Throwback Thursday: oldest electronic equipment still in use? #TBT

[#1]

It's Thursday!

The oldest piece of electronics I still use, apart from a watch is my 1st‑gen iPad, model A1219 with 64GB. I got it for my birthday in May 2010, the spring Apple launched the iPad. I’d seen a commercial earlier that year and was instantly fascinated. It felt like the future in my hands with such a big screen, no stylus, and pinch‑to‑zoom magic.

That summer I fell down the app rabbit hole. I set up Evernote, tried note‑taking apps, played around with calendars and task lists, a bunch of games for the kids, and turned the iPad into my little productivity lab. Over the years it’s become a trusty sidekick and gone on so many trips.

Since 2014, I have mainly used it for when I am drumming to listen to the song as I try to play along. No longer can I connect to online iTunes or get iOS updates but I can still update my playlist by connecting it to my computer.

The battery life is still amazing on it! Much better than newer ones... Oh by the way, the little dust/specks that you see in the picture are like saw dust from my sticks hitting the hihat and cymbal.

Sooooo, what’s the oldest electronic gear you still use and why is it still in use?

Let’s make it a great Thursday!
KGM

[Stephen_Lugton]

The oldest electronic item I have, and use occasionally, is a Psion Workabout, and only because of some software I wrote for it years ago as an instrument controller, we got it back in the 20th century!

[Anne Saunders]

If mechanical things count, I've had my ~1973 Sears Kenmore sewing machine since 1999, and it's still going strong. I also have the slow cooker my parents got new as a wedding gift in 1978, and I used it for little smokies at our annual Hogswatch party a couple weeks ago. 

If it has to have a microprocessor, the oldest thing that's actually in use is probably less than 5 years old, but I do still have my Britney Spears HitClips. I keep a lot of little 80s and 90s toys on my desk, and it's among them.  

[Dave Mathijs]

It's no longer in use and I haven't even tried to boot it up, but the oldest electronic equipment I still own is a 1977 Conic MPC-862C Programmable TV Games console.

[John Funk]

With all of the moving the last several years, I tend to purge a lot of things instead of dragging them along. My personal laptop is about 7-8 years old as is my second monitor. Not ancient compared to some of these other things!

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I still use my iPod with click wheel that I bought in 2004. It has pretty much all of my CDs on it (I gave up on buying new music a few years after I got it). I've never been fond of headphones, so I have a docker that charges it and hooks to speakers.

Over the years, I've used it as my home stereo (when I lived by myself) or in my office (when I had my own office with a door; in the bedroom where I work these days). It still works fine, though I really have no means to add new music.

[Stephen_Lugton]

I'm not sure if it counts as electronic equipment, more like electronic equipment accessories, but at university there was an old computer that used punched cards to program it, I've still got a set of those cards in storage somewhere (at my parents house) that I only kept due to laziness, but now need to dig out to show my daughter who is doing logic programming at school.

And a hard drive from about 1997 that worked last time I checked.

My dad has something like this:

[Sean Perry]

I still use a 5G iPod for music in my car (no Bluetooth).
I have a Psion Series 3 that still works, although I don't have a use for it I'm reluctant to recycle it.

[Susan Waldrip]

My Toshiba Satellite laptop still works well, got it around 2012, and I still use a Pixel 6 for games and listening to music. Pretty new compared to some of the devices you all still use, they're impressive!

[Bill Sheboy]

This is a fun topic, @Kristján Geir Mathiesen and may reveal a bit about recent products "built in obsolescence" versus more durable, older goods.

I believe my oldest is my 1982 dual-cassette, Panasonic radio in my garage which I use whenever puttering around in there (using the radio, not the cassettes :^)

My next oldest is my HP-15C calculator from 1986, which I use several times a week as it has programs I wrote on it back then.

[Matt Doar]

I have a garage full of old electronics and electrical equipment, including a 1920's voltmeter from the Pennsylvania railroad that belonged to my wife's grandfather. But my oldest electronics in use is probably my iPhone 12 mini from early 2021 or so. It all turns over pretty fast around here

[Tomislav Tobijas]

My aunt bought this Sony HCD-RX90 back in 1997, and my dad still uses it (I remember coming home a year or so ago, and he was blasting AC/DC through it with open windows so half of the street can hear 😅)

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

I really like your dad, @Tomislav Tobijas  :)

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

Ohhh, I had totally forgotten about the Psion stuff. Thanks for that memory, @Stephen_Lugton 

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

Takk for all your fun comments and memories!