The word Cars may bring to mind a few different images for people.

Firstly, the Gary Newman Band called Cars, secondly, trams and thirdly the tin boxes used to drive around in.

Whats this got to do with the heading “Gadgets”?

Well lets see then….

I can fondly remember my first few cars during the 80s and early 90s. My first was a Mini (original old school) and then a gold Vauxhal Viva and lastly a purple Ford Escort MK1.

They all had vinyl seats, rust in places where rust should never be or be seen and easy to work on engines. They also had character, charm and that 70s styling that made them fun and unique from other manufacturers.

Basic? Well yes. One was lucky to have a working heater or radio. No computer chips or anything automated. Even the choke was manual. The windows either slid open or needed a hand winder.

This  was quite the norm for  a decade or so and many a street would see young men tinkering with their tin cans and oily engines on a Saturday and or Sunday morning. Yes one could work on their loves with a bisic tool kit including the universal tool of a good stout hammer.

So what happened?

Technology happened thats what. Cars became the amatures nightmare. Specialised tools were needed, engine diagnostic kits had to be employed and suddenly a wiring loom the size of an earthworm became a plate of oversized spaghetti with no way of knowing what did what and how or why it worked.

Gradually the dashboard has grown its number of lights and warning symbols to the point where a thirty page book is needed to decode what they mean.

Scroll forward to 2016 and take a look a the gadgets and technology that adorns even the most basic cars on the road.

Electric windows, air conditioning, bluetooth radio, remote central locking trip computers, cameras, cruise control and speed limiters and the ever present satalite navigation system. These are but a few and they are all linked in to the central computer that in turn makes the car work.

Some of the higher end models can support the modern business man/woman in complete luxury having TVs, heated and massaging seats, computer WiFi and a plethora of other niceties at their manacured fingertips.

All very comfortable and desireable but a long way from the basics.

No more vinyl seats that took the skin off unsuspecting legs during the few hot days. Now its leather  or plush cloth. Wet carpets when it rains has become things in story books and the smell of petrol fumes and burning oil are rarely indulged.

Cars were fun to drive even at relatively low speed and one felt every bump and heard the whine of the gearbox and scream of the engine as they struggled from one destination to another. Breakdowns were often and bits rattled and wobbled where ever we went.

They also looked so different from each other.

Today we have machines that do the same things,  look almost identical (its only the badge that gives the away), drive with ease and are so quiet that its sometimes hard to know its working.

There is very little heart or soul in modern cars (yes there are exceptions but they tend to be higher end and costly models) and there are far too many on our roads in the UK to make driving fun.

In otherwords cars have become boring as manufacturers must use the same software and designers to come up with their latest offerings. I love the electric windows and remote locking and bluetooth radios but hanker after the uniqueness of yesteryear.

“Brian ordered coffee from the attractive waitress but it wasn’t her beauty that caught his attention on this particular day it was what he saw through the window…..”

Stories are great, information is power and books rule, no?

There was a time when a book cost as much as a house but that was centuries ago and unimaginable to modern readers so I will leave that up to you to look into.

The written word models who we are and how we act and is far more personal than a stage play, television programme or film. The words create the images in our minds and the reader has the ability to control the speed of the story.

At school I was particularly poor at reading and writing and I was always so ashamed and humiliated when forced to read passages aloud to a class full of uninterested pupils. It did nothing to boost confidence and put me off reading for life. Or so I thought.

Luckily, I  found a love for the written word in my early twenties when I consciously began the journey of teaching myself to read for pleasure.

Secondhand books were cheap and easy to find and each evening I would pick up where I had left off the evening before. Characters left hanging in doorways or peeling a banana would be able to continue to the next frame of their lives.

Newspapers became interesting and by choosing a diverse selection of genres and topics my want to read became a desire rather than a must.

The problem with modern living for many is space. Space is expensive and more and more want a slice of that space.

Books on the other hand are bulky and require space. They are heavy and easily damaged when carried around.

So was the Electronic Book or E-reader invented. The early ones were from Sony around 2004/5 and in 2007 we were introduced to the first Kindle.

Suddenly hundreds of books could be stored, carried and read on one small easy to use tablet. For those like me with a one bedroom house it was a revolution of the most welcome kind. No more buying books only to be given away as I had nowhere to keep them once read.

The computer became a fantastic arena for reading free papers. I can’t remember the last time I bought a newspaper. One can also comment on articles instantly and vent frustrations or put across points of views.

And the internet…look even I can write words and create yet another electronic piece of bilge.

Its the biggest innovation  since Caxton and his kin invented the printing press.

At the start the machines were a bit heavy and some were a bit confusing to download to to. Upgrading sometimes meant a loss in purchased titles too but the modern Kindles are simple and almost idiot proof. Buying a new one? No worries all one’s previous titles and amendments are automatically imported when set up.

Even the written word has gone electronic with “e-pens” being used to write on tablets and electronic paper. Some even transfer from writing on normal paper to an awaiting computer.

Artist can draw and paint using these pens and stylus so it brings an end to messy and cluttered studios and houses. One can also design on the go without having to carry a plethora of equipment.

I love them but will they replace “real books” or “honest art” completely?

No. Is the simple and most honest answer.

There is something very pleasing about a bookshop and the handling of a book that the electronic device will never replicate or be able to replace. They also look good with their sleek jackets and bindings.

As for art well thats for the artist and the beholder of art as a piece in its own right.

Books are here to stay so long as we have eyes to view them and both the electronic and physical will just have to rub shoulders and accept one another for what they are.

Technology really is all around us as gradually more diverse ways of using it and interacting with it are brought into play and invented. Some we just take for granted and have changed the way we live but others are left kicking and screaming on the edge of our lives to be frowned up and pushed away.

Mostly though we do have choice so as for reading, writing and arting (I know its not a proper word but it just fits here) either stay traditional, embrace technology or play the bit of both world game. Its all up to you.

When I cast my mind back to my early years regarding television I instantly recall “Radio Rentals” and the “repair man”.

Homes seemed embarrassed about them and people would hide them away in wooden cabinets with shutters and tuck them away in corners. Not that most homes could “tuck them away” in corners as they were bulky and heavy pieces of industrial architecture.

The screens were small but the workings were huge and the repair man became a family friend due to the amount of breakdowns one had to endure.

Christmas was always a challenge and my dad used to place the old set behind the new one as an emergency backup as more than once the new set would die on Christmas Day.

Most people rented as television sets were expensive and relatively unreliable and costly to repair. It also allowed one to keep up with change and indulge in the latest technology.

Black and white was the norm until the mid 70s when our house played host to a brand new colour set. The spare however, until the 90s was black and white.

The one thing in common though was the fact that picture quality was anything but good but for the time is was brilliant.

I think one of the more social pleasing and agreeable aspect of early television was the fact that there were so few channels. It meant that everyone was on the same page if they discussed the previous evenings viewings but more importantly if one wasn’t interested in a broadcasting then you went of and found something more constructive to do instead of aimlessly scrolling through pointless rubbish and recordings and that will bring a new dimension to how we view.

It wasn’t until 1967 (BBC 2 launched) there were only two BBC 1 and ITV. It wasn’t until 1982 that a fourth station, Channel 4  funnily enough, beamed into our homes. Fourteen years later saw the arrival of channel 5.

Now we have dozens of channels on freeview alone let alone the dozens more on TV packages and pay to view. Is it better? No. It has just resulted in repeats, cheap commercial shopping and unwatchable reality channels and a mind bogglingly confusing schedule of programmes.

Flat screen technology, that utilised LED and LCD  displays, saw sets become less bulky and box-like. It meant That Televisions could be thinner and less intrusive. They could be wall mounted, hidden in popup units and made larger, much larger. And picture quality? We have never had it so good what with High Definition, 4K and 8k becoming common in homes around the world.

The way we watch our content has radically changed too. Once it was down to organising the day or evening around what was the desired choice. If you missed it then too bad and sometimes hard choices between which of two simultaneous broadcasts had to be made. By the 1980s we saw the battle between VHS and Betamax as a recording medium which VHS went on to win. Now we could mould our viewing times around us rather than the broadcasted timings and we could watch one thing and record another if they clashed.

However, the VHS player/recorders were bulky and one was limited to 3 or 4 hour cassette times but that wasn’t a problem and one huge change came about that revolutionised the viewing medium.

Film!!

If you wanted to watch the latest film then a visit to the local cinema was called for otherwise is was a long, long wait to see it on Telly if it was shown at all. With the introduction of the video we could watch at home but that took a radical stance from the movie industry. They had to release their films on video. Once they had it allowed the home to become a cinema and is was to be a death knoll for the high street big screens as many decided to turn away and watch when they wanted and where. Sad? Maybe but its just how social history changes over the decades and centuries.

Then came the DVD and Blueray which are still in high demand but…

Today we have computer hard-drives in our recording machines that can handle 3-400 hours of viewing and can record two or three channels at the same time. We can pause and rewind live broadcasts and even watch content on demand and that includes some shows before the scheduled run in a series. We can get “catch-up” on what we missed and have it streamed to computers, tablets and mobile phones anywhere.

The choice of how we watch, what we choose, where we view and when is enormous but is it enriching us as a species?

Sadly,  I think not. Socially we used to discus the shows at work or with mates down the pub that were shown the evening before and due to the few channels most of us sang from the same hymn sheet. That is not the case in modern times as there are so many packages of viewing mediums that we are often out of cinque  with each other.

There is also the fact that producers constantly have to come up with new ideas and as the viewers we are often short-changed. Reality TV (introduced in the US in mid 70s to fill air time when they experience the TV strikes), mindless gameshows, repeats, endless soaps and sales channels has watered down the content and quality of television and today we have lost our way. Its just too much and the price? Well advertisements make up more air-time than show-time, content packages are truly expensive, our minds have become numb and desensitised and social interaction has been hindered.

But still we can’t tune out and turn off. Or can we….?

Could you imagine a time when every sound, whether it be spoken, sung, played or made, was lost for ever once heard? Off that sound would go never to be replayed or heard in that form again? All music was a live performance never to be replicated?

Its sounds wonderfully strange but that was how it was until  1878, when Eddison invented and patented is wax cylinder. There was a recording, but no play back facility originally, in 1860 of a woman singing Au Clair de la Lune by Edouard-leon Scott de Martinville.

So that was that. Now everything is recorded and saved for better or worse.

However, continuing my thread about technology and gadgets I am interested how things have changed in my lifetime. And  boy how things have changed. Some good, some bad but mostly better.

When I was a youngster in the early 70s I was given a hand-me-down dancet in blue and cream. Open the lid, stack your records (in my case the Action Man soundtrack, the Oogly Oogle bird song or something like  that and  a gifted K-tel emsemble) and press start. The sound was mono but it played music. Brilliant. Then came a small transiter radio which picked up Radio Caroline and that was just a tinny sound but still it was fantastic to listen to the wild tunes of the day.

I can remember borrowing a cassette recorder with a microphone that plugged into the front. The turning on the old valve radio and tuning into the top 40 on radio 1 at 5pm on a sunday meant that one could record to cassette the top tunes by postioning the microphone in front or the speaker, pressing record when the song started (praying that no one made any noise during the recording) and stop at its end. This was the cumbersome process one had to go through just to record a few tracks and often ended in really crap results.

So then we move forward a decade to the 80s which saw the arrival of the Radio Cassette player (twas sad it was only a mono speaker but it was a break through in technology). With this you could insert a tape into the slot press play and the sounds were reproducedin mono, but now you could also put in a blank cassette and record direct from the radio. It was still a bit hit and miss but the recordings were much better when you timed the start and stop right.

There was also my Dad’s old turntable, amplifier and massive speakers that I inherited. At last stereo reproduction with treble and bass controls and a decent sound reproduction from the vinyl records. My first LPs (long playing records) were Broadsword and the Beast” Jethro Tull, “Deathwish Sondtrack” Jimmy Page, “led Zeppelin 2” Led Zep and “A Brick in the Wall” Pink Floyd. All very grown up but not very portable and eachside only lasted about 30 minutes.

By the end of the decade we welcomed the CD or compact disc and this could store a whole album and a bit more on one side. The were smaller and said to be indestructible compared to the vinyl it was to replace. What utter marketing nonsense. Scratch them and the became unplayable.

Nothing really changed till we enter the 90s which heralded the arrival of the Sony Walkman. I know the cassette version was out in the 80s  but I didn’t get one one til the 90s and shortly afterwards I upgraded to the CD Walkman. Now music was really portable, although one had to carry around bulky boxes or sleeves if more than one album or compilation was deemed a must.

Then shortly after someone came up with the humble MP3 and that has pretty much seen a complete game change and attitude towards how we listen, buy and share music.

The MP3 really did make a difference but it was the introduction of mega fast broadband connections that caused the revolution and the ability to compress the digital code of sound into tiny blocks.

Now one can carry tens of thousands of songs on their mobile phones and share that via wireless speakers to friends anywhere. Now music has truly become nationwide in mobility values.

I used to go to mate’s homes and look through boxes of records, tapes and CDs and play tracks I hadn’t heard of or swap music. Music was purchased from record stores and you could chat with similar minded people of the classics or modern bands.

In a modern home. No stereo, no amplifier, no boxes or shelves displaying one’s purchases, certainly no Dancet and no massive wooden speakers. Now its a computer, mobile phone or Radio with Bluetooth and wireless connections through speakers disguised as anything but wooden boxes.

Everything is downloaded, stored and reproduced from or to computers.

Good? for mobility yes but aesthetically speaking no.