Hasta La Gadget!

Remember when we used gadgets called “tape recorders?” Well, now you can relive the prehistoric era of portable cassette tape recorders, but with your iPhone in place of the cassette.

The iRecorder looks like one of those old luggable cassette recorders that predates the seminal Sony Walkman. Like it’s distant relatives, the battery-powered iRecorder sports a speaker and buttons that actually work. But in this case, the buttons control playback of your iPhone 4, 5 or 5S, and the volume of the speaker. It’s even got one of those pull-out handles for carrying it around.

Ironically, the one thing iRecorder doesn’t do is offer a record button. Instead, the red button is now the play button. I’m assuming that’s because they couldn’t figure out a way to trigger recording through the iPhone’s headphone jack. Still, we get the point, and the iRecorder is a fun gadget for those looking for a retro gift for old fogies like me.

You can grab the iRecorder from CraziestGadgets for $49.99 (USD). I wonder how well the window on the player lines up with this app.

Forget the MP3 player, or even the Walkman — the real instigator of the portable audio revolution is the compact cassette, which just marked its 50th birthday. Philips formally launched the format on September 13th, 1963, bringing recorded sound to a truly portable (and more accessible) form factor. The technology didn’t just kickstart the markets for media players, field recorders and boomboxes; it led to bootlegs, mixtapes and other ways to shake up the audio status quo. The cassette has largely disappeared outside of nostalgic reissues and transforming robot toys, but its effects are still visible after half a century of progress.

[Image credit: Tony Unruh, Flickr]

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Storage

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Source: Philips

Using cassettes to create mixtapes was a fun time to spend an afternoon when you were a kid. There’s something oddly pleasing about this analog media format. Thankfully, if you’ve got a MakerBot in your shed, you can make a modern version of the mixtape, by 3D printing an MP3 player in the shape of a cassette.

The MakerBot Mixtape looks like a cassette tape, but it’s actually a 3D-printed MP3 player with 2 GB of storage. It has buttons for play, pause, forward and backward. The charge lasts four hours and a USB cable is used to charge it up. Keep in mind that its the case that’s 3D printed, and the electronic circuitry inside is most definitely  not.

If you’ve got a MakerBot, you can print it in a number of different colors and designs. You can get a kit for $25 (USD). If you haven’t got a 3D printer, then you can buy one already made up for $39.

[via DVice]