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A trip down memory lane – 90s tech nostalgia

Last week, Microsoft released a new advert for its flagging flagship browser, Internet Explorer.  Aimed specifically at ‘90s kids’, the ad “takes a trip back through everything that was popular back in the land before iPods, including Pogs, bad haircuts and, well, Internet Explorer” in an attempt to win back the hearts of IE’s previously loyal users.

 

The ad inspired us here at Johnson King to take a trip of our own down memory lane – to a time when press releases were still sent out by post and a cloud was just what you gazed up at as you lay in the grass – and reminisce on 90s tech which fills us with the most nostalgia. Here are our top 10 (disclaimer – just like pogs and bad haircuts, these technologies are by no means the “best” of the 90s – just the ones we look back the most fondly on!): 

1. Discman – there was a heated debate in JK towers as to whether this really belongs in the 80s, but this trusty portable music player definitely reached its peak in the 90s – before
MP3 technology wiped them out! 

2. Nokia bricks – specifically the 5110 and 6110, these early mobile phone models came complete with now-mythical antennas on top. But at least they both had Snake!


3. Gameboy – ahh the classic handheld gaming device. Who needs a colourful screen when you could enjoy monochrome Tetris?

4. Encarta – the Wikipedia of the 90s. Our very own Lindsey was even bought Encarta as her parents thought the internet was too dangerous a world to let her loose in! And yes kids, you had to install it using this ancient device called the CD-ROM…

5. 'Hi-tech’ toys – The Dream Phone (“a dating board game for girls”) and Skip-It (an apparatus attached to the ankle to record the number of skips jumped) were JK favourites, and while we may be pushing the boundaries as to what counts as technology, perhaps these were the predecessors to online dating sites and Nike’s Fuel band? 


6. Electronic organisers – while some of us at JK were busy with our Dream Phones and Skip-Its in the 90s, the older and wiser of us were already playing with corporate toys like electronic organisers (arguably not much more technologically advanced than the Dream Phone!). 

7. Amiga 1200 – this was the computer to have back in those days, and while it could only hold 2MB memory, it came complete with a super-duper advanced Floppy disk drive!


8. WordArt – while the WordArt function is still available on Word, there has never been a decade more filled with ugly title pages and headings than the 90s. Whether on school projects or corporate documents, we can’t look at any of these “WordArt styles” without thinking back to those days!

9. Playstation – the original PlayStation (the PS1) brought gaming to mainstream audiences, and one of its most popular early games – Wipeout – used licensed music in a way we hadn’t seen before. Now you could play games to a backing track of the Prodigy and Chemical Brothers – The PlayStation was a phenomenal success in bringing gaming to the masses. 

10. Millennium bug – much of the 90s in the world of tech revolved around dealing with the all-encompassing paranoia of the Y2K scare. Thankfully, it never materialised, but just hearing the words “Millennium bug” certainly gets us all misty-eyed thinking back on an era in tech before the real crisis of the dot-com crash. 

What 90s tech brings back the most memories for you? Drop us a comment! 

Sorry, which of you does what?

By Aislinn Collins

Last week I went to meet some friends for a drink.  One is in the business of website advertising, the other works for Google, with me working in tech PR it’s become a hazard of our friendship that we often discuss what some would deem ‘geeky’ subjects.  There was a trainee divorce lawyer there too, but she wasn’t particularly interested.  It was the day after Facebook had announced it was spreading its wings and swooping into the field of search and what ensued was an interesting debate on whether web 2.0 companies (and Apple) should stick to what they’re good at or battle it out to the death.

So Facebook wants to be a search engine, of sorts.  The thought of being able to search for people (or being searched for) based on various criteria on Facebook scares me.  Probably because of the way this article describes it, I find the whole thing a little personal-space invading.  The website advertiser thinks it’s exciting and only going to get more so as, she believes, it’s only testing the water before it rolls out full search engine functionality.  The Google worker thinks it’s outrageous that they would even think to head into the world of search (hello Google+, pot, kettle, black?) and it will never work.  The lawyer asked for another glass of wine.  

I think I may feel the same way as my Grandma did when the butcher, baker and greengrocers down the road shut-up shop and a Tesco Metro appeared in their place.  Yes, it’s much more convenient to only have to go to one place to get everything I need, but is what I’m getting going to be the same quality if they have irons in every fire?  A prime example in two words: Apple maps.  I still haven’t updated my iPhone to iOS 6 in case I find myself submerged in water, when all I wanted was Lakeside shopping centre.  Maps just aren’t their thing, and on the subject of things that aren’t a company’s thing, since when did Google start making hardware? Since when did Twitter have a photo editing function? In fact, things are getting so crazy that Apple even wants to tell us when we need new shoes and Facebook may even put recruitment consultants out of a job! 

It could be the modern cold war.  Each company trying to be the first to offer something new, then the others scrambling to offer the same, only bigger and better and there will be an eventual winner.  Or, Apple Maps will teach them a lesson and they will go back to focussing on what they are good at, living in peaceful, eharmony together.   Whichever way it goes, I’m sure there will be plenty more to discuss on the subject over drinks.  That and the lawyer will be politely declining my invitations in the future, but at least I can find new friends with similar interests in my local area thanks to Facebook.  

New year, old debate

By Bex Surtees

“So...what exactly is it you do again?”  It’s a question I get asked all the time – by family, friends, even the bemused car insurance advisor – in spite of the fact I’ve been working in the PR industry for five years now.  If I was a teacher, a doctor or even an accountant I wouldn’t be writing this blog, but I’m not so, lucky for you, here we are.

I work in Public Relations, specifically dealing with clients in the B2B technology sector.  I am known as a ‘tech PR’, a ‘PRO’, a ‘PR manager’, or – it seems most controversially these days – a ‘PR professional’.  Just so we’re clear, I’m not ‘in marketing’ though. 

Earlier this week an age old industry debate resurfaced, once again questioning if PR can call itself a ‘profession’ or if it’s really more of an ‘art’.  In short, the (latest) brains behind this suggest that, as an industry, we are ‘obsessed’ with aligning ourselves with the corporate world.  PRs have become so blinded by the corporate light, that we’ve all forgotten what creative, mystical creatures we are and lost touch with our inner artist (of course, I paraphrase).

Well, this all makes me rather cross.  I consider working in PR to require a number of skills – from top notch written and verbal communication to a knack for all things digital, plus a mix of organisational, creative, and crisis management expertise.  Not forgetting a lot of patience and, quite crucially, an understanding of how the business world (or corporate, if you like) works in order to provide the best level of service for our clients.  Essentially, it’s one big balancing act.

I’m not disputing there is an ‘art’ to PR at all; the ability to craft messages, build insightful campaigns and consequently make them a success does take talent.  It would just be difficult to achieve without the right knowledge and awareness of the business or sector in question, and the simple gumption and professionalism to challenge clients’ thought process when necessary. 

It’s the combination of all these elements that make PR such a diverse profession to be in.  So, instead of putting the ‘profession stuff’ on the backburner, perhaps we should think about shifting this debate there instead. 

Big changes due for the little screen

By Jonathan Mathias

This time every year we’re treated to a whole host of new tech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (hat tip to RR for this excellent photo history).  Most of what we see on the news involves weird, wonderful, but pretty silly gadgets like Hapifork, although I personally think this ‘Pebble’ watch, which is something of a Kickstarter success story, has more potential than most.

Underneath all that, there’s usually one or two more sensible, established technologies that the big players are looking to make disruptive updates to over the next 12 months.  Whereas in recent years it’s been all about smartphones, this year TV – although it’s always on the agenda – seems to be resolutely where it’s at.

At first thought, TV technology hasn’t really changed a great deal in the last century, but being old enough to remember having a black and white TV (some 13,000 of us still need to upgrade) with only four channels and a tuning dial, today’s LCD TVs with built-in streaming services are already a world apart – but what next?     

While Samsung has thrown weight behind smart-TVs, Sony is punting ‘4K’ HD, but it’s Apple, conspicuous by its relative absence in the market, that is being looked at to make or break the pathway for TV technology development during the near future.  There have been any number of analyst and editorial reports pondering what delights will come out of Cupertino this year, some even suggesting that Apple absolutely must take ownership of our living rooms, lest the likes of Google stake a big enough claim first.

As for what precisely we’ll see, one would hope for something to make as ground breaking an impact as the iPad did; any tablet doubter perhaps silenced by news that Asus and Acer have gone as far to ditch netbook production.  With the iTunes library as a resource, and so many compatible ‘i’ devices in the wild, there’s certainly potential for something interesting.  With ITV already being taken, maybe the biggest challenge will be working out what to call it.