This cute retro-esque gadget may appeal more to folks who remember the Compact Cassette than to the ‘CD’ or ‘download’ generation… But love and music have been locked in a passionate embrace since music began and I like the romantic notion that true love and the music of your youth both just get better with age, like fine wine.

Enter, the Mixtape DVD drive.

Yeh… I made my honey a ‘mix’ cassette of ‘our’ songs one Valentine’s Day. He played it on his car deck until it wore out. Or did the relationship wear out, first? Well, even the most pleasant memories fade — like the last chords of a favourite tune.

But, now, you can literally plug a ‘cassette’ into your laptop or other USB-enabled gadget.

The Mixtape adapter lets you send a very special multimedia Valentine’s greeting to your sweetheart. According to vendor’s Web site, the device has a retractable USB connector and 512 MB of storage which you can load with up to 100 MP3 tunes or a mix of tunes, video and pics. Customize with the included stick-on labels and you’re groovin’…

The Mixtape USB adapter is compatible with both Windows PCs and Macs. It’s (US)$18 direct from fredflare.com.