A President's Day/Saturday bonus for tech gear heads! Which first? "Techmoan" has two interesting old electronic devices to explore, but here's the "Plebian thing" first. A 1971 AM/FM Talking Clock Radio, Panasonic RC-6900 that announces the time of day. It doesn't work, but that never stopped the UK's handiest boffin from taking it apart to see what ails it. It's a 60Hz USA model, so it's going to "run slow" in the 50Hz UK.
February 1997 JVC Victor XM-R2
What else is on "Techmoan's" workbench? A 1997 Japan Domestic JVC Victor XM-R2 Touchscreen Portable MiniDisc Recorder, that's what! For CD Pirates, it's much easier to add track information via supplied stylus rather than turn a wheel hither and yon to input data character by character. This "4 tracks at a time display" was a "battery vampire," which led JVC back to the "character wheel." JVC also made one for Akai, PDM-7R.