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

[arjay]

Indoor plumbing. Seriously.

A couple of my friends didn’t have indoor plumbing until they were 12 or so
I recently learned that the two houses my mother grew up in, nor the neighboring village, had electricity or central heat when she left in 52. Both houses are huge (6,000 sq ft + ) with one dating to 1820 and the other several hundred years older than that. Huge coal stove in the kitchen,coal fireplaces in all the rooms and paraffin lamps for light

 

[Farmer17]

My dad was pretty tight but he did spend money on some of the new gizmos that came out. I remember the Polaroid SX 70 folding camera that spit out a photo and it developed in seconds before your eyes. It was over a hundred bucks and each photo cost about a dollar which was a bunch of money back then in 1972. Also we got a microwave oven when they first came out, it was small and avocado green with a dial that was its only control. Man, we got our money out of that thing 100 times over, I think we had it 30 years or so and finally gave it away and it never had a problem and still looked like new.

 

[rwsmith]

Air conditioing.....

Not an all-encompassing list, but ones that stick out in my memory along my life path - probably TV, car with automatic transmission, turn signals on cars, non-party line telephone, jet plane, air conditioning (only in department stores and movie theaters), and everything after seemed to come at an accelerating pace.

In the south we loved taking trips to department stores in the summer and A/C was awesome. We must have been like the Joads in 'The Grapes of Wrath' And later 7/11s had those stickers on the doors with the penguin. "Come on in, it's KOOL inside." (Kool cigarettes) I didn't smoke, but I loved that KOOL.

 

[Chukar60]

The cell phone........
Well kind of a cell phone. My first one was a bag phone. It weighed slightly more than a M1 Garand. Battery life was nonexistent and coverage was spotty on a good day.
I was the first salesman at our company to get one. Company would not spring for the cost and told me I would rue the day I got it.
Six months later every salesman had one in their vehicle.
Today I am packing an iPhone that has more computing power than any of my desk top computers until I got a new Mac 5 years ago.
We have come a long way in the last 30 years. I am just not too sure what direction we are going.

 

[Lt JL]

Standing in the black darkness of the Mississippi River bottoms looking up at Sputnik.

 

[rwsmith]

First computer I saw....

...was in the bank and it was as big as an A/C unit. Of course at school we started getting 'punch cards' in the early 60's and somewhere we got a XEROX that could make slides for overhead projectors. Communications really took a jump with Telstar. They even made a song about it.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryrEPzsx1gQ[/ame]

The first really useful (to us anyway) satellite I remember was Tiros, the weather satellites, especially being in a hurricane region.

Vacuum Tubes/VERY heavy metal chassis
Transistors
Integrated circuits
(Anybody remember 'solid copper circuits'. I don't think that really panned out)
Quasar TV with it's works in a drawer.

Computers really changed my life when I changed from a drawing board to CAD for design work. Somebody told that computers were going to replace me because the Japanese were working on AI. All it did was make me productive as 40 hells.

The X-15 was the coolest thing since sliced bread.

And fighter JETS. Loved those sonic booms.

When I was about two a Navy blimp flew over. It might as well have been a Zeppelin.

Polaroid cameras.....GEE! Then they came out with cartridge cameras like the Instamatic. And flash bars. No more handling single flash bulbs (OUCH!)

My folks sprung for an Amana Radar Range (The top). They didn't use it much and called it a "$300 clock".

 

[llowry61]

Depth finder / fish locator - it made anyone a better fisherman.

 

[Salty RI]

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.

And she knew everyone by name and she didnt even have to ask who you wanted to call. [emoji1]

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[rolomac]

Darn this makes me feel old. I remember the first time I saw a ballpoint pen! Must have been about 1948 or so. Thought it was amazing. Click ahead a few years and I remember reading about VCRs in an article in Playboy Magazine (yes they did actually have articles). Don't remember when that might have been but probably mid to late 60's? It really intrigued me and I knew I was going to have to get one.

rolomac

 

[Kitgun]

Gas forced air furnace with wall mounted adjusted thermostat.

 

[Salty RI]

Darn this makes me feel old. I remember the first time I saw a ballpoint pen! Must have been about 1948 or so. Thought it was amazing. Click ahead a few years and I remember reading about VCRs in an article in Playboy Magazine (yes they did actually have articles). Don't remember when that might have been but probably mid to late 60's? It really intrigued me and I knew I was going to have to get one.

rolomac

They did, I had a hard time getting past the center fold. [emoji1]

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[Xfuzz]

Texas born.. in 1952....
First car with AC...1963 Chevy Impala.
1971 High school first year of AC.

Godsend...it's hot in Texas.

 

[Chuck24]

When cleaning out my mom’s house,my niece found my pong console and asked me if she could play it. I said sure, but it’s probably not what you’re used to. She got it all hooked up, stared at two paddles and a ball for a while then turned to me and asked, Seriously, that’s all it does? When I was your age that was cutting edge.

 

[Chuck24]

Btw, every time I go through the EZ passed sensor, I’m still surprised it actually works.

 

[Bozz10mm]

Transistor radios, color TVs, portable tape recorders.

 

[Peak53]

Scotch Invisible Tape. You could hardly see it when pressed flat and as a bonus you could write on it with a ballpoint pen (see above). This was a major advance over the 1st gen Scotch Tape that quickly yellowed.

I also was dragged out to the front yard in the middle of the night by my Dad to see Sputnik.

 

[Gamecock]

Light switches.

In my youth, they made a big "click." They could get hung up between off and on, with an arc occuring. A serious fire hazard.

Touch tone phones.

Fuel injection.

Capacitor discharge ignition.

Car air conditioning.

 

[hittman77]

I'd say either the handheld calculator as mentioned earlier or the electric typewriter.

I remember our "General Business" high school class had a typing portion but the school only had ONE electric and we rotated on when we got it. Think you got the electric about once or twice a month.

 

[LVSteve]

Compact cassette recorder.

 

[Huskerguy]

I started teaching at a technical college in 1983. We worked on a guys car who sold Apple McInosh computers. I tried one out and ask the college president for one. He asked me what I would ever do with a computer? I did drawings on McDraw and lesson plans on word processing and the real kicker was I devised a grading program. I was the first person on the entire campus to have a computer then. Amazing when I look back on it.