Posted on 05/03/2016 3:27:49 PM PDT by Swordmaker
The Tech that forever changed the way we live, work, and play.
Think of the gear you can’t live without: The smartphone you constantly check. The camera that goes with you on every vacation. The TV that serves as a portal to binge-watching and -gaming. Each owes its influence to one model that changed the course of technology for good.
It’s those devices we’re recognizing in this list of the 50 most influential gadgets of all time.
Think of the gear you can’t live without: The smartphone you constantly check. The camera that goes with you on every vacation. The TV that serves as a portal to binge-watching and -gaming. Each owes its influence to one model that changed the course of technology for good.
It’s those devices we’re recognizing in this list of the 50 most influential gadgets of all time.
Some of these, like Sony’s Walkman, were the first of their kind. Others, such as the iPod, propelled an existing idea into the mainstream. Some were unsuccessful commercially, but influential nonetheless. And a few represent exciting but unproven new concepts (looking at you Oculus Rift).
Rather than rank technologies—writing, electricity, and so on—we chose to rank gadgets, the devices by with consumers let the future creep into their present. The list—which is ordered by influence—was assembled and deliberated on at (extreme) length by TIME’s technology and business editors, writers and reporters. What did we miss?
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
The local radio station here (KTRH 740) runs a radio ad "We didn't have remote controls when we were growing up... That's why we had you kids!"
-PJ
Is that a large quantity of lattes, so large that it must be palletized?
;^)
I have a HP-25 and HP-97 programmable calculators. HP had the best calculators available in the 1970s, really elegant machines. They're actually small computers, being programmable. As you said, slide rulers no longer necessary after HP made these gadgets.
Thinking of that, the Slide Rule should be on the list. . .
Digital watch, walkie talkie, and kitchen timer
My spell checker kept changing it to that spelling. . . I finally gave up. I'm not sure where that spelling came from, but I think it wants to be French Painter. . .
I thought the HP-35 was the first.
And the ignition timing light
Looks like you are right. OK, HP-35 instead of the TI.
Politically incorrect now, but the gadget that won World War II - the Zippo lighter. Runner up, the Bic lighter. And now that I think of it, the Bic 19 cent ball point pen.
Dang RPN. I did a lot of transformer design calcs on the HP-45.
You just improved my quality of life.
You just improved my quality of life.
Any Ball point pen, also a WWII invention if I recall correctly. . . at least the first successful ones, the Biro ball point pens invented in Argentina.
Our first color tv was a Heath Kit my father put together with a lot of help from his engineer BIL. It had a wired remote. Power, and a button to advance the VHF tuner.
Canned food. Then, they had to invent all of those nifty can openers.
Well, early on I think most canning was actually done in glass jars.
If you want to know more about canned food do a Google on the Steamship Bertrand. It’s quite a fascinating story!
Apparently, it was developed in Europe, but for some reason the Jewish inventors decided to move to Argentina from continental Europe during the early 1940s.
For a Gen X type, I have more of those than I thought I would. Six, to be precise.
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