desktop computer, which is basically junk rescued from the trash, has got more computing horsepower and internet connectivity than any "supercomputer" of my childhood.

Heck I've got a lot more computer power and a faster internet connection than my heavyweight high technology university did when I was a student there.

But I'm still waiting for the three day thirty hour work week, high speed railroads between all major U.S. cities, and inexpensive solar power.

Who knew the United States would morph into a typical "developing nation" of the Americas with a rotten healthcare system, disfunctional public schools, corrupt and incompetent government institutions, decreasing standards of living, and perpetually rotten infrastructure? I guess we got what we were dishing out to others all these years: a big steaming plate of neo-conservative chicken shit.

[Dogmudgeon]

23. Personal computers

The first computer I used was a PDP-8L -- in 1969. It was an experimental program in 6th grade for otherwise "smart" kids who were failing math.

I went from a D to an A in one marking period (a half-semester).

I was CERTAIN that there would be personal computers by 1980, on which you could write, and do accounting, and even compose music with. I was only off by a couple of years. And most of my computer-fan friends made more-accurate predictions.

You can keep your jet packs and monorails; the computer is THE revolution.

--d!

[Oregone]

24. Magic Bullet Blender

[unpossibles]

40. blender?

I thought that was a sex toy....


IBTL!

[sakabatou]

53. My parents have the blender and so do my brother and SIL

[Sancho]

26. transistor radios

we couldn't wait to had a little 9-volt battery, am radio with a dial tuner...

[Sequoia]

47. I got one of those for Christmas when I was in 6th grade.

I would tune in at night with my little earphone and heard cool songs like: Boy From New York City, On Broadway... bunch of 60s stuff.

[krispos42]

27. Color printing

I had an MPS802 dot-matrix printer for my Commodore 64. It did a pretty good job on text, but there wasn't too much you could do with a dot-matrix interms of printing out pictures.


Man, tractor-feed paper and everything... :-)

[AlienGirl]

30. Lasers that I could just walk into a store and buy! REAL LASERS, FOR MEEEE!

:bounce:

[tridim]

31. Did you ever think you'd be able to buy a laser for $2.49 in the impulse-buy rack?

[AlienGirl]

32. It still amazes me!

[pokerfan]

36. and calculators

You have to realize that I just missed the slide rule era. My first four function calculator cost $75 and my first programmable scientific cost $200.



To suddenly see calculators hanging in the checkout line next to and cheaper than the current Cosmo was a bit jarring.

[FiveGoodMen]

48. "cheaper than the current Cosmo"

I'll bet the HP you've got pictured wasn't cheaper than a magazine!

Those were nice machines to use with their RPN input approach, but they weren't cheap.

[pokerfan]

49. Well, not the hp

but the four function calculator I convinced my dad to buy "for the family."

[hunter]

35. Oh yeah, Lasers.

Who'd have guessed you could set up quantum physics experiments on your kitchen table, annoy your neighbors, and amuse your cat for less than ten dollars?

[drm604]

41. Phones that would dial by voice command.

I've got it and luckily it came at just the right time in my life. Otherwise I'd have to put on my reading glasses every time I make a call, LOL.

[Odin2005]

42. iPhone-type devices.

Cell phones had just appeared when I was a kid, but in the last few years they have transformed into mini-computers that struck me as being like something out of science fiction.

Downloading music and video, too.

[Indenturedebtor]

43. Boobies...

Wait what were talking about?

Oh yeah.. boobies.

Oh and telescopes that can see alien planets in alien solar systems.

[pepperbear]

44. Those mega fast toasters that SUBWAY uses. n/t

[gtar100]

51. Text books on e-readers or netbooks

My kids are carrying around twice the weight in books as I did 30 years ago. Completely unnecessary.

[RebelOne]

52. Home computers and mobile phones

[and-justice-for-all]

54. Electric autos..nt

[notesdev]

55. Pew Pew Laserz

Take that, Space Invader!


(sigh, am I that old already?)

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

56. Star Trek: Tricorders - 21st Century: Apple iPhone.

All we need is some food replicators, Warp 9, and a chauvenistic starfleet admiral... and we're in business.

[Systematic Chaos]

57. I remember predicting gadgets like iPods and flash drives in the early 80s.

It seemed to me that it was far less practical to have to constantly worry about CDs and floppy disks getting damaged, when little chips could just be encased in plastic and interfaced with computers or whatever. I still remember being about 14, shortly after CDs debuted and Laser Discs for movies were all the rage and promising to my friends that in our lifetimes simple chips as storage media would be commonplace.

I also remember arguing whether or not 9600/19200 baud transfer rates would ever be greatly exceeded. I said that they would be and it would become very cheap to do, but my friends were all saying that it would require literally rewiring every house and existing foot of phone lines or whatever to make it happen.

They all thought I was nuts.

Sometimes I love being right. :P

[sakabatou]

59. I have yet to see them come true.

No giant robots, Moon or Mars bases. No lightsabers, etc.

[sofa king]

60. The indestructable jump suit.

No, really! The other day as I was puttering through the cold and rain I realized that I was still using the red flannel LL Bean union suit my cousin gave me for Christmas in about 1989.

Now, I realize that a red flannel suit isn't what I was expecting of the future, but a warm garment that has survived perhaps a thousand laundry cycles is pretty darned cool!

But I figure it will be another twenty years before wearing it alone in public will be permissible. If I can wear a bathrobe with it I'll have a sci-fi suit and flowing robes. And then I shall conquer the world!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

61. I wanted a book-computer like Penny's from Inspector Gadget

And I don't think it gets any closer than this:

http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet?skyline=true&s=i

[Ready4Change]

63. Music/data players with no moving parts.

Aka: MP3 players.

I dreamed of a record player for my (future) car. But the player arms of vinyl records would skip with every little bump in the road.

8-Track and cassettes were close. But the tape media could wear out. CD's were closer.

But now, with flash memory, and with easy data backups, we've got the 'no moving parts to wear out' music I Dreamed of. Ok, most players still have buttons, or a touch screen that may wear out eventually. But, as far as I'm concerned, the future is here, music-wise.

Now, truly, the next think I want is easy to achieve surface to orbit. Then I want FTL travel. I'm guessing I MIGHT see the former in my lifetime. The latter requires some major discoveries in the nature of the universe. That's a crap shoot.