Sherweb

When George Costanza’s “frightened turtle” was unveiled after a dip in the cold pool, he was met with finger pointing and laughter.  For men around the globe, shrinkage is very real and very scary.  Shrinkage is also terrible when your favorite sweater was run through the dryer and is now worn by the family poodle.  But when it comes to the evolution of technology, “smaller” has become synonymous with “better.”

Computers

The ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator)

Developed in 1946 with the help of military funds the ENIAC was made up of 70, 000 resistors, 6,000 manual switches, 1,500 relays, 17,468 vacuum tubes and 5 million soldered joints.  All of this combined weighed a total of 30 tons and took up 1,800 square feet.

CompuLab’s Fit-PC Slim

This miniature PC might not look like much since it only measures 4.7 x 4.5 x 1.6 inches and weighs less than one pound.  However, this miniscule computer has a 500MHz AMD Geode LC800 processor, Ethernet and 802.11b/g connectivity, 512MB RAM, three USB ports and other features that make it a fully functional PC.

Portable Phones

The First Cellular Phone

The first phone call made from a personal wireless communications device took place in 1973 by Motorola’s Communications Systems Division Martin Cooper.  The cell used for this public demonstration weighed in at 30-ounces and resembled the size and shape of a brick more than a telephone.  Ten years later Motorola released the trimmed down 16-ounce “DynaTAC” for public use.

Modu

The Guinness World Record for the lightest mobile phone in the world was awarded to the Modu in 2008.  This tiny handset is 2.8 x 1.4 x 0.3 inches and weighs in at only 1.41 ounces.  The Modu may be the world’s lightest mobile but that does not mean that it does not have the same capabilities as any other average sized handset.

Portable Music Players

The Walkman

When Sony released the Walkman in 1979 the public had never seen anything like it before; this blue and silver gadget featured a cassette player and the first set of lightweight headphones to hit the market.  The first units came equipped with two headphone jacks so that you could share music with a buddy.  The small microphone that could be activated by a “hotline” button allowed one friend to speak to another over the music.  The Walkman came in at 135 x 90 x 30millimeters and 0.4 kilograms.

iPod Nano

With the Ipod Nano it is possible to store up to 4,000 songs for your listening pleasure.  This far surpasses the average length of a cassette for your old Walkman.  With 16GB it is possible to upload up to sixteen hours of video that you can watch.  The new versions even include a video camera.  It is incredible that such a small machine can offer all of this and only weigh 36.4 grams at 90.7 x 38.7 x 6.2 mm.

Portable Computers

The IBM 5100 Portable Computer

The portable computer hit the scene in 1975 with a big bang, literally a really big bang.  Weighing  55 pounds this unit was transported in a carrying case.  It was based on a 16-bit processor module that was called PALM (Put All Logic in Microcode).  The unit also included a processor, hundreds of Kilobytes of read only memory for the system software, up to 64KB of memory, a five-inch CRT display, keyboard and a tape drive. This may appear large compared to today’s standards but if you take a look at the first computer at the top of this article this would have been a large accomplishment during that period.

Dell Mini-Netbook

The name of this PC points out the size right away, it is mini.  With a N270 processor, 160GB harddrive, 1GB memory and wi-fi capability it is impressive that all of this can fit in to a 10.25 x 1.06 – 1.11 x 7.19 inch frame that only weighs 2.5 pounds.  Then again when you consider the CompuLab’s Fit-PC Slim this is not too hard to imagine.

Cameras

The Collodion Wet Plate

This type of photography required the photographer to evenly coat the glass plate with the collodion solution immediately before it was to be used; all subsequent stages such as the sensitizing, exposing and developing were required to be done while the plate was still wet.  This type of photography not only required a large camera but easy access to some sort of a dark room as well; since these early cameras were usually accompanied by a tripod and sheet it seems like taking a picture required a lot of tools.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290

Digital cameras allow the photographer to view their pictures right after they have been taken; and with a memory stick they are able to hold hundreds of pictures that you can then upload to you computer.  This particular model is quite compact at 3.9 x 2.4 x 0.9 inches and weighs only 0.9 ounces.

Televisions

Prior to WWII most TV sets were so expensive that only the very rich could afford them.  The RCA 630 TS came with a cabinet and 10-inch screen that made it a standard in TV technology after WWII.  This unit weighed in at a massive 85 pounds not including the stand.  Moving this in to an upper apartment would have been quite difficult.

High Definition Televisions (Toshiba 40RV525R 40″ Full HD LCD TV)

These high definition televisions offer high quality and clear picture, take this model for example which offers 1080p Full HD.  It has a 40-inch screen but the whole unit is only 3.8 inches wide and weighs in at only 42.1 pounds.  It is a lot less bulky when you strip away the large cabinets.

Television Remotes

Zenith Electronics Corporation released the first TV remote control called “Lazy Bones” in 1950.  This system used a cable that ran from the TV set to the viewer and a motor in the TV which controlled the dial via the remote.  Its functions included switching the TV on and off and turning the dial up or down.  This was popular with consumers but there were complaints about tripping over the cable.

Hangzhou Hiye Electronic Co., Ltd.

In contrast to all of the pieces required to change the TV channel with the “Lazy Bones”, this minimalist remote can actually be used as a key ring.  With dimensions as small as 3.5 x 6 x 0.6 centimeters this remote needs to be attached to your keys because it would be much too easy to misplace it.  Just don’t lose your keys.

Audio Recorders

Blattnerphone

Magnetic recorders were introduced in the 1930’s as phone recorders or dictating machines.  This particular unit is a Blattnerphone which recorded on to a steel 3 millimeter wide reel of tape.  Some Blattnerphone units required the use of one or two A.C. motors to operate.

Edirol R-09 Field Recorder

This recorder has built-in stereo microphones, records to SD memory cards and can fit in to the palm of your hand.  It can also record uncompressed MP3s or WAV files, which it can later transfer to your PC through a USB port.  At just over 4 inches tall and weighing 6 ounces, it is impressive that this unit can offer 24-bit stereo WAV recording.

Media Players

VHS Videocassette Recorder

The 30 pound JVC HR-3300 was released in 1976 to play Video Home System (VHS) tapes.  Due to its longer playing time, quicker fast-forward and rewind capabilities and a less complex tape transport mechanism the VHS would beat out Betamax as the dominant home entertainment media player during the eighties and nineties.

Portable DVD Player (Philips PET1002)

The DVD has replaced the VHS as the most common home entertainment media player; and it is even offered in a portable unit.  Complete with a 10.2 inch this portable media unit weighs a total of 3.5 pounds with the lithium-ion battery.  A portable DVD player like this is also capable of playing CDs, MPEG-4 and DivX video files as well as MP3 and JPEG CD-Rs.

If you were to take all these various forms of technology and build a super robot like in Transformers, the result would be tiny: