Beepers and more: Gadgets we no longer <3

Talk about a high-profile casualty of the digital age. Come July, Kodak, the company that invented the handheld camera, will stop making its digital camera. Yes, it's the end of an era but the news is hardly a shocker. What with Kodak's inability to fend off stepped-up competition from rivals with better digital cameras--not to mention the emergence of smartphones doubling as cameras--this was a slow-motion rendezvous with failure. Then last month, the company filed for bankruptcy protection.

Flip camera

I'll give you my Flip when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Electronic pocket calculators

They rose to prominence in the 1970s and the early models cost a bundle. But by the middle of the decade, pocket calculators could be had for around $20. The popularity of the devices was not without controversy as many teachers--including several of my own--were convinced students who used the devices would never learn math.

Pagers

Once a must-have accessory of the early adopter--or anyone who was part of the cool set.

Cassette tape

Long before Napster, cassette tapes were the go-to product for music swapping. Best of all, the RIAA couldn't get on your case because they couldn't track you.

Sony Walkman

Sony made its first cassette Walkman in 1979. It enjoyed a terrific run that lasted 30 years. But someone wasn't minding the store and Sony got its proverbial clock cleaned by Apple and the iPod revolution. You can still buy CD- and MD-based versions of the Walkman but good luck trying to buy a new cassette version. Then again, why would you want to?

CRT Monitor

Back in the day, using a PC meant first making sure you could clear a big enough space for the monitor. But the only cathode ray tubes you'll find nowadays are littering e-dumping grounds.

Dial-up modem

Companies like Hayes, present at the creation of the PC industry, once made a bundle selling dial-up modems. Dunno about you, but I really miss that unique modem connection handshake sound. Difficult to describe that screeching wail, but I daresay you'll never get it out of your head once you've heard it.

Boom box

The best thing about the advent of the digital era? Very simple: the beginning of the end for boom boxes. Or so one can only hope.

VCR

The Videocassette recorder, also known as a VCR, was once a must-have item to watch your favorite movies.

Telex

Some companies still use telexes for specialized applications, but they've long been supplanted by fax and e-mail.

Dot matrix printer

Dot matrix printers were once a staple of offices and schools - making a racket as they printed on continuous form paper (note: we had to look up what it was called). The mechanism was similar to a typewriter, with metal hitting a ink-saturated ribbon, but instead of individual letters, it produced small dots. These days, inkjet and laser printers (quietly) rule office spaces.

Palm Pilot

Before the smartphone, there was the Palm Pilot. Some models even had a built-in wireless modem.

Phonograph (Record Player)

I've still got mine and many of you still have yours, but thanks to the Internet and digital media, the phonograph, also known as a record player, is part of a dying breed of devices.

Analog telephones

Analog telephones were standard features in offices and homes for decades.

Reel-to-reel recorders

Before the cassette era, audiophiles turned to reel-to-reel recorders and magnetic tape audio recording.

Transistor radio

With transistors supplanting much larger vacuum tubes, the smaller, portable transistor radio became a hit consumer item starting in the 1950s--just in time for the rock n' roll explosion.

Slide rule

OK, it's not technically high-tech, but the venerable slide rule at least deserves an honorable mention. Tech historians trace its origins back to the 17th century, but the slide rule's longevity came to an abrupt end when personal computers became popular in the 1980s.