New York Post

Retrotech is now all the rage

- Post staff

Touch screens are coming to MacBooks— whether Apple likes it or not.

The Neonode AirBar, a $99 gadget announced this week at the Consumer Electronic­s Show in Las Vegas, can convert a MacBook Air’s screen into a touch screen when placed under it.

That’s despite the fact that Apple has long resisted enabling touch screens onits laptops.

“After an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off,” Steve Jobs griped in 2010, blasting the “terrible ergonomics.”

For autumn 2017, Neonode is planning an AirBar for the new MacBook Pro — even though the latest version has the Touch Bar, which Apple execs insist is better than a touch screen. The latest retro trend: Vinyl records (right). Sales were up 26 percent in 2016, according to Buzz Angle.

Looking in a record sleeve is “like opening a fine wine or smoking a cigar,” says Charlie Randall, CEO of high-end stereo maker McIntosh Labs, whose sales were up last year. “It’s an experience, putting an album on a turntable. It’s a satisfying moment.”

This year will be “take two” for Kodak’s bid to revive its Limited Edition Kodak Super 8 camera.

On Thursday at CES, the 136year-old film firm announced a “functionin­g prototype” of its first 8mm movie camera since 1982. Thing is, Kodak had revealed a nonfunctio­ning prototype at last year’s CES, with promises of a product by the end of 2016.

Kodak’s sort-of excuse: Adeluge of interest from Super 8 aficionado­s— from sentimenta­l hobbyists to Hollywood luminaries like “Star Wars” director J.J. Abrams — spurred a pivot.

“We realized we weren’t making one camera for everybody — we were looking at a platform or a product range,” a Kodak spokeswoma­n said.

The first camera to hit the market in May will be a “special edition” that’s “at the high end” of that range, she added.

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