Old Gadgets And Their Newer Counterparts

Today’s gadgets are very exciting. They come with lots of features and are more fun to use, but their advancements have to start from somewhere. That said, let’s take a look at old gadgets, compare it to their newer counterparts, and see how much they have improved.

Table of Contents

Old: The mobile phone

When I say mobile phone, let’s go back to the good old days of the Nokia, BlackBerry, Bosch, Siemens, Motorola, and Philips. These brands produce devices with low-resolution monochromatic screens, physical keypads, polyphonic ringtones, and limited memory, but with exciting designs and long battery life.

New: The smartphone

Now we have smartphones. These devices don’t need to boast about colored screens, unlimited contact storage, or ringtones. Instead, it’s about CPU cores, RAM, camera resolution, storage capacity, and software. The mobile phone standard is still here though with improved tech, and are now called feature phones.

Old: Floppy disks

The floppy disk is the most popular storage medium before the USB flash drives. It was developed in the 1960s by IBM and uses a thin, flexible magnetic medium sealed in a squarish plastic case. It comes in multiple sizes and variants as well, but the most popular is the 3.5-inch format with 1.44MB capacity.

New: Flash drives, Memory cards, Cloud

Moving from magnetic types, we now have chip-based storage solutions like USB flash drives and memory cards. These are capable of bigger capacities allowing users as well as mobile devices to store more data. Getting more traction as well is the Cloud where users can store data online and can be accessible anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.

Old: Cassette tapes

Back in the day, if we want to listen to a specific band’s music, we’ll have go to the nearest music store, buy the album in cassette tape, then play it on a player. The problem with these mediums is that it’s susceptible to deterioration and damages. CDs are still here though and offer greater audio quality compared to…

New: Music streaming services

It’s all digital, and with the help of the internet, we can now just stream and download music and save it on our computers and mobile devices. Perfect examples are Spotify and Apple Music. Audio quality can be an issue though especially for audiophiles.

Old: Videocassette

Remember the Betamax and Video Home System (VHS)? Just like with audio cassettes, videocassettes have to be bought or rented if you plan on watching a movie at home. These are bulky though, and like audio cassettes, can deteriorate over time.

New: Video streaming services

Like with music, video consumption has now evolved and is now delivered via the internet. Although physical media like DVDs and Blu-Ray are still available, streaming videos online is becoming more in demand as one can simply do it from their mobile devices. Aside from YouTube, we now have on-demand video streaming services like Netflix, iflix, and HOOQ.

Old: Brick game, Game & Watch

Before the 8-bit Game Boy became popular, kids then play from affordable handheld gaming platforms like Brick Game devices and Game & Watch. Although monochromatic with very low frame rates, the games offered then still provided a lot of fun.

New: PS Vita, 3DS, Android, iOS

Now we have powerful handheld consoles like the Sony PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS XL. Android and iOS platforms are also making a killing in mobile gaming, offering tons of gaming apps most of which are free.

Old: SNES, Famicom, Atari

I was lucky enough to have played the Famicom when I was a kid. Games were very simple then and had low graphics, but it brought plenty of fun that we’re glad to reminisce every now and then.

New: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Fast forward to the present and we now have powerful gaming machines like the PS4 and Xbox One. The PC, which was originally made for productivity, can also become a gaming machine that can out-perform consoles. And we’re no long just talking about viewing our games on a monitor or TV, VR is slowly gaining traction which will soon become the next medium of immersive gaming.

And that sums it up. If you want to add anything to the list, let us know in the comments below.

Diangson Louie

This article was written by Louie Diangson, Managing Editor of YugaTech. You can follow him at @John_Louie.

https://www.yugatech.com

7 Comments

PC-1 says:

8 years ago

PC master race
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Marcus says:

8 years ago

Parang assignment lang ng grade5 haha
- Reply
Marcus says:

8 years ago

Yung successor ng lahat ng Old na yan ay smartphones.
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Vheryo Villareal says:

8 years ago

no walkman to ipod/mp3 player?
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Kalurky says:

8 years ago

The Brick Games came out during the Game Boy era, not before–they became popular because they were a cheaper alternative than the more expensive Game Boy and cartridges. Also, they were handwired with Tetris and multiple variations which appealed to more people than the expensive interchangeable carts of the Game Boy.
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ken says:

8 years ago

the successor of the floppy disck today are the blu-ray drives. sure they are in the peripheral storage or secondary storage selection but its a whole different class. sd memory chips use chips nand flash and so on while the floppy disc used a literal cassette kind of film. do your research. the cd came after then the dvd then the hd dvd(which didnt last long) then bluray discs and extended bluray discs. another IT hint. memories used internally like hard drives are reffered to as hard disks with a k instead of c to differentiate the difference between internal and external discs.
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el gato says:

8 years ago

i think the real successor to floppy drives are usb drives as these drives don’t need new add-on devices like media card readers and cd/dvd/blu-ray/rw drives.