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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 prefer #79 (TASER X26, 2003) If you have one of these you can probably eventually get everything else on the list.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
personally, I would have opted for the red swingline stapler.
The PowerBook 100 was a great machine and all, but let's be serious.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
d33r 54nt4, 1 b33n v3ry 1337 th15 y34r..
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
100. nsi bedazzler, 1970s filler characters
99. swingline 747 stapler, 2002 filler characters
98. pez dispenser, 1927 filler characters
97. mattel intellivision, 1980 filler characters
96. olympus zuiko pearlcorder, 1970 filler characters
95. carl zeiss victory 8 x 42 t*fl binoculars, 2004 filler characters
94. schick electric razor, 1931 filler characters
93. columbia graphophone dictaphone, 1907 filler characters
92. popeil pocket fisherman, 1950s filler characters
91. polar wireless heart rate monitor, 1977 filler characters
90. maelzel metronome, 1816 filler characters
89. rubik's cube, 1974 filler characters
88. black & decker dustbuster, 1979 filler characters
87. radio shack trs-80 model 100, 1983 filler characters
86. tamagotchi, 1996 filler characters
85. hohner harmonica, 1857 filler characters
84. ronco inside-the-shell egg scrambler, 1978 filler characters
83. accusplit memory stopwatch, 1972 filler characters
82. alliance genie garage door opener, 1954 filler characters
81. zippo windproof lighter, 1932 filler characters
80. fisher space pen, 1967 filler characters
79. taser x26, 2003 filler characters
78. korg wt-10 electronic tuner, 1975 filler characters
77. hasbro lite-brite, 1967 filler characters
76. hp omnibook 300, 1993 filler characters
75. laser pointer, 1980s filler characters
74. lux minute timer, 1936 filler characters
73. traxxas t-maxx rc car, 1999 filler characters
72. master lock padlock, 1924 filler characters
71. tyco toys tickle me elmo, 1996 filler characters
70. atari pong c-100, 1976 filler characters
69. cuisinart food processor, 1973 filler characters
68. nokia 5100 series cell phone, 1998 filler characters
67. leatherman pst, 1983 filler characters
66. iridium satellite phone, 1998 filler characters
65. mattel football ii, 1978 filler characters
64. u.s. army p-38 can opener, 1942 filler characters
63. maglite flashlight, 1979 filler characters
62. sony wm-f5 sports walkman, 1983 filler characters
61. motorola bravo numeric pager, 1986 filler characters
60. abacus, 190 a.d. filler characters
59. sextant, 1731 filler characters
58. panasonic toughbook 18, 2003 filler characters
57. mattel magic 8-ball, 1946 filler characters
56. polaroid polavision land video camera, 1978 filler characters
55. super scissors, 1990s filler characters
54. the car alarm key fob, 1990s filler characters
53. powell & lealand compound microscope, 1861 filler characters
52. sony cfs-5000 boom box, 1980s filler characters
51. irobot roomba, 2002 filler characters
50. etch-a-sketch, 1960 filler characters
49. casio cassiopeia e-10, 1996 filler characters
48. sony digital mavica mvc-hd5, 1997 filler characters
47. canadian signal corps c-58 walkie talkie, 1943 filler characters
46. texas instruments speak & spell, 1978 filler characters
45. silva compass, 1933 filler characters
44. fuzzbuster, 1968 filler characters
43. handspring visor, 1999 filler characters
42. h4 marine chronometer, 1761 filler characters
41. rim interactive pager, 1996 filler characters
40. falcon dust-off, early 1970s filler characters
39. apple newton messagepad 120, 1994 filler characters
38. sandisk compactflash card, 1994 filler characters
37. jvc gr-c1 camcorder, 1984 filler characters
36. pulsar quartz digital watch, 1972 filler characters
35. screwpull corkscrew, 1979 filler characters
34. garmin gpscom 170, 1997 filler characters
33. bose quietcomfort headphones, 2000 filler characters
32. radiolan backbonelink and pc cardlink, 1997 filler characters
31. trek thumbdrive, 1999 filler characters
30. jvc hr-3300 vhs vcr, 1976 filler cha
THIS ACCOUNT IS OFFICIALLY RETIRED/RETARDED.
They might as well be running their webserver on #50...
This might get modded funny if people could actually get to the site and figure out which one #50 is.
In case of slashdotting, break mirror:
/ 2005_03/top100gadgets.html / 2005_03/top100gadgets-2.html / 2005_03/top100gadgets-3.html / 2005_03/top100gadgets-4.html / 2005_03/top100gadgets-5.html
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Congratulations to the BBC for making the gadets 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...
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.
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"
Any list that includes the POPEIL POCKET FISHERMAN in a list of greates gadgets isn't worth reading any further.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
what, no sex toys? the hitachi magic wand at least deserves a nod.
My SO swears by hers!
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.
Now that is a gadget that deserves some recognition in the top 100! http://www.p-p-p-powerbook.com/
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
..the printing press? I'm pretty sure most of this list couldn't exist without the proliferation of knowledge this allowed.
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 can think of at least one "portable device" that many women would think is THE best invention ever...
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
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
telephone at #23? Sure its not as fancy as a laptop but as changing the entire world goes, few things have done more.
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)
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.
...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
> 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.
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.
I mean, come on, #100 is the rhinestone-on-bluejeans-affixing Bedazzler?! Of course this isn't serious list of technologies.
[
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.
#20 The Swiss Army Knife. I have not had a day go buy where I did not use mine. And I even open a bottle of wine with it once. :)
It's all fun and games until someone loses the key to the handcuffs.
seriously. Productivity during the summer months would drop off heavily because no one could get a good nights sleep
Gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to warrant inclusion.
And no dildo? You call this news for nerds?...
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
When I was a boy, the Greeks attacked and killed the Latins only to steal thier words.
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
The "Unslashdotable Server".
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
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!;-)
Man i can't believe it!
They think that digital watches are still pretty neat, but didn't put it at number 42! They ought turn their geek cards in!
Way to set yourselves up for a perfect inside joke and not even coem thru with it guys!
God damn do I hate the stupid space pen myth. Fischer developed the pen at his own expense, as graphite pencils had the potential to cause problems in the cabin. Remember, kids, graphite conducts electricity, and a tiny little pencil tip floating around the cabin could be a very bad thing. It takes all of ten seconds googling to debunk this stupid urban legend, but I constantly see it brought up over and over again.
Where's my grandmother's clamp-on-the-counter hand-cranked apple peeler? That thing could peel an apple in 5 seconds flat. Certainly more innovative than half the stuff on that list.
Actually the Powerbook 100 didn't even get produced for a full year, just 10 or 11 months (Oct 91 - Aug 92). And it had a predecessor, the Macintosh Portable. For the day it might have been cool, but it classifies as a luggable these days. And besides, It's not like Apple invented the laptop. Surely there were other better laptops at the time. Otherwise things would be different these days.
The PowerBook 100 shipped at the same time the PowerBook 140 and 170 did. The PowerBook 100 was basiclly a microsized Macintosh Portable and was designed by Sony. The PowerBook 140 and 170 were larger, but also faster and were designed by Apple. The PowerBook 100's design goal was compactness, that's why it had an external floppy drive.
I don't remember the original price, but the PowerBook 100 was very overpriced when it shipped. For about the same price as a PowerBook 100 + Floppy drive you could buy a PowerBook 140, which had an internal floppy drive and was faster and had a better screen. The PowerBook 140 also had a NiCad battery rather than the lead acid battery in the PowerBook 100. (Both had about the same runtime though). The PowerBook 100 flopped for price reasons. Apple cleared them out at Costco for $800, less than half the price of the PowerBook 140. That's how I bought mine. For abour $900 I had a shiny new thin PowerBook, external floppy drive, and a nice carrying case. That was an EXTREMELY good deal back in those days. I loved my PowerBook 100, it was a sleek little gizmo. Running Word 5 on it while sitting in a coffee shop was such a hightech, futuristic experience!
The PowerBook 140 and 170 sold well, REALLY well. Apple even sold a PC connection kit to help you sync up your PowerBook to your DOS or Windows 3.0/3.1 PC. For awhile Apple had almost half of the entire notebook marketshare. They were teh first company to put the trackball below the keyboard and inbetween "wrist rests". Prior to the PowerBook, trackballs were often clipped on to the side of notebooks. They shot themselves in the foot by not dropping their prices though. As PC notebooks got cheaper, Apple kept charging $1800 - $4000+ for their Notebooks. And when they finally did come out with the $1300 PowerBook 145b and PowerBook 150, it was just a warmed over PowerBook 140 that was already obsolete the day it hit the market.
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
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
Fire in a stick. Hmm. Comes to mind as something that has been used from time to time down through history. Guess it can't compete with the Clapper.
I'll bet! 'null' at pcmag.com? I think we all know where the 'suggestion box' chute goes to: the shredder!
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.
Sorry to be nitpicking, but in the paragraph about the Pez #98, they quote the german word 'Pfefferminz'. And they write it with 'tz'! The horror!
Every german schoolkid has to learn this: "Nach l, n, r, das merk dir ja, steht nie tz und nie ck!" (Remember this: No tz and no ck after l, n, r!) Ok, not everyone actually gets it... but anyway.
It's schwarz and not schwartz. It's Maerzen and not Martzen. And it's Pfefferminz, not Pfeffermintz. (And pretzls are actually spelled Brezeln, but that' something completely different.)
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.