There's an ad on TV for Sportsnet, and it's trying to emphasize what a multi-media sports source it is. They feature TV, radio, the web, apps, and a dead-tree magazine. So to do this, they show a radio playing one of their stations, a TV showing sports, a tablet also showing sports etc.
What's weird is the radio they showed. It's got a big round speaker and a big round dial, and I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be an old-fashioned radio, a modern radio that was trying to look retro, or a modern radio that was trying to be minimalist and accidentally looked retro.
I guess what I'm getting at is that it's pretty much impossible for a radio to not look retro. No, it's not that radios are out of date, it's just that they no longer look like anything. When I tried asking myself what I would have expected a radio to look like, I didn't have an answer. I have several radios, but they're just parts of a clock, stereo, car, even an MP3 player. I don't really have a mental image of a radio.
So radios are now invisible. I wonder what other devices could become invisible in the future by being consumed by other things. Say, an MP3 player, since most people probably just use their phones for that. For a while now, tech pundits have predicted that computers will become invisible as they start to use gestures or voice commands, and start to get incorporated into TVs, appliances, clothes or houses (and as I'm writing this, I see a commercial for Amazon's "Echo" voice-activated thingamajig.)
So if you're reading this on some big, intrusive device, it's something to think about. Or, if this is being read-out to you by a computer woven into your shirt, then it's something to look back and laugh at.
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