Hasta La Gadget!

I really don’t care for those reality TV shows where people walk around with metal detectors looking for junk. Most of them end up turning up crappy old coins and cans. But I have to show props to the guys on NatGeo’s Diggers for digging up something epic for once. They managed to find a long lost time capsule buried with stuff from Steve Jobs way back in 1983.

Jobs and other attendees filled the 30-foot-long time capsule with all sorts of stuff after the International Design Conference in Aspen, Colorado some 30 years ago. Most notable among their contributions was Steve Jobs’ mouse from an Apple Lisa he used for the day’s presentation – which apparently is still in mint condition. Bet that’ll fetch some serious buckage at auction.

Despite being known as the “Steve Jobs Time Capsule,” there were many other contributors to the capsule, then known as the Aspen Time Tube. Among them there’s an original Rubik’s Cube, a six pack of Ballantine Ale, some name tags, and a Moody Blues 8-track tape. I’m not sure what the deal is with all the aluminum foil pie tins though.

While they haven’t released images of everything inside, I’m sure you’ll be able to see everything they found in the capsule on an upcoming episode of Diggers on the National Geographic Channel.

[via C|Net]

Ilija Stjepic wants to do for photographic printing what Instagram did for Polaroid. Ilija and his friends made the Enfojer kit. It lets you develop the images in your smartphone into black and white pictures using traditional techniques. You’ll need a darkroom, chemicals, the works. It’s the perfect gift for the budding hipster.

The most important part of Stjepic and company’s kit is the Enfojer itself. It’s an enlarger – a projector used in printing from negatives – that uses your smartphone as both the light source and the film. The Enfojer projects an image from your phone to a piece of photographic paper. Then you’ll dip that paper into a couple of chemical baths, and in about 6 minutes you’ll have a black and white photo.

The Enfojer is supposed to work with most smartphones. As shown in the image above it will also have a complementary app that provides guidance as well as basic editing features. The other parts of the kit are indispensable as well – the photographic film, the safelight, the chemical trays – but you can get those items elsewhere. Still don’t get how it works? Watch the video. Brace yourself: annoying background music is coming.

Seriously Ilija, how in John Herschel’s name did you think that music was okay? In any case, if you made it through the whole video you must be really interested in the Enfojer. Pledge at least $200 (USD) on Indiegogo to get the Enfojer as a reward. You’ll need to pledge at least $350 if you want the entire kit, which includes 100 sheets of photographic paper, trays, tongs, a safelight and a tray rack. You’ll still need to buy the required chemicals – and find a space to convert into a darkroom – even if you buy the full kit. You gotta work hard to be hip.

Pauline Acalin mashed up the Neil deGrasse Tyson reaction meme with Nintendo’s classic boxing game Punch-Out!! to create this funny print. Can you imagine what physics boxing would be like? Chess boxing would be a walk in the park compared to that.

What’s that?

You beat Glass Joe?

…

You can order Pauline’s print at the it8bit store for just $5.50 (USD).

Last week, we flipped the switch on our #ExpandThrowback contest from the submission phase to the voting phase, meaning the winners of our contest are in your capable hands. What is this contest about again, you ask? Simply put, we wanted to see what old technology our readers could dig up in their garages, attics, closets, glove compartments, et cetera, thus paying homage to the old as we prepare to celebrate the new at this November’s Expand NY event. One lucky winner gets an all-expense paid trip to the event and four runner-ups get a $250 gift card to update their old technology.*

What are some of the old gizmos found in the top 20? Here’s the list, complete with WikiLinks (not WikiLeaks) to fill your thirst for knowledge on tech before we could :

• 16/35MM Recorder
• 8-Track Tape
• Apple Lisa
• Atari Video Gaming System
• AT&T EO
• Blickensderfer #5
• Coleco Telstar
• Commodore VIC-20
• Datapoint 2200
• Motorola Bag Phone
• MS-DOS DIskette
• Original IBM PC
• Original Microsoft Mouse
• Polaroid Model 150
• Portico Miracle PC
• Sega Game Gear
• Studer 3/4 Tape Machine
• Teddy Ruxpin
• Timex Sinclair 1000
• Toshiba T3100

We’ll let you hop on over to the contest and vote for your favorite, and make sure to do so by September 19th. Then, on the 20th, we’ll announce the winners. You also can see the whole smattering of #ExpandThrowback submissions that didn’t make it to the final round here.

*Prizes mentioned in this article are bound by the official rules of the contest.

Filed under: Apple, Microsoft, AT&T, Lenovo

Comments

Back in the day, Xevious was one of my favorite arcade games. It was one of the first-ever vertical-scrollers, and it offered great graphics for its time, a hypnotic soundtrack, and great gameplay. Now, you can celebrate fond memories of Namco’s arcade classic with this great full-print Xevious t-shirt.

The t-shirt is covered top-to-bottom with graphics from the 1983 arcade shooter. What I really love about the design is that it’s really cool all on its own, but those who know the game will know exactly what it’s all about.

Unfortunately, the Xevious t-shirts appear to have been so collectible that the price has escalated significantly over retail. But if you really want one, you can still find them over on Amazon Japan or eBay for anywhere from about $50 to $120 (USD). At least that’s still cheaper than an actual Xevious machine.