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Slashdot Asks: What Do You Think Is The Most Influential Gadget Of All Time? (macrumors.com)
TIME has published a list ranking the 50 most influential gadgets of all time, from cameras and TVs to music players, smartphones, and drones. Can you guess what was the number one most influential gadget on the list? That's right, the Apple iPhone. "Apple was the first company to put a truly powerful computer in the pockets of millions when it launched the iPhone in 2007," according to TIME. "The iPhone popularized the mobile app, forever changing how we communicate, play games, shop, work, and complete many everyday tasks."
There's a lot of interesting gadgets on the list that have had a profound impact on mankind in some form or another, for better or worse. Do you agree with TIME's number one choice? What do you think is the most influential gadget of all time?
There's a lot of interesting gadgets on the list that have had a profound impact on mankind in some form or another, for better or worse. Do you agree with TIME's number one choice? What do you think is the most influential gadget of all time?
A Refrigerator. Next crap question.
Zune.
Air conditioning. Made possible the industrialization of the south, and the popularity of Arizona for retirees, so basically A/C has triggered mass migrations of people to hotter climates, with an accompanying huge energy cost. Also made possible modern architecture, which is basically huge glass greenhouses with no opening windows -- try working in something like that without A/C!!!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Hey Slashdotters!
Which is the most influential letter in the alphabet of all time? Not just the one that's had the most impact through the years, but the letter whose combination of style, utility, and inspiration will take us through the early part of the 21st century and beyond!
My pick? You might think it's going to be a vowel, but I'm going to surprise "u" and go with... "C". A little "controversial", maybe, but hey, I think it's a "classy" "choice"!
Well, now you know my pick. What's yours?!! And don't forget to tell us "y"!
As much as I admire the quality and intentions of the iPhone, I don't see it as being that important. People were texting, calling, and (gasp!) yes, even browsing the web before an iPhone ever showed up. The locked-in experience of the time was vastly inferior to what the iPhone brought to the game, which is of course the main reason that it did so well. But, without the iPhone, the smartphone market would still have developed, and people still would be carrying tiny but powerful little computers in their pockets.
And the worms ate into his brain.
the gun
Seems to me that the printing press has probably brought down more governments and effected more change that the gun. Indeed if it had not been for the gun it would probably have done this with fewer people dying.
I feel like my brain just got dumber reading that list. The Wii? Fit bit? Oculus rift? Nest Thermostat? Roku Netflixs?
None of those things should even make the top 10,000 let alone the top 50. Initially I thought they were limiting it to post 1970s stuff and then they throw in an 1850s record player.
Agreed. The 4 most influential gadgets have been:
* Wheel
* Gun
* Printing Press
* Computer
I'd like to note the irony of a magazine not mentioning the printing press anywhere on their list.
They would look far less stupid if they had simply limited the list to the last 50 years (which is where almost all their items come from).
Rather than go with "most influential" and to avoid a lot of bickering over "gadget" (by conforming to the most cited criteria here) I'll offer a few items more influential than the iPhone, in no particular order:
I could easily go on. The point, of course, is that the iPhone (or any specific smartphone) shouldn't even make the top 10.
Required reading for internet skeptics