CassetteTape
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Cassette sales actually went up in 2016
We're barely a month into the new year, but it's already clear some of us still want to live in the past. Case in point: US cassette tape sales actually grew in 2016, with a whopping 129,000 copies sold. That might not be as many as the number of vinyl albums sold in the same year (13.1 million!), but it's an impressive 74 percent increase from the 74,000 sold in 2015.
Someone put Spotify inside this old cassette recorder
The above contraption may look like the kind of cassette player bygone teens used to use to create mix tapes, but it's not -- it's a Raspberry Pi-powered Spotify speaker with NFC-based playlists. Its creator, a British builder named Matt Brailsford, said he came up with the idea after being introduced to the iRecorder, a novelty speaker designed to look like a traditional cassette recorder. Brailsford's project is more than a glorified iPod dock, however: it uses those NFC playlists embedded inside cassette tapes to dictate which of his Spotify jams is active, and the entire experience (volume, play, next and stop) can be controlled with the ancient recorder's analog buttons below. The NFC-tapes are even double sided. Sadly, Brailsford's modern technology couldn't update all of the cassette player's features: that record button doesn't do anything anymore. Update: Well, whaddya know? Turns out that record button isn't redundant after all. Brailsford got in touch to tell us it functions as a power switch. Nifty!
Cassette to iPod Converter will digitize your tapes
If you have a box of cassette tapes left over from your Walkman days, then you might want to pay a visit to Hammacher Schlemmer. The online retailer is selling a cassette to iPod converter that could help you finally clear those aging tapes from your shelves. The device is a cradle case with a cassette player that attaches to your iPhone or iPod touch. A free app lets you convert the incoming audio from the player to an mp3 file, which can then be downloaded to your computer. If you like the sound of tape-based music, you can even attach your phone to some speakers and listen to the cassette while it plays. The Cassette to iPod Converter is available for US$80 and will ship at the end of September. [Via Gizmodo]
Dinosaur Jr. reissuing first three albums on cassette, harnessing the latest jurassic technology
Forget your Google Musics and Spotifys -- J Mascis, indie rock's favorite guitar-shredding gray haired curmudgeon and the rest of Dinosaur Jr. are stepping into the format time machine to reissue their first three LPs on cassette. Yep, Dinosaur, You're Living All Over Me and Bug will once again be heard the way they were meant to be: on the terrible, tiny speakers of your dusty old RadioShack tape deck. The three tapes are being sold as the Cassette Trilogy, a $39 screen-printed box set, limited to 500 copies -- one for every working tape player in America. The box set follows the cassette release of 1988's Bug this summer. You can pick the box up online now, for the rock and roll luddite on your holiday shopping list.
Crapgadget: 'after school special' edition
School can be tough, especially when you're different. So what better way to keep the bullies at bay than to get your craptastic accessory freak on. In this special back to school bonanza of creeper tech, Hong Kong-based watchmaker o.d.m. mashes E.T. with a gummy bunny for a wrist-rocking return to infancy, Strapya World takes you by the baby's hand for iPhone 4 case comfort, while Dane-Elec's E-Razor USB stick goes undercover in a block full of erasing rubber. And if you're looking for a soundtrack throwback to match the solar-powered butterfly you've stuck in your Jansport, Brando's got you covered with its USB Cassette Capture & Player. Take a gander at the roundup below and make sure to vote for the crapgadget most likely to not succeed.
The in-dash tape deck is dead, mixtape memories will live forever
The rattling of naked cassettes in the glove box. The crunching of plastic cases in the footwell. That satisfying clunk when a tape got pulled down into the dash. For those who drove in the '80s and '90s those are memories of in-car audio, the ubiquitous tape deck, and it's now dead. Well, dead as a factory option, anyway. The 2010 Lexus SC 430 was the last car to offer one, no longer available in the 2011 edition. Thank goodness we'll always have Tape Deck Mountain.
Tascam Portastudio for iPad could make you a four-track superstar all over again
If you've never experienced the joy of conveying four precisely-played tracks onto a single, rattly plastic cassette tape, prepare to see what you've been missing. The iconic Tascam Portastudio is coming to iPad in a very virtual way, a $10 app that presents a simplified replication of the original's decidedly more tactile controls. You can mix four inputs to stereo output, which is stored on a pretend cassette -- and can then share via iTunes or Soundcloud, which is rather more useful than a picture of a tape. It's available right now for the iPad only, with no plans for a release on any other platform. Yeah, boo.
Sony pulls the plug on cassette Walkmans in Japan, makes epic mixtape
A cassette Walkman may now be nothing more than a puzzling artifact to some, but for those of a certain age it was the gadget of the day. Alas, it has long since been surpassed by other, more portable audio players that have replaced the fine art of the mixtape with "playlists," and it looks like even Sony has now accepted the inevitable. The company has reportedly ceased production of all cassette Walkmans and will stop selling them in Japan as soon as the current inventory runs out (expected to happen sometime in April). There will apparently still be Sony-branded Walkmans manufactured in China, however, although it's not clear how widely available they'll be. But let's not worry about that right now -- head on past the break for a brief look back at the Walkman in its heyday.
Maxell launches flash storage line
Could this mean the death of the Cassingle?
8-track Walkman makes the 70's portable, more funky
The evolution of portable music players toward greater storage in physically smaller dimensions is well known. Cassette tapes are now seen as a quaint anachronism from an era gone by, but what about the history that didn't happen? What about, specifically, the 8-track-playing Sony Walkman? Such are the questions that plagued the mind of one XenonJohn, who has spliced together the chunky beast you see above. Looking like something Maggie Thatcher might have used in her private moments, the portable (compared to, say, a fridge) device is composed of an audio amplifier from an old cassette tape Walkman and a dismantled car 8-track player. Another snap of the exposed components after the break, but if you must know how to recreate this great feat, or are just curious about the lengths people will go to in the pursuit of retro-glorious ideas, hit up the read link.[Via Make]
iri5 releases the ghost from the cassette machine
Over the last few months, artist iri5 has been compiling a collection of work on Flickr under the heading, "Ghost in the Machine." The pieces start with old cassette tapes and end in awesome. To quote the artist: The idea comes from a philosopher's (Ryle) description of how your spirit lives in your body. I imagine we are all, like cassettes, thoughts wrapped up in awkward packaging. Indeed. And they don't come much more awkwardly packaged than The Cure's Robert Smith immortalized above. Check out a close-up of his tussled chromium-dioxide hair after the break and be sure to hit the read link for iri5's full collection. The Jimi Hendrix experience alone is worth it.[Via GearDiary, thanks schillmoeller]
Hand crafted cassette tape lamp turns old tech into fresh lighting
Remember that hundred pack of blank cassettes you bought back in '93 when they hit 90-percent off? Man, those were the days. Unfortunately, you only got around to making three or four mix tapes, leaving you with quite a few unused hunks of junk cluttering up the closet. If you've managed to hang onto 'em just knowing a worthwhile use was just around the bend, congratulations. The ingenious cats over at Transparent House have glued an assortment of old tapes together and inserted neon lights within to keep things cool and create a rather impressive source of lighting. Oh, and if you can't figure this one out sans a how-to guide, maybe DIY work just isn't your bag.[Via technabob]
BTO's PlusDeck EX could save your marriage
Nothing sets an aging geek's pulse to pounding like the marriage of old and new with lots of buttons and a big ol' knob. Korea's BTO knows this, and offers up their PlusDeck EX as followup to their PlusDeck 2. They share the ability to convert your digital MP3s to cassette tape (and visa versa) while tossing in some crazy-luxurious 7.1ch surround, LCD control, 3.5-mm and RCA inputs (among others), AM/FM tuner and remote on top of the USB interface. Announced a few weeks ago, shipping now in Korea for ???319,000 or about $340. Yeah, we know, but just think of the points you'll score from your gen-x or boomer-spouse when you present them with a mix-tape, 21st century style. Crazy... like a fox.[via Akihabara News]
