it's been a while since I've used the
old time machine but I've blown the dust
off it today because I want to show you
something that's 40 years old from Japan
this device is brand new in box from
1977 and it's called the panel pick from
national now I think we can play a bit
of a game here as I show you around this
try to figure out what it does we've got
a book and we've got the item that's in
this box here I'll open this box up
first of course national is mostly known
as a hello colleagues brown so it's some
sort of electronics device it's called
the sf1 if you can read Japanese you
might better figure out what this is a
bit earlier than everyone else but for
the rest of us just see how long it's
going to tell you to determine what
exactly this object is and what it does
I won't show you the instruction
straight away because that might give it
away a little bit too easily I'll put
those to one side and we'll have a look
inside this polystyrene oh the price is
there
nine thousand seven hundred yen from
1977 so it's not an expensive item now I
don't think anyone's ever been in this
packaging since it was first wrapped up
so this is new old stock and it's all
plastic the body on here there's a bit
of a sort of grill on the top there's
some felt on the base if you look around
the side is bit more stuff on it we're
gonna volume control and some holes
below that one so that's showing it's
gonna play some kind of sound we're
going to button at the top there a
leaver and R and on this side you can
see the guts DC in power and then two
three and a half millimeter mini jacks
now if you can't read Japanese above
them it tells you what they are the one
on the left has got a picture of a
microphone and then the one on the right
has an ear so we've got them headphone
output and a microphone input so this is
going to be a speaker on the top then so
we've got a volume a speaker an earphone
outputting a microphone input perhaps
some kind of radio it takes batteries on
the side I'll put four double A
batteries in here so we could get it
powered up and then see what it does so
just put the cover back on there and
we'll switch it on and see if anything
comes out of it perhaps it's a radio or
something that you can
tune in some air but no can every bit of
a were going on inside but turn the
volume up get a bit more of it on a
crackle but still it's not doing an
awful lot at the moment now it turns out
that that's cap that's on the base can
be removed so let's just take that off
there and this might start to give it
away of it now inside here we've got a
piece of cardboard that's protecting
something if I remove that yeah there's
something under there that can be moved
towards the centre let's have a look at
the book maybe that gives it away a
little bit more hardback book we've got
another piece of paper in here or a
leaflet with lots of writing in it's all
in Japanese of course but no pictures
and they're just lots of writing so I
put that to one side
the book has color pictures in here each
page has a big color picture and you
can't help to notice but there's also a
circle on each page with a picture in it
if we look at that in a bit more detail
we can see that that's some kind of
flexi disc record so yeah I think it's
all coming together now we've got a book
with records on each page we've got a
device with a speaker on it and a stylus
on the bottom so that just needs to go
on top of there and if we press the on
button once we get it located perfectly
over the disk we'll see what happens
[Music]
so going through the book each page has
a different instrumental record on it
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
whilst the sound is mono and it's not
exactly high-five quality it is better
than I was expecting given the type of
medium that it's on is a direct feed
from the headphone output
[Music]
[Applause]
so if you're talking Japanese out
instrumentals you know what this books
going to me it's the lyrics for the
songs because this is being used as a
karaoke device of course you plug your
microphone into the front and sing along
with the lyrics that are written in this
book you can see some of these records
are quite old copyrights this device
came out I think to start with in 1976
so these will be some classics you can
see can get other titles in the range as
well this is volume to activate total of
four now I think this is quite a nice
idea you gets a good quality and
attractive hardback book tailing 17
Tunes you can then sing along with now
of course we've seen little records line
is being used in children's toys but
this is the first time I've seen
something like this
aimed at an adult's audience
[Music]
let's just take a look underneath the
pan a pic to see what's going on while
it's playing music so I'll switch it off
with a button on the top which retracts
the stylus looking underneath I'm gonna
hold this disc down because that's the
page censor and now when I switch it on
you can see the stylus moves around the
outside of course that's really the
opposite to the way a record player
works instead of the record moving we've
got the stylus moving and it will move
in towards the center of the disc of
course being drawn in by the groove
that's on the page the instructions
consist of the usual do's and don'ts for
example you're supposed to play on a
flat level surface you're supposed to
clean the stylus regularly and make sure
the pages or the discs are nice and
clean and you can't even replace that
stylus if you want to now on the cap on
the base of the device which we took off
there's also the instructions repeated
on there along with a little disk so can
actually hear that if we put it back on
to the bottom of the pan a ping so let's
just have a brief listen unfortunately
my device seems to be a little bit prone
to getting stuck as it moves in towards
the center of each record
unfortunately I've been unable to find
the maximum length of one of these discs
because the thing always seems to get
stuck before it gets to their end
so that could have led to some very long
and drawn-out karaoke sessions but
you'll be glad to know that I was unable
to get any of my microphones to work
with this I've got a range of mics and
nothing came through from any of them on
the speaker perhaps the one they sold
with it was wired in a different manner
but it's not exactly a great loss now
the panic peak wasn't just a karaoke
device it was a multi-purpose machine
the book that came with mine was karaoke
but there were a range of different
books sold educational as well as
entertainment you could read along with
mother you could look at the pictures
listen to the tunes or perhaps learn
another language and in this picture
here you can see could learn to read
sheet music and hear that music being
played back through the device based
upon the ones I've seen for sale on the
second-hand market it seems like one of
the most popular uses for this device
was to play back embedded messages and
songs that were contained on these
collectible cards that had pictures of
idols on them and as I'm sure some of
the US viewers have already spotted and
are probably typing out right now this
is very similar to the Sports Talk
player that came out there in 1989 which
played back messages that were on the
back of collectible baseball cards and
indeed when you look at the mechanism
for this it seems like it's using the
same system as the pana pick now I
believe that powder pick system was
launched in 1976 the book I've got here
is copyright 1977 and it's volume 2 in
this range so that makes this one here
40 years old and when you think about
what we've got we've got color pictures
and text and music which we can jump
around to select any track we want to
read the text and listen to the music
look at the pictures it's really a
multimedia system so in that regard it's
a little bit ahead of its time I can see
why it didn't take the world by storm
but still it doesn't mean it's not
without its charms
[Music]
but that's it for the moment as always
thanks for watching
[Music]
so I suppose with you being a Big Apple
firm you're going to get the new iPhone
X then 10 what it's the iPhone 10 the X
stands for 10 Omar d da where Apple
where to go for numbers now whatever
happened to the iPhone died then I don't
know I wasn't in the meeting but aren't
you bothered about the not I don't know
what you're talking about the screen
it's got a big notch cut out of the top
it's stupid
all right and it has face recognition
that's supposed to unlock it but didn't
when they demonstrated it you seem to
have done a lot of research into
something that you think is stupid and
if you have an identical twin they can
unlock your phone I don't have a twin
but if I did I'd hope they'd respect my
privacy and I'm not getting a new phone
ah but if you did and they didn't and
you were then it could be a problem well
hold on you just said that face
unlocking thing didn't work yes but now
you're saying it works too easily Oh
typical Apple firm jump into their
defense you seem much more interested in
this than I am
my old phone is still working fine
that's just the kind of thing an Apple
fan girl would say well in that case
you're a Smeg fanboy what well ah oven
it's make ice meg you chose it over all
the other ovens in the shop so you must
be a big fan of Smeg nor it doesn't work
like that
how about Hotpoint no will poo Oh
Samsung what phones no I was thinking
about the microwave oh no then Panasonic
no listen it's just Apple if you buy
anything from Apple you're obviously a
massive fan
Oh anything for a quiet life you
yes I'm a massive fan of Apple I buy
everything they release no matter how
much it costs finally the truth comes
out
now when you do buy your iPhone X kind
of have your old phone I've just dropped
my blackberry down the toilet
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