As I stood on the CES floor looking down at the vintage devices in front of me, surrounded by the flashing lights and loud sounds of a new world, I couldn’t help but think, “these are the good guys.” The hardware-driven inventions devoid of whatever unknown security vulnerability lay hidden behind the must-have features people can’t seem to take their eyes off of.
These were the devices created for more than just a profit, but a purpose: to move things forward, and change the tech scene forever.
For its 50th anniversary event, CES brought a number of previously featured devices back to the show floor, for one last encore.
Let the images below take you back to a simpler, worry-free era of innovation.
1975 Sears Tele-Games Atari Pong
Phillip Tracy
1977 RCA VBT-200: First VHS VCR in the United States
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1979 Sony Walkman TPS-L2: First portable music player
Phillip Tracy
1983 Technics SLP-10 CD player
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1984 Motorola “The brick” DynaTAC 8000 cell phone: Modern-day price of around $10,000
Phillip Tracy
1994 Timex Datalink 150: First smartwatch to sync with PC
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1998 Diamond Rio PMP300: First MP3 player
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2001 Apple iPod
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2007 Apple iPhone
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2013 Pebble Smart Watch
Phillip Tracy