Your explanation of the workflow involved in sending a communication in a 1980s office was marvelous. I don't think people today often stop to realize just how tremendously computers have increased productivity. With the recording, internal mailing, typing, and posting... how many letters do you figure an employee could get out of the building in a day? A dozen? 20 maybe? And today, they can send that many emails in an hour. And even more remarkably, they work longer hours, and are paid about the same (average salary of the lower 90% of the US economy rose by only 1% since the introduction of computers to the workplace). Anyone who thinks greater technology will enable us to work less or increased productivity will get them better pay hasn't been paying attention.
Makes me want to acquire a microcassette recorder to do my interviews with so I can baffle the interviewee with obsolete technology. We recently cracked open an old cabinet in the newsroom of my student newspaper that had early-2000s digital cameras. Cameras these days have come a long way from 3-megapixel sensors and 128-megabyte capacity, to say the least.
I used a microcassette recorder for school until 2011 when I replaced it with an Olympus LS-7 digital recorder. The difference was like night and day - I would never wish anybody to have to rely on a mini or microcassette recorder, trying to understand their muffled recordings later. They're fine when your subject is near and there's no ambient noise, but in a classroom or other group setting they are frustrating at best. I still use the digital recorder today.
Thanks Matt for another interesting review. Those still shots of the Typing Pool and electric typewriters really brought back memories for me. Cheers Kym
+Joseph Prince There's a slightly similar cadence and vocal range but the accent is pretty different. I'm not native to the UK so I don't have that good an ear for UK regional accents but even I can tell the difference between Northern and West Country.
Why i love you channel. + Excellent presentation and deep analysis of each product that you review. + Excellent quality of video and sound. + Crystal clear voice and pronunciation.
+Marios Koutras thanks, those are the very things I pay special attention to...it's like you've written down my 'Mission Statement'. Sometimes though I forget to add in enough entertainment.
Your sources are incorrect or you misentered your values. It's just over $902 in today's dollars according the BLS. $400 was how much the original HP*35 handheld calculator went for in the early 1970s. By 1989, the top of the line HP-28S scientific handheld computer ($235) with the IR printer accessory would be required to eat up $400. So, $400 was still quite a chunk of change in 1985, even for business equipment.
I think the Pico cassette was intended less for dictaphone interoffice use and more for say someone traveling and stuff. It's a lot smaller and more portable. Be useful to take notes later or to dictate to yourself. Really cool piece of kit though
Person A: "Do you use a dictaphone?" Person B: "No I use my hands thank you." Childish it may be, but that joke elicits a chuckle out of me every time.
I still have tons of lectures on microcassette from college. I had a professor with a Russian accent that was impossible to understand. I always had to listen to his lectures a few times to absorb them.
It almost seems that way but it's much easier to get a tape handed to you. The boss walks away, the headphones go on and sweet tranquility. You don't have to struggle to read someone's terrible handwriting. I learned how to touch type so I'd always have a job in the corporate world but now that I'm a code monkey I think that typing class was the best $40 I ever spent.
Transcription is still used in some medical offices, even sometimes on micro cassette, but it's been mostly phased out in the last decade. Used by doctors describing their visits, and replaced mostly by EMRs. I managed a fleet of digital ones and the entire scripted, automated system to get the files to transcription department, typed, and into the database.
My mum used to work in a typing pool that latterly serviced a 'bank' (as it was called) of dictating machines. Execs literally phoned their words in to the bank which recorded them; the girls then took the tape out, back to their desk, and played it to type from.
I have a Pico on my desk. Had it since the early 90's, no idea what it has on it or where I got it, never had anything that played it. I just loved it's tiny size and kept it as a novelty. Ironic given I've had dictophones late 80's products and never twigged. You solved a mystery of a cute little cassette for me.
Great humor in this episode, along with the always top-notch informativeness. I was totally unaware of all of the small-cassette formats mentioned besides the microcassette, and I was historically a heavy user of cassettes.
According to inflation calculator 500$ in 1985 ar 1,100$ in 2015. The same cost an iPhone plus 128Gbyte. Not too expensive for its quality and innovation.👍
In keeping with small recording devices; here is something I saw when I was just a boy back in the early 80s. Good luck finding any that still function though. www.digital-watch.com/DWL/1work/seiko-m516-40091/ This was very high tech for the time. Thanks for all the great videos.
Year i was born, seems like a tradition in the 80's and early 90's, make something nice and shiny and either stick some wood on it or some faux leather
I think the manufacturers jumped the shark with the Picocassette. The Microcassette was already small enough. I bought a very small Microcassette recorder in 1990, and a bigger, but still quite compact Cassette recorder in 1994. I thought I'd go full size as it was cheap, had better quality sound and it had compatibility with common cassette decks and was still not that big! I now have a very nice Sony Microcassette recorder (made in 1993) which has the cue marker feature. Can you REALLY buy a new Microcassette recorder? I can't see why you would need one these days, as you have voice recording on your phone, and if you like you can get a high quality portable digital audio recorder. The only reason I still have one is because I like them and nostalgia!
Thankyou for the explanation of why the Dictaphone even existed in an office environment, you may be interested to know some places still rely on the same process for letter writing. You wont be surprised to hear they are a Government office. Though while the typists still listen to tape atleast they type into a Word Processor nowdays :)
KiloByte69 Welp, I was making a joke, but you've just opened a whole new bag of research on me. I hate drugs, they cause nothing but misery, but I'm aware the efficacy of the War on Drugs remains very controversial so I should do some real study on that.
+LemonSlice It depends which drugs you are talking about, marijuana and LSD have some benefits. They also use morphine in hospitals which is very useful.
this was for people who found the micro cassette to be just too big and bulky. LOL. I worked at Best Products way back around '93 and they had a micro cassette player/recorder that was not much bigger than the cassette itself - about half the size of the recorder in this video. it even had a built in speaker, but it was ridiculously expensive. I don't remember selling one the entire time I worked there. it sure was cute though.
I have a regular Compact Cassette based Dictaphone and they are hilariously well built. Unlike that treasure, mine has seen years of hard use; I plucked it from my university's electronics recycling program (basically one step above trash) and squeezed a little more service out of it myself. It's only just now, years later, that it's begun to to go funny and develop wow, like the tape speed is fluctuating.
+Melchi Zedeq 60 minute tapes were certainly very common, but I'm sure you know you could buy regular compact cassettes in various lengths such as 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 , 90 minutes and even 120 minutes, although those weren't recommended by most cassette recorder manufacturers. Actually I think I may even have a 26 minute tape around here somewhere.
I can't wait until I am an old man watching a video of some one who dusted off my old Tascam DR-40 and wax on romantically about how "advanced" it was. Keep up the great videos!
+RetroSimon No this was the only device released that used Picocassettes. Your answerphone will have used the Microcassette or Minicassette that you can also see in this video.
I wish more things were as well built as this Dictaphone. Solid metal all around, looks lovely and stylish, and is super simple in its design. Nowadays there's planned obsoletness, plastic on everything, and if it's not then it breaks at the drop of a hat
I experienced a bit of a shock when you stated word processors weren't in use in the mid-'80s. Dedicated word processors have been in use since the 1960s. But so far as computer-based word processing is concerned in the mid-1980s, heck, even the lowly Commodore 64 had word processing programs available at that time. And of course, Microsoft Word has been in use on more professional level computers since the mid-1980s as well. I'm enjoying your videos. Kind of addicting.
It was manufactured by JVC for Dictaphone, and was the only product to use the Picocasette. I would say it has an almost Nagra-esque quality of construction... These things occasionally show up on eBay, sometimes even NOS.
Executive types were far too busy to write something or type it themselves. Better to have a whole team of women whose sole job is to turn your poorly recorded ramblings into text.
R LaMastus glad you spotted that. Now that I think about it I could probably have used an SD card for comparison, it's more universal....however someone would no doubt then get confused and ask if it used SD cards.
+Techmoan IIRC a US quarter is roughly the same size as a UK 10p coin, so presumably both'd give the same idea of scale with only a quick-note being needed to explain the difference to the opposite crowd. :-) For plurality, I *think* a 0,50€ coin might be about that size, too. Next time I come across one (i.e; I can locate my holiday change) I'll let you know. :-)
I do remember voice recorders like this but i saw the 90's and early 2000's models. I do remember micro cassettes since they were used in answering machines for message storage. Do you remember the clear plastic phones that were around in the 80's and 90's? You know the ones you could see all the guts of the phone?
Techmoan I hope you never stop making videos about obscure and forgotten technologies. If your channel didn't exist, I most likely never would have found one that did anything quite like this, and my life would be dull and pico-cassette-less.
MRmessyRoomedPerson I'll try to keep doing these - but the other videos are the way that I pay for this old stuff, so I'll need to get back to reviewing some more cameras for a while.
Techmoan Absolutely; I understand. Periodically I'll watch one of your camera videos. Also, I really enjoyed the video you did on the freestyle libre blood glucose meter. I learned a lot.
Would had been cool to have back in the day, but the price tag of $400.00 would had been too steep to many, and you're right about having to replace the dictation machines as well. Never knew of this format before. Thanks for doing a video on it.
I wonder why the voice of the guy making these videos changed so much over five years. I am commenting about 5 years after the release of the video. It’s like it’s the same but this 5 year back video voice lacks base or something.
7:57 Today I picked up a $28 Norelco-branded (Philips) 660 voice recorder that takes exclusively ultra mini-cassette. It's almost impossible to find them and I didn't get one included with the recorder, so it currently serves no purpose to me. Would you know where to find one?
I do not recall which size was used, but there was one or two attempts at creating a Hi-Fi deck using these small cassette tapes. As you might guess, they went the way of the Picocassette.
And believe it or not we in the NHS use exactly the same process to get our letters out that you describe, with the sole exception that the secretaries have computers now. Progress eh?
Did Dictaphone make cases for those tiny tapes? I haven't seen any cases in any of the pics. I just ordered the recorder plus a few tapes off eBay (hasn't arrived yet)... the auction pic only showed the tape itself. I would think it would be nice to protect those little things. Thanks for posting this, btw. I'm a new follower of your channel. Cool stuff.
I'm guessing it never took off cos the tapes kept falling through cracks in the floor... :P Still, a neat concept, shame it never took off due to established competition... :\
they used to sell these at raidio shack. as well as recorders but no more, rest in peace tape recorder. :( you were my first form of music entertainment.
neat little device! relatively to the tech they had back then this thing is more amazing than Apple crap today! just think for example how many features an audio book player have today and how can it be improved!
if you listen carefully, you can hear a (EVP) . it's a ghost saying . " I WANT YOUR SOUL". AT 3:41..LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY. AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HEAR IT.
![[UA] NAVI проти G2 Esports | Blast Premier Fall Final](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QWlIm4FGESQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I miss the electromechanical aspect of old tech. Real buttons and knobs, whirring motors and gears.
till it needs to be repaired...
Awe but that's the best part!
with bigger tech i would agree... just imagine what this thing looks like on the inside..
Mephitus Incognito Still more user serviceable than the Surface
aren't microsoft products just designed to be thrown away when they break? ;)
Your explanation of the workflow involved in sending a communication in a 1980s office was marvelous. I don't think people today often stop to realize just how tremendously computers have increased productivity. With the recording, internal mailing, typing, and posting... how many letters do you figure an employee could get out of the building in a day? A dozen? 20 maybe? And today, they can send that many emails in an hour. And even more remarkably, they work longer hours, and are paid about the same (average salary of the lower 90% of the US economy rose by only 1% since the introduction of computers to the workplace). Anyone who thinks greater technology will enable us to work less or increased productivity will get them better pay hasn't been paying attention.
Makes me want to acquire a microcassette recorder to do my interviews with so I can baffle the interviewee with obsolete technology. We recently cracked open an old cabinet in the newsroom of my student newspaper that had early-2000s digital cameras. Cameras these days have come a long way from 3-megapixel sensors and 128-megabyte capacity, to say the least.
I used a microcassette recorder for school until 2011 when I replaced it with an Olympus LS-7 digital recorder. The difference was like night and day - I would never wish anybody to have to rely on a mini or microcassette recorder, trying to understand their muffled recordings later. They're fine when your subject is near and there's no ambient noise, but in a classroom or other group setting they are frustrating at best. I still use the digital recorder today.
I have one of those tapes around from back in the day. So tiny and they were not cheap to buy at the time either.
That microphone on that little machine sounds 500x better than half the microphones kids use when gaming.
( T ^ T )
Ikr?
Thanks Matt for another interesting review. Those still shots of the Typing Pool and electric typewriters really brought back memories for me.
Cheers Kym
i love old tech! looks more interesting then modern day tech :)
That simply means that you will love modern day tech 20 years later.
that packaging looks very modern for some reason even though it's over 30 years old
huh
My fader had one with a small cassette. The recorder had VOX! And some other button near the microphone, I don't remember what it did do.
This reminds me of the old joke
Excuse me Sir, Can I use your Dictaphone
No you can't, Use your finger like everyone else
Great, now I want one.
It turns out that Amazon actually sells these for $49.99. I went ahead and bought one because I thought it was too cool.
Now that's small (At least for being analog).
id love to see the inside of that thing but it would probably springamathing on you and never go back together.
'Your policy is now cancelled and we have taken all of your money.'
LOL
Another entertaining video.
Apple in a nutshell.
@@Gigidag77 Facts
Possibly remembered from his old office job.
Sounds about right.
"...a meeting between a number of people discussing big hair." LOL
Don't forget shoulder pads, mustaches, and briefcases.
And Duran Duran.
@@U014B and that kind of things
Whenever you record, you sound exactly like James May! lol
+Joseph Prince That's a good thing! James May for PM! lol
Absolutely!
+Joseph Prince There's a slightly similar cadence and vocal range but the accent is pretty different. I'm not native to the UK so I don't have that good an ear for UK regional accents but even I can tell the difference between Northern and West Country.
+Joseph Prince
Oh yes, I was thinking that voice sounded familiar. Now, is James May secretly a Picocassette?
Who?
man, that player is so well built you really dont see metal used like this very often i just love that sliding back-plate.
Why i love you channel.
+ Excellent presentation and deep analysis of each product that you review.
+ Excellent quality of video and sound.
+ Crystal clear voice and pronunciation.
+Marios Koutras thanks, those are the very things I pay special attention to...it's like you've written down my 'Mission Statement'. Sometimes though I forget to add in enough entertainment.
+Techmoan Personally i find it entertaining the way it is. There are elements of humor here and there that i really like!
+Marios Koutras And ofc his enthuisiasm! =D
Doug Reed nice Córdoba, dude!
Can I use your dictaphone?
No, use your finger like everyone else.
I'm sure this joke came out about the same time.
+Evil from evilution that was even funnier when the phones had rotary dials
+MattOGormanSmith "Stick your finger in the hole and make circles'?
+Evil from evilution That was the first joke that occurred to me as well when I saw the title of this video.
:)
Shit! You beat me to it!
Ah, so that's what "hands free" calling is all about.
This thing in the 1980s was very advanced. No wonder it was $400.
But was it really worth half a car? Because according to my sources, adjusted for inflation, it would be $5421 and 80 cents in today's money.
Your sources are incorrect or you misentered your values. It's just over $902 in today's dollars according the BLS. $400 was how much the original HP*35 handheld calculator went for in the early 1970s. By 1989, the top of the line HP-28S scientific handheld computer ($235) with the IR printer accessory would be required to eat up $400.
So, $400 was still quite a chunk of change in 1985, even for business equipment.
Thanks for clearing that up :)
Look at those tiny, little adorable cassettes :3
itty bitty teeny weeenie
squeeeeeee
Just as cute as a jumping spider!
I think the Pico cassette was intended less for dictaphone interoffice use and more for say someone traveling and stuff. It's a lot smaller and more portable. Be useful to take notes later or to dictate to yourself. Really cool piece of kit though
It was probably a high-end product for executives with their own personal secretaries.
Set the time machine to 1985? I thought you needed 1.21 gigawatts for that....
...
Person A: "Do you use a dictaphone?"
Person B: "No I use my hands thank you."
Childish it may be, but that joke elicits a chuckle out of me every time.
I love these "mad technology from yesteryear" reviews. This device really does look elegant. It makes we want to hold it and press those buttons.
mark314158 Yes, yes. :)
pako1205 no no
I still have tons of lectures on microcassette from college. I had a professor with a Russian accent that was impossible to understand. I always had to listen to his lectures a few times to absorb them.
It's like the Micro SD card of 1985! And wow that is such a convoluted system for getting a letter typed up. You'd be better off just hand writing it!
It almost seems that way but it's much easier to get a tape handed to you. The boss walks away, the headphones go on and sweet tranquility. You don't have to struggle to read someone's terrible handwriting.
I learned how to touch type so I'd always have a job in the corporate world but now that I'm a code monkey I think that typing class was the best $40 I ever spent.
this looks like a james bond toy
or Mission Impossible...
In Bulgarian any portable voice recorder is called "dictaphone", which I just released is a brand name. Neat.
same in Russian.
Transcription is still used in some medical offices, even sometimes on micro cassette, but it's been mostly phased out in the last decade. Used by doctors describing their visits, and replaced mostly by EMRs. I managed a fleet of digital ones and the entire scripted, automated system to get the files to transcription department, typed, and into the database.
My mum used to work in a typing pool that latterly serviced a 'bank' (as it was called) of dictating machines. Execs literally phoned their words in to the bank which recorded them; the girls then took the tape out, back to their desk, and played it to type from.
@@chrismr368 they law offices I work for just stopped using tapes a couple of years ago
You always have the wildest, coolest stuff that I've never heard of. Love it! Subscribed.
It has a James Bond spy-isa look and size. The Dictaphone is simply gorgeous!
The sound quality is actually amazing for how old the recorder is. I've had smartphones with worse microphones
Back in the day I was thinking of buying one of those, but I was holding out for the femto-cassette.
They skipped over the nano-casette.
atto-cassette or gtfo
I have a Pico on my desk. Had it since the early 90's, no idea what it has on it or where I got it, never had anything that played it. I just loved it's tiny size and kept it as a novelty. Ironic given I've had dictophones late 80's products and never twigged. You solved a mystery of a cute little cassette for me.
Love your channel. It's like listening to radio 4 where it feels like the presenters are in my home.
...but without interruptions for the shipping forecast
that little thing is quite impressive
1980s spy gear!
A guy comes up to my desk and says 'Can I use your dictaphone?', I tell him 'No, use your finger like everyone else.'
Q: Can I use your Dictaphone?
A: No. Use your pencil like everyone else...
Great humor in this episode, along with the always top-notch informativeness. I was totally unaware of all of the small-cassette formats mentioned besides the microcassette, and I was historically a heavy user of cassettes.
You should have put some music on it to see how poor quality the sound was!
Aaron Ries oh God don't bring that trend back into the world
Aaron Ries actually the qaulity was good at first brand new but after repeated use it usually wore out
Slavic Union not on this format, it wasn't.
I get why they are very hard to get hold of, those pico-cassettes: one medium sneeze, aaand it's gone.
I enjoy seeing older technology products
Just don't play a tape with a message that will self-destruct. There's not much hope for getting the tape with the self-destructed message out.
I think my mum has used one of those types of casettes for recording at some point.
According to inflation calculator 500$ in 1985 ar 1,100$ in 2015. The same cost an iPhone plus 128Gbyte. Not too expensive for its quality and innovation.👍
Another interesting review of something antiquated and useless........I love it :)
Can I use your dictaphone? No, use your finger like everyone else!!
Another brilliant retro tech video from Techmoan :) I should subscribe to your youtube
In keeping with small recording devices; here is something I saw when I was just a boy back in the early 80s. Good luck finding any that still function though.
www.digital-watch.com/DWL/1work/seiko-m516-40091/
This was very high tech for the time. Thanks for all the great videos.
I was hoping you'd make a video about this. Thank you.
+Alex McClure Same wtf
Year i was born, seems like a tradition in the 80's and early 90's, make something nice and shiny and either stick some wood on it or some faux leather
I think the manufacturers jumped the shark with the Picocassette. The Microcassette was already small enough. I bought a very small Microcassette recorder in 1990, and a bigger, but still quite compact Cassette recorder in 1994. I thought I'd go full size as it was cheap, had better quality sound and it had compatibility with common cassette decks and was still not that big!
I now have a very nice Sony Microcassette recorder (made in 1993) which has the cue marker feature.
Can you REALLY buy a new Microcassette recorder? I can't see why you would need one these days, as you have voice recording on your phone, and if you like you can get a high quality portable digital audio recorder. The only reason I still have one is because I like them and nostalgia!
it is just like the transformer's soundwave... i could'nt believe that there's a smaller type of cassette tape that exists in the 80's
It would sell if it had a laser in it that could cut through 1" thick steel. ;)
Thankyou for the explanation of why the Dictaphone even existed in an office environment, you may be interested to know some places still rely on the same process for letter writing. You wont be surprised to hear they are a Government office.
Though while the typists still listen to tape atleast they type into a Word Processor nowdays :)
$400 in the 80s? Holy crap.
about 898 in todays money
Yeah but when you busted a drug lord it was all worth it.
LemonSlice
How was it worth it? The war on drugs is a complete failure.
KiloByte69 Welp, I was making a joke, but you've just opened a whole new bag of research on me. I hate drugs, they cause nothing but misery, but I'm aware the efficacy of the War on Drugs remains very controversial so I should do some real study on that.
+LemonSlice
It depends which drugs you are talking about, marijuana and LSD have some benefits. They also use morphine in hospitals which is very useful.
Frequency response 400Hz-3500Khz, LOL!
This looks like a gadget from a movie about the future made in the 70s or the 80s.
Am I the only one that wants this
No
Flutch agreed
does it record ghostly voices?
This is really nifty for the mid 80s.
who would have thought
this was for people who found the micro cassette to be just too big and bulky. LOL. I worked at Best Products way back around '93 and they had a micro cassette player/recorder that was not much bigger than the cassette itself - about half the size of the recorder in this video. it even had a built in speaker, but it was ridiculously expensive. I don't remember selling one the entire time I worked there. it sure was cute though.
+chieftp Holy crap I haven't heard the name BEST in decades. Used to love that store (if it's the same one I am thinking of)
Mike L
Best Products 1957-1997.
Yeah, that is rather the problem with this I think - not only does it use an exotic cassette, the whole machine isn't actually that small.
Made by Pitney-Bowes eh? The PB machines I work on are *quite* a bit larger than this :)
The recorder itself looks sleek, but a bit too big for the pico cassette.
The olympus L400 enjoyed more success.
I'd recognize Mr. Techmoan, no problem. And I'd ask him if he could review the SJ Cam 18, with hi-fi, wifi, and greentooth.
Wait a minute now....1985 wasn't that long ago. It was only........Wow ya I guess it was. Damn it really feels like it was not that long.....My BAD!
Big Guy Review 2045 is as far away from 2015 as 1985... We're getting old.
33 years
@@Jerbod2 2045 is closer now
Oh man, you're awesome! I can't wait to watch some more videos that you've made!
I have a regular Compact Cassette based Dictaphone and they are hilariously well built. Unlike that treasure, mine has seen years of hard use; I plucked it from my university's electronics recycling program (basically one step above trash) and squeezed a little more service out of it myself. It's only just now, years later, that it's begun to to go funny and develop wow, like the tape speed is fluctuating.
same record time as a regular casette? impressive!
+Melchi Zedeq 60 minute tapes were certainly very common, but I'm sure you know you could buy regular compact cassettes in various lengths such as 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 , 90 minutes and even 120 minutes, although those weren't recommended by most cassette recorder manufacturers. Actually I think I may even have a 26 minute tape around here somewhere.
I can't wait until I am an old man watching a video of some one who dusted off my old Tascam DR-40 and wax on romantically about how "advanced" it was. Keep up the great videos!
Hmm i remember our answering machine (remember those lol) also had tiny cassettes. Are these the same ?
+RetroSimon No this was the only device released that used Picocassettes. Your answerphone will have used the Microcassette or Minicassette that you can also see in this video.
Techmoan Yes i did some digging and they were called MC-20 Microcassette
+RetroSimon Yep I remember that too!
I wish more things were as well built as this Dictaphone. Solid metal all around, looks lovely and stylish, and is super simple in its design. Nowadays there's planned obsoletness, plastic on everything, and if it's not then it breaks at the drop of a hat
What a stunning piece a working history. It does look beautifully made and rather tactile. Great video and thoroughly enjoyable flashback in time.
I experienced a bit of a shock when you stated word processors weren't in use in the mid-'80s. Dedicated word processors have been in use since the 1960s.
But so far as computer-based word processing is concerned in the mid-1980s, heck, even the lowly Commodore 64 had word processing programs available at that time. And of course, Microsoft Word has been in use on more professional level computers since the mid-1980s as well.
I'm enjoying your videos. Kind of addicting.
PERMISSION:
First of, amazing work, sir. Thank you. May I please use a part of this video of yours in my project on UA-cam?
It was manufactured by JVC for Dictaphone, and was the only product to use the Picocasette. I would say it has an almost Nagra-esque quality of construction...
These things occasionally show up on eBay, sometimes even NOS.
CF, SD, miniSD, microSD, MemoryStick, DataFlash, ... history is repeating and, I hope, will be always
I dont get why people would do that process to write a letter instead of just handwriting it
Rodrigo Vazquez using a better handwriter
Rodrigo Vazquez probably if you know if you have bad handwriting.
Executive types were far too busy to write something or type it themselves. Better to have a whole team of women whose sole job is to turn your poorly recorded ramblings into text.
It was a status thing. "I'm too important to do any kind of manual labor."
Thanks from the U.S. for putting a quarter in for size comparison. :)
R LaMastus glad you spotted that. Now that I think about it I could probably have used an SD card for comparison, it's more universal....however someone would no doubt then get confused and ask if it used SD cards.
+Techmoan IIRC a US quarter is roughly the same size as a UK 10p coin, so presumably both'd give the same idea of scale with only a quick-note being needed to explain the difference to the opposite crowd. :-)
For plurality, I *think* a 0,50€ coin might be about that size, too. Next time I come across one (i.e; I can locate my holiday change) I'll let you know. :-)
Still waiting for you to report back
The quality is pretty good for such a small cassette!
I do remember voice recorders like this but i saw the 90's and early 2000's models. I do remember micro cassettes since they were used in answering machines for message storage. Do you remember the clear plastic phones that were around in the 80's and 90's? You know the ones you could see all the guts of the phone?
Techmoan I hope you never stop making videos about obscure and forgotten technologies. If your channel didn't exist, I most likely never would have found one that did anything quite like this, and my life would be dull and pico-cassette-less.
MRmessyRoomedPerson I'll try to keep doing these - but the other videos are the way that I pay for this old stuff, so I'll need to get back to reviewing some more cameras for a while.
Techmoan Absolutely; I understand. Periodically I'll watch one of your camera videos. Also, I really enjoyed the video you did on the freestyle libre blood glucose meter. I learned a lot.
One of your best. I lived at that time. I worked with these dictaphones. Damn, how old I got! 😩
People being happier with a slightly larger cassette...sounds like what happened with micromv but for different reasons.
Would had been cool to have back in the day, but the price tag of $400.00 would had been too steep to many, and you're right about having to replace the dictation machines as well. Never knew of this format before. Thanks for doing a video on it.
I wonder why the voice of the guy making these videos changed so much over five years. I am commenting about 5 years after the release of the video. It’s like it’s the same but this 5 year back video voice lacks base or something.
7:57 Today I picked up a $28 Norelco-branded (Philips) 660 voice recorder that takes exclusively ultra mini-cassette. It's almost impossible to find them and I didn't get one included with the recorder, so it currently serves no purpose to me. Would you know where to find one?
These are like Holotapes from Fallout!
I do not recall which size was used, but there was one or two attempts at creating a Hi-Fi deck using these small cassette tapes. As you might guess, they went the way of the Picocassette.
0:32 - You can literally hear Keith Mansfield when you look at that booklet!
ua-cam.com/video/r5SsM8HsSAE/v-deo.html
And believe it or not we in the NHS use exactly the same process to get our letters out that you describe, with the sole exception that the secretaries have computers now. Progress eh?
Did Dictaphone make cases for those tiny tapes? I haven't seen any cases in any of the pics. I just ordered the recorder plus a few tapes off eBay (hasn't arrived yet)... the auction pic only showed the tape itself. I would think it would be nice to protect those little things. Thanks for posting this, btw. I'm a new follower of your channel. Cool stuff.
I'm guessing it never took off cos the tapes kept falling through cracks in the floor... :P
Still, a neat concept, shame it never took off due to established competition... :\
fantastically very small. good video as always. congratulations on the channel and the videos, do not lose one.
The last time I used MTS (4:23) was in 1989. The last time I did it on a 3270 would have been circa 1983, big hair and all...
they used to sell these at raidio shack. as well as recorders but no more, rest in peace tape recorder. :( you were my first form of music entertainment.
neat little device! relatively to the tech they had back then this thing is more amazing than Apple crap today! just think for example how many features an audio book player have today and how can it be improved!
if you listen carefully, you can hear a (EVP) . it's a ghost saying . " I WANT YOUR SOUL". AT 3:41..LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY. AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HEAR IT.