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After 22 Years, Walt Mossberg Writes Final WSJ Column

Posted by timothy on from the end-of-year-starts-now dept.

McGruber writes "Walt Mossberg, principal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, has written his last column after 22 years of reviewing consumer technology products for the newspaper. His final column discusses the dozen personal-technology products that were most influential over the past two decades."

4 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. This list is missing something... by DSElliot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Humm... lose the MacBook Air and toss in the Garmin Forerunner GPS. The MacBook Air didn't exactly revolutionize anything. But handheld GPS has changed the way we drive, walk and find restaurants.

    1. Re:This list is missing something... by rubycodez · · Score: 3, Interesting

      consumer GPS outside of the time scope of the article, that would be 1990

    2. Re:This list is missing something... by ottothecow · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Trash either the Newton or the Palm (probably the Newton). They are both basically the same thing. The Palm followed the Newton and was successful and actually influenced people...so I would leave that one in. Having both is like having both the ipad and those ancient fujitsu tablets.

      If you really want another PDA/Phone thing...it belongs to blackberry. They were heavily used in their own right, and they directly contributed to the success of the iphone...people had them thrust upon them at work, were already warmed to the idea of a smartphone, and now are mostly using iphones. They may have clung to the BB for a long time, but when their kids and family all had iphones and they realized it could do everything their BB could do in a more friendly manner (and without running a BES), they were ready to move.

      --
      Bottles.
  2. Re:Doom by RR · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This seems like a huge omission. It's hard to think of a more influential computer game.

    Apple Newton???

    Mossberg's editorial point of view is of the average consumer, and I don't think most people care about computer games. I don't.

    But choosing the Newton because of AI? Everybody has been working on that, and the Newton's approach was a dead end. The Newton had an even bigger impact that Mossberg omitted: It launched ARM into the low-energy device market, which it now dominates.

    --
    Have a nice time.