I confess to being ignorant of how a security update could possibly apply to a transistor radio.

Was it a joke?

Yes, I confess that I was just riffing on cbm-vic-20's clever comment.

An original Sony Walkman had nothing in it that could ever require a "security update". It had no network access, no wireless connection, and as far as I know no microprocessor, nothing that could ever enable someone to hack into it - unless they had physical access and were skilled at soldering.

Even more so, the transistor radios from the 1950s were just simple circuits with as few as five transistors. Now these were radio receivers, so by modern standards you might worry about someone hacking into them. But with five transistors all soldered together on a simple circuit board, it would be difficult for an attacker to send a signal that would somehow reprogram the radio.

Maybe a lightning bolt though! That could cause a permanent denial of service.

Painfully funny joke. I've got a little chefs steps sous vide that will become worthless the day the company goes out of business and the app is pulled from the store. Despite just needing a temperature and time setting it relies on a phone app and somehow requires an update every single time I use it =/

It has a volume that is dangerous for the ears. Much louder max volume than we have in devices today. Could motivate an "update"

Yes.

The authors spoke a common notion on how there exists no valid excuse for the prevalence of "mandatory security updates" for appliances by shedding light on how few (possibly zero) of these gadgets from a bygone era possessed either firmware or the need to "update" it.