Happy Nice Mall

Latest versions of Sony’s Walkman, pioneer portable music player First released in 1979, it’s not like the original cassette player that came with foam earplugs. Instead, the latest Walkman digital music player $1,600 or $3,200.

This probably won’t be a big seller. Neither were Nokia and BlackBerry phones living at the same time – at least until recently — long after these devices became relics for those of us who remember them.

I wanted to know: Who likes technology that has already outstripped its prime? Well, like people Chris Fralic.

The board partner of the start-up investment company First Round remembers buying a bank. 2004 Sony PlayStation Portable Video game device while only available in Japan on eBay. At a party, he took the device out of his shirt pocket and people gathered.

“It was like he was teleported from the future,” Fralic told me over the phone this week while holding an old PSP.

To you, that kind of thing might be stale garbage. Tech gadgets for enthusiasts like Fralic feature the history of collectors’ lives, the tech industry, the United States, or all of the above.

“They all tell a story,” Fralic said. “I’ve used, sold, and loved this thing since it first came out. It’s great to look back and realize how important that was.”

Fralic has transformed a third-floor loft in her home into a personal museum for her collection of thousands of technological devices and memorabilia from the past 40 years or more.

Yes, Fralic has multiple versions of the old-style Walkman and Sony’s Discman CD player. (He emailed me a photo as proof.) There’s also a bulk in his collection. Range PDP-11 Nicknamed the R2-D2, the minicomputer Fralic agrees is tough to carry.

It has parts of an original”blue boxElectronic device that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak put together to hack phone lines before they founded Apple Computer. He has many phones in his collection. Gordon Gekko style monster and a Soviet-era “yellow phone” designed to connect to the Kremlin.

Technology by nature moves fast and there is often no time or inclination to look back. But many old tech products never really die. Instead, they live in nostalgia products like Sony’s non-Walkman, and in the garages and attics of enthusiasts who believe the PSP is the coolest thing ever made.

Addison Del Mastro’s love Cassette changer from Japan in the 1970s and old clock radios are not about personal nostalgia. by Del Mastro newsletter about urbanism and land use, 28 years old and barely using these things.

But Del Mastro said that when she was a teenager, she brought home a discarded RadioShack clock radio with faux wood paneling and a cassette player from the local recycling center. “I plugged that thing in and it worked.” Connected.

Del Mastro said he appreciates the creativity and craftsmanship that has gone into decades of consumer electronics and the ability to understand how they work.

“You can turn on the cassette player that’s been spinning since 1970 and any layman can understand what’s going on,” he said. “It keeps your brain and hands busy. Not many modern technologies or devices have this experience.”

Adam Minter About a decade ago, he said, he started hearing from electronics recyclers who were buying phones from people eager to buy old PCs. They were offering much more money for raw materials like gold than computers were worth robbing.

Minter, an old colleague who wrote two books about the second lives of our thingsThese phone calls are usually collectors Searching for every computer chip made by Intel or other manufacturers. “Sounds weird, but is it really?” said Minter. “You collect these artifacts of our technological age.”

Of course, everything has its collectors and enthusiasts. You might like vintage Bakelite jewelry or 1970s Italian bikes. Technological devices that arouse curiosity and lust are no different. Talking to people for this newsletter, I felt like I had entered an extremely nerdy subculture and may never go out again.

“When you open up this crazy world, I’m a little player in it,” Fralic said. “There are people who are crazy about it.”

Tip of the Week

Taking your smartphone abroad

If you are in the USA and are planning a trip abroad, Brian X ChenThe New York Times personal tech columnist has you covered.

Buying a smartphone abroad can be a lousy experience for Americans.

International data plans from US phone operators such as verizon and AT&T they usually work well – but they are not cheap. $10 a day to use your phone in most other countries means longer trips, and travel plans sometimes limit the data you use to look at online maps, restaurants, and attractions.

Over the years, I’ve tried a number of alternatives in international travel. I’ve had mixed results with eSIMs – essentially a digital method of instructing your smartphone to connect to a foreign cellular network as soon as you arrive.

The eSIM I bought in Thailand did not work. When I tried to reach customer support, no one spoke English. On the other hand, when I was in Canada I used an eSIM that worked great but was expensive – $40 for a gigabyte of data. And eSIMs may not work on every smartphone.

In my experience, the most foolproof and cost-effective way to take a smartphone abroad is to purchase a physical SIM card from a major carrier in your travel destination.

I ordered a few when I went to Japan about five years ago. DoCoMo SIM cards loaded with a gigabyte of data for $20 each. SIM cards, small plastic pieces that attach to your phone and contain instructions for internet and phone service networks, were delivered to my home before my trip.

When I arrived in Japan, I took out my Verizon SIM card, replaced it with a DoCoMo card, and followed the instructions to activate the service. It worked great, and if something went wrong I had the option to pop into a DoCoMo store in Japan to ask for help.

(To ensure you can use your phone outside of the US, plan ahead and check with your phone provider. If you use an eSIM or SIM card abroad, you may not have access to your regular phone number or SMS texts.)

Before you go …

• Blasting is more fun than running Amazon: Bloomberg’s Brad Stone Checking out Jeff BezosHe retired as CEO of Amazon last year and now spends most of his time focusing on his private space business, his personal life, and climate philanthropy. Don’t miss the details about Bezos’ custom made overalls. (Subscription may be required.)

• wired spoke With Rafaela Vasquez at the wheel of an Uber self-driving test car when a pedestrian hit and killed Elaine Herzberg in 2018. Vasquez faces criminal charges and is at the center of a debate over who to blame for the deaths caused by computerized cars. (Subscription may be required.)

• The GasBuddy app is a privacy nightmare. Here are alternatives to finding cheaper gasFrom The New York Times’ Wirecutter product review site.

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