15 points
Household evolution by Zombie
November 22nd, 2007 10:14 PM
An MP3 player, or more specifically, portable music devices.
Portable music devices, or at least the earliest ones I can remember are the compact tape deck players, also called "walkmen." These were, as far as my perception of reality goes, the first portable music player. These plastic creatures played music for us using cassette tapes.
Cassette tapes are small plastic cartridges filled with magnetized tape. The walkmen could read what was on these tapes, and reproduce the sounds they were told to by the cassette tapes. They could also warp the sounds in different ways, if the user would gently press certain buttons, such as pause to make it sound like the music is being sung by whales, or fast forward for chipmunks.
However, with the development of laser technology, the walkmen soon died out to make room for the usage of CD players, which had no generic and catchy name. Funny how evolution works, eh?
Anyways, the CD players contain a laser, and they shoot it at a CD that was placed inside. Being burned by a laser caused the CD's to scream beautifully. Even as MP3 technology was developed, CD players tried to adapt by being able to play CDs burned with MP3 data on them.
However, devices specifically built to house MP3s took charge of the music playing world, still. Making CD's and cassette tapes just a novelty thing to be played it cars. MP3 players are now the standard for portable music devices. Ranging from the "generic" MP3 players people refuse to acknowledge the existence of, and the iPods and Zunes.
And portable radio players should be in there too, but they're not really all that important. Never were, never will be.
I personally thing the new thing is going to be albino-weasels that can be programmed to play MP3s. That'll remove the hassel of having to carry your MP3 player around, and it'll make a kick-ass pet.
Portable music devices, or at least the earliest ones I can remember are the compact tape deck players, also called "walkmen." These were, as far as my perception of reality goes, the first portable music player. These plastic creatures played music for us using cassette tapes.
Cassette tapes are small plastic cartridges filled with magnetized tape. The walkmen could read what was on these tapes, and reproduce the sounds they were told to by the cassette tapes. They could also warp the sounds in different ways, if the user would gently press certain buttons, such as pause to make it sound like the music is being sung by whales, or fast forward for chipmunks.
However, with the development of laser technology, the walkmen soon died out to make room for the usage of CD players, which had no generic and catchy name. Funny how evolution works, eh?
Anyways, the CD players contain a laser, and they shoot it at a CD that was placed inside. Being burned by a laser caused the CD's to scream beautifully. Even as MP3 technology was developed, CD players tried to adapt by being able to play CDs burned with MP3 data on them.
However, devices specifically built to house MP3s took charge of the music playing world, still. Making CD's and cassette tapes just a novelty thing to be played it cars. MP3 players are now the standard for portable music devices. Ranging from the "generic" MP3 players people refuse to acknowledge the existence of, and the iPods and Zunes.
And portable radio players should be in there too, but they're not really all that important. Never were, never will be.
I personally thing the new thing is going to be albino-weasels that can be programmed to play MP3s. That'll remove the hassel of having to carry your MP3 player around, and it'll make a kick-ass pet.