I'll admit I am a sucker for round-ups like this one. Mobile PC magazine has a great round-up on the 100 Gadgets of All Time.
From the Sony Sports Walkman
to the Popeil Pocket Fisherman
this great piece has them all, including the Zippo lighter and even the Lite Brite. True, I don't consider the Tickle Me Elmo doll a "gadget" in the true sense of the word, or the Swingline stapler for that matter, but that's just splitting hairs. And above all, it sure beats the 100 Most Embarrassing Celebrity Moments countdown on TV.
Here are some highlights:
77. HASBRO LITE-BRITE, 1967
Who knew that all those happy hours spent punching multicolored pins into black paper were actually preparing us for a rewarding career designing web page bullets and desktop icons?
76. HP OMNIBOOK 300, 1993
Hewlett-Packard's OmniBook 300 weighed 3 pounds and packed a 386 processor and enough battery life to handle most domestic flights, but the real innovation was the "pop-out" mouse that you could pull from the right side of the machine,
attached to a thin strip of plastic. The pop-out mouse died in 1999.
30. JVC HR-3300 VHS VCR, 1976
Early videotape machines developed by Ampex in the 1950s and 1960s were roughly the size of washing machines. It wasn't until 1976 that home video took off, with JVC and Sony launching the infamous war between VHS and Betamax (not to mention a handful of other long-forgotten formats). VHS grabbed the early advantage thanks to a much lower price ($885 versus $1,300) and longer tapes, and because Sony was distracted by its now-crucial lawsuit, which legalized VCRs. Thanks, JVC, for both revolutionizing entertainment and for saddling us with this awful technology for 20 years.
29. JOSEPH ENTERPRISES THE CLAPPER, 1982
Switches became a thing of the past in 1982, when the first Clappers went on sale, letting you clap your TV, lights, or toaster oven on and off. However, the product jingle may have had a far larger impact on society than the product itself. See if you recognize the song: "Clap on. Clap off. Clap on, clap off -- the Clapper!" Now that's going to be stuck in your head all day.
20. SWISS ARMY KNIFE, 1891
Karl Elsener's first knife, which was distributed to Swiss enlisted men, featured a blade, a screwdriver, a can opener, and a punch. Today, the company Elsener founded, Victorinox, and its competitor, Wenger, offer dozens of knives featuring up to 33 different tools. Meanwhile, the name has passed into cliche as an apt description of the knife's versatility.
19. IBM THINKPAD 701C, 1995
Never mind the specs, the crazy "butterfly" keyboard cemented IBM on top of the universe of notebook design. Closed, the machine looks like any notebook with a 10.4-inch screen from its era. Flip it open, and the keyboard expands to full size, making typing a breeze. This clever rig earned the 701C a place in the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.
18.MOTOROLA DYNATAC 8000X, 1983
Ten years after Motorola researcher Martin Cooper placed the world's first cellular call, the rest of the world got its shot. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X brought mobile calling to the masses (or about 300,000 very wealthy people) for just $3,995 plus outrageously high usage fees. Fortunately, the 8000X offered only one hour of talk time, so it was difficult to rack up stratospheric bills.
--Read The Whole Thing: 100 Gadgets of All Time
