What was your first 'device' with "new technology"?

I had a crystal radio set back in 1958/59. It had to be grounded with an alligator clip. I used to clip it to the bed frame, stick the earplug into my ear, pull the blanket over my head, and jive to "You're Sixteen" by Johhny Bernette and "Kansas City" by Wilbert Harrison. This one in the photo is not the one I had but it was similar.


Crystal Radio.jpg
 
I had a 'Crystal set' too in the 50's. Made with bits acquired by my elder brother and placed in a small wooden box. In later years I graduated to a transistor radio, although I used to build short wave 'valve' radios using salvaged bits from old radios etc..

Now, I avoid technology for technology's sake. I don't care if I can have a watch with a trillion gigabytes of storage that can do everything except make me a coffee. I keep my life (as far as technology is concerned) as uncluttered as possible.
 
Capt Lightning said:
I had a 'Crystal set' too in the 50's. Made with bits acquired by my elder brother and placed in a small wooden box. In later years I graduated to a transistor radio, although I used to build short wave 'valve' radios using salvaged bits from old radios etc..
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Those were the days. Valves and tubes. I still have a snazzy short wave radio but I haven't used it since the end of the Cold War.
Capt Lightning said:
Now, I avoid technology for technology's sake. I don't care if I can have a watch with a trillion gigabytes of storage that can do everything except make me a coffee. I keep my life (as far as technology is concerned) as uncluttered as possible.
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I'm the same. I don't even watch TV anymore for all of the advertisements. It's nearly 50% now .... 15 minutes film - 10 minutes adverts. I hate TV!
 
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My Mom made me use it. :)
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I do remember when my very rich buddy got a digital watch. It took up half his arm. and cost $75(- minimum wage was $1).
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Pretty close on the minimum wage, which ranged from $1.40 to $1.60 per hour (depending on the state) when the first ever digital watch appeared in 1972. Now, "$75" in that year was the equivalent of $500 in 2021 dollars. However, the first ever digital watch, when it premiered in 1972 cost $2,100 - but that was in 1972 dollars. Adjusted for today, that was the equivalent of $12,000.

THIS PULSAR WATCH COST
$2,100 IN 1972 DOLLARS

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THIS AMC GREMLIN COST
$1,999 IN 1972 DOLLARS

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Back in the mid 1950's I attended a ham radio convention in Portland, OR and won a single transistor- solar cell powered am radio kit for being the youngest ham there. That was the first solid state radio I owned.
 
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My parents gifted me an early model Westinghouse transistor radio for Xmas around 1960. It cost $20 or so back then, a lot of money at the time. I really thought that I had the Crown Jewels there! As the Japanese got into the market, the price of off-brand transistor radios really dropped in the later ‘60’s...

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Mine was a transistor radio also. In the early 70s I bought my hubby some kind of contraption that you attached to the TV. After you hooked it up some type of birds flew across the screen and you would try and shoot them with the gun that came with the set. I remember there being a lot of wires to get it going.
 
A cordless phone. I walked around the house, chatting with a friend & kept checking for a cord to untangle.
 

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