In the 1960s, color televisions were gaining traction as the world’s premier form of entertainment. There were still some glitches, though, as frustrated lazy viewers worried about having to get up repeatedly to adjust the volume, channel, or picture settings. The very first television remote controls debuted in the mid-1950s, but this 1961 commercial from RCA made the concept seem downright sexy.

Full of dramatic flair and a lovely, enthusiastic model to demonstrate the thrilling technology, the commercial puts emphasis on how to work each of the controls. To a modern mind – one that has dealt with mega-remotes for years – the instructions are tedious and simplistic. But when the commercial was released, not many households had experience with such a luxury.

One of the features of the TV that we really love is the storage compartment for the remote. Just like everyone’s dad used to say, when you aren’t using the remote it should be on (or in this case, in) the TV so you can find it next time.

(via Wired)

The post A Very Dramatic Look at RCA’s ’61 Color TV Remote Control first appeared on Gajitz.

In 1979, the Xerox Alto was an amazing computer and the predecessor to the later commercial version called the Star. The Star would later fail miserably after the release of the Macintosh. But in this commercial, the Alto is depicted as a futuristic office machine that would change the way companies conduct business. Among the first machines of its kind, the Alto featured an easy-to-use graphical interface (GUI) and a mouse.

The Alto really could send and receive emails, send documents to a laser printer, and display reasonably high-quality images (which took forever to load, of course). Unlike in the commercial, however, the Alto didn’t actually have the ability to follow voice commands. What it did is lay the foundation for many generations of computers to follow. In fact, Steve Jobs was said to have visited Xerox’s research center and was given a copy of the Alto’s GUI. The Alto clearly influenced the designs of Apple and other computer companies, making it one of the most influential computers in history.

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When office products outlive their usefulness, they usually end up being tossed and quickly forgotten. But a new commercial from Japanese/British electronics manufacturer Brother has 97 obsolete office gadgets making an encore appearance as a junkyard orchestra, singing a Bob Dylan song in beautiful technological voices.

The video was put together by London creative agency Is This Good? for Brother. A team, led by director Chris Cairns and composer Will Cohen, tweaked and tuned and hacked the old Brother gadgets to take them from old gadgets to functional instruments.

Despite looking so cool that it seems impossible, the symphony is 100 percent authentic. The team worked on the project for a month, getting every device to make just the right sound to sing Bob Dylan’s classic “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” The finished commercial is absolutely stunning, especially for people who remember using some of these printers, scanners and copiers when they were at the cutting edge of office technology.

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With the amazingly fast internet of today, it’s easy to forget that at one time, you had to pay by the hour for the privilege of 28 kbps dial-up service. This early AOL commercial brings all of those memories flooding back – or, if you’re too young to remember those days, it shows you just what we older folks had to deal with in the early days of the internet.

What the commercial fails to mention is that, because the typical connection speed was so painfully slow in those days, there is no possible way the guy could have done all of those things in less than a couple of hours. It’s definitely worth a watch, though, if for no other reason than to hear a grown man gleefully proclaim “I can even send email on the Internet!”

The post 1995 AOL Commercial Takes You Back to Early Internet Days first appeared on Gajitz.

Most designers seem to be in love with retro styling. What’s not to like about the familiar shapes and classic lines of past generations’ gadgets? French car maker Citroen feels a little differently about the stylistic sensibilities of yesteryear; they want to see “retro” die a painful death.

This series of Citroen commercials graphically displays the car maker’s position on recycling style elements in their designs. According to the ads, they are “Anti-Retro.” For those of us who rather enjoy older gadgets, it’s almost painful to see them destroyed. On the other hand, seeing gadgets beat up and abused is undeniably entertaining.

Directed by Jonathan Gurvit, these ads are wickedly fun to watch. In just 30 seconds, retro gadgets are reduced to shards, heaps, or puddles of ruin. The wanton destruction is all in the name of promoting Citroen’s anti-retro (read: modern) DS3 model.

While we definitely don’t condone the destruction of beautiful retro objects, we do have to give props to the director for managing to make his acts of gadget violence so awesome to watch.

The post Death to Nostalgia: Spectacular Destruction of Retro Gadgets first appeared on Gajitz.