The 1972-era desktop sized iPod

; Date: Wed Apr 12 2017

Tags: Music Player »»»» Cassette Tapes »»»» Retro-Technology

Who says that before the iPod we could play one song/album at a time? Cassette players held one tape, and at up to 120 minutes per tape that meant about 2 albums worth of music, after which you'd have to manually switch the tape. Oh the inhumanity of it all, having to walk across the room to switch tapes. With a record player, you could stack multiple records and it would play one after another. For the most part we were stuck playing one, or maybe two, albums at a time. And we walked uphill, both ways, through the snow, every day to school. Actually, ingenious engineers created wondrous mechanical gizmos for many purposes, including this cassette-tape carousel. It held up to 20 cassette tapes, could play one at a time, or could play a programmed sequence, for up to 2 1/2 days of continuous music. AND, it was built in 1972. I bet Steve Jobs was having fond memories of this cassette carousel when he inspired Apple to create the iPod.

About the Author(s)

(davidherron.com) David Herron : David Herron is a writer and software engineer focusing on the wise use of technology. He is especially interested in clean energy technologies like solar power, wind power, and electric cars. David worked for nearly 30 years in Silicon Valley on software ranging from electronic mail systems, to video streaming, to the Java programming language, and has published several books on Node.js programming and electric vehicles.