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From TR-1 to iPod mini
karvind writes "BBC is running an interesting scoop on first transistor radio which has fair resemblance to iPod mini. The Regency TR-1 transistor radio, made in 1954, had a decent claim to be a genuine piece of innovation, however. It was, by popular agreement, the world's first commercially sold transistor pocket radio. Incidently technology watcher John Ousby realised the modern day parallels and matched photos of the transistor with photos of the iPod mini. The similarity between the two has 'created quite a stir' particularly in the Mac community."
I've seen at least 3 ACs post this in the past week. Whether or not they are the same person remains to be seen. But what each of them has failed to do is proofread the text they copy and paste.
Please change the text to "1% marketshare" if you really mean to be a troll.
It just looks like the iPod mini, it is only a bit bigger, and only available in white. The name is the Apple iPod!
I think there is no connection to the regency TR1 except the colors maybe. But the colors can also come from the mind of a designer or marketeer wanting to make it even more trendy, doing market research and discovering that people want more than just a white iPod.
If the wheel on the TR1 would have been at the scrollwheel location of the iPod mini, and it would have featured a little screen (analog) to indicate what frequency you were on, than it would have become much more likely that the designers would have seen this device and copied it. They could at that moment even have made it retro on purpose by presenting it as the next evolution if portable audio together with the TR1 (need permission of Regency, if they still exist).
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
Well, I know there was a guy who used to turn old Walkmen into iPod cases... until Sony threatened to sue him.
Nice pics on that site - and it DOES remind one of the iPod (although I highly doubt the iPod designers were even aware of this product). Does make you think though - roughly the same size and shape as and iPod, was available 50 years ago, had batteries that could actually be replaced, and "held" an INFINITE amount of music (aka radio) that was randomly shuffled. Almost seems like the tech back then was beter than the tech now!
Didn't measure it, but it looks suspiciously close to the ratio of the golden rectangle. If that's the case, then it has little to do with coincidence, and alot to do with 2 seperate designers choosing a geometry that has been extremely pleasant to human beings for untold thousands of years.
If the TR-1 was in fact the first pocket radio EVAR, then it is a technological and cultural milestone worth remembering even if (as many people here point out) it doesn't look nearly as much like an iPod Mini as TFA claims.
where there's fish, there's cats
While the two products may resemble each other, this is analagous to saying the PC is really a duplicate product of the typewriter and that the PC is not really an innovative product because the typewriter came before it. Ok, nobody is denying that the two products have a similar look or are capable of doing the same types of things, but the approach taken is so drastically different that saying that apple is lacking in innovation by producing the iPod is ridiculous. The key difference in the product is that they have taken something that was previously an analog interface and without making any changes to our physical interaction with it, converted it to a digital controller to meet the same end.
You mean, Apple might have copied the aesthetic design of an old Walkman, and the functionality of an ancient transistor radio?? Could this possibly be an image of the long sought after missing link, between the TR-1 and the iPod?!? Oh no! Technological evolution!! Say it isn't so!!
Honestly! If Apple's aesthetic design team hadn't researched successful designs of years gone by, I would be absolutely astonished! The innovation here wasn't in the physical appearances of the iPod, (as shown by these images of the TR-1 and that random Walkman on the link above) or in the functionality of the iPod (MP3 players already existed from other companies) or even in the interface design (as indicated by recent patent issues brought up by Creative Technology). Apple's innovation here was the integration of all these distinct elements into a single elegantly designed device: the iPod -- which as everyone knows by now, caused the fledgling MP3 market to finally take root! Simply put, Apple did what others had already been trying to do... but they did it right.
(Oh yeah... and I guess the iTunes Music Store may have had something to do with it too.)
Okay, I give up, what are the similarities?
The TR-1 has a round metal dial that rotates, mounted on the center shaft of a tuning capacitor.
The iPod has no metal dial does not rotate, and no tuning capacitor.
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The TR-1 has a speaker grille with a plain old voice-coil and permanent magnet speaker behind it.
The iPod has no speaker grille and no speaker.
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The TR-1 came in a very fragile styrene plastic case, which was likely to shatter at the first drop.
The iPod comes in a metal and poly-butyl-acrilate case, very sturdy and hard to break.
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The TR-1 had exactly FOUR transistors, one diode, and a handful of parts, all hand-soldered to a single-layer PC board.
The iPod has, oh, at least 100,000 transistors, many many parts, all automatically placed and soldered onto a four-layer PC board.
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OH I GET it NOW! They both have PC boards! WOw!!!
Actually, radios (even small ones) of that era had the tuning knob attached directly to the shaft of a capacitor which was used to tune the radio. Using a rheostat (actually, a potentiometer) to tune small radios via the action of a varactor was not commonplace until the 1970's. In fact, rheostats (a two-terminal device) were seldom used in electronic design past the 1940's except in high-power work, as the more versatile potentiomer could be configured as a rheostat (by connecting the wiper contact to one of the end contacts).
That is all.
I compare the Ipod to the Palm handhelds more than anything else. Which is exactly why i havent purchased an ipod yet. Sure the ipod may be "revolutionary" but its integrateable technology. Soon to be assimilated(already even) into the cellphone. Just look at the PSP, its halfway there. MP3s/videos/web/gaming(minus cellphone). All of these techologies will be integrated into each other in the next few years. Making the ipod as insignificant in the future as a stand alone palm handheld is now. We can thank them for their contributions, but its going to be shortlived.
Check this out, pretty close to the original iPod
Modell T4
Probably more of a coincedence, however.
Your hybrid is not saving the environment. Its purpose is to make you feel good about buying something.