Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Top 100 Gadgets of All Time

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the com'on-rubiks-cube dept.

akintayo writes "Mobile PC released its list of the top 100 gadgets of all time. The number one gadget was the Apple Powerbook 100. And the list does include some older gadgets, most notably the Abacus at #60. The BBC also has an article on the list."

28 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. Abacus by Infonaut · · Score: 5, Insightful
    So the abacus, in use for centuries, comes in at #60 of all time, but the PowerBook 100, which was in production for a few short years is ranked #1?

    The PowerBook 100 was a great machine and all, but let's be serious.

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
    1. Re:Abacus by Infonaut · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Keep in mind that this list was in Mobile PC magazine.

      Quite true. But I'd consider an abacus to be a pretty damned effective mobile computing device. It's certainly a better mobile PC than, say, a taser.

      --
      Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
    2. Re:Abacus by Carbonite · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I completely agree. I was just pointing out the most likely reason for the obvious bias in this list. Three different laptops ranked above the telephone? Absurd.

      --
      ich muß mehr Kuhglocke haben
    3. Re:Abacus by antifoidulus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You gotta love these top ---- of all time articles on /., it's like VH1 for Nerds, countdowns that don't matter.

      --
      Monstar L
  2. Absolute ZERO to see here. Move along now by essreenim · · Score: 3, Insightful
    86. TAMAGOTCHI, 1996 Could the overwhelming success of this pocket-size virtual pet -- 40 million were sold worldwide -- make this the strangest cultural phenomenon ever? I mean WTF? It's was nothing new then it it's nothing new now.

    An also, they feature a satellite wireless mobile phone developed by a company that flopped through the ground. Well done! Worst list EVER. These lists should be seious. It looks like a list Barbie would have made.

  3. Re:Recent biases by Carbonite · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would also seem sensible to rank the telephone above the ipod.

    --
    ich muß mehr Kuhglocke haben
  4. Re:here's the list by WormholeFiend · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OMG the calculator watch didnt make the list!

  5. Definition of Gadget? by dostert · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A gadget is "a device that is very useful for a particular job" (http://www.wordreference.com/definition/gadget) Things by Ronco, space pen, laser pointer, etc are gadgets. A general laptop is NOT a gadget. Unless you define your job as 'using a computer' which as we all know if much more than just a single thing. Similarly, abacus and calculator are used for mathematics, engineering, etc, which again I think the 'field of mathematics' is much more than a single particular thing. If you want to make a list of the most useful inventions, many of these will go on there, but at least in my mind, a Powerbook is not a gadget.

  6. How about.. by J+x · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ..the printing press? I'm pretty sure most of this list couldn't exist without the proliferation of knowledge this allowed.

  7. No Commodore Products? by vjmurphy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seems like the Vic-20 or Commodore 64 would be in there somewhere. Certainly they were much better gadgets than something like a Panasonic Toughbook or two flavors of Apple laptops.

    --
    Vincent J. Murphy
    Spandex Justice
  8. Re:Recent biases by Otter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And the sextant and chronometer arguably affected long-distance travel more than Bose noise-canceling headphones...

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  9. Centuries? Try millenia! by jd · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The abacus is unquestionably the oldest calculating machine still in use today, and it is positively ancient. It also has no buffer overflow problems, doesn't require software patches, and isn't subject to patents.


    However, it is not the only gadget that is misplaced or missing. There is no mention of the Babbage Difference Engine. Where are all of Sinclair's devices and gizmos? Where's all the award winners of the Prince of Wales Awards for Innovation?


    Where's 99.9% of the stuff invented between 10,000 BC and 1970 AD?

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    1. Re:Centuries? Try millenia! by shotfeel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The abacus is unquestionably the oldest calculating machine still in use today

      I'd say the oldest calculating machine, and most used even today, can be found at the end of your arm.

    2. Re:Centuries? Try millenia! by jd · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The difference engine is pretty small.


      There was a mechanical calculator made by in a POW camp, during World War II that could be held in the hand - it was accurate to 10 or 12 digits, and was faster than any comparable device of the day. I forget the name of it, but the invention revolutionized post-war economics as it forced people to think small, without impacting ability.


      The Sinclair digital radio was about the size of a small earring box. It had an all-digital amplifier and was a major contributer to the drift towards the digital from the analog. It was incredibly light, too. This was in the 60s, I believe.


      The Sinclair wrist calculator, from the 70s I think, was the first wearable computing device. That's pretty portable, if you ask me. As with all of Sinclair's ideas, his ability to design went far beyond his ability to implement, but it did work and did contribute towards a major rethink on how people used technology.


      The Sinclair ZX-80 was one of the first "true" home machines, in that it was designed with the stresses of the home, not the stresses of the workplace, in mind. The keyboard was impervious to tea and coffee, because it was a touchpad. Key words were all placed in hard-coded macros on the touchpad, eliminating the possibility of typing errors. That sort of thing.


      One winner of the Prince of Wales award was a directional alarm bell. You could carry it, put it on a wall, whatever. The important thing was that you could tell your direction with respect to it, from the sound that you heard. As a result, it would be possible to navigate towards it, even in zero visibility. That's a damn good gadget, in my opinion.


      Other gadgets people use include metal detectors, ground-penetrating RADAR, polarized filters, the stethoscope (one of the most amazing medical gadgets of all time, without question), the medical "life vest" which monitors EKG constantly and transmits wirelessly to a base station for people at severe risk of a heart attack...


      Older gadgets - the Gutenberg Press was pretty portable. The self-sharpening blade was a pretty good idea and was a major factor in agriculture from the Middle Ages onwards. It is arguable that large societies could not have existed without the plough, at least not for long.


      The wheel is pretty useful, and is one of the oldest inventions of any kind. Still in widespread use, with only minor changes. And while it is not worn, it is arguably mobile as there's very little that COULD be mobile without it.


      So, yes, the last 10,000 years or so has seen many inventions and innovations which are portable and often small, thus meeting the criteria.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  10. What about... by eno2001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...the wheel? Most of the gadgets in the world could't live without one.

    --
    -"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
  11. Re:list of useless over-indulgence by wwest4 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    > Thankyou for reproducing what is the crappiest list ever.
    > ...the continuing decendency of /. into the armpit of mediocrity.

    No, Thankyou. Maybe they'll increase the frequesncy of good stories when the frequesncy of good posts increases.

    What is an armpit of mediocrity, anyway? Is that like the bad part of mediocrity? Is that still better than being on the shoulder of piss-poor? Gosh, I hope I don't descenden to that level.

  12. What a biased load of crap by prgrmr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The sextant and the abacus did more to shape the whole of humanity than the rest of the list combined. The abacus is still in use today, and probably by more people than there were Powerbooks made, let alone sold and still in use.

    The top ten items on the list are almost all entertainment based or related rather than scientific acheivements or technical enablers. They ought to have split this into two lists: one for "fun" stuff and one for science and industry.

  13. Gadgets, not Technologies by Speare · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Apparently, this list is ranking the popularity of "gadgets," not seminal or influential technologies. I read the word "gadget" as an indication that you get it and use it because you like it, not because it's somehow a world-changing concept.

    I mean, come on, #100 is the rhinestone-on-bluejeans-affixing Bedazzler?! Of course this isn't serious list of technologies.

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
  14. Re:powerbook 100? by sulli · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would have chosen the 140/170 instead of the 100. The 100 was a one-time design that was never used again, made by Sony. The 140/145/150/160/165/170/180 was a design that redefined portable computing and was available for years.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
  15. When I was a boy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    the plural of abacus was abacuses. (The word comes from Greek, not Latin).

  16. where is the air conditioner? by Savatte · · Score: 2, Insightful

    seriously. Productivity during the summer months would drop off heavily because no one could get a good nights sleep

  17. Re:how about a list of pre-1700 gadgets? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The English longbow.

  18. Re:how about a list of pre-1700 gadgets? by manifoldronin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The compass, of course. The bow... The difficulty with a pre-industrial age list is that a lot of cool gadgets from then have become such an essential part of our daily lives that we don't look at them as "gadgets" any more. E.g., shoes.

    --
    Tyranny isn't the worst enemy of a democracy. Cynicism is.
  19. Things that should have been on the list ... by scruffy · · Score: 2, Insightful
    ... but maybe I just didn't see them.

    slide rule
    bound books (helluva lot better than scrolls)
    eyeglasses
    flush toilet (heh)
    light bulb (surely I missed this)
    whatever that thing is that surveyors use
    plumb line
    tableware
    knifes (ok, the Swiss Army Knife was there)
    more generally, any common tool
    keys
    credit cards, magnetic strip cards in general

  20. They were thinking much too new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    79bc is as far as anyone wanted to go back too?

    Did any consider the Ox Yoke? Without which an agrarian society would never have developed...

    What 'bout the zipper?

  21. Magic 8-Ball?! by wcrowe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Magic 8-Ball? Tickle-Me-Elmo? WTF?! How about the ratchet wrench? The cordless drill? The Simpson P260 Multimeter?

    Hey, next time your wife, girlfriend, or kid asks you to fix something, try waving your magic 8-ball at it, Sparky.

    (Sheesh!)

    --
    Proverbs 21:19
  22. Missing and Wrong by Dausha · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The left off the vibrator.

    Seriously, though. The clock was left off. Without it, sailors would not have been able to accurately calculate their longitude. I saw the sextant was listed. However, the importance of gadgets to travel the oceans during the Age of Discover are, I'm sorry, more important than the iPod. Without them, there might not be European domniation of the planet and crackers like me in the US. What has the iPod done that compares?

    This looks more like an advertisement.

    --
    What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
  23. Don't forget the clock. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Until an accurate chronometer was developed it was not possible to calculate longitude, and the sextant was useles. Before the marine chronometer precise navigation was only a pipe dream.