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Top 100 Gadgets of All Time
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."
I would have thought the abacus (ranked on the list, but lost in the middle) would have been more important in the overall list than a Tivo... the transistor or vacuum tube before computers and digital cameras...
so the serving is getting quite a workout.
Fun article, but could have been researched a little better. In its bit on the Fisher Space Pen, it repeats the myth that while we blew millions developing a pen that could write upside down, the Soviets just used pencils, which is a common myth. As one cosmonaut said, "pencil lead breaks...and is not good in space capsule; very dangerous to have metal lead particles in zero gravity"
They list the Zenith Space Command TV Remote from 1956 as the first wireless remote. This was a great remote that gave us the word 'clicker' due to the way that it used ultrasonics to send the signal to the tv. However, the Philco Mystery Control from 1939 is the first real 'wireless' remote that was made. It operated much like a rotary telephone control and sent its signal by radio. (Links go to google cache).
"Asleep at the switch? I wasn't asleep, I was drunk!" -- Homer
I'd have opted for the plough, or perhaps kiln. Although "The Gadget" certainly had a more recent major impact on civilization.
telephone at #23? Sure its not as fancy as a laptop but as changing the entire world goes, few things have done more.
I'd love to see a "top 100 gadgets of the pre-industrial age" - say, anything before 1700 just to be arbitrary.
Special notation to any gadget that was still in common use in the 20th century.
The abacus of course, and the pen and the first hand-carryable printing press come to mind.
The lantern and numerous gadgets used on the farm and by doctors and scientists would also make the list.
If you have a favorite pre-1700 gadget, please reply here.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Speaking of the red swingline stapler, yes, the one from the movie, it's 2 cubes over on one of my teammates' desk.
Not all of my co-workers are cheep.
As far as the list: The #1 and #2 are: Breech-loading repeat action rifle, and the bayonet. With these, you can make any damn list you like: List of countries we've invaded, list of tribes we've wiped out, list of kings we've deposed, list of languages English has displaced.
Isn't technology grand?
"Piter, too, is dead."
Ahh, but if you'd read further you'd have seen such gems as:
And other silly things.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
These are much better examples of classic gadgets then the Powerbook 100. The Powerbook line should have been mentioned once not twice.
The IBM Thinkpad 701 was mentioned but I think it has clearly had more impact on the way people work and the laptop market in general then the powerbook.
I was gratified to see the Tivo mention and in light of the deathwatch , maybe this offers some hope.
I was still using one of those in 1995 to interface with our card readers that controled the doors (it held the user access database). It was the only thing that was reliable enough that we could leave under our raised floor in our computer room and with it's batteries, it could run for almost a day without external power. Very handy when the building lost power yet again and someone needed to get into the room (no, we weren't issued keys).
In no particular order..
Perhaps it doesn't appeal to the stereotypical geek, but the vibrator. The pocket calculator as well as; The calculator/remote control/radio controlled/FM radio *wristwratch* (surely the pinnacle of minitiaturization!).
Of course, the bonefone: link. The transistor radio. The world receiver radio. The wind-up/clockwork radio/charger. The intimidating maglite flashlight. Glowsticks! Neither electonic, nor moving parts, but who can resist luminecence!
7" 33 1/3rpm vinyl gramophone records; or I can do you even better than that - 7" 33 1/3 rpm plastic gramophone records that were given away as inlays with MSX Magazine, that you'd dub on tape, and you'd "load" programs off of the tape using the regular "data cassette recorder".
CB (Citizen's Band, 27 "megacycle") radio. ZX80. C64. Nuff said. The lava lamp! Duh! The strap-on (wait for it) keyboard (keyboard guitar).
The hearing aid. The answering machine remote control/handheld DTMF tone dialer. Also; the blue box! The minox sub-miniature "spy" camera (as seen in james bond). The SLR Single Lens Reflex camera. Automatic tweezers (They don't work particularly well, but they have a gadget-esque movement)
The portable DVD player. Toys robots (remote controlled, especially; the robosapiens is a good stab at the concept). Magnesium firestarters. (I'm the firestarter!)
Personal Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (P-EPIRBs) RC cars, helicopters. E.g. The translator pen (scans text when you move across it, translates) The penman robotic plotter and of course the closely related concept of the Logo turtle..
The random movement printer (If and when it becomes widely available..) Lego mindstorms (programmable bricks..)
The most important hand-helds historically; the Smith&Wesson and the AK47.
Also, though not an autonomous device, nor mechanical, nominated for achievements in disrupting the global economy, I'd like to recognize bubblejet printer ink, for costing more than its weight in gold or oil.
Aerosol spray canisters; specifically,
every graffitti artist's friend: spraypaint and every gadget-minded geek's friend: deodorant (especially the miniature cans) and of course; aerosol cheese! Also, perhaps slightly more
palatable, mace pepper spray.
The electric toothbrush (with induction-loop-charging-circuit magic!)
Not the greatest gadget in history until you consider it's "dual use" nature, and the fact it's marketed so widely.
Sattellite TV. Not the most portable of gadgets, but come on! Windscreenwiper glasses. (Though more of a chindogu) The mac. The iMac for doing it twice. The aibo.
The "orgasmotron" (actually just a head massager, not at all naughty) Stylish pin clock. The keyghost hardware keystroke logger.
The digital camera. The digital photo frame.
The credit-card sized Anything, but in particular, the cre
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
While true technically a Dildo does not belong to the realm of 'Gadgets'. The site defines a gadget as:
It has to have electronic and/or moving parts of some kind.
Scissors count, but the knife does not.
It has to be a self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own, not a subset of another device.
The flashlight counts; the light bulb does not. The notebook counts, but the hard drive doesn't.
It has to be smaller than the proverbial bread box. This is the most flexible of the categories, since gadgets have gotten inexorably smaller over time. But in general we included only items that were potentially mobile:
The Dustbuster counts; the vacuum cleaner doesn't.
Now had you said Vibrator instead of Dildo you would've made a valid point!
ohyeah, rtfa!;-)
I'll bet! 'null' at pcmag.com? I think we all know where the 'suggestion box' chute goes to: the shredder!
It was used from the second to eighteenth centuries as a clock, calendar, starchart and GPS. (Some even had slide rules built in.) Pretty much the crowning touch of any geek for most of history.
The U.S. really needs an English to Wisdom dictionary.