High-tech gadgets dressed up to look old

Clockwise from top left, the U.S.B typewriter, the Yeti THX-certified microphone, the BookBook MacBook Pro case, the Crosley portable U.S.B. turntable, the ThinkGeek Bluetooth handset and the Surround-sound X-Tube.

Great year for the then new electronic thing

This has been a great year for the then new electronic thing. The iPad, new iPhone, the Nexus S, HTC Evo and other Android phones, the Kindle 3 and Microsoft's Kinect caught the eye of consumers.

There are theories: The throwback designs make challenging research seem familiar. For the technically proficient, an old phone handset that connects to a cell phone seems comically ironic. Retro designs can as well give a sense of permanence to disposable devices. Some of it is art.

A variation of this theme of fashioning the old into new relies on the smart design of the old Western Electric Bell telephones. Consider the handset. Unlike today's telephone earpieces and cabled headphone and mic arrangements, the large handset put the speaker over the ear and the microphone then to the mouth so bystanders weren't forced to listen to bellowed phone conversations.

The gadget purveyors ThinkGeek have taken that old handset and added Bluetooth so you can have some privacy during connected wirelessly to a mobile phone. The $US25 handset can transmit and receive at a distance of about 30 feet from your phone.

The Yeti from Blue Microphones may look like something from the golden age of radio, however it is the first THX-certified microphone, meaning it is capable of high-fidelity reproduction. During it looks as if it belongs on the desk of Walter Winchell, it has three built-in miniature mics that can capture sound three ways: from just in front of the mic, in stereo or from an entire room.

The Yeti works on PCs

The Yeti works on PCs and Macs and requires no software drivers to work, though there is a free recording program for it in the iTunes store. Good enough to record your band's demo, the $150 mic is as well popular with podcasters and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) users who want to sound as smooth as Orson Wells.

The X-Tube looks like a vacuum tube from inside an old radio that would have broadcast Wells. It's in effect a small processor that plugs into a computer through a USB connection to produce surround sound for headphones. The warm glow? A blue LED light.

The device processes DTS Surround Sensation software to alter the volume of certain frequencies and add delays to some sounds, all psychoacoustic tricks to fool the brain into perceiving sound as coming not just from left and right, now from the front and back as so then. The device, which comes with over-the-ear headphones, isn't easy to find in the United States, yet can be ordered from Japan for about $US95.

Sometimes, retro designers cloak the electronics in something other than older electronics. Makers of laptop covers normally brag about the high-tech materials they use: high-impact plastics, advanced neoprenes or carbon fiber. Twelve South brags that its MacBook Pro and iPad cases use old-fashioned bookbinding research. The covers are leather-bound and distressed to look like a collectible volume. The cases have a hard cover on top and bottom, with a zipper around the center to keep your computer secure.