NEW TOYS

NEW TOYS

REWIRE YOURSELF

by Richard Robinson_

Current technology isn’t as spectacular as it was a few years ago when for the first time we were making footsteps on the moon and back on earth discovering consumer applications for hi-tech computer circuits. The great days of pioneer consumer technology are past, no longer can we be first on the block with the latest innovations: digital watches, pocket calculators, TV computer games, home video, miniaturized audio. But strangely enough, this second decade of solid state consumer circuitry is more interesting than the first decade; for even though the brainstorms of new applications are past, today we find that the replication of these electronics is making them less expensive and more dependable.

The new toys that follow have one thing in common: none cost more than $100. That in itself is amazing, since most of the original models, when introduced five to ten years ago, cost three or four times what they do today despite the inflation that depresses our present and future.

* Stereo Cassette radios with twin speakers, AM/FM stereo, and stereo cassette recorder stayed expensive ($195 to' $295 for years. But very recently a new line of these systems have appeared, costing from $75 to $90. It is still difficult to believe that systems like this can be made to sell for such low prices, but if you do some shopping around you’ll find that you can buy profitable stereo cassette radio units made by Emerson, Sanyo, and others for well under $100. While this new line doesn’t have all the frills of the higher priced models, it does have all the basics.

*The Sony Walkman mini-cassette player with the headphones and its competitors from Panasonic and others are still on the $150 plus range, but the prices are coming down rapidly. Yorx has a stereo sport cassette player with lightweight headphones for $49.95 which allows you to wire yourself up to your music as you go from place to place. There’s no doubt that the recently introduced Yorx unit will be followed by other low-priced models.

* Cordless telephones came on the market for $400 a few years ago. Now there are several models competing from different manufacturers at $200 and up. But prices are coming down and already there are a couple under $100 such as the Cobra Remote Cordless Telephone for $89.95. The only drawback with the cheaper units is that you can’t dial out on them. They are only good for answering incoming calls.

* Pocket typewriters are a new item on the market and it will be interesting to see if Sony et al. blow IBM out of the water with this one. Right now you can buy a Sharp Memowriter for $100 at most discount stores. It has a paper roll like a portable adding machine calculator, but it has a full typewriter alpha-numeric keyboard so you can type out memos and reminders. It also has eight memories so it can remember what you typed in and type it back out

again if you need extra copies. This is a truly revolutionary item and there is no doubt that within five years it will be possible to buy a fully electric typewriter with built-in computer merpory for less than a couple of hundred dollars.

* Piano synthesizers are another new toy area being explored by Japanese research and development teams. Casio has just introduced their VL-Tone which is a 29 key unit that lets you peck out up to 100 notes, and then remembers them and plays them back complete with rhythm accompaniment sounding like a piano, violin, flute, guitar, or any of 80 million (that’s right) other sound wave variations. For $69.95. A piano in every home? Why not. And Casio has also thrown in a pocket calculator function in case you want to add while you play.

Solar power may be a dirty word to your local utility company, but it works just fine. There are now solar powered (no batteries ever) radios, watches, and pocket calculators. Take your pick: The APF Solar Powered 6000 calculator sells for $19.95; the Edmund Scientific Solar AM radio is $29.95; and you’ll find some solar watches in the under $100 range if you shop around.

* Language Translators sold for $300 and up when first introduced. Now prices range from $59 to $ 119 depending on how a big a discount you get. So if you have trouble with French, German, Spanish, or English check out ‘the units sold by Craig or Lexicon.

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* Telephone Answering Machines have also seen a number of price breaks to the point where you can get a dependable, functional unit for $100 and change. Another telephone toy that is selling for less and less is the automatic telephone dialer what will dial 30-or more pre-programmed phone numbers at the push of a button. *

If none of the above toys are of interest, there are endless oddities around in the same price range. How about a digital alarm clock from Sharp that not only displays the time, but says it out-loud for $89.95. Or the new Casio calculator that plays games and also plays “When The Saints Go Marching In” for $24.95? %. - 0