This morning, my computer turned on and told me it had detected, and installed drivers for, a floppy drive. I checked my computer; no floppy drive. I kept searching all my ports for external floppy drives, but still no joy. Nevertheless, my computer kept insisting that I need to format the floppy in the ghost floppy drive to be able to use it, so if ever I need a ghost floppy, I'm covered, I suppose.
This reminder of times past, though, got me thinking - what happens when our old media readers have all ascended to higher planes of existence and left our old media behind? Will we be left to stare dumbly at our haphazard piles of vinyls, cassette tapes, VHSs, and floppies, the only accessible copies of their innards stored in our unreliable memories?
Enter the Cassette MP3 Converter. This is perhaps one of the last cassette tape players on the face of the Earth still under production, but it also connects via USB to computers equipped with recording and encoding software for more modern methods of storage! Power this product with two AA batteries, or even with USB bus power.
Information Sheet
| Maker / Model |
Thanko / Cassette Tape to MP3 Converter |
| Size |
110 × 77 × 30 mm (43.3 × 30.3 × 11.8 in) |
| Weight |
214g (7.5 oz) |
| Compatible operating systems |
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 |
| Power |
USB Bus power or AA x 2 (not included) |
| Interface |
USB 2.0 |
| Accessories |
Japanese manual, application CD, USB cable (80cm) |
| Audio Formats |
WAVE, MP3, WMA at 128kbps |