7 Everyday Items M’sians Use Today & What They Used to Look Like Decades Ago

Thanks to the advancement of technology, there are so many things at our disposal today that help make our lives so much easier. We have things like Google to help with our assignments or find us the best places for banana leaf rice in Klang Valley; we have our phones to help us stay connected; we even have segways to get us from point A to point B without walking!

While all these things are pretty cool, much of what we use today either didn’t exist a few decades ago or they simply didn’t look like what they do today. Here are a few examples of what some of our everyday items used to look like back in the day:

1. Our trusty clothes iron

Source: hobotraveler

Believed to have existed around the 15th century, the clothes iron during that time was actually made of, well, iron or cast iron. It weighed approximately 5 to 10kg. Ironing back then probably doubled as a workout since the iron was so heavy. This charcoal iron was also much hotter and there was no way you could adjust the heat to suit your clothing material.

Today, however, our clothes irons are much lighter – approximately 2kg – and they come with built-in steam and adjustable temperatures!

Source: casa

2. The electric fan

Surce: wikimedia & azfamily

While punkah and handheld fans were widely used since 500BC, the electric fan was only invented in the 1880s. And just like the iron, it was much, much heavier – about 20kg – and for some odd reason, the fans in the ’80s weren’t as covered up as our electric fans today. It was like a Final Destination moment waiting to happen.

3. That thing we can’t live without: Our mobile phones

Source: wikipedia

The very first handheld mobile phone was created by John Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in the 1970s. Not only was the first mobile phone incredibly huge – it was 13cm thick and 4.45cm wide – but it weighed about 2kg too! Definitely not something you could fit in your back pocket. Additionally, the mobile phones from the ’70s needed 10 hours to fully charge but it could only last you about (brace yourselves)… 20 minutes. 

4. Our landline phones at home

Source: worthpoint

Created in 1876, roughly the same time as the handheld mobile phones, the first landline telephone was created by none other than Alexander Graham Bell. Initially, landline phones were directly connected to one another, from one person’s home or office phone to another. This meant that you’d only be able to make calls to a specific handful of people within a certain distance.

Thankfully, both our mobile and landline phones today can reach anyone, even people living on the other side of the world. What a time to be alive!

5. Music players 

Source: greenbot

We all know that there’s no need for MP3 players any more thanks to smartphones and music apps. Even without music apps, we could download songs onto our laptops and transfer them into our phones. Easy peasy. Once upon a time in 1979 however, these music players started off as bulky walkmans that played cassette tapes only, just like this:

Source: mentalfloss

And you could only play songs from that one cassette unless of course, you bring along a few tapes with you and replace the one in the walkman every time you get bored. So leceh wei. 

6. “Portable computers” a.k.a. laptops

Whether you’re working or studying, odds are you probably own a laptop and you bring it around with you everywhere you go. Convenient mah, right? Decades ago, however, lugging this “portable computer” around with you was close to impossible, simply because it looked like this:

Source: youtube

Yes, this was the first ever portable computer to be invented. Known as the IBM 5100, it was first released in September 1975, weighing almost 25kg. That’s half my weight wei… Also, the IBM 5100 only had a 1.9 MHz PALM processor and 64KB RAM. Thankfully, laptops today are actually portable, much smaller in size and with a lot more RAM.

Source: the verge

7. F&N products

Bet you didn’t know that F&N has been around since 1883, making this year their 135th anniversary! And regardless of where you live in Malaysia, you probably grew up with some form of F&N product in your house! From canned condensed milk to bottled 100PLUS and so forth, F&N has been a part of our heritage for a long time now.

In fact, their first ever can of sweetened condensed milk was released in 1959 and it looked like this…

Source: f&n

So vintage! What’s more, these delicious cans of condensed milk were birthed right here in Petaling Jaya! If you’re a fan and you still stock up your kitchen with F&N goods, we’ve got some great news for you!

In conjunction with F&N’s 135th Anniversary, F&N is holding a contest and they’re giving out insane prizes worth up to RM1,350,000!

Yes, RM1.35 million! 

All you have to do is:

1. Purchase ANY F&N product(s) (example: 100PLUS, F&N Sweetened Condensed Milk, F&N Seasons Tea, F&N Carbonated Soft Drinks and more)
2. Submit your proof of purchase (labels, tab printed 135, tetra barcode, etc.) along with the Consumer Contest Form (which you can get in-store or online)

That’s it! So easy and affordable to join leh!

One grand prize winner will be chosen to receive 1X 1.35kg 916 Gold Emblem (worth RM300,000), while nine other first prize winners will receive a 135g 916 Gold Coin (worth RM30,000) each. Consolation prizes include 10,000 F&N Heritage Replica Toy Vehicles. Wow!

How great is this contest? You can stand a chance to win gold just by purchasing your favourite F&N products you know! It’s definitely a win-win situation seeing as to how F&N has given us nothing but Pure Enjoyment and Pure Goodness for more than three generations now!

Contest ends 30 November 2018, so hurry up and start shopping!

Find out more about F&N products as well as the contest here!