Keeping an eye on stylish
gear and technology.

Well, I’ll admit that Panasonic’s RP-HTX7 line of headphones has been around a while (since 2006, to be exact), but their looks alone make them worth a mentioning. These headphones pack modern technology in a retro exterior and are available in five different piano-paint colors (green, blue, black, beige and white), each model sporting leather headbands, a 2 meter extension cord and a carrying pouch.

AudioCubes: Panasonic RP-HTX7 ($49.00, International shipping)
Amazon: Panasonic RP-HTX7 ($40.00, US shipping)

This tiny (and seemingly happy-looking) retro robot can be attached to its wrist band when you commute to work, just to detach and stand on your desk while you work. You wouldn’t want to scratch your new aluminum Apple keyboard with a metal wrist band now, would you?

Unfortunately the site that sells these is in Japanese, but they’re available in silver and gun metal models and will set you back about 3,990 Yen (about $40).

Cataloger.jp: Metal robot watch

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If you’re going to own a Slinky it better be the Collector’s Edition made just like the originals from 1945. No cheap plastics here, this one’s made in dark metal and it’s packed in a cardboard box with the original package design.

Cheap, nostalgic, timeless and stair-friendly - all in one huge spring.

ThinkGeek: Collector’s Edition Slinky ($7.99)

If a single USB-powered cassette player isn’t enough for your cassette tape rippin’ needs there’s always the Ion Tape2PC. This dual cassette deck is USB-powered and lets you rip those cassettes of yours directly to iTunes or CD in an instant.

Ion-audio.com: Tape2PC Product Page
Amazon: Ion Tape2PC ($149.00)
Firebox: Ion Tape2PC (UK/Europe: £99.95, US: $149.95)

(Updated the prices, thanks Chris)

This is the Cassette Tape MP3 Player and while some people (like me) might just chuckle a little and appreciate its nostalgic shape it actually doubles as a cassette tape, meaning besides plugging your earphones in it and use it as a portable MP3 player you can load it with music (via USB, which also charges it) and use it in any ‘ol cassette tape player.

There’s no internal memory but it features a built-in SD card slot, so the storage space depends on your wallet.

ChinaVision.com: Cassette MP3 Player ($21.90)

(Via Productdose)

Even though I don’t own any cassette tapes myself (or would want to preserve the cassette tape sound, for that matter) I still find the BTO PlusDeckEX impressing. It’s the external follow-up to the internal PlusDeck 2c.

Besides abling you to quickly rip and archive your cassette tapes to MP3/WAV files it features RCA I/O, 7.1, an LCD control panel, AM/FM radio tuner, a USB port and a remote control.

www.plusdeck.com

(Via Forevergeek)

Hah, in these iPhone crazy days I’d love to see someone show off with a Portable Rotary Phone on the subway. Just plug your SIM-card in this 2 lbs heavy oldschool classic and you’ve got a fully functional cell phone without annoying, modern features like a display or messaging capabilities. Like all cell phones there’s no dial tone (sadly) but whenever someone calls you it’ll fire away on those authentic metal bells.

SparkFun Electronics: Portable Rotary Phone - Black ($399.00)
SparkFun Electronics: Portable Rotary Phone - Red ($499.00)

(Via Productdose, Sci Fi Tech)

Surface Tension’s hand-made Arcade Coffee Tables comes equipped with solid 2-player retro gaming components and 29 classic arcade games (Bubble Bobble, Operation Wolf, Rainbow Islands, Space Invaders etc) preinstalled. It runs MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) so you’re by no means bound to those 29 titles either, there’s tons of games available.

That being the main feature it also sports wireless networking, iTunes, Firefox and Windows Media Player, so as long as your coffee maker is within reaching distance you won’t need to leave that couch of yours for quite a while.

(Oh, and it’s insanely expensive)

Surface-Tension.net: Contemporary Arcade Coffee Table (£3295, about $6650 USD)

(Via OhGizmo)

I don’t know what else Jeremy Mehrle likes, but he seriously loves Macs. Really. This guy has converted his basement into a shiny and spotless Mac museum and he’s got over a 100 machines there (including a rare Apple Lisa and 20th anniversary Mac).

Got to love the wall of old iMacs running the Flurry screensaver.

CNN Slideshow: The man who collects Apples

As far as gaming tattoos goes they’re often either ridiculous or just poorly done. However, Samuel Mullins decided to honour Nintendo with a 3/4 arm tattoo just because his faithful NES saved his childhood from boredom and the end result is actually pretty impressing.

Mario, Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Lakitu, Piranha Plants and Bowser, they’re all there. That’s some serious tattoo work.

Check out a close-up of Bowser after the jump:

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