What's the first "Newest Technology" you remember?

[29aholic]

In a world of smart phones, smart cars, smart etc etc etc, we often take things from our past for granted.

Now for Ed Cornett (Opefec) it was probably the percussion cap.

For me I guess it was the first handheld calculator. A TI with the most basic functions...+,-,*,/. If you put the right calculation in it and turned it upside down the display read "SHELLOIL"

What was yours?

 

[walkin jack]

Television. Got our first one in 1950. It was a 9" Raetheon in a large cabinet. I remember my parents standing in front of it staring at it and saying, "what will they come up with next. I was 6 years old and unable to appreciate the wonder of it all.

 

[NYlakesider]

For me I would have to say the newfangled self winding wrist watch.

I was given one at age 10 (mid 1950s) and was very impressed I did not have to wind it. It was about a inch and a half square and weighted slightly less than Mount Rushmore. My pride and joy till a couple years later it just died! Was not worth getting it fixed.

 

[snowman]

Power steering. I learned to drive in the family car, a '58 Ford wagon. Due to its Armstrong steering Dad had a 'spinner' mounted on the wheel(had them on all the tractors, but this was/is the only one I've ever seen on a car). What a wonderful change when the folks bought a vehicle one could turn with one's index finger.

Regards,
Andy

 

[BAM-BAM]

Probably the pocket calculator..... which we couldn't have at school (slide rule only) and

I was issued a bag phone, one week out of four, as the "Administrator on call"..... we passed it off at the Monday morning staff meeting. I tell you the first flip phone was a blessing.

 

[s&wchad]

We’ve seen a lot of advances in our lifetimes. Calculators, cordless phones, TV remotes, CB radios, cell phones, GPS, home computers, 8 track’s, cassettes, video tapes, laser rangefinders... Now we’ve got self driving cars. Some of these have already gone the way of the dodo.

For me, it’s the microwave oven. When they first came out, my brothers and I pitched in and got one for our Mom as a Christmas present. They were expensive back then and we thought it would free up some time for her.

Christmas morning, we put a fresh egg in the oven (in the shell), turned it on and we all sat in front of it like it was TV. The egg started to wobble and then it blew up.

We probably should have read the owners manual first. I did learn a lesson that day - Don’t try to do hard boiled eggs in the microwave!

 

[Wrangler Rich]

I remember those old wooden crank phones, and the new fangeled desk phones with party lines.

I worked for Verizon, when the Cell Phones came out. I told my fellow workers; "Boys, we are riding a dinosaur, keep spurring. Maybe we can ride him into retirement." Luckily I did.

WR

 

[Onomea]

Color TV for me. It was a big deal when we finally got one.

 

[29aholic]

I was going to post in my OP. The next thing I remember was a digital watch. I thought I was big time when I got my first one, but a rich kid at school got one with a calculator!!!!

 

[JH1951]

Television is the first technology that I remember being impressed with. The family got one in the mid fifties. I remember my father laughing later in life about how my brother and I went outside in the yard and played with the cardboard box that it came in. The next one that impressed me was the transistor radio. That freed the radio from the wall socket and was somewhat of a marvel. It also did wonders for the battery industry.

 

[GypsmJim]

Most of the things mentioned so far, to me, are more of a "so what" rather than true technology.

Yeah, PS was nice, but I still drove armstrong steering and a manual trans for many more years. I wound my watch every day while sitting on the can, so no time savings there. The calculator was nice but there was an electric adding machine on my desk, so no time savings there either.

Grandpa's 9" B&W TV was nice too, but he would only allow it to be turned on in the evening (to save on the electric bill), after I was in bed. So, it didn't mean much to me.

The newest technology that was monumental to me was the PC. I used to have to actually WRITE code, type punch cards and spend hours and hours on a mainframe. I often had to work late to finish my projects. When my company invested in an IBM 286 many of us were delighted. The only problem was now everybody wanted to use it and they only bought 1.

To me this was awesome technology because it truly saved time and improved the quality of the job.

When the 386 came out the boss stepped up and bought several of them. By then the value of a 286 had dropped and I was able to buy a used 286. Now we had a computer in the home.

The funny thing is that over the years (and after going into business for myself) I bought the newest and fastest one every time a new model came out. Most are long gone, except for my current model, plus that very first 286. It resides in a prominent place on my loading bench. Every once in awhile I turn it on, if for nothing else than to use its dos ballistics program.

The other funny thing is that it never crashes, locks up or burps at all. It only has 1 windows venue, and that is merely a menu to open the dos programs.

They don't build them like they used to.....

 

[dockmurgw]

Some of the new tech was an aggravation, like the day I could no longer call local numbers by dialing 5 numbers. But the day I got a fax machine in the office with the roll of thermal paper...I thought we were NASA with that technological wonder.

 

[arjay]

Step in ski bindings and ski boots with buckles!

 

[Wyo]

Dials on the telephone. Before we got those we picked up the handset and spoke directly to the operator. I was probably 5-6 years old, and we thought it was pretty cool that we could now dial a number like they did in the movies.

 

[nicky4968]

Although Edison had created the incandescent light bulb some years before, my great grandfather was the first man in St. Anne to have a generator and one solitary light.
My grandmother said people knelt and offered prayers of thanks that such a thing existed.

 

[Onomea]

I often like to say, only somewhat tongue in cheek, that the two greatest inventions of the 20th century are suitcases with wheels and disposable diapers. Anyone who recalls dealing with either of their predecessors will well understand the sentiment...

 

[growr]

Stepping on the mat at the entrance going to the grocery store and the door automatically opened!!!

Randy

 

[keith44spl]

First I recall, was multi band radio.

The best I recall, is velcro.


.

 

[DWalt]

Dials on the telephone. Before we got those we picked up the handset and spoke directly to the operator. I was probably 5-6 years old, and we thought it was pretty cool that we could now dial a number like they did in the movies.

The first thing I thought of was also the dial phone. For much of my childhood, our home phone had no dial. You picked it up and told the operator what number you wanted to call. We had a cumbersome telephone situation at our house. We were one of the few houses in our neighborhood that even had a phone, and some surrounding neighbors would come over to use our phone if necessary. It was a poor neighborhood, and not many could afford to have a phone. Also we would get calls for them, and it was my job to run nextdoor or across the street to get a neighbor or to pass on a message. When we first got a dial phone, around the early to mid-1950s, we all thought it was the magical hi-tech wonder of the ages. Of course, dial phones had been around for many years in many places, but just not in our small-town area.

And then there was my very first computer, a Timex Sinclair 1000, sometime in the early 1980s. Remember those? Very primitive, but I learned the basics on one.

 

[bill2000]

When I was 8 years old my father hustled the family out into the yard one night. Looking skyward we spotted the first orbiting satallite, Sputnick 1. 1957, we've come a long way baby! Sputnik 1 - Wikipedia