Welcome to Tekkiepix, an archival gallery of professionally-shot, historic technology pictures and stories curated by veteran journalist and broadcaster Barry Fox

This site is intended to be a fun browse – as well as a research tool – for anyone who is curious about Life Before Apple, Android, Google, Netflix, YouTube, Spotify et al. Here you will find pictures and stories about huge successes and spectacular failures, some of which killed the companies that bet the bank on them – while others made fortunes and enabled what we take for granted today. You’ll very likely be surprised at the size and weight and cost of the first audio and video portables – it’s not that long since what now fits in a pocket or slips on a wrist needed a wheelbarrow to make it portable.

When CD was launched it was seen as the vinyl-killer. Now CD is dying and LP’s are selling well. But the digital tricks that CD relied on paved the way for MP3, digital TV and high definition pictures with wrap-around sound, which in turn led straight to streaming. Not so long ago, a TV set that hung on the wall was a pipe dream. Now the only place you see a picture tube screen is in a skip at a rubbish tip waiting for eco-safe disposal. Tangly tape was the only way to record sound and pictures. Nowadays you only see tape in jumble sales or charity shops.

The unprecedented lockdowns of 2021 are leading more people than ever into relying on home entertainment technology… and 2021 just happens to be the fiftieth anniversary of the first home TV recorder. To see more about this milestone, use the Search icon at the top of this page or the Stories menu to find out about something clunky called ‘U-matic’.

All constructive comments on what we’ve done so far with tekkiepix are welcome via the Contact form. And if you would like to see more of the literally thousands of pictures that are waiting to be processed and posted, and to read more about what the pictures show, please consider using the Donate button at the top of the About page. All proceeds will go to paying for continued web site hosting and perhaps employing help with the tedious work of scanning and indexing glossy print photos and 35mm negatives and slides. Your donation will help save them from ending up in landfill.