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Get nostalgic with these 10 vintage tech items that once ruled!

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From cell phones and laptops to electronic payments and smart TVs, technology is a constant in our daily lives, no matter where we go. But things were different a couple of decades ago. Remember when TVs were huge boxes or when landline phones were the norm? If you want to take a trip back in time to remember these vintage tech items and many others, this article is for you!

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If someone asked you to mime taking an imaginary phone call, you'd probably lower the three middle fingers of your hand, leaving just your thumb and pinky extended, and hold that "phone" up to your ear. Are we right?

If so, it means that -just like us- you're still honoring the legacy of the true king of 20th-century communication: the landline telephone. Whether push-button or rotary dial, the home phone was indispensable in those days.

Of course, they're still around, but we have to admit that their reign has been overtaken and surpassed by cell phones.

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While many modern personal computers come with touchpads, the fact is that many of us still prefer using a separate handheld mouse. Today, most mice are optical or laser-based, but they have an iconic predecessor.

Although it wasn't the first computer mouse, the ball mouse -also known as the mechanical mouse- is well remembered. We are talking about that mouse that had a little ball inside, which rotated on the surface of the table or desk to make the cursor move on the screen.

Many of us have memories of disassembling our mice to remove the ball and clean it manually. Do you remember doing that?

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Most of us have a TV in the living room today, and it wasn't much different in the '70s. In those years, if you had a TV, you probably also had a VHS player (and maybe you're one of the lucky ones who still has one.)

Though it's a far cry from Netflix, the iconic Video Home System came into our lives to make everything more exciting and fun; everyone wanted one! And, honestly, it was no wonder: recording shows and watching movies anytime you wanted, all from the comfort of your home, was a whole new world of entertainment.

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If you're reading this, you've probably held a floppy disk in your hands at least once. Also called "diskettes" -or "floppies," if you were really cool- these little squares were the trendy way to store data back in the '70s. And not only that, they were also one of the first portable storage devices, making them a sensation at the time!

While they are considered vintage items today, their legacy lives on. The iconic floppy disk image is still widely used as the icon for the "save" functions on many of the modern devices we use every day.

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While your cell phone camera might be hard to beat in terms of definition and quality, there's still something special about holding a physical photo in your hands, right?

And when it comes to physical photos, the iconic Polaroid camera is hard to forget. Not only is it a treasure in terms of design, but it's also older than you might think. In fact, the first model, the Polaroid Model 95, was launched in 1948! The Polaroid Model 95 was the first commercially successful instant camera, which allowed people to get a photo just minutes after taking it without the need to go to a photo processing center. Imagine such a change!

Although it suffered a decline during the rise of the digital era, its popularity resurfaced in recent years with much more modern designs, features, and functions.

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If gaming is your thing, you were probably expecting the iconic Atari 2600 to appear on this list.

One of the first and most iconic video game consoles, the Atari 2600 emerged in 1977, bringing our favorite games into our living rooms. Classics like "Pong," "Space Invaders," and "Pac-Man" were just a few of the memorable games you could enjoy.

Although discontinued in 1992, the Atari 2600 played an important role in the development of other popular consoles and was a pioneer in the world of home entertainment. If you were one of the lucky ones who owned one, you probably remember it fondly!

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The Walkman is undoubtedly one of the devices that came to change everything.

Launched by Sony in 1979, the Walkman was one of the first portable music players. Suddenly, people could enjoy their favorite music anytime, anywhere, whether shopping, running, or taking a walk. It was barely bigger than a cassette and came with a pair of innovative headphones.

Everything about it was cool: design, size, and functions. Even today, it's one of the best-remembered vintage tech items. Did you and your friends have Walkmans?

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A few decades ago, TV tables were placed much further from the wall. It wasn't a matter of trend; it was because there was no other option.

From the mid-20th century until the early 21st century, TVs and many computer monitors used CRT technology. Box TVs were the norm back then, but bringing one home could be a challenge, especially because of their weight!

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, box TVs were replaced by flat screens and LCD TVs, but no one can deny that the classic TV provided us with decades of fun and entertainment.

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Nowadays, it’s pretty uncommon to meet someone without a cell phone. We use them for almost everything, carrying them everywhere. But before cell phones, there were beepers.

The beeper -as it was called because of the sound it made- was formally known as a Pager and was the first commercially successful mobile device for sending and receiving text messages. While this might not seem surprising today, it was unbelievable at the time.

Early versions of devices similar to the beeper existed already in the 1950s, but it was during the 1980s that they gained popularity, becoming tech icons.

Image: Dominik Lange

Next up is a tech item that might not have been as popular as some of the others on our list. Before cell phones, there was a groundbreaking way to make calls on the go: car phones.

Although they were often seen as luxury items, many people ended up having them installed in their vehicles. And that installation was far from easy. Car phones were large and heavy and required a power source and an external antenna for signal reception.

Maybe their time in the spotlight was brief, but we can't deny that they were an important step toward modern mobile telecommunications.

THE BOOKS THAT SHAPED AMERICA

Discover Ten Iconic Novels Influenced By U.S. States & Cities!

Image: Chris Lawton

It’s no wonder that America has inspired a myriad of iconic authors, including 15 Nobel Prize winners (and counting). This amazing country offers unique landscapes fertile for the imagination, including both the wonders of rural life as well as the bubbling excitement of metropolitan cities.

We have selected ten timeless classics on which American states and cities are not just the background on which the story takes place, but rather a full character in their own right. Be sure to add these to your reading list!

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John Kennedy Toole’s post-humous novel is a hysterical depiction of the misadventures of Ignatius J. Reilly, a lazy and misanthropic man-child looking to impose his medievalist views on the modern world. His search for a job turns into a quest of epic proportions, fueled by his wild demeanor and quirky antics.

While Ignatius is central to this novel, it could also be said that Toole wrote "A Confederacy of Dunces" as a love letter to his beloved New Orleans. His characters are outlandish and eccentric, but are also a product of the colorful charm the "Birthplace of Jazz" has to offer.

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Holden Caufield, the main character and narrator of this J.D. Salinger coming-of-age novel, is a troubled teenager who wanders around New York City after being expelled from his boarding school. The story takes place over a single day, on which Holden strolls through Central Park, attends a play at the Biltmore Theatre, and ice skates in Rockefeller Center.

"The Catcher in the Rye" is considered by many to be an essential read, and is praised for its groundbreaking way of describing teenage rebellion and angst. While New York City seems like a cruel and unforgiving place for Holden, Salinger also goes out of his way to describe this city’s beauty and magnificence.

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Let’s continue with another classic book that features New Orleans. Tennesse Williams named his legendary play after the Desire streetcar line that ran half a block away from his apartment on Toulouse Street, in New Orleans’ beautiful French Quarter.

The double meaning in the play’s title, referring to both the iconic streetcar as well as to the idea that desire is a driving force, shows how this iconic piece of literature could only have been conceived in such a stunning city.

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Author Hunter S. Thompson is considered to be the father of "gonzo" journalism and his 1971 novel "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is a clear example of this: a fast-paced and at times surreal descent onto "Sin City". The movie is the basis of a 1998 movie starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro, considered now to be a cult classic.

Thompson’s book is based on two trips he took with Oscar Zeta Acosta in 1971. The author describes those frenzied nights of driving around Las Vegas and manically writing in a hotel room. The flashing lights and countless sources of entertainment that Las Vegas is known for add another layer of craziness to this already relentless whirlwind of a book.

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If you have a friend from San Francisco (or if you are a resident of this wonderful place yourself), you might know that some locals simply refer to San Francisco as "The City". If you didn’t know this fact, you might now realize that Armistead Maupin’s series of novels "Tales of the City" aren’t just about urban life in general, but rather a beautiful depiction of the "Golden City."

Maupin's books were first serialized in The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner, and they revolve around the life of a group of friends living in this city. The first book of the series was published in 1978, while the ninth was released in 2014, and a tenth one is scheduled to be published in 2024.

Image: The New York Public Library

While New Orleans is known as "The Birthplace of Jazz", it can’t be denied that Harlem’s influence helped jazz evolve into the groundbreaking genre we know now. Like the music that gives this book its name, Toni Morrison’s 1992 novel "Jazz" is a nonlinear and colorful exploration of the Harlem neighborhood.

The story revolves around Joe and Violet Trace, and their struggles with everyday life in 1920s Harlem. Morrison’s book is now considered an American classic, by a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

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You might be more familiar with Stanley Kubrick's flawless film adaptation, but Stephen King’s 1977 novel "The Shining" marked a turning point in the history of horror literature. The story centers around Jack Torrance, an alcoholic aspiring writer who accepts a job as winter caretaker of the fictional Overlook Hotel, in Colorado. Jack and his family are haunted both by his addiction and by the supernatural beings that reside in the hotel.

While the Overlook is a fictional location, it was inspired by a visit from King and his wife to the Stanley Hotel, located in Rocky Mountain National Park. While supernatural dangers are always present, Colorado’s ruthless winters and the hotel’s isolation add another threat to the family’s safety.

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Truman Capote’s "In Cold Blood" is considered to be the first non-fiction novel in history. The book describes the events that took place in 1959 in Holcomb, Kansas, in which the Clutter family was murdered during a home invasion.

Capote masterfully reconstructs not only how the crime took place, but the personalities and background of both victims and criminals. In that regard, the way the author masterfully depicts the typical way of life of a town like Holcomb, Kansas helps paint a picture of these real-life characters.

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Similar to "The Shining", Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel "Gone with the Wind" might be better known by its 1939 adaptation, starring Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Clark Gable. In any case, both mediums tell the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, and the love triangle she is involved with.

This novel is heavily ingrained in pop culture and has been referenced constantly in movies and TV shows. Mitchell’s portrayal of 19th century Georgia (particularly, Atlanta and Clayton County) is among the reasons why this novel is considered one of the biggest examples of American historical fiction.

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We end this article with one of the cornerstones of modern American literature. William Faulkner’s "The Sound and the Fury" describes the life of the Compson family, a Mississippi aristocratic family in decline. The author’s magnificent use of the stream-of-consciousness technique allowed him to recreate the human thought process in an astonishingly accurate manner.

Faulkner sets most of "The Sound and the Fury" in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional Mississippi county on which a lot of his novels are based. However, most critics agree that Yoknapatawpha was largely based in Lafayette County, on which Faulkner spent most of his life.