Vintage gadgets on display in NYC

From the Blickensderfer Portable Typewriter to the Apple Tablet Prototype and every Dyson G-Force Vacuum and Polaroid Land Camera in between, the temporary Gizmodo gallery installation at Reed Annex in New York was the place to see vintage gadget milestones alongside the newest technology of today.

By Andrew Nusca, Contributor on Dec. 4, 2008

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The temporary Gizmodo Gallery, installed at the Reed Annex on Orchard Street on New York City's Lower East Side.

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From Frog Design and Apple's "Snow White" design language comes this tablet, looking much like the cousin of the IIc.

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George Blickensderfer's portable typewriters, introduced circa 1892, were advertised as the "Five-Pound Secretary." The Model 6, first sold in 1906, offered an aluminum framework, at the time a relatively expensive and rare metal.

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Wicked Lasers Torch: Has a pending Guiness World Record for the most powerful flashlight of its kind, with a 4100 lumen torch that can set paper on fire.

Zeiss Cinemizer: These video goggles have a resolution of 640 by 480 and simulate a 45-inch screen from six feet away.

NES Bong: An NES controller modified for smoking....well, you know.

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A carbon-fiber, remote-controlled helicopter designed to be stable in 18 m.p.h. winds or if some of its motors die. It's GPS enabled and can be armed with a hi-def camcorder or night vision. Plus, it just looks scary.

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The TPS-L2 Walkman did not record and was panned by critics before its launch in Japan in 1979. It became a success anyway.

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$70,000 and 1080p. Need we say more?

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No one was interested in James Dyson's bagless vacuum because it would kill bag sales. Picked up in Japan in 1983, Dyson used the proceeds to start his own company, which today build's the world's, ahem, suckiest vacuums.

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Almost a decade ago, Ben Heckendorn sparked an underground scene of hand-built, custom game consoles when he deconstructed the classic Atari 2600, now complete with built-in screen, sound amplifier, battery power, and aluminum frame.

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This pocket-sized remote spams IR power codes of common televisions to shut off different makes and models. Not recommended for trade shows, and Gizmodo would know (cough, CES, cough).

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An Internet machine disguised as a pillow. Check the weather, play Internet radio, check the time, read the news and browse the Web.

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A revolutionary rethinking of the music keyboard, this 16x16 pad of light-up keys interprets a player's finger strokes and performs a light and sound show in response.

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In the early 1980s, Frog Design and Apple collaborated on this phone prototype with electronic check payment and a stylus for use on the monochrome screen.

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This Lego diorama includes 3,800 pieces, 21 minifigs and is one of the biggest sets ever made. It's also the only one that can destroy entire Lego brick planets at will.

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The MSI Wind netbook owned by Wired's Brian X. Chen.

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One of the cleanest-designed watches in the company's collection.

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The first wireless e-book reader with a cellular connection, so you can buy and download books on the fly. Bests paperbacks, but unsafe in the tub.

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Sony's first revision of their first-generation robot pet was able to learn and grow by using puppy-like, then dog-like, logic. Too unsophisticated to learn or run realistically, they paved the way for true robotic toys like the Pleo dinosaur.

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The first Picturephone test system, built in 1956, was crude and transmitted an image only once every two seconds. By 1964, a complete experimental system, the "Mod 1," had been developed and was displayed at New York's World Fair, paired to a model of Disneyland.

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Despite a short feature list, this is the most beautiful phone made by Japan's AU company.

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This Web 1.0 bubble art project checked for short URLs and if you land on an available address, you hit the jackpot.

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Aiptek V10 PMP Pico Projector: This battery-powered mini projector plays movies from an SD card, using an LED to project a picture up to 50 inches on the wall without burning your hand. One day, cellphones will have one of these.

Carbon Butterfly RC Plane: This remote-controlled airplane is lighter than a piece of notebook paper thanks to lightweight balsa, carbon fiber and Swiss-made gears.

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In the fall of 1947, the chemist Edwin Land brought a few dozen new cameras and a pile of film to Boston's Jordan Marsh department store to demonstrate the instant photography system he'd developed.

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Red One Movie Camera: A digital movie-making revolution and a future-proof modular platform, this 10-lb. digital video camera shoots pristine 4K resolution movies with its 12 million-pixel "ultra hi-def" sensor.

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Philippe Kahn built the first cameraphone in 1977 out of a digital camera, laptop and Motorola headset with some clever software.

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No placard information.

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USB Gloves: Warms your fingers with USB-powered heat.

USB Neck Tie: Built-in fan for hot afternoons.

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USB Neck Tie: Built-in fan for hot afternoons.

Pentax W60 Waterproof Camera: Works to 30 feet and small enough to pocket.

Godzilla Beer Pourer: Roars when you pour.

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OLED technology will power all flat-screen TVs in the future, but the beautiful, high-contrast wafer-thin screens are still excruciatingly expensive -- in this case, $230 per diagonal inch, or $2500 for this set.

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A five-channel surround sound system that uses Cold War submarine sonar technology to bounce beams of audio against walls and to your ears from different angles.

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Yves Behar designed this LED lamp which emits light at a variable intensity and uses its aluminum frame to dissipate heat.

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