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Transistor Radio Turns 50
theodp writes "Before the iPod, there was the Regency TR-1. Fifty years ago Monday, tiny Indianapolis-based I.D.E.A. partnered with TI and shook the world with the first pocket-sized AM radio, so impressing IBM chief Tom Watson that he provided a $49.95 (roughly $345 in current dollars!), four transistor TR-1 to each of his senior managers to kick-start the company's transition from valves."
Must be using one for his web server.
12:50 - press return.
How many people on slashdot have been alive this long?
"How many people on slashdot have been alive this long?"
And are still virgins?
... as if that's a lot of money for a portable entertainment device. How much do you think an iPod costs?
A lot!
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
'which has a shape...surprisingly similar to an iPod...
...you mean a rectangle?
That reminds me of an AM radio I built from one of those copper coil kits for kids. It was more of an ear-plug than a headphone, though. And when I say ear-plug, I mean that it was a massive thing that went right down your ear canal.
A crystal radio.
Sadly, every crystal radio I ever built only picked up WBAL, which turned me into a talk radio junkie at 7.
Valves? I didn't know IBM had been in the plumbing business?
You've never seen an IBM 3081. Dual CPUs and water cooled and the one I used in '93 had an uptime of 13 years.
it was exactly like the Ipod today.
Yup. And the transistor radio won't really be popular either until it supports Ogg Vorbis.