Retro

There are numerous retro iPhone cases on the market, and most of them have no useful features except for helping you to stand out from the crowd. Holga, however, has introduced an iPhone case that not only adds some vintage flair to your smartphone, but also allows for photographic experimentation with nine built-in special effects filters.  Read More

When I was a good bit younger, I wasted far too much of my spare time blowing up wave after wave of space rocks - and the occasional flying saucer - trying to get to the flip-over. Atari's most successful game, Asteroids, has now been given a futuristic make-over by eye-tracking and eye control specialist Tobii, developers of the impressive laptop prototype and the stand-alone PCEye system for Windows PCs. Built as a free-standing arcade game, EyeAsteroids players use only their eyes to aim and fire a laser at flying rocks and save the world from impending pulverization.  Read More

Video cameras now routinely offer features such as full 1080p high-def video, night vision mode, and stereo sound ... if you're one of the people who reads that and thinks "Big deal, that just means people will have nicer-looking home videos," perhaps you would appreciate a camera that's focused less on the latest tech, and more on the art of moving pictures. Well, Lomography's new LomoKino Super 35 Movie Maker should fit the bill. Paying homage to the original Chaplin-era movie cameras, users hand-crank 35mm film through the box-like device, while a fixed-focus lens captures all the jittery, grainy action.  Read More

Hard though it may be to believe for anyone raised since the advent of VCRs, there was a time when people actually had to leave their homes to see adult movies. Going to sleazy cinemas ended up being the main option, although it was predated by a little something known as the peep show machine. Now largely forgotten, these pieces of erotic entertainment history were once a common sight in penny arcades, fair grounds and other sometimes-questionable locales. So, what would one would look like if it were built using today's technology? California's Michael Ford decided to find out.  Read More

While most phones are getting smaller and being crammed with non-phone functionality, the "Sixty" cordless phone from French company Sagemcom harks back to an earlier age of domestic communications ... with an injection of 21st Century design and technology.  Read More

When I tuned into my first DAB broadcast a few years ago and was treated to crackle-and-hiss-free CD quality digital audio, I must admit to being impressed. Now an enhanced version of the standard is being rolled out across Europe which uses a more efficient audio codec and offers listeners even more access to digital services, and Sony has launched two new products to greet it. Heading for UK bedrooms will be the XDR-C706DBP DAB+ radio alarm clock, while living rooms can enjoy the natural wood finish and retro-styling of the XDR-S16DBP.  Read More

It’s perhaps inevitable that as video gaming technology advances, some of us may start to long for the simpler nuts-and-bolts arcade games of our youth. Well, they never got much nuttier and boltier than pinball, and the new Pinball Magic “(app)cessory” allows you to transform your iPhone or iPod touch into a digital version of just such a machine – complete with its own functional iDevice-sized cabinet. Just fire it up, turn up the Buddy Holly, Jefferson Airplane or Joan Jett, then pretend you’re back in the days of broken curfews and wedgies.  Read More

Although we hear about amazing advances in high technology every day, it’s often the really low-tech ones that most cause us to say “Why didn’t I think of that?”. A case in point is the MP4000 Personal Post Office portable scale – a product that's been around in its current incarnation since the 70s, but that we still thought was worth a mention. Designed primarily for weighing letters in order to determine postage, the non-digital, non-electronic, and barely even mechanical little gizmo is nonetheless accurate enough that its use has been approved by the US Postal Service.  Read More

Remember a simpler time when people used mobile phones to make calls? When just about everyone owned a Nokia, and most of those were a model with cutting-edge features like an internal antenna, vibrate call alert and the facility to create your own ringtones? If you're too young to remember the iconic Nokia 3210 or were too set in your ways to own a mobile back in the dark ages of the late 1990s, then a French company called Lëkki is now offering you a second chance. Refurbished and revamped, there are currently two legendary phones on offer as part of the company's Back to Basics ethic.  Read More