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The invention of mobile phones

Published: 12 November 2018

At the dawn of the 1980s, engineers raced to build a cellular phone network from scratch, changing the way we communicate forever.

In the 1970s, television audiences all over the world were familiar with the notion of a hand-held two-way communication device, as seen in the hands of Captain Kirk and Mr Spock in the Star Trek series that began in the late 1960s.

The reality was far from this ideal.

Two-way radiophones had been helping police and military personnel to stay in contact in fast-changing situations since before the Second World War.

But these small, private networks required bulky equipment and were inaccessible to the public.

How were mobile phones invented?

In the 1970s, researchers at Bell Labs in the USA began to experiment with the concept of a cellular phone network. The idea was to cover the country with a network of hexagonal cells, each of which would contain a base station.

These base stations would send and receive messages from mobile phones over radio frequencies. Any two adjacent cells would operate at different frequencies, so there was no danger of interference.

The stations would connect the radio signals with the main telecommunications network, and the phones would seamlessly switch frequencies as they moved between one cell and another.

By the end of the 1970s the Bell Labs Advance Mobile Phone System (AMPS) was up and running on a small scale.

Meanwhile, Martin Cooper, an engineer at the Motorola company in the US, was developing something that came close to the Star Trek communicator that had fascinated him since he first saw it on TV.

We knew that people didn’t want to talk to cars, or to houses, or to offices; they want to talk to other people ... What we believed was that the telephone number should be a person rather than a location. Martin Cooper , inventor and entrepreneur

Martin Cooper, the engineer from Motorola, developed the first hand-held phone that could connect over Bell’s AMPS.

Motorola launched the DynaTAC in 1984. It weighed over a kilogram and was affectionately known as The Brick, but it quickly became a must-have accessory for wealthy financiers and entrepreneurs.

At almost $10,000 at today’s prices, it was not for the ordinary telephone subscriber. The 1987 movie Wall Street cemented its status as an icon of wealth and greed when it showed ruthless financier Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, walking along a beach talking into his DynaTAC.

What were the first mobile phone networks?

The new mobile technology presented a problem in the USA, where the administration wanted to curb the dominance of AT&T, and in Britain, where Margaret Thatcher’s government wanted to move away from British Telecom’s state monopoly on telecommunications.

The US approach offered contracts to two companies in every city, which resulted in a confusing mish-mash of incompatible networks.

The British government took a different approach. In 1982 it licensed two companies, Cellnet and Vodafone, to operate the country’s first cellular phone networks.  

The first calls on the UK mobile network

British engineers developed expertise as ‘radio planners’, mapping the topography as well as the distances as they devised the optimal arrangement for the mobile phone network’s base stations. Too far apart and they would leave holes in the coverage; too close together and the signals would interfere with each other.

The first base stations, large and heavy pieces of kit, were installed in 1984. During a trial period engineers drove around the country making calls to patient volunteers to test the signal strength.

Vodafone launched its network on New Year’s Day, 1985, and Cellnet followed a few days later. 

They each expected to win up to 20,000 subscribers within ten years. To their astonishment, three years later they had over half a million subscribers, and network coverage reached 90 per cent of the population.

Vodafone Transportable, launched in 1985.

Were mobile phones popular?

A strong market for mobile technology drove the development of smaller and cheaper phones until there was one to suit every pocket.

It was teenagers—always cultural innovators—who developed extraordinary dexterity and (OMG!) a whole new language of abbreviations, initials and emoticons in the 1990s, as sending text messages became an integral part of their social interaction. 

No one would have been more surprised at this development than the companies who first invested in cellular mobile phone networks, thinking they might have a market among wealthy businesspeople keen to acquire the latest gadget.

Vodafone 'Transportable' mobile telephone, 1985

Motorola 'MicroTAC Classic' mobile telephone, 1991-2000

Nokia 3210e mobile phone, Finland, c.1999

Sony Ericsson W800 'Walkman' mobile telephone, 2005-2006

Motorola Timeport L7089 mobile telephone, 1999-2002

Motorola V70 mobile telephone, 2002

Making mobile calling international

Countries besides the UK and USA also developed their own networks, and calls stopped at their borders. Taking their lead from the Nordic countries, which had cooperated to develop networks, a group of European government and industry technocrats came together in 1980 to work towards a common standard.

One of the leading figures was Stephen Temple of the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). In 1987 European leaders met in Bonn to sign the agreement that would allow mobile phone users to roam from one country to another, hopping from network to network.

What is GSM?

The common standard agreed in 1987 was called GSM. Originally, it was named for the Groupe Spécial Mobile who had thrashed out the terms, but this subsequently changed to Global System for Mobile Communications.

Unlike the first cellular networks, which had used analogue signals, GSM systems would transmit digitally: they were known as ‘second generation’ or 2G systems.

They would initially use a single radio frequency band, 900 MHz, across Europe, ensuring that users could pick up a signal wherever they were. They would include provision for SMS (short message service, or texting), and would have increased security features.

It wasn’t long before other countries made the decision to adopt the GSM standard, which was a great improvement on what was available in the US.

Nine out of ten people in the world today are now within reach of a terrestrial GSM network. But the rise of smartphone technology has changed the communication landscape again—what will the next mobile revolution look like?

More Information Age stories

A computer in your pocket: The rise of smartphones

Discover how increasingly tiny microprocessors transformed mobile phone technology, changing our lives and our habits in the process.

Robeson sings: the first transatlantic telephone cable

Discover how a concert by singer Paul Robeson tested the possibilities of the new transatlantic telephone cable.

From the first crackly telephone call to the ‘smart’ devices, how technology affects the ways we interact.

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5th grade reading & vocabulary

Course: 5th grade reading & vocabulary   >   unit 3.

• Creating objective summaries | Reading
• How can a text have two or more main ideas? | Reading
• How do writers use examples to get their points across? | Reading
• Interpreting text features | Reading

Inventing Progress: reading informational text; Discovering the Process of Invention 5

Discovering the process of invention.

• Our world runs on technology: gadgets and gizmos like computers, cell phones, and cars that drive themselves. The history of technology is built on story after story of great inventors and their brilliant ideas. But where do these ideas come from? And what does it take to bring them to life—to transform a concept into a product? The work doesn’t stop with an inventor’s ingenuity; in fact, the real work begins after the lightbulb moment.
• There’s a reason that inventors like Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers are better known than others who created more original inventions. All were skilled at navigating the business side of invention. The process of inventing takes more than an innovative idea alone: it also requires money and business savvy. Products begin as prototypes, or early samples, which have to be tested and approved. Market research tells inventors what consumers want or need and what changes are needed so the product will sell. Inventors find out who will buy their products, what consumers expect the product to do, and the best price to charge. Then comes manufacturing, marketing (or promoting and selling) the product, and applying for patents—which are documents that protect the product from being copied. Finally, the inventor has to sell enough of the product to ensure they make enough money to cover costs and keep the product alive.
• Whew! That’s a lot of risk and a lot of work. So why do inventors bother? Surprisingly, there are more reasons for inventions than you might think. Some inventors, like Patricia Bath, are fueled by humanitarian passion. Bath’s belief that sight is a basic human right led her to invent a laser that removes cataracts, a cloudiness that forms in the lens of an eye. Ferdinand Petzl was a French spelunker, or cave explorer, who wanted safer equipment to explore caves in the mid-1900s. The gear he needed to safely “spider”, or climb down, into the world’s deepest, darkest caves wasn’t available, so he designed and crafted it himself. Petzl used inventions to solve a problem.
• Sometimes inventions happen by accident. Slinkys and playdough are fun novelties that were invented by people who were trying to make something else. Other inventions have evolved over time. Early versions of the camera and the first modern automobile first appeared in the 1800s, but these inventions have since been reinvented and improved many times over. Although we tend to think of inventors as scientists or engineers, many accomplished inventors were neither—they succeeded through trial and error. Thomas Edison is a perfect example: he was a man with little education and no formal training. Edison tried thousands of filament materials before finding the one that led to his invention of the lightbulb.
• Today, most inventions are corporate—that means they’re created by large companies. Companies like Apple and IBM piggyback onto previous inventions to sustain their businesses and generate profits. Instead of one inventor trying to mold an idea into a product, corporations employ a myriad of inventors. They have the resources to manage a crucial but complex step in the invention process: filing for patents. Patents are what keep other people from copying someone else’s idea.
• Patents are legal documents that allow inventors to stop other people from making, using, or selling their invention for a set period of time. Inventors have to submit a patent application to the patent office in their country. Anyone can file a patent, but the process is complicated. In the United States, it takes about two years to get approval after filing. Once a patent expires, the idea behind the invention is available for anyone to use, so inventors try to make as much money as they can before that happens.
• Now you know a little more about the process of invention. So what do you think? Is there something in your imagination waiting to come out into the world?

Practice Question

• (Choice A)   Once a patent expires, the idea behind the invention is available for anyone to use. A Once a patent expires, the idea behind the invention is available for anyone to use.
• (Choice B)   Not every inventor who files a patent can afford to hire an attorney and an agent. B Not every inventor who files a patent can afford to hire an attorney and an agent.
• (Choice C)   All patents are assigned a patent number which is given by the patent office. C All patents are assigned a patent number which is given by the patent office.
• (Choice D)   The technical information about an invention includes a drawing that illustrates how the invention works. D The technical information about an invention includes a drawing that illustrates how the invention works.
• (Choice E)   Anyone can file a patent, but the process is complicated and it takes years to get a patent approved. E Anyone can file a patent, but the process is complicated and it takes years to get a patent approved.
• (Choice F)   Patents are documents that protect an invention from being copied by someone else. F Patents are documents that protect an invention from being copied by someone else.

The 50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time

T hink 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?

( Read TIME’s affiliate link policy .)

50. 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. Smartphones had technically existed for years, but none came together as accessibly and beautifully as the iPhone. Apple’s device ushered in a new era of flat, touchscreen phones with buttons that appeared on screen as you needed them, replacing the chunkier phones with slide-out keyboards and static buttons. What really made the iPhone so remarkable, however, was its software and mobile app store, introduced later. The iPhone popularized the mobile app, forever changing how we communicate, play games, shop, work, and complete many everyday tasks.

The iPhone is a family of very successful products. But, more than that, it fundamentally changed our relationship to computing and information—a change likely to have repercussions for decades to come.

49. Sony Trinitron

Renowned journalist Edward R. Murrow famously described television as “nothing but wires and lights in a box.” Of all such boxes, Sony’s Trinitron—launched in 1968 as color TV sales were finally taking off—stands at the fore of memorable sets, in part for its novel way of merging what to that point had been three separate electron guns. The Trinitron was the first TV receiver to win a vaunted Emmy award, and over the next quarter century, went on to sell over 100 million units worldwide.

48. Apple Macintosh

“Will Big Blue dominate the entire computer industry? The entire information age? Was George Orwell right about 1984?” That’s how Steve Jobs introduced the ad heralding the arrival of the Macintosh. With its graphical user interface, easy-to-use mouse and overall friendly appearance, the Macintosh was Apple’s best hope to take on IBM. High costs and Microsoft’s successful Windows software conspired to keep the Mac a perennial runner-up. But it forever set the standard for the way human beings interact with computers.

47. Sony Walkman

Sony’s Walkman was the first music player to combine portability, simplicity and affordability. While vinyl records were still the most popular music format, the Walkman—originally the “Sound-About” in the United States—played much smaller cassettes and was small enough to fit in a purse or pocket. It ushered in the phenomena of private space in public created by the isolating effect of headphones. It ran on AA batteries, allowing it to travel far from power outlets. Sony eventually sold more than 200 million of the devices, which paved the way for the CD player and the iPod.

46. IBM Model 5150

What would the computer market look like today without the IBM PC? Sure, the world had personal computers before the 5150 was introduced in 1981. But IBM’s sales pitch—bringing Big Blue’s corporate computing prowess into the home—helped make this a wildly successful product. Even more influential than the 5150 itself was Big Blue’s decision to license its PC operating system, DOS, to other manufacturers. That led to the birth of “IBM Compatibles,” the forerunner to almost all non-Apple PCs out there today.

45. Victrola Record Player

Though the phonograph was invented in 1877, it was the Victor Talking Machine Company’s Victrola that first made audio players a staple in most people’s homes. The device’s amplifying horn was hidden inside a wooden cabinet, giving it the sleek look of a sophisticated piece of furniture. Records by classical musicians and opera singers were popular purchases for the device. Eventually, the Victor Talking Machine Company would be bought by RCA, which would go on to become a radio and television giant.

44. Regency TR-1 Transistor Radio

The Regency’s pocket radio was the first consumer gadget powered by transistors, ushering in an age of high-tech miniaturization. A post-WWII innovation developed by Texas Instruments (which had been making devices for the Navy) and Industrial Development Engineering Associates (which previously put out television antennas for Sears), the $49.95, 3-by-5-inch, battery-powered portable was built on technology developed by Bell Labs. From the transistors that amplified the radio signal to the use of printed circuit boards that connected the components to the eye-catching design, many factors conspired to make the TR-1 a holiday must-buy after its November 1954 launch. And as revolutionary as all this tech was, it only scratches the surface of how the Regency — by ushering in truly portable communications — changed the world overnight.

43. Kodak Brownie Camera

Marketed toward children, carried by soldiers, and affordable to everyone, this small, brown leatherette and cardboard camera introduced the term “snapshot” through its ease of use and low cost. Priced at just $1 (with film that was similarly inexpensive) when it was introduced in February 1900, the Brownie took cameras off tripods and put them into everyday use. For Kodak, the low-cost shooter was the hook that allowed the company to reel in money through film sales. And for the rest of the world, it helped captured countless moments and shape civilization’s relationship to images.

42. Apple iPod

There were MP3 players before the iPod, sure, but it was Apple’s blockbuster device that convinced music fans to upgrade from their CD players en masse. The iPod simultaneously made piracy more appealing, by letting people carry their thousand-song libraries in their pockets, while also providing a lifeline to the flailing music industry with the iTunes Store, which eventually became the world’s biggest music retailer. The iPod’s importance extends far beyond music. It was an entire generation’s introduction to Apple’s easy-to-use products and slick marketing. These people would go on to buy MacBooks, iPhones and iPads in droves, helping to make Apple the most valuable technology company in the world.

41. Magic Wand

A few years after a 2002 episode of Sex and the City revealed the electric neck massager’s cultish adoption as a vibrator, Hitachi dropped its brand from the device. But only in name: the Magic Wand —in service since the late-1960s—likely remains the best-known product stateside made by the $33.5 billion Japanese company. (Hitachi makes everything from aircraft engines to defense equipment, but perhaps nothing as personally stimulating.) Though sex therapists and fans have extolled the Wand’s virtues by analogizing it to cars (the Cadillac, the Rolls Royce), it more closely resembles a microphone, with a white plastic shaft—the wand—and a vibrating head—presumably, the magic.

40. Canon Pocketronic Calculator

All business? Hardly. If you trace the path of technology far enough, iconic adding machines like this 1970 classic blazed the trail for the smartphones we’re packing today. Selling for $345 at its launch (a cool $2,165 today), this calculator was built around three circuits that let it add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Thirteen rechargeable battery cells were crammed into the casing to power the calculations, with results spat out onto thermal paper. After the Pocketronic’s launch, circuitry quickly miniaturized and prices shrank to match. Within five years, comparable devices cost just $20, and the first shots were fired in tech’s pricing wars.

39. Philips N1500 VCR

Though it took a long, winding road to mass market success, the videocassette recorder, or VCR, got its start in 1972 with Philips’ release of the N1500. Predating the BetaMax versus VHS format war, the N1500 recorded television onto square cassettes, unlike the VCRs that would achieve mass market success in the 1980s. But featuring a tuner and timer, Philips device was the first to let television junkies record and save their favorite programs for later. But that kind of convenience didn’t come cheap. Originally selling in the U.K. for around £440, it would cost more than $6,500 today. That’s the equivalent of 185 Google Chromecasts.

38. Atari 2600

Its blocky 8-bit graphics looked nothing like the lavish, rousing illustrations on its game jackets, but the black-and-faux-wood Atari 2600 game console was the first gaming box to stir the imaginations of millions. It brought the arcade experience home for $199 (about $800 adjusted for inflation), including a pair of iconic digital joysticks and games with computer-controlled opponents–a home console first. It sold poorly in the months after its launch in September 1977, but when games like Space Invaders and Pac-Man arrived a few years later, sales shot into the millions, positioning Atari at the vanguard of the incipient video gaming revolution.

37. US Robotics Sportster 56K Modem

Beep boop bop beep. Eeeeeeerrrrrrroooooooahhhh ba dong ba dong ba dong psssssssssssh. In the days before broadband, that was the sound the Internet made. Dial-up modems, like the US Robotics Sportster, were many families’ first gateway to the Web. Their use peaked around 2001, as faster alternatives that carried data over cable lines arrived. But millions of households still have an active dial-up connection. Why? They’re cheaper and accessible to the millions of Americans who still lack broadband access.

36. Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo’s debut front-loading, rain-gray console showed up just in time to save the games industry from its excesses, arriving a few years after a crash that capsized many of the field’s biggest players. The NES was to video gaming what The Beatles were to rock and roll, singlehandedly resuscitating the market after it launched in 1983. The NES heralded Japan’s dominance of the industry, establishing indelible interface and game design ideas so archetypal you can find their DNA in every home console hence.

35. Nintendo Game Boy

It’s a wonder we didn’t destroy our eyes gaming on the Game Boy’s tiny 2.6-inch olive green screen, considering how many Nintendo sold (over 200 million when you include the souped-up subsequent Game Boy Advance.) A chunky, somewhat dismal looking off-white object with garish cerise-colored buttons, Nintendo’s 1989 handheld invented the modern mobile game. Its modest power and anemic screen forced developers to distill the essence of genres carried over from consoles. The result: A paradigm shift in mobile game design that’s influenced everything from competing devoted handhelds to Apple’s iPhone.

34. IBM Selectric Typewriter

Turning the plodding, jam-prone mechanical typewriter into a rapid-fire bolt of workplace ingenuity, this Mad Men -era machine worked at the “speed of thought” and marked the beginning of the computer age. The 1961 Selectric model began by introducing changeable typefaces through the typewriter’s iconic, interchangeable, golf-ball-shaped print head. Then in 1964, a magnetic tape model gave the typewriter the ability to store data, arguably making it the world’s first word processor. So in 1965, when the IBM System/360 mainframe rolled out, it only made sense that the Selectric’s keyboard served as the computer’s primary input device.

33. Motorola Bravo Pager

Long before cellphones became commonplace, beepers were the way to stay in touch on the go. Early pagers allowed users to send codes to one another, like 411 for “what’s going on” or 911 to indicate an emergency (for obvious reasons). Message recipients would respond by calling the sender via telephone. The Bravo Flex, introduced in 1986, became the best-selling pager in the world, according to Motorola , giving many people their first taste of mobile communication. It could store up to five messages that were 24 characters in length. By the early 1990s, having a pager became a status symbol, paving the way for more advanced communication devices like the two-way pager, the cellphone, and eventually the smartphone.

32. JVC VideoMovie Camcorder

From Rodney King and citizen journalism to America’s Funniest Home Videos and unscripted television, the camcorder did as much to change the world from 1983 to 2006 as it did to record it. And though the 1984 JVC VideoMovie wasn’t the first model on the market, it became iconic when Marty McFly lugged it around in 1985’s Back to the Future . The ruby red model was the first to integrate the tapedeck into the camera. (Previously, home videographers had to wear a purse-like peripheral that housed the cassette.) Eventually, camcorders were displaced by flash memory-packing Flip Video cameras and, later, smartphones. But their impact will live forever, like the movies they captured.

31. Motorola Droid

Other Android-powered smartphones existed before the Droid launched in 2009, but this was the first one popular enough to push Android into the spotlight. It cemented Google’s Android platform as the iPhone’s biggest competition. (And sowed a rift between Apple and Google, which had previously been close allies.) Verizon is said to have poured $100 million into marketing the device. It seemingly paid off—although neither companies disclosed sales figures, analysts estimated that between 700,000 and 800,000 Droids were sold in roughly one month following its launch.

30. IBM Thinkpad 700C

Few products are so iconic that their design remains largely unchanged after more than 20 years. Such is the case with the ThinkPad line of laptops, which challenged the dominance of Apple and Compaq in the personal computing industry during the early 1990s by introducing features that were considered to be innovative at the time . (It’s also part of the permanent collection at New York City’s MoMA.) One of the earliest in the line, the ThinkPad 700C, came with a 10.4-inch color touch screen, larger than displays offered by other competing products. Its TrackPoint navigation device and powerful microprocessors were also considered to be groundbreaking in the early 1990s.

29. TomTom GPS

Like the early Internet, GPS started life as a government-funded innovation. It wasn’t until President Bill Clinton decided in 2000 to fully open the network that it became a massive commerical success. (He was filling a promise made by Ronald Reagan.) Shortly afterwards, companies from TomTom to Garmin introduced personal GPS devices for automotive navigation (like the Start 45) and other uses. Later, combining GPS technology with smartphones’ mobile broadband connections gave rise to multibillion dollar location-based services like Uber.

28. Phonemate 400 Answering Machine

The idea of an answering machine weighing more than a few ounces may sound ludicrous by today’s standards. But in 1971, PhoneMate’s 10-pound Model 400 was viewed as a glimpse of the future. The Model 400 was considered the first answering machine designed for the home during a time when the technology was only commonly found in workplaces. It held roughly 20 messages and enabled owners to listen to voicemails privately through an earphone.

27. BlackBerry 6210

BlackBerry made pocket-sized gadgets for accessing email on-the-go before the 6210, but this was the first to combine the Web-browsing and email experience with the functionality of a phone. The 6210 let users check email, make phone calls, send text messages, manage their calendar, and more all from a single device. (Its predecessor, the 5810, required users to attach a headset in order to make calls.) All told, the 6210 was a pivotal step forward for mobile devices.

26. Apple iPad

The iPad’s 2010 launch spurred a slew of headlines questioning whether or not the tablet would replace the laptop as the most important personal computer. Apple’s iPad wasn’t the first tablet, but it was radically different from what came before. Earlier devices, like the GriDPad and Palm Pilot, had smaller touchscreens users had to operate with a stylus. Microsoft unveiled a tablet that ran Windows XP in 2002. The problem, however, was that these devices didn’t have interfaces that were well-suited for touch, and they were often clunkier and larger than the iPad. Apple sold 300,000 iPads on its first day in stores, roughly matching the iPhone’s day-one numbers, and has gone on to dominate the market.

25. Commodore 64

Commodore’s 8-bit brown and taupe lo-fi 1982 masterpiece ranks with record-keeper Guinness as the best-selling single computer in history. No surprise, as the chunky, relatively affordable keyboard-housed system—users plugged the whole thing into a TV with an RF box—did more to popularize the idea of the personal home computer than any device since. And it promised to make you more popular, too: “My friends are knockin’ down my door, to get into my Commodore 64,” sang a Ronnie James Dio clone in a power-metal ad spot.

24. Polaroid Camera

Millennials get plenty of flak over their penchant for instant gratification. But that’s a desire that crosses generations. Need proof? When the first affordable, easy-to-use instant shooter, the Polaroid OneStep Land camera, hit the market in 1977, it quickly became the country’s best-selling camera, 40 years before “Millennials” were a thing. That Polaroid photographs so dominated 80s-era family albums and pop culture gives the square-framed, often off-color snaps a retro appeal that today is celebrated by enthusiasts and aped by billion-dollar apps like Instagram.

23. Amazon Kindle

Amazon began as an online bookstore, so it’s no surprise that its most influential piece of hardware changed the way we read. The Kindle quickly took over the e-reader market, becoming the best-selling product in the history of Amazon.com in 2010. Follow-up hardware ventures, such as the Kindle Fire Tablet and Echo home assistant, have also found success. The Kindle also marks the beginning of Amazon’s evolution as a digital media company. Today the company has digital stores for music, movies and video games in addition to books.

“How much would you pay never to see another talking frog or battery-powered bunny again?” this magazine asked when the first TiVo was announced in 1999. The box, called a “Personal Video Recorder” at the time, is the forerunner to today’s DVRs. TiVo owners could record shows picked from a digital menu (no more confusing VCR settings) and pause or rewind live television. Much to TV execs’ consternation, the TiVo let viewers of recorded programming breeze past commercials. That the TiVo made it easier than ever to record a TV show gave rise to “time-shifting,” or the phenomenon of viewers watching content when it fits their schedule.

21. Toshiba DVD Player

Electronics manufacturers were already fiddling with standalone optical storage in the early 1990s, but the first to market was Toshiba’s SD-3000 DVD player in November 1996. Obsoleting noisy, tangle-prone magnetic tape (as well as the binary of “original” versus “copy”) the DVD player made it possible to watch crisp digital movies off a tiny platter just 12 centimeters in diameter—still the de facto size for mainstream optical media (like Blu-ray) today.

20. Sony PlayStation

You’d be hard pressed to name a single PlayStation feature that by itself transformed the games industry. It’s been Sony’s obsession with compacting high-end tech into sleek, affordable boxes, then making all that power readily accessible to developers, that’s made the PlayStation family an enduring icon of the living room. Part of Sony’s triumph was simply reading the demographic tea leaves: The company marketed the PlayStation as a game system for grownups to the kids who’d literally grown up playing Atari and Nintendo games. And that helped drive the original system, released in 1994, to meteoric sales, including the PlayStation 2’s Guinness record for bestselling console of all time—a record even Nintendo’s Wii hasn’t come close to breaking.

“Thanks to Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata, we’re all gamers now,” went the headline of Wired’s obituary for Nintendo’s beloved president, who died last July. Nothing speaks to Iwata’s legacy more than the company’s game-changing Wii (pun intended). Nintendo’s tiny pearl-white box, released in 2006, and which users engaged with motion control wands, had moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas out of their seats and swinging virtual golf clubs or dancing. No game system has done more to illustrate the omni-generational appeal of interactive entertainment.

18. Jerrold Cable Box

True story: Cable TV was already a thing in the 1950s. Sure, it took Ted Turner in the 1970s and channels like MTV in the 1980s for what we think of as cable TV’s halcyon days to emerge. But decades earlier, the first commercial cable box that would inspire so many others was an unassuming wood-paneled console manufactured by Pennsylvanian company Jerrold Electronics, sporting three-way sliders for dozens of different channels.

17. Nokia 3210

For many, Nokia’s colorful candy bar-shaped 3210 defined the cell phone after it was released in 1999. With more than 160 million sold , it became a bestseller for the Finnish company. The 3210 did more than just introduce the cellphone to new audiences. It also established a few important precedents. The 3210 is regarded to be the first phone with an internal antenna and the first to come with games like Snake preloaded. Gadget reviewers even praised the phone more than 10 years after its launch for its long battery life and clear reception.

16. HP DeskJet

Obsoleting noisy, lousy dot matrix technology, devices like 1988’s HP DeskJet gave computer owners the ability to quietly output graphics and text at a rate of two pages per minute. The DeskJet wasn’t the first inkjet on the market, but with a $995 price tag, it was the first one many home PC users bought. Over the 20 years following the product’s launch, HP sold more than 240 million printers in the DeskJet product line, outputting Christmas letters, household budgets, and book reports by the millions. Even in an increasingly paper-less world, the inkjet’s technology lives on in 3-D printers, which are fundamentally the same devices, only extruding molten plastic instead of dye.

15. Palm Pilot

The original Palm Pilot 1000 solidified handheld computing when it launched in 1996, paving the way for BlackBerry and, eventually, today’s smartphone. The “palm top” computer (get it?) came with a monochrome touchscreen that supported handwriting and was capable of syncing data like contacts and calendar entries to users’ computers. It spawned a device category known as the “personal digital assistant,” or PDA. It wasn’t the first such device—the Apple Newton preceded it—but it was the first one people wanted and bought in droves.

14. Motorola Dynatac 8000x

Motorola’s Dynatac 8000x was the first truly portable cellphone when it launched in 1984. Marty Cooper, an engineer with Motorola at the time, first demonstrated the technology by making what’s regarded as the first public cellular phone call from a New York City sidewalk in 1973. (It was both a PR stunt and an epic humblebrag: Cooper called his biggest rival at AT&T.) The Dynatac 8000x weighed nearly two pounds and cost almost $4,000.

13. Apple iBook

The iBook’s brightly-colored, plastic trim may look dated now, but it was the first laptop to offer wireless networking. Apple’s consumer-oriented portable—for its cool-factor as well as its technology—grew into a serious business. The product’s reveal was a classic example of Steve Jobs’ showmanship at its best. While loading a webpage and showing off the computer’s display at 1999’s MacWorld conference, the Apple co-founder lifted the computer off its table and walked across the stage. The crowd roared in approval. In a gesture, he showed that Wi-Fi was here to stay.

12. Oculus Rift

2016’s Oculus Rift virtual reality headset could wind up a total flop and we’d still grant Oculus a special place in computing history. And not just because Facebook paid $2 billion for the device’s parent company foreseeing a future of social interaction and virtual vacationing provided by VR. Whatever happens next, the Rift, along with ebullient creator Palmer Luckey, will be remembered for reinvigorating the notion of strapping awkward-looking things to our faces in trade for the privilege of visiting persuasively real imaginary places.

11. Sony Discman D-50

Following up on the success of the Walkman, Sony unveiled this portable CD player in 1984, just a year after the music industry adopted the format. The device and later portable CD players helped the compact disc usurp cassettes as the dominant music format in the United States in less than a decade.

10. Roku Netflix Player

An inexpensive upstart running Linux, Roku’s hockey-puck sized Netflix-and-more video streaming box emerged out of nowhere in 2010 to rally waves of cord-cutters who cancelled their cable. What its chunky remote lacked in features, the box more than made up for in software. While at first Apple struggled to rationalize its comparably barren Apple TV-verse, Roku was offering thousands of channels and the most partnerships with the biggest players.

Pedometers have been around for centuries (seriously, look it up), but it was Fitbit that helped bring them into the digital age and to the masses. The company’s first device, released in 2009, tracked users’ steps, calories burned and sleep patterns. Most importantly, it allowed users to easily upload all that data to the company’s website for ongoing analysis, encouragement or guilt. Priced at $99, the Fitbit showed that wearables could be affordable. The company sold more than 20 million of the devices in 2015.

8. Osborne 1

When you think of a portable computer, the Osborne 1 is probably not what comes to mind. But this unwieldy 25-pound machine was heralded by technology critics at the time of its 1981 release— BYTE magazine celebrated that it “fit under an airline seat.” The Osborne’s limitations, like a screen about the size of a modern iPhone’s, kept sales low. The machine’s true influence wasn’t on future gadgets, so much as how they are marketed. The company’s executives had an unfortunate knack for prematurely announcing new products, leading would-be customers to hold off for the better version and thus depressing sales. Marketing students now learn to avoid this deleterious “the Osborne effect.”

7. Nest Thermostat

Developed by the “godfather of the iPod,” Tony Fadell, the Nest Learning Thermostat was the first smart home device to capture mass market interest following its launch in 2011. Pairing the iconic round shape of classic thermostats with a full-color display and Apple-like software, the Nest features considerable processing power. (For instance, its ability to use machine learning to detect and predict usage patterns for heating and cooling a home.) As interesting as the device itself is, the Nest thermostat really turned heads in 2014 when the company behind it was bought by Google for $3.2 billion. The search engine giant turned the device into the center of its smart home strategy with hopes of ushering in an age of interconnected devices that will make everyday living more efficient.

6. Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer with a price tag to match its tiny size: about $35, without a monitor, mouse or keyboard. Not meant to replace everyday computers, the Pi is being used in classrooms worldwide to help students learn programming skills. With eight million Pi’s sold as of last year, the odds are decent that the next Mark Zuckerberg will have gotten his or her start tinkering with one.

5. DJI Phantom

Small drones may soon be delivering our packages, recording our family get-togethers and helping first responders find people trapped in a disaster. For now, they’re largely playthings for hobbyists and videographers. Chinese firm DJI makes the world’s most popular, the Phantom lineup. Its latest iteration, the Phantom 4 , uses so-called computer vision to see and avoid obstacles without human intervention. That makes it easier for rookie pilots to fly one, making drones more accessible than ever.

4. Yamaha Clavinova Digital Piano

You could argue the Minimoog did far more for music tech, or that the Fairlight was cooler, but visit average U.S. households from the 1980s forward and you’re most likely to encounter the Clavinova . Yamaha’s popular digital piano married the look and compactness of a spinet (a smaller, shorter upright piano) with the modern qualities of a modest synthesizer. With a plausibly pianistic weighted action and space-saving footprint, it’s become a staple for parents looking to bring maintenance-free musicality—you never have to tune it—into households, all without sacrificing huge swathes of living space.

Why is the Segway personal scooter such a potent cultural symbol? Maybe it has something to do with providing a metaphor for increasingly out-of-shape Americans. Perhaps it was seeing a U.S. president fall off one. Weird Al’s “White and Nerdy” video helped, too. The Segway—as hyped and as mocked as it has been—is a defining example of “last mile” transportation, an electric scooter designed to make walking obsolete. (Recently, the idea has been somewhat revived by the emergence of so-called hover boards, which are now also entering a kind of post-fad twilight.) The Segway’s symbolic impact greatly exceeded its commercial success. Unit sales never exceeded the six-figure mark before the firm was purchased by a Chinese interest in 2015 for an undisclosed sum.

2. Makerbot Replicator

The Makerbot Replicator was neither the first nor the best consumer-level 3-D printer. But it was the model that made the technology widely accessible for the first time, thanks to its sub-$2,000 price tag. The Replicator used inkjet printer-like technology to extrude hot plastic that took three-dimensional form as artwork, mechanical parts and more. As a company, Makerbot’s future is uncertain. But the firm’s equipment helped bring 3-D printing into the mainstream and is a fixture of many American classrooms.

1. Google Glass

Google Glass, which cost $1,500 for those invited to a sort of public beta test, never took off. The relatively powerful head-mounted computer provided important signals for the future of wearable technology. Glass showed that designers working on computing devices that are worn face a different set of assumptions and challenges. Glass, for example, made it easy for users to surreptitiously record video, which led some restaurants, bars and movie theaters to ban the device. Glass also showed the potential pitfalls of easily identifiable wearables, perhaps best proven by the coining of the term “Glassholes” for its early adopters. While Glass was officially shelved in 2015, augmented reality—displaying computer-generated images over the real world—is a concept many companies are still trying to perfect. Google included.

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101 Gadgets That Changed The World

The alarm clock. The personal computer. The smartphone. The radio. You know the greatest gadgets of all time (and youve probably owned most of them), but which has changed the world more than any other?

The alarm clock. The personal computer. The smartphone. The radio. You know the greatest gadgets of all time (and you've probably owned most of them), but which has changed the world more than any other?

101. Duct Tape

NASA astronauts have used it to make repairs on the moon and in space. The MythBusters built a boat and held a car together with the stuff. Brookhaven National Laboratory fixed their particle accelerator with it. And enthusiasts have used it to make prom dresses and wallets. You might say it's a material, not a gadget, but trust us: Duct tape is the ultimate multitool.

100. Fiberglass Fishing Rod

When hostilities in Asia curtailed bamboo imports, rod producers like Shakespeare, Phillipson, and Montague needed a new material to keep anglers equipped with low-cost, quality tackle in the '50s and '60s. Fiberglass fit the bill.

99. Stapler

No office supply has enjoyed a star turn quite like that of the stapler, which had its breakthrough role in the comedy Office Space. Much of the movie's plot revolved around Milton Waddams's beloved red Swingline, but it was only in 2002, three years after the film's release--and in response to demand from fans--that Swingline went to market with a red stapler.

Before it unveiled the Roomba Floorvac for the home market in 2002, iRobot built land-mine-clearing robots, which used the so-called crop circle algorithm. This very same technology was adapted to make the Roomba circle and sweep autonomously. Within a year of its launch, iRobot's Roomba Floorvac was the top gift request on American wedding registries, and sales of the revolutionary vacuum cleaner surpassed the combined total number of all mobile robots previously sold.

97. Aerosol Spray Can

In 1941, the USDA's Lyle Goodhue and William Sullivan used the newly discovered refrigerant, Freon, to enable the deployment of a lethal (to critters, anyway) mist by American troops fighting on insect-infested fronts. The "bug bomb" cocktail, held in a 16-ounce steel canister, consisted of Freon-12, sesame oil and pyrethrum (the last is a natural insecticide derived from chrysanthemum blooms).

96. Quick-Release Ski Binding

Prior to the introduction of this gadget, the ski hill could be an unforgiving place. Strapped to two planks, the skier was always one tough tumble away from catastrophic injury. It was one such break--a severe spinal fracture--that motivated Norweigan-American skiing champion Hjalmar Hvam to conceive the first safety binding in 1937. "When I came out of the ether I called the nurse for a pencil and paper," he once wrote. "I had awakened with the complete principle of a release toe iron." Subsequent developments in safety bindings changed the perception of skiing from a high-risk endeavor to a leisurely pursuit, and the sport boomed.

95. Super Soaker

Originally dubbed the Power Drencher when it debuted in 1989, the Super Soaker was the brainchild of NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson. The idea for the world's greatest squirt gun grew out of Johnson's lab work on a heat pump. He told the AP in 1992, "I was watching the stream of water come out of the nozzle and stream across the bathroom and strike a towel. The curtains were swirling around the bathroom. It was pretty impressive. I thought, 'That would make a pretty neat water gun.'" Since, no fewer than two dozen Super Soaker models have contributed to backyard mayhem--and none is more coveted than the CPS 2000 Mk1. The most powerful water gun ever manufactured, it shoots nearly 1 liter of water per second up to 50 feet. The Mk1 was discontinued soon after its release, but it's available on eBay for a cool $350.

94. Blender

Stephen Poplawski invented the blender in 1922, but his name is not the one most often associated with the gadget. That honor belongs to Fred Waring--an orchestra leader in Pennsylvania who, in 1936, offered financial backing to a tinkerer named Frederick Osius who was developing a similar invention. One reason for Waring's interest: He could use Osius's widget to puree raw vegetables for the ulcer diet his doctors prescribed. The Waring Blender debuted in 1937 and cost $29.75; by 1954 one million of the devices had been sold.

As a publishing luminary of the expatriate bohemian scene in late-'20s Paris, Caresse Crosby helped launch the careers of D.H. Lawrence, Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. Years earlier, as a 19-year-old Manhattan socialite, she laid the groundwork for a fashion revolution when she and the family maid used two silk handkerchiefs, pink ribbon, and a cord to produce a forerunner to the modern bra. She patented her "backless brassiere" in 1914 and then sold the patent to the Warner Bros. Corset Co. the following year for $1500. Writing later in life, she said: "I can't say the brassiere will ever take as great a place in history as the steamboat, but I did invent it."

92. Picinic Cooler

As the American populace went forth after World War II into the woods to camp, onto the lakes to fish, and into the parking lots to tailgate, it required a gadget capable of keeping beer cool and food from spoiling. The portable cooler, patented in 1953 by Richard Laramy and popularized by the Coleman Company, was that obvious, but essential device.

91. Digital Video Recorder

When ownership of this gadget crept past 1 million in 2002, TV and advertising execs worried aloud that DVRs, by enabling viewers to skip commercials, were surefire TV killers. "There's no Santa Claus," one CEO said. "If you don't watch the commercials, someone's going to have to pay for television and it's going to be you." Fast forward to today: 40 percent of households have a DVR; whether out of habit or laziness almost 50 percent of DVR users still watch ads; and the networks have, on average, seen ratings jump 10 percent, thanks to playback.

The Zippo, that stalwart status symbol of the smoky second half of the 20th century, was born in 1932 in the most inauspicious of settings: a rented room over the Rickerson and Pryde auto shop in tiny Bradford, Penn. Equipped with a kitchen hotplate for soldering, a used welding kit, and a punch press, founder George Blaisdell and two employees went to work. In the first month of production, January 1933, they produced 82 lighters. In February, output jumped to 367. By 2006, the total number of Zippo lighters surpassed 425 million lighters. And now, there's a Zippo app for the iPhone and the Droid phone that allows users to recreate the Zippo moment--when a concert audience raises its lighters in the air. The digital Zippo operates just like the real thing, opening with a flick of the wrist, lighting with a swipe of the flint wheel and mimicking real flame movement as the user waves his phone in the air.

89. Teflon Pan

In 1938 Roy Plunkett discovered PTFE, or polytetrafluoroethylene, at the DuPont research laboratories while working with gases related to Freon refrigerants. He accidentally froze and compressed a sample of tetrafluoroethylene gas into a white, waxy solid, creating a polymer so slick that virtually nothing sticks to it or is absorbed by it. Today, manufacturers apply it to cookware by roughening a pan's surface through sandblasting. A nonstick coating--often referred to as DuPont's proprietary Teflon--is embedded in a primer that's applied to the roughened surface.

88. Flash Drive

Toshiba engineer Fujio Masuoka developed the concept of flash memory--so-called because the erasure process reminded a colleague of a camera flash--in the early 1980s. But the good ship flash drive needed a way to dock. Intel's Ajay Bhatt and his Universal Serial Bus (USB), which was introduced in 1996, provided part of the solution. But data still didn't travel well until 2000, when the first USB flash-drive stick, with 8 megabytes of storage, arrived.

87. Ginsu Knife

Originally known as the "Eversharp" brand of blades from the Scott Fetzer Co. of Freemont, Ohio, Ginsu knives could cut through nails, tin cans, radiator hoses--and still slice a tomato paper thin. But wait--there's more! The company's multibillion-dollar success was as much about the marketing as the product. The late-night ads begun by Ed Valenti and Barry Becher in 1978 ushered in the era of the infomercial, and made Ginsu the most memorable brand ever hocked on American TV.

86. Hearing Aid

According to the National Institutes of Health, only one out of five people who could benefit from a hearing aid actually wear one.

85. Sunglasses

Ten years after founding the Foster Grant plastic company in 1919 to make hair accessories for women, Sam Foster switched his focus to a new consumer product--sun-blocking eyewear. Targeting the throngs of beachgoers in Atlantic City, Foster started selling his wares--America's first mass-produced plastic lens sunglasses--at the Woolworth's on the oceanfront boardwalk. Foster's business boomed, prompting him to adopt the manufacturing technique known "injection molding" in 1934, which revolutionized American plastic production.

84. Drip Coffeemaker

In 1972, the Mr. Coffee machine simplified a brewing process that had been long dominated by traditional percolators. The machine's success, however, was also an early example of celebrity spokesmanship: When Joe DiMaggio became the face of the brand, Mr. Coffee machines became the runaway best-selling model in the United States. (Its success was even spoofed in the 1985 film Back to the Future: The DeLorean time machine is powered by a "Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor.") Today, approximately 14 million drip coffee makers are sold each year in the U.S.

83. Toaster

82. flashlight.

Although a flashlight is a relatively simple device--a small electric bulb with a power switch--it wasn't invented until 1896 simply because it required a portable power source: the dry cell battery. Early carbon filament bulbs were inefficient and the batteries weak, mustering just enough current to keep the light on for a few seconds at a time--hence, flashlight.

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History's Greatest Gadgets

It's not all about circuits, silicon and stock options: mankind's been making technology since the dawn of time. Here's ten of the most wonderful gadgets from centuries—and millenia—past. No "ThyPhone" jokes, if you please!

It took scientists a century—and the help of a $500,000 x-ray tomography system—to finally unravel the Antikythera Mechanism's mysteries . Discovered in 1900 amid the remains of an ancient shipwreck, the device survived only as a heavily corroded mechanism and countless scattered lumps of metal. At first, it played second fiddle to the classical statues found alongside it. With the discovery that it contained a differential gear—thought to be an 18th-century invention—its mystery deepened.

Confirmed to be the remains of a fully-functional mechanical computer in 2006, the mechanism is perhaps a achievement of the engineers of ancient Rhodes—and a way to sail from Alexandria to Athens without getting lost.

__ The Baghdad Battery __ * c. 250 AD *

No-one knows exactly what these alleged ancient batteries were used for. Discovered near Baghdad in the 1930s, they appear to be galvanic cells: terracotta urns with a copper and iron assembly poking out the stoppered top. Filled with an acidic agent, a chemical reaction between the two metals produces electricity.

Though providing only a feeble current, it could have been used to electroplate dull metals with gold, or to electrify religious objects with an inspirational tingle-to-the-touch. On the other hand, they might just have been fancy scroll-storage devices designed to hold papyrus neatly in place. Either way, they're gadgets.

The components are hard to date, but the pottery style suggests second or third century construction.

__The Seamless Globe __ * c. 1630*

Armilliary spheres represent a model of the universe, comprising the equator, the ecliptic and the meridians. Early models place the Earth in the center—more modern ones replace it with the Sun.

The earliest known model was invented by Eratosthenes in 255BC, with Zhang Heng creating a water-powered example in the second century.

Complex and exceedingly detailed, these elaborate devices are held to be among mankind's earliest examples of precision engineering. Perhaps the greatest are the seamless but static perfect globes created for the Mughal Emperors, between the 16th-19th centuries.

__The Turk and El Ajedrecista __ 1770 and 1912

The Turk was a chess player concealed in a table packed with cogs and gears, contrived to give the appearance of a mighty chess-playing machine. Atop the table, an articulated automaton would be seen to make the moves determined by the master within.

One of the 18th and 19th century's many illustrious hoaxes, the Turk is perhaps the greatest gadget that wasn't. That said, it was a complex machine featuring a variety of technical marvels.

For example, the player had to operate the mechanical turk blindly, so that it could be seen to make the moves itself: a system of magnetic chess pieces, levers and pulleys made this possible. A primitive voice box allowed it to inform its victims that their King was in check. Skeptic Philip Thicknesse wrote the definitive early exposé, in which he describes The Turk as " a complicated piece of clockwork. " Knockoffs of the original became more common thereafter, with exotic names such as Ajeeb and Mephisto.

Reece Rogers

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Scott Gilbertson

Brenda Stolyar

El Ajedrecista was the first chess machine that could actually make its own moves. Unlike The Turk, it was a genuine automaton able to play endgames featuring a King vs. a King and a Rook. Created in 1912 by Leonardo Torres y Quevedo, it was a sensation: it could even detect illegal moves.

Governed by a simple algorithm, it would deliver mate every time regardless of the lone King's movements or the setup of the board.

__ Pot Still __ * c. 9th Century *

Now here's a technology we can drink to.

Formerly used by alchemists until it was more properly deployed in the distillation of whiskies and brandies, the alembic was invented around the eighth century and led directly to its modern derivative, the pot still.

An alembic assembly comprises two receptacles, or retorts, and a connecting tube to condense the boiling contents of one and shunt the result to the other. As the simplest way to to get that particular chemical process done, it's perfect for brewing moonshine.

__ Classical GPS: The Equitorium, Torquetum, Astrolabe, Sextant and Orrery __

The astrolabe was in use from before the age of Christ until the modern era. An analog computer able to predict and pinpoint the location of heavenly bodies, it was put to many uses: Astrologers and astronomers alike enjoyed its precision, and its reflection of the skies above made it useful for finding exactly where you were beneath them.

Medieval and renaissance life was packed with crazy astronomical gadgets. The sextant, a device that allows navigators to quickly measure the angle of the sun, was another essential gadget on the high seas. Simpler than the astrolabe, but less useful, was the equitorium. Able to pinpoint the relative positions of the Moon, Sun and planets without any calculation, mechanical or otherwise, it was first invented by Arzachel in the eleventh Century.

The Torquetum (above) is a more complex device, thought to have been invented about 800 years ago, but of which only relatively modern examples remain due to the design's fragility. Another device was the pantacosm, which calculates aspects, or the angles between heavenly bodies. The tellurion demonstrates how daylight and the seasons on Earth are caused by its bearing relative to the sun.

Of all such universal calculators, Orreries are among the most beautiful. Illustrating in miniature a three dimensional model of the solar system, they also model the movements of its constituent bodies. First constructed in about 1704 by clockmaker George Graham, it gave the public of a largely pre-scientific era a working insight into a universe they could barely comprehend.

The earliest capacitor, the Leyden Jar was invented in the 1740s by the University of Leiden's Pieter van Musschenbroe. In its simplest form, it is a metal conductor passing through an insulated stopper into a bottle of water lined inside and out with foil. Ground the outside and apply a charge to the inside, and the film gains an opposing charge held in place by the dielectric (i.e. the glass). Close the circuit between the two coatings, and ... *zap! *

__Ark of the Covenant __

Described in the Bible as a sacred box containing the stone-inscribed ten commandments and other relics, the Ark's odd characteristics have long intrigued scholars.

Often depicted as an ornate metal-lined chest with two cherubim facing one another atop it, the ark had four rings, containing two long wooden carrying poles. Some believe this odd composition suggests it was a primitive battery.

Perhaps the ark was a Leyden Jar of sorts, able to hold a charge and zap sticky-fingered thieves.

Finally lost when the Babylonians plundered Jerusalem,it was likely stolen and ultimately destroyed by the invaders. The faithful hope it found its way in hiding: the British Isles and Ethiopia are among popularly-proposed resting places.

__ The Mariner's Compass __ c. 1100

Until the second millenium, it was impossible for mariners on the open sea to accurately track latitude. The compass was invented in China in the 11th century and in common use worldwide by the end of the 13th century.

Containing a magnetized sliver of metal or rock, held so that it may point freely toward magnetic poles, a compass reveals the cardinal points with sufficient accuracy to aid travelers get from place to place without other indicators of bearing.

The result was an explosion in European maritime trade and the growth of merchant capitalism.

The Pocketwatch

Early timepieces used a variety of mechanisms to measure time: the shadow of a sundail, the tempo of a water clock's drip, the slow melt of a candle. Such devices can be extraordinarily complex, but it's the mechanical clock, with its intricate gearing and accuracy, that became one of mankind's greatest technical triumphs.

Descriptions in European literature from the late 13th century suggest that a new technology was proliferating: timepieces powered not by water, but instead by the movements of mechanically-connected weights.

It's with the pocketwatch, apparently invented in the 15th century, that we get the world's first modern-era personal tech toy. In November 1462, clockmaker Bartholomew Manfredi pitched a client on the idea of a "pocket clock" better than any seen before ; they were being manufactured within 50 years.

__ Special Guest Gadgets: Sampo and Liahona __

Mythical in character, the Sampo of Finnish mythology has a curiously technological vibe to it. Said to be a mysterious artefact whose possession brought the owner whatever they please, it's often depicted as a tiny gadget of historical character — a compass, for example, or a grinder. As the medieval era's fairies are to sci-fi's little gray aliens, Sampo is to Star Trek's replicators. I blame MST3K .

In the Book of Mormon, Liahona is a "curious" brass ball found one morning outside of the prophet Lehi's tent, indicating the way forward with a spindle and occasionally revealing further instructions from God. Destined to become the brand name for a range of GPS devices any time now, it's an article of faith for Latter-Day Saints.

So much got cut from this list: fans of Leonardo da Vinci and Charles Babbage will doubtless be particularly affronted. What other historical wonders could show an iPhone a thing or two about human ingenuity?

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The Rise of the Gadget and Hyperludic Me-Dia

William Merrin is an associate professor in media studies at Swansea University, in Wales, with research interests in media theory, digital media, and culture and media history. He is the author of Baudrillard and the Media (2005), coeditor of Jean Baudrillard: Fatal Theories (2008), and author of Media Studies 2.0 (forthcoming).

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William Merrin; The Rise of the Gadget and Hyperludic Me-Dia. Cultural Politics 1 March 2014; 10 (1): 1–20. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-2397209

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Though digital “gadgets” have become one of the most important sectors of consumer electronics, the concept itself has been largely overlooked. This article traces the history of the gadget from its nineteenth-century origins as a placeholding name to its use for a class of technical objects, through to its incorporation of electronics and its contemporary success. Building upon Jean Baudrillard’s analysis, the article explores how digital technology has changed the gadget’s nature and capacities. It argues that the digital gadget’s success lies in its hyperfunctionality, hyperludic experience, and relationship with me-dia. It analyzes the digital gadget’s role in the reorientation of the broadcast ecology around personalized media worlds and experiences, arguing that its mode of play represents an integration of the life, activities, bodies, and attention of the individual that extends beyond that achieved by broadcast media

The machine was the emblem of industrial society. The gadget is the emblem of post-industrial society. —Jean Baudrillard, The Consumer Society

From the beginning the gadget has been surrounded by an air of uncertainty, a slipperiness in our understanding that has benefited it in its slow rise to prominence. Appropriately for an object whose boundaries and definition are vague and whose forms and functions are varied, even the origins of the word are unclear. The story that it was derived from Gaget, Gauthier and Cie’s name stamp on tourist copies of the Statue of Liberty, is now discredited, and sources suggest instead an etymological origin in the French gâchette , the “catch-piece of a mechanism” (a term applied, for example, to parts of a firing mechanism), or gagée , meaning a small tool or instrument. The Oxford English Dictionary claims anecdotal evidence for the term’s use by the 1850s as a word for an object whose name one cannot remember, a use consistent with its first print appearance in Robert Brown’s 1886 book Spunyarn and Spindrift, a Sailor Boy’s Log of a Voyage Out and Home in a China Tea-Clipper , which reports: “Then the names of all the other things on board a ship! I don’t know half of them yet; even the sailors forget at times, and if the exact name of anything they want happens to slip from their memory, they call it a chicken-fixing, or a gadjet, or a gill-guy, or a timmey-noggy, or a wim-wom—just pro-tem ., you know” (quoted in Quinion 2007 ).

Unlike “chicken-fixing,” “timmey-noggy,” or “wim-wom,” however, the “gadjet” was destined for greater things. By the early twentieth century it had changed from the frustrated expression of aphasia at an object’s recalcitrance to a category of objects in itself, and by the postwar period it had become a profitable element of technical and consumer culture, albeit one often overlooked and rarely taken seriously. Again, perhaps, this suited the gadget; associated with the domestic sphere and sold in novelty shops, department stores, and catalogs, gadgets quietly succeeded in colonizing everyday life, taking up residence in our kitchen cupboards and drawers and our sheds and garages. Their incorporation of electronics brought greater popularity, and toy boxes soon filled with beeping gizmos while plastic objects with blinking LEDs spilled out of drawers.

For all its success, this proliferation of the gadget proved to be only the preliminary phase of the gadget’s rise. Embracing its electronic potential it established a foothold in personal entertainment and communication, where with the convergence of mass media and computer processing at the end of the twentieth century it completed its passage from a functionally specialized, handy gimmick to become one of the most important categories of technical object and a major force in global consumer electronics. Breaking out of the drawers and toy boxes, this new, networked digital gadget—our tablets, netbooks, phones, music players, media players, e-readers, cameras, and portable gaming devices—became personal, mobile, and ubiquitous. Today the gadget has become the center of attention.

Despite its long history and contemporary success, few attempts have been made to trace its rise or theorize its form and effects. Indeed, something about the category itself eludes conceptualization and critique; ignored or dismissed for most of its life, at the moment of its greatest occupation of our lives it still avoids analysis and censure. One of the few discussions of the gadget appears in the work of Jean Baudrillard, who provides a prescient vision of its cybernetic future. In this article I want to extend this vision to explore the contemporary digital gadget. In particular, I want to argue that its success is related to its role in the development of what I call “me-dia” and to its personalized, hyperfunctional, and hyperludic nature that repeatedly calls us back and that constitutes a mode of physiological alienation and integration that is far greater than any achieved by the broadcast media. To understand this hyperludic gadget, however, we first need to understand something of the peculiar and unwritten history of these timmey-noggies, wimwoms, and thingamajigs.

• The “Anonymous History” of the Gadget, or How Humans Came to Dream of Magnetic Sleep

Although expressions of frustration at items whose name has momentarily escaped the user must always have occurred, there is nevertheless something significant about the origin of the word gadjet . Its anecdotal use by the 1850s, its etymological origins, and Brown’s exhausted declaration about the number of things aboard a modern ship suggest that the key issue was the increasing quantity and complexity of objects: problems intimately connected to the industrial society. Already in 1829, Thomas Carlyle could be found lamenting “the mechanical age,” that “age of machinery” in which “nothing is now done directly, or by hand; all is by rule and calculated contrivance. For the simplest operation, some helps and accompaniments, some cunning abbreviating process is in readiness. Our old modes of exertion are all discredited and thrown aside.” His examples are near hysteric; even the brood hen is replaced by chickens hatched by steam, he claims, while mechanical devices mince our cabbages and cast us “into magnetic sleep” ( Carlyle 2004 [1829] ).

The Industrial Revolution saw a significant and cumulative development in technical objects ( Headrick 2009 ). From the mid-eighteenth century on there was an increase in invention and its technical application, an increase in the quantity of technologies in use, a growing complexity of technologies, and an increasing penetration by them in the lives of ordinary people as technologies moved from marginal curiosities to the partner or director of people’s labor. Most accounts of the period emphasize the scale of the technologies. Although the textile mules, mills, and gins, the systems of powered wheels, belts, and shafts, and the steam engines all depended on a complex system of parts (that, by the late eighteenth century, had to be precision-made in machine shops), it was the whole assemblage— the machine —that became recognized as the key social and productive force of the industrial age. When engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel discussed the Great Eastern , the iron steamship that was the largest in the world on its launch in 1858, he referred to it repeatedly as “a machine”—as a single entity and whole ( Harvie, Martin, and Scharf 1970 : 48–51). Though early inventions had an air of novelty, it was large-scale “machinery” that came to dominate life, attention, and criticism.

By the early 1850s, machinery’s dominance was beginning to change. The effect of an advancing industrial and nascent consumer culture was a proliferation of technical objects—of commodities, things, tools, entertainments, and scientific and philosophical instruments—and it’s no coincidence that the word gadjet emerges at this time. At exactly the moment when social critics were attacking the subsumption of the human body beneath the weight of industrial technology as “an appendage of the machine” and one of its parts ( Marx and Engels 1987 [1848] : 87), nautical slang similarly arose to express the overwhelming of the human mind and its expressive faculty by the sheer multiplication of technical forms and functions. If industrial technology transformed the overwhelming of the body into an alienation of the mind, the proliferation of technical objects reversed the process, transforming the alienation of the mind—of the mental image of the thing—into an alienation of the body, of the capacity even to frame one’s own speech.

Perhaps the best evidence of this proliferation is found in that epochal celebration of the industrial object, “the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations.” Held in London in 1851, it contained over one hundred thousand objects from fourteen thousand exhibitors, forcing its organizing committee into a remarkable feat of classification. With the human census only a few decades old in the United Kingdom and with the 1841 census being the first to actually record the names of everyone in the household, the committee produced the first census of the industrial population—of those objects inhabiting the workshops, factories, studios, and shops of the nation—classifying the products of industry into a thirty-part taxonomy divided into four overall categories. It would take four large volumes of the official catalog to list them all, and contemporary visitors were bewildered by the number of things to see. One James Ward, for example, described his “state of mental helplessness” upon entering the exhibition (quoted in Auerbach 1999 : 95); there was too much for the mind to cope with.

Under the glass of Joseph Paxton’s great greenhouse—inspired by the leaves of the Victoria amazonica —the object flowered for public display. As Thomas Richards suggests, at the beginning of the decade that would see Charles Darwin propose the interlinked evolutionary development of all life on earth the Great Exhibition’s “dense vegetation of things” ( Richards 1990 : 25) celebrated the flora and fauna of the world’s workshops within a “phylogeny of manufacture” that advanced “a prescient vision of the evolutionary development of commodities” (1990: 25, 27). While scientists traveled the natural world, cataloging its complexity, the exhibition offered the revelation of another emerging, competing, and evolving ecology: the world of things. Critics and satirists alike recognized the power of these new life-forms . Karl Marx’s description of commodity fetishism makes clear the phantasmal, even demonic, life and power of the commodity and the ideas evolved in its little “wooden brain” (1983 [1867]: 76), while Samuel Butler’s 1863 article “Darwin among the Machines” (2009 [1863]) only half jokingly suggested that the evolutionary gains of contemporary machinery constituted the germs of a future intelligent life that would enslave humanity itself.

Although it was the giant displays of working machinery and the monumental fifteen-ton block of coal that proved most popular with the exhibition’s public, we can already find scuttling among its exhibits the early forms of the gadget. Though the term was only just being coined, its future forms were becoming identifiable. Richards even asserts that the exhibition “contained more gadgets than any other type of article” (1990: 33), and although his definition—“a mechanical device so specialized as to be practically useless” (1990: 33)—is a personal one, the claim has some merit. The catalog itself constitutes a textual, visual pornography of the functional, technical object and is full of descriptions of each item and illustrations of the most exciting offerings. Perhaps the most famous and spectacular of these in its form and hyperspecialized redundancy was the “sportsman’s knife” by Rodgers and Sons of Sheffield, pictured deliriously spouting its eighty-plus blades and instruments like a remarkable, lethal species of plant life ( Royal Commission 1851 : pl. 335). In plates and descriptions like these the publication prefigures those catalogs of useless items pushed by salespersons through mail slots until recent times.

The Crystal Palace exhibited a world of commodities, but few at the time possessed its objects. Though “stuffed with everyday goods for the middle classes” ( Auerbach 1999 : 121), this world was still only the promise of a domestic consumer revolution to come. Alongside the technical issues of perfecting their form and their mass production remained the problem of distribution. The rise of department stores in the second half of the nineteenth century constituted an important solution, but so too did developments in catalog shopping. In America, Sears, Roebuck and Company offered its first mail-order catalog in 1888, earning it the nickname, by the early twentieth century, “the consumer’s bible.” By 1895 its 532 pages contained every conceivable household item, while its 1908 update included the ready-to-assemble house to put them in.

Gadget sales were helped by the late nineteenth-century transformation of advertising, with the inclusion of visual images, more eye-catching typography, and stronger manufacturer claims. The pages of late-Victorian newspapers present one with a remarkable series of unlikely novelties, with the well-off able to choose from remarkable objects such as a “baby care taker and exerciser” (1876); “Wood’s automatic revolving heel rubber-pad” (1880); “patent revolving bed-tables” (1880); “a new food guard” (1882); “Dr. Scott’s electric hair brush” (1883); “self-pouring tea-pots” (1888); “Harness’s eye-battery” (1886) as well as his “electropathic belt” (1891) and “electric corset” (1892); through to “Vigor’s horse-action saddler” (1895); “the Leopold skirt grip” (1895); “Carr’s patent ladder tape” (1896); “Clarke’s patent pyramid food-warmer” (1897); and “Claxton’s ear-cap” (1898) (see Vries 1968 ). By the late nineteenth century, therefore, the group of objects the “gadget” would encompass had already emerged, moving from the experimental greenhouse of the Great Exhibition to become a profitable and well-advertised, if distinctly odd , sector of consumer culture.

Domestic media entertainments also partook of the air of gadgetry. Within three months of David Brewster’s gift to Queen Victoria of his stereoscope at the Great Exhibition, a quarter million viewers had been sold in England and France. The pleasures of the stereograph’s 3-D transformation would thrill generations until the early twentieth century; the experience was perhaps never better described than by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1861 as “a dream-like exaltation of the faculties, a kind of clairvoyance, in which we seem to leave the body behind us and sail away into one strange scene after another like disembodied spirits” (quoted in Merrin 2005 : 163). By the century’s end the Victorian parlor and child’s bedroom were alive with the technical phantasmagorias of the kaleidoscope, zoetrope, thaumatrope, phenakistoscope, and praxinoscope and the fantastic projected scenes of the boxed children’s magic lanterns.

It took until World War I for the terminology to catch up with this world of devices. It was then that gadget began to lose its seafaring use to stand instead for a class of objects. Rudyard Kipling had briefly referred to “steam gadgets” in his 1904 book Traffics and Discoveries (2007 [1904] : 90), but it was in his December 1914 Daily Telegraph article “Canadians in Camp” that he most clearly identified the gadget, writing of the engineers: “They have installed decent cooking ranges and gas, and the men have already made themselves all sorts of handy little labour-saving gadgets” (2009 [1914]). These gadgets were clearly associated with invention and novelty—as Vivian Drake, a British Royal Flying Corps pilot, reported in his 1918 memoir Above the Battle : “Our ennui was occasionally relieved by new gadgets—‘gadget’ is the Flying Corps slang for invention! Some gadgets were good, some comic and some extraordinary” (2009 [1918]: 191).

Here begins the classic era of the gadget. Now the proliferating objects of varied name and use were enclosed within its all-encompassing category. No longer a placeholding name, “the gadget” was elevated to a mode of technical being, a specific branch of mechanical object of hyperspecialized functionality. Its precise definition, however, remained slippery in its range of applications and crossover with other categories. At its best it was associated with labor-saving, invention, and innovation—suggesting a trouble-free life, realized through the creation of new devices to remove the problems and annoyances of daily life and labor. At its worst it was associated with inflated claims, unclear needs, dubious provenance or amateurish origin, suspect lasting value, and cheap gimmickry and novelty. Hence “the gadget” came to represent both the leading wave of technical invention (and the promised future of its perfected, everyday evolution) and something darker—sidetracks and dead ends off that evolutionary line. Like the “sportsman’s knife,” these were potentially pathological and excrescent products, objects whose hyperdevotion to specialized functionality led to excessive forms caught in their own hyperrealization of solutions to invented problems and condemned to obsolescence from their own uselessness.

These tensions mark the dissemination of the gadget through everyday life over the following decades. This dissemination was aided by the ongoing mechanization of the household (see Giedion 1975 [1948] : 512–627), the invention of new materials such as plastics, cheaper manufacturing methods, and the democratization of industrial consumer culture after World War I. Although domestic gadgetry was successful, there remained a deep-rooted suspicion of its novelty and second-class status compared with the more spectacular triumphs of consumer production. Kitchen gadgets suffered from their association with novelty, with the home, with the kitchen, and with the housewife. What grabbed the popular imagination in “the machine age” wasn’t the electric can opener but instead the public achievements of technological modernity: the factory system and assembly production; skyscrapers, power stations, and electric dams; and aircraft, ocean liners, and modern railroads. The automobile, not the electric lamp stove, became the aspirational symbol of mass consumption in the 1920s and 1930s.

But domestic developments had their own significance. Following Le Corbusier’s famous 1923 dictum, there was an increasing tendency to reconceptualize the house as a machine. Here the housewife was repositioned as the manager of the household, delegating tasks to her new labor-saving workers, kitchen gadgets. Though the famous eating machine in Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 film Modern Times satirized Taylorist ideas of worker efficiency, it pointed toward real developments in domestic automation and the gadgetry of food preparation. Ivor Jepson’s “Sunbeam Mixmaster,” first appearing on the shelves in 1930, for example, would become one of the most famous appliances of the century, helping establish the kitchen as the home of the modern gadget.

The US magazine Popular Science Monthly provides an insight into the gadget’s domestic progress. It carried regular photo features on the “latest aids for the housewife” (April 1931), illustrated with happy women posing with their latest devices. The March 1922 edition, for example, included a feature on “household brighteners” such as a pistol gas lighter and foldable juice filter, while the October 1927 edition included a table-mounted string bean slicer, a handheld drapery and upholstery vacuum cleaner, a miniature electric range, a pea sheller, and a grapefruit core remover. The 1930s saw the greatest range of new gadgets, with the magazine showcasing an electric permanent wave machine and electric handheld food mixer (April 1931); an egg opener and separator and a hand-powered vegetable slicer (March 1933); a self-opening table, portable potato baker, and waterproof heating pad (April 1933); a portable gas-torch fire lighter, a magnet can opener, individual teapots, a mop cleaner, a milk-bottle pitcher attachment, combination serving trays, and a closed onion slicer (February 1934); disappearing electric cords, an electric air-compressor cream whip, an electric buffet warmer, a safety wringer, and an electric air cooler (July 1934) (see Modern Mechanix 2013 ).

The popular prejudice against such objects led Sigfried Giedion to attempt an “anonymous history” of everyday technology in his book Mechanization Takes Command (1975 [1948] : 2–4). It was this project that inspired Reyner Banham’s discussion of overlooked objects of design, The Architecture of a Well-Tempered Environment (1969) . Banham had provided one of the first attempts to grasp the gadget, or “gizmo,” in his short article “The Great Gizmo” (1965) , a discussion of an object that has, Banham says, “coloured American thought and action more deeply . . . than is commonly understood” (1981: 112). Banham describes the gizmo as “a characteristic class of U.S. products—perhaps the most characteristic,” offering a definition—“a small, self-contained unit of high performance in relation to its size and cost, whose function is to transform some undifferentiated set of circumstances to a condition nearer human desires” (1981: 110)—whose abstraction succeeds in highlighting again the problems of the category and its etymological and material history.

Apart from Banham’s emphasis upon the gadget’s role in the American pioneer and domestic experiences and his observation that the “social usefulness” of gadgets has changed as they have come to rely on a supporting technological infrastructure requiring expert knowledge (1981: 108, 112), his analysis is limited. Recognizing his own inability to solve its conundrum, Banham’s most telling remark is that twenty years after Giedion “the subject still lacks a radical theorist who will range freely over departmental barriers and disciplinary interfaces and come back with a comprehensive historical account of the rise of portable gadgetry, and deduce from it some informed projections of the good or evil future it affords” (1981: 114). Almost half a century later we’re still waiting for that account. Few since have even noticed the category, let alone theorized the category. Marshall McLuhan includes a chapter titled “The Gadget Lover” in Understanding Media (1994 : 41–47) but, in his inimitable way, makes no mention of gadgets in it. All of this makes Baudrillard’s discussions of the gadget in his first two books, The System of Objects (1996 [1968] ) and The Consumer Society (1998 [1970] ), especially valuable.

• “Everything Is Becoming Gadgetry”

Baudrillard’s The System of Objects is a classic of structuralist, interpretive semiology, drawing on Roland Barthes’s (1973a , 1973b , 1992 ) Saussurean analysis of this new consumer sign world, but developing from it a broader social theory of consumption. Consumption in this sense is “an activity consisting of the systematic manipulation of signs”—of the idealistic manipulation and combination of sign-objects organized into a system governed by a “code” of signification ( Baudrillard 1996 [1968] : 200). For all the high theory of The System of Objects , Baudrillard echoes Giedion in his emphasis upon the everyday and the domestic sphere, especially objects such as lighting, clocks, mirrors, colors, and materials. Like the committee of the Great Exhibition, he succeeds in reducing the world of consumer manufacture to four categories: the functional, the nonfunctional, the metafunctional or dysfunctional, and the socio-ideological systems of objects.

The gadget finds its place in the meta-functional system, with Baudrillard tracing its origins to the baroque, whose “demiurgic formalism,” he says, foreshadows on the artistic plane “all the themes and myths of our technological civilization.” The gadget has a similar excessive quality, Baudrillard argues: at its farthest remove from objective use-value it is “completely taken over by the imaginary,” pursuing an “obsessional” functionality and becoming either so specifically functional as to be “absolutely useless” or so polyfunctional as to answer no need other than its own functioning (1996 [1968]: 113–14). Whereas the “gadget” comes close to uselessness, Baudrillard says that the “gizmo” does at least have an operational value—the fact remains that it works —though his admission of its indeterminate meaning highlights his problem of distinguishing these two categories (1996 [1968]: 114).

If, like Banham, Baudrillard struggles to define the gadget, he has, at least, noticed its rise and proliferation: “It is frightening to consider just how many things fall into the category of gizmos, just how many of our objects are covered by this empty concept.” Today, he says, “there extends a panoply of wondrous accessories culminating in the immense industrial output of everyday objects—gadgets or gizmos.” This excess of objects overwhelms our linguistic and cognitive faculties, he argues; “our civilization has more and more objects and fewer and fewer names for them” such that it is “impossible to classify the whole range of obsessional polyfunctionality” ( Baudrillard 1996 [1968] : 114–15). Importantly, language is again implicated; the “gadjet” that originated with the proliferation of technical objects became a category of objects whose contemporary expansion now exceeds our naming capacities.

The gadget, however, is special for Baudrillard. Though the gizmo is functionally limited, its “imaginary” is “universal,” he argues, signifying not just its own operation but “the total operation of the world.” The gadget and gizmo suggest that for every need there is a technical object that can solve it; hence their real referent is a world “reinvented in accordance with the technical reality principle” ( Baudrillard 1996 [1968] : 116). What the gadget reveals is an entire world that appears to us in its operationality as something transformed by, functioning through, and as solvable by technical objects. As such the gadget may be the key technical object.

Modes of the imaginary follow modes of technological evolution , and it is therefore to be expected that the next mode of technical efficiency will give rise to a new imaginary mode. At present its traits are difficult to discern, but perhaps, in the wake of the animistic and energetic modes, we shall need to turn our attention to the structures of a cybernetic imaginary mode whose central myth will no longer be that of an absolute organicism, nor that of an absolute functionalism, but instead that of an absolute interrelatedness of the world. (1996 [1968]: 118)

Baudrillard returns to the gadget in The Consumer Society , though with its tendency to merge with other objects there is a problem still of its definition. His solution is to reverse the problem, to see all other objects as converging on the gadget form. The gadget is “ the truth of the object in consumer society ,” he argues, as its “functional uselessness” is echoed by all other consumer objects since their own “objective function” has disappeared in favor of their “sign function.” Hence today “ anything can become a gadget and everything potentially is one” ( Baudrillard 1998 [1970] : 112). His examples of the gadget now expand, moving beyond the obviously useless like the polished cylinder paperweight to include “the technical object” with its array of functions such as “the typewriter which can write in 13 different character sets” or “the IBM dictation machine.” The gadget emerges, he argues, when the technical object is “consigned to mental practices of a magical type or to modish social practices” ( Baudrillard 1998 [1970] : 112), that is, with the production of needs that are in the mind. Thus it is the addition of functions in the technical object that tip it into gadgetry.

The gadget exemplifies the contemporary technical consumer object in other ways. Explicitly intended “for secondary functions,” the gadget is part of the logic of fashion and prestige, or a fetishistic logic, Baudrillard says, one, he adds, that “is the dominant tendency for all objects today” (1998 [1970]: 112). At the leading edge of the semiotic process, the gadget “is part of a systematic logic which lays hold of the whole of daily life in the spectacular mode,” casting “a suspicion of artificiality, fakery and uselessness . . . over the whole environment of human and social relations” ( Baudrillard 1998 [1970] : 112). Despite this tendency, Baudrillard is ambivalent about its hold. While the gadget is an “impoverished” form, it also partakes of “ the exaltedness of the new ”—that “sublime period of the object” in which it may attain “the intensity, if not the quality, of the emotion of love” ( Baudrillard 1998 [1970] : 113). Here, in the fascination of its newness, the gadget achieves the same “mode of intense relation” as the child experiences in his or her toys ( Baudrillard 1998 [1970] : 113).

Baudrillard foregrounds here the attraction of the gadget and our relationship with it. The gadget is defined, he says, “by the way we act with it,” which is not utilitarian or symbolic “but ludic”: “It is the ludic which increasingly governs our relations to objects, persons, culture, leisure and, at times, work, and also politics. It is the ludic which is becoming the dominant tone of our daily habitus, to the extent indeed that everything—objects, goods, relationships, services—is becoming gadgetry or gimmickry” ( Baudrillard 1998 [1970] : 113–14). The ludic, Baudrillard says, is a “particular type of investment” consisting of “a play with combinations, a combinatorial modulation: a play on the technical variants or potentialities of the object” (1998 [1970]: 114). The ludic, therefore, is a specific mode of behavior, one fascinated “by the operation of machines, by childlike discovery and manipulation, by vague or passionate curiosity for the ‘play’ of mechanisms, the play of colours, the play of variants”: “This is the very soul of passionate play, but diffuse and generalized and hence less cogent, emptied of its pathos and become mere curiosity —something between indifference and fascination, which might be defined by its opposition to passion ” ( Baudrillard 1998 [1970] : 114). If passion is a concrete relationship and total investment, our “ludic curiosity” in contrast is merely an interest in “the play of elements.” It remains a relationship of semiotic consumption rather than of symbolic passion—in the abstract manipulation of the object’s functions and its fashionable prestige. As Baudrillard concludes, “Consumption is combinatorial investment: it is exclusive of passion” (1998 [1970]: 114).

Baudrillard’s discussion of the gadget is curious. He is one of the few thinkers to recognize its rise and significance, yet it is also one of the few objects to elude him. The System of Objects and The Consumer Society are notable for the acuity of their targets and analyses and the continued relevance of their ideas; however, their treatment of the gadget is less coherent, and Baudrillard never entirely succeeds in pinning down this “empty concept.” Nevertheless, his analysis is one of the best we have, and there is an awareness in it that there is more at stake than we might assume, that these overlooked and ridiculed objects might hold a clue as to the direction and future of our technical consumer culture.

• Go, Go, Gadget!

As Kipling indicates, by World War I gadget was associated with innovation and novelty. The use of the term by military engineers and the flying corps is important, however, in highlighting another path of the gadget’s development: government and military research. It’s no coincidence that when the scientists on the Manhattan Project needed a code name for their new creation to hide its identity while emphasizing its novelty they hit upon the term. Hence, with the first bomb test on July 16, 1945, “the gadget” inaugurated the atomic age.

The exigencies of World War II and the Cold War spurred numerous technical innovations. The military funding of computing and network research would lay the basis for our digital gadgets, but the military also funded the development of miniaturized devices for the intelligence community. These high-tech scientific gadgets would capture the public imagination in the 1960s with the success of the spy genre. Though Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels contained few gadgets, the popularity of the customized briefcase, garrote watch, and dagger shoe in the 1963 film From Russia with Love ensured that they were foregrounded in 1964’s Goldfinger and the rest of the franchise. Television took up the genre with shows such as Get Smart , which was broadcast in 1965–70 and satirized the gadget craze (hiding phones in shoes, a car cigarette lighter, a steering-wheel, and even a full-sized phone). Get Smart would influence the popular children’s cartoon Inspector Gadget , aired in 1983–86, with its leading actor, Don Adams, also voicing the titular cyborg detective whose exclamation “Go, go, Gadget!” prefaced the appearance of a range of tools from his body. The future of man, it suggested, was to be cosubstantial with gadgetry.

Science also inspired a number of real gadgets in the postwar period. In 1946 Bell Laboratories’ Miles V. Sullivan patented an “activated amusement device”—a glass heat engine marketed by Tico Laboratories in the late 1940s as “the bobble bird.” This “drinking bird” toy, endlessly dipping its beak into water, sold in huge numbers and became a popular cultural phenomenon. Another scientifically inspired device was the “Newton’s cradle,” created and marketed by Simon Prebble in 1967. Beginning the craze for “executive toys,” it helped ensure the gadget’s invasion of work space with its distractions. Contemporary science fiction offered its own view of a future eased by gadgets, from the flip-top communicator in the 1966–69 series Star Trek that would inspire mobile phone design ( Cooper 2009 ) to the iPad-style devices used in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and the 1973–79 British series The Tomorrow People that would later be used to challenge Apple patents ( Farrell 2011 ).

By the 1970s, however, the public didn’t need to look to action films or sci-fi for gadgets since futuristic devices began to enter the home. We forget now, but it was the gadget that began the age of popular digital technology, for within a few years of Baudrillard’s claim of a coming cybernetic phase gadgets began to incorporate cheap electronics. The 1970s saw numerous devices whose usability gave them the air of gadgetry—such as the Phonemate Model 400 answering machine (1971), Sony’s LV-1901 Betamax VCR (1975), and the TPS-L2 “Walkman” (1979)—but the key development was the invention of the cheap microprocessor with the Intel 4004 in 1971. Its most important effect was in aiding the emergence of the home computer in the late 1970s, but in the years prior to this development it was gadgets and toys that sparked the domestic digital revolution.

With falling prices and increasing power, integrated circuits were placed in a range of objects, spurring developments in toys, telephony, music, gaming, video, home appliances, and consumer objects. Texas Instruments’ SR-10 electronic calculator and the Hamilton Pulsar LED watch—both from 1972—were pioneering digital gadgets, while Polaroid’s SX-70 camera from the same year also included chips. Home video gaming also preceded home computing with the (pre-microprocessor but still digital) Magnavox Odyssey appearing in 1972 and Sears’s Pong in 1975. By 1978 chips had invaded the toy box with Texas Instruments’ “Speak-and-Spell” and Milton Bradley’s “Simon” memory game, while the Magnavox Model 800 Discovision videodisc player appeared the same year.

The 1980s saw further developments in digital gadgets, including the first laptop, Epson’s HX-20 (1981); compact disc (CD) players such as Sony’s CDP-101 (1982); Sony’s “Watchman” portable TV (1982) and “Discman” portable CD player (1984); mobile phones such as the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983); electronic organizers such as the Sharp OZ-7000 (1988); and popular handheld gaming devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy (1989). It was the 1990s, however, that saw the explosion of digital gadgets as part of a broader transformation in home computing, networking, and digital media. The year 1994 saw the first widely marketed webcam, the Connectix QuickCam; 1998 saw one of the first MP3 players, the Diamond Multimedia RIO PMP300, and Panasonic’s portable DVD player, the DVD-L10. Early personal digital assistants, or PDAs, appeared, such as the Apple Newton MessagePad (1994) and the PalmPilot 1000 (1996), and the TiVo HDR 110 was released in 1999. Beginning in the mid-1990s, mobile telephony tipped, aided by the first clamshell, the Motorola StarTAC in 1996, while digital cameras and video cameras became commercially successful.

Through the 2000s, new developments fed off each other. Improved connectivity and speed and increasing capabilities turned devices into multimedia, networked technologies, while devices increasingly meshed together with new online Web 2.0 services, further driving consumer take-up. Phones soon had cameras and video as standard, and some designs, such as the Motorola Razr V3, became essential fashion accessories. They also got smarter, with Internet capability. The Blackberry smartphone was released in 2002; music players tipped with the third-generation iPod (2003); the Nintendo DS appeared in 2004; the iPhone and iPod Touch appeared in 2007; cheaper cameras such as Pure Digital Technologies’ Flip (2007) expanded the video market; e-readers began to take off with the Kindle (2007); the “netbook” appeared with the Asus Eee PC 700 (2007); tablet computing took off with the iPad (2010); and the Nintendo 3DS was released in 2011. New gaming experiences emerged such as the Wii’s gestural system (2006) and the Xbox 360 Kinect motion-capture system (2010). Meanwhile, robot toys, from Sony’s Aibo (1999) to Animagic’s Fluffy-Go-Walkies (2010) wandered across carpets freshly vacuumed by iRobot’s Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (2002).

Again, we can’t escape the problem of definition. All these objects take their place within other histories—of technology, invention, calculation, tools, toys, communication, and entertainment—and each could be categorized in different ways, yet they are all, in some way, essentially gadgets. So what does this word mean today? The early twentieth-century concept of a simple class of mechanical, hyperfunctional object associated with novelty and amateurishness can’t capture the contemporary range of digital objects, the richness of their uses, or their cultural success. The gadget’s life and place within society is clearly different from what it was a century ago. Though not entirely satisfactory, Baudrillard’s work provides a useful starting point for understanding what this life and place might be.

By the early millennium, Baudrillard’s claim that “everything is becoming gadgetry” seemed justifiable. With an emerging world of always-on connections, his claim of a new cybernetic imaginary based on the “absolute interrelatedness of the world” also appeared prescient. The interconnection of people through the Internet and mobile devices is obvious, but it is built upon a primary interconnection of technologies, with digitalization allowing the incorporation of all prior analogue forms as data, the passage of this data across networks, and its easy transfer between devices. Hence digital technology makes not only people and places but all information and content accessible, interrelated, and intercommunicable. The stand-alone gadget is thus valueless. The energetic gadget’s total operationality of the world, as Baudrillard suggests, has been superseded by the cybernetic gadget and the total interrelatedness and availability of the world.

This digital transformation has brought a sea change in the gadget’s social status. Gadgets have lost their air of amateurishness and poor reputation to become one of the most important categories of consumer electronics, produced by some of the most successful technology companies in the world. For all that, they have managed to retain their novelty status, with their ever-expanding range of features becoming their key selling point. Hence gadgets today exist in a “perpetual beta” ( O’Reilly 2005 ); tested in the marketplace and regularly updated with new iterations and features, they achieve a permanent and now positive “newness.”

Leaving behind cupboards, toy boxes, and executive desks, the digital gadget has become the epitome of high tech, the aspirational consumer object, and perhaps the definitive contemporary form of the spectacular society. “The spectacle,” Guy Debord writes, “is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life,” and the products of One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, especially—unveiled in much-anticipated launches to fawning media, reviewed by awestruck technorati, queued for on release day, and unboxed on YouTube—appear to achieve precisely this occupation. “The world one sees is its world,” Debord adds, a comment perfectly summarizing the refractive lens offered by the digital gadget (1992: para. 42).

Central to digital gadgets’ success has been their role in the rise of “me-dia” ( Merrin 2008 ; forthcoming). Historically, the majority of the population has had very little ability to produce and share information. The print revolution expanded the volume of information available and empowered media consumption but didn’t significantly democratize production or distribution. The full flowering of the broadcast system in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries consolidated this situation, with only “big media” companies and corporations having the capital, organizational capacity, and ability to mass-produce and mass-distribute content for mass consumption ( Gillmor 2004 ). Individual communication remained limited to amateur technologies and forms (e.g., photocopied fanzines and local newsletters) and personal media such as letters, telegraphy, and telephony, each of which suffered from significant limitations. Culturally, there was little interest in peer production; only professional content had value. Digital technologies changed this situation. Networked computing, mobile technologies, democratized productive tools (including publishing and editing software, digital cameras, and video cameras), broadband and Wi-Fi networks, and online Web 2.0 platforms helped create an epochal shift in the social structure of communication.

This shift was the creation of “me-dia”—the explosion of individual, horizontal, mediated interpersonal and public communication. It has propelled us from a top-down, one-to-many “broadcast era” dominated by “big media” to a “postbroadcast era” characterized by the ability of individuals to produce and disseminate their own content and connect to and share others’, all outside of traditional informational structures. Me-dia is a Ptolemaic revolution in communication; it represents the reorientation of information around individuals , empowering them as both producers and distributors and also as the creators and managers of their own ecology of experiences and content. Me-dia thus incorporates and subsumes traditional media, which now takes its place within a personalized media world arranged according to our own interests, decisions, attention, and choices. Hence the structural shift in communication is matched by a shift in value as our own creations, messages, comments, images, and shared links become more important to us than anything produced by the mass media. Today mainstream media content is ignored in favor of, or serves as the background to and inspiration for, our own communications. A comment or “like” on our social media profile is of more interest and value to us at any moment than the current output of entire media industries.

If me-dia remains a form of alienation, it is a subtle one. Whereas for Marx the industrial workers’ productions confronted them as something external and “alien” to them (1981: 64), our me-dia productions confront us instead as intimately tied to us. They appear not as the “estrangement” and loss of the self but precisely as its expression, as the external site and privileged holder of our personal life and secrets and the means of our most intimate realization. The digital gadget is thus not merely an informational and communicational device; it is central to our sense of self. No longer a peripheral technological form, its assimilation into our personal life and its expression thrusts it into the center of the technological and social environment.

Digital technology has led to other changes in the gadget’s nature and capacities. Whereas classic-era gadgets were targeted at specific users (e.g., women or executives) and specific places (e.g., the kitchen or garage), digital gadgets move easily between family members (the work tablet, for example, quickly becomes the child’s toy) and between parts of the house. Indeed, this mobility is central to their success; carried in pockets and handbags they transform everyday life into their own connected sphere, extending their influence into every realm. In addition, while the classic gadget was defined by its hyperspecialized functionality, the digital gadget is defined by its hyperfunctionality. Beyond telephony, e-mails, and texting, the smartphone allows me to read books, newspapers, and magazines; watch videos, TV, and films; access social networking sites; follow the news; stream or play music; listen to the radio; access any images and information; and purchase goods online. Meanwhile, apps enable me to take a hearing or vision test; monitor my fitness, diet, or workout; test my urine; track my bowel movements; use a stethoscope; get surf reports; follow weather patterns; track aircraft flights; make a will; measure my sexual performance; play virtual farts; launch a rim-shot effect to accompany my jokes; wave a virtual lighter at concerts; and drink a virtual pint.

Whereas the pathology of the classic gadget lay in its devotion to its own functionality in order to serve the user—smoothing the user’s labor or giving him or her the pleasure of its performance—the digital gadget smoothly offers us a range of functions and pleasures, but in doing so it transfers its pathology to us. The obsession now lies not with the device but with us, in our desire to return continuously to the object, to pick it up, check it, and recheck it. Seeing someone pick up their phone compels us to mimic them, and we panic when we can’t find it. The gadget that once had a suspicion of uselessness now overwhelms us with its usefulness. We can never exhaust its functions; instead, its functions and use exhaust us.

No longer left on shelves or buried in drawers, gadgets no longer languish . Instead, we can’t let them be; we are repeatedly drawn back. Like the child Sigmund Freud describes in “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (2010 [1922]) whose play with a wooden reel wound with string (throwing it out and pulling it back) transforms the trauma of parental absence into a game in which repetition offers reassurance, so we too conjure away the trauma of being alone with the obsessive repetition of our gadget play. Superficially, at least, the gadget appears superior to the child’s reel since answered messages and texts appear to bring us the presence of another, but in reality the reel’s satisfaction eludes us. In contrast to the wooden reel that can be pulled back, we have no control over the gadget’s response; unlike in “reel time,” the real-time gadget continually tantalizes us with the possibility of another message in the seconds since we last checked. The impossibility of the cybernetic loop ever being finally completed and closed only makes us aware of our powerlessness, emptiness, and lack of control.

As Baudrillard suggests, this hyper-functionality and usefulness highlights the importance of the “ludic” dimension. The subject of “play” has attracted considerable attention, especially in the emerging field of video-game studies (see Frasca 1999 ), but Baudrillard’s position is instead McLuhanist, emphasizing not game content and experience but the play with the form itself. Though early hackers enjoyed playing with machines ( Levy 2010 ), historically most people have found computer interaction difficult and confusing. More than any company, Apple made digital technologies easy and pleasurable, with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad especially helping redefine the gadget and its experience. An important part of design for Steve Jobs was playing with the proposed object: “Jobs liked to be shown physical objects that he could feel, inspect, and fondle” ( Isaacson 2011 : 387). As Maya Lin argues, though Jobs embraced a Zen-like simplicity his objects were not cold but “fun”: “He’s passionate and super-serious about design, but at the same time there’s a sense of play” (quoted in Isaacson 2011 : 370). Apple’s retail stores expressed the same philosophy in eschewing lines of shelving and sales counters in favor of customers simply playing with the products ( Isaacson 2011 : 370).

Arguably, these products originated in play. The iPad owes much to Alan Kay’s idea for a touch-tablet “Dynabook.” Kay’s essay “A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages” (1972) opens with a picture of two children playing with their connected Dynabooks and emphasizes throughout the idea of a tablet for playful exploration and creative learning. It was a lesson Apple learned. As Michael Noer points out, Jobs’s iPad is “a powerful computer that an illiterate six-year-old can use without instruction” (quoted in Isaacson 2011 : 498); it really is a computer “for children of all ages” to play with. Kay and Adele Goldberg, in their essay “Personal Dynamic Media,” even described the emerging desktop-PC system as “an interim Dynabook” (2003 [1977]: 393), implying that the entire PC paradigm was a detour to the realization of these tablets for play.

Baudrillard, naturally, is less impressed with digital media’s creative potential, seeing all computer interaction as the working through of preprogrammed capacities—“an automatic run-through of all the possibilities” (2002: 178). Even the Internet only simulates a space of freedom and discovery, he says, in offering “a multiple, but conventional, space, in which the operator interacts with known elements, pre-existent sites, established codes. Nothing exists beyond these search parameters” ( Baudrillard 2002 : 179). Baudrillard is right that our play with gadgets is “a play with combinations,” but his vision of their limitations is now less convincing. This is because the once ludic gadget is now hyperludic . Whereas one played with the classic gadget to observe it perform and complete its single function, the hyperfunctional digital gadget is designed for endless functioning. We can never exhaust our play with gadgets or complete their performance. The mobile phone is a perpetual thumb-motion machine, trapping us in a Moebian cybernetic loop of endless responses and replies.

Why this matters is because Baudrillard sees play as functioning as a mode of integration. His analysis of consumption followed, respectively, Barthes, Thorstein Veblen, and Herbert Marcuse to see it, simultaneously, as a system of communication, of social hierarchy and distinction, and of social control ( Baudrillard 1998 [1970] : 60–61, 94). In The Consumer Society , Baudrillard rejects the idea of consumption as a free, private, individual act fulfilling anthropological needs, seeing it instead as “an active, collective behaviour: it is something enforced, a morality, an institution. It is a whole system of values, with all that expression implies in terms of group integration and social control functions” (1998 [1970]: 81). Hence consumption is a “mode of socialization,” integrating the individual and establishing his or her conformity to the system and its code ( Baudrillard 1998 [1970] : 81).

The digital gadget most obviously functions as a means of integration as a key category of consumer electronics. But unlike earlier consumer relationships that involved no knowledge or relationship beyond the point of sale, digital gadgets incorporate the user in a series of ongoing and monitored relationships—with the technology company, with one’s own phone or Internet service provider, with the approved operating system and digital store owner, with the companies that produce the content or apps one downloads, with analytic companies embedded in this content, and with the platforms, websites, and online services that one accesses and that record one’s interactions, clicks, and activities. This system of “vertical integration” goes far beyond anything produced in the broadcast era, including all aspects of the individual and his or her use.

This integration also includes our bodies and habits, our physical pleasure in and absorption by the hyperfunctional and hyperludic. Digital gadgets demand to be held, manipulated, and explored; scroll wheels, home buttons, and touch screens pull us in, and touches, taps, double taps, pinches, zooms, rotations, swipes, swooshes, and flicks now constitute a new gestural grammar. The gadgets produce this grammar, standardizing new bodily gestures, rhythms, and habits, and companies have even tried to patent these. Apple’s patent 7844915, filed in 2007, covered touch-screen document scrolling including the “pinch to zoom” gesture, while its patent 7479949, filed in 2008, covered a range of multitouch gestures ( Apple 2009 , 2010 ). Both were ruled invalid in preliminary decisions in December 2012, not because our bodily gestures can’t be privately owned and integrated but because, in being covered by prior patents, they already are.

For the Baudrillard of The System of Objects even freedom can serve as a cover for incorporation. The semiotic system, for example, liberates us from earlier, more weighty symbolic systems to transform us into “an active engineer of atmosphere,” free to play with and combine signs ( Baudrillard 1996 [1968] : 26). Hence, in pulling us even more into its code, mastery of the semiotic is also a mastery by the semiotic. So today’s users are freed from broadcast-era mass media to become active engineers—operators and managers—of their own gadgets, devoting themselves to recharging them, checking them, and deleting, clearing, and updating them. This management constitutes, therefore, an ongoing labor, while our activities also constitute another mode of “free,” “immaterial,” or “digital labor” as every click and swipe, every app we use or page we browse, produces data about us and hence value for private companies ( Terranova 2003 ; Scholz 2012 ). If the classic-era gadget, therefore, was “labor-saving,” the digital gadget is labor-producing .

Thus we can see that our play is not only less empowered than we might assume—in being designed into our technologies and integrating us with them—but it also forms a central part of the digital business model, integrating us into a physiological-informational economics. As John Armitage argues, the logic of hypercapitalist digital media cannot tolerate nonparticipation in its system: “The hypermodern attitude is constituted in such a way that it cannot endure any people who have never been online or even any who decide to stay among the disappeared” (2013). In this “doctrine of compulsory appearance,” all must appear, take their place, be networked and available, and be physiologically and informationally integrated into the teletechnological system.

This physiological dimension is central to Baudrillard’s critique of media. In his essay “Requiem for the Media,” Baudrillard argues that “media ideology operates at the level of form” in the “separation” of humanity that media produce. “In their form and very operation . . . media induce a social relation,” he says, one involving “the abstraction, separation and abolition of exchange itself.” Hence the media actually fabricate a “non-communication” ( Baudrillard 1981 [1972] : 169). Baudrillard’s rejection of all technological mediation was an extreme position in the broadcast era, but it is even more counterintuitive in a digital era where me-dia brings us closer than ever, creating friendships and communities and linking us at every moment to one another. Baudrillard, however, is uncompromising: the mobile phone user “talking away to no one,” he says, represents “a living insult to the passers-by” (2003: 24). The “incrustation of the network in your head” leads, he says, to a state of living death ( Baudrillard 2003 : 82, 24). For Baudrillard, therefore, our digital gadgets only extend noncommunication.

While the reach of mass media into the lives of individuals was once limited, we now carry our own personal means of noncommunication everywhere. In their instant availability, the time and attention they take, the physical incorporation they produce, and our connected disconnection from the world, digital gadgets massively extend the mass media’s abolition of real experience, relations, and communication. Increasingly, on a physical level, our bodies and minds are simply elsewhere. Digital gadgets’ attraction also lies in flattering us. Whereas the mass media treated us as part of a mass audience, in revolving around ourselves—our posts, messages, responses, notifications, opinions, thoughts, activities, interests, and relationships—our me-dia rightly treats us as the most important element in our own media ecologies. Our digital gadgets make this flattering world ubiquitous and permanently available for our play and perusal.

Though McLuhan’s chapter “The Gadget Lover” in Understanding Media fails to mention the gadget, its subtitle, “Narcissus as Narcosis,” is important (1994: 41). McLuhan’s theme is about how we “become fascinated” by our own extended images, fail to recognize ourselves, and, like Narcissus, fall prey to the narcotizing effects of our extensions to become their “servo-mechanism” (1994: 41, 46). Our gadgets perfect exactly this narcotization: head down, thumb tapping and swiping, we become oblivious to everything else. The defining media image of the twenty-first century may well be the January 2011 shopping-mall closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of Cathy Cruz Marrero walking straight into a fountain while on her phone ( YouTube 2011 ).

Though, to date, little remarked upon, our gadgets are remaking our relationship with the world, often with dangerous or fatal consequences. Accidents from driving while on the phone or texting (illegal in the United Kingdom since December 2003) have cost numerous lives (see, e.g., BBC 2013 ), while the effects of “texting while walking” are increasingly recognized. A 2012 US report estimates that over eleven hundred people were treated in hospital emergency departments after accidents with handheld electronic devices ( Glatter 2012 ). Footage of these incidents has become a popular entertainment on You-Tube. In April 2012 a TV station helicopter following a wild bear on the loose in a Los Angeles suburb filmed a man on the phone walking straight up to it before fleeing in panic ( YouTube 2012a ); in July 2012, in Philadelphia, a man on his phone was filmed walking off a train platform onto the tracks ( YouTube 2012b ); while in January 2013 a UK woman was caught on CCTV walking into a canal in Birmingham while texting ( YouTube 2013 ). The May 2013 launch of a new app, “CrashAlert,” using the phone’s camera to scan for coming obstacles, might be of some help here, but it is likely that our problems with the real will continue ( Lacey 2013 ).

We can see a trajectory of “the gadget,” from a placeholding name to a specialized, functional class of consumer objects to a contemporary digital, hyperludic, hyperfunctional form that achieves a new centrality in consumer culture; in information, communication, and entertainment; and in our own personal lives. In doing so, it also achieves a mode of individual integration exceeding earlier forms of industrial machinery and broadcast media, all of which could be left behind or included in spaces and spheres of life outside of their direct influence. Discussing the early history of computing, J. G. Ballard suggested that computers would one day “mount a more subtle take-over bid,” fulfilling his warning that “the totalitarian systems of the future will be subservient and ingratiating” (1998: 50). The personal, digital, me-dia gadget realizes exactly this direction, holding us closer, traveling everywhere with us, and integrating us more thoroughly than before. And it shows little sign of stopping: new, wearable devices such as Google Glass and smartwatches threaten to extend this personal integration and our physiological and mental alienation. Thus the “gadjet” that originated as the aphasic expression of our mind, producing an alienation of our mouths as we struggled to find the words we wanted, ends with the integration and enclosure of our minds and the numbing and narcotization of our entire bodies. As Baudrillard suggests, and as Marrero demonstrates, this is a world of public “zombies” cast into an electromagnetic sleep (2003: 24).

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Next Tech World

The Rise of Smart Gadgets: A Look at the History and Evolution

The term “smart gadget” has become a common phrase in our everyday lives, but what exactly does it mean? A smart gadget is a device that can connect to the internet, interact with other devices and perform automated functions. In this article, we’ll explore the history of smart gadgets, from their humble beginnings to their widespread use today.

Pre-Smart Gadget Technology

Before the introduction of smart gadgets, there were early internet-connected devices such as webcams, Wi-Fi routers, and home automation systems. In the early 2000s, smartphones and tablets began to emerge, and they laid the foundation for the development of smart gadgets we know today. While these early devices lacked the advanced features of modern gadgets, they were instrumental in setting the stage for the smart gadget revolution.

Smart Gadget Revolution

The smart gadget revolution began with the introduction of smart homea devices, such as the Nest thermostat, which allows homeowners to remotely control their home’s temperature. Wearable technology also emerged, allowing people to track their fitness, monitor their health and even receive notifications from their phone without having to take it out of their pocket.

Automation and virtual assistants are also a significant part of the smart gadget revolution. Virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri can perform tasks such as setting alarms, playing music, and answering questions. They can also control smart home devices, such as lighting, temperature, and security systems.

Impact of Smart Gadgets

Smart gadgets have had both positive and negative impacts on society. On the positive side, they have made our lives more convenient, efficient and connected. For example, smart home devices can help us save energy and money while also making our homes more comfortable. Wearable technology can help us track our health and fitness goals, and virtual assistants can help us manage our daily tasks.

However, smart gadgets have also raised concerns about privacy and security. Smart home devices can be vulnerable to hacking, putting our personal information at risk. Virtual assistants, while convenient, can also collect data on our daily lives, raising questions about privacy and surveillance.

In summary, the history of smart gadgets has been a rapid evolution from early internet-connected devices to today’s advanced technologies. While there have been both positive and negative impacts of smart gadgets, their role in our lives is only set to grow. As we continue to develop and refine these technologies, it’s important to be mindful of the potential impacts and use them responsibly. The future of smart gadgets is exciting, and we can expect to see even more innovation and integration into our daily lives in the years to come.

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Table of Contents

• Methodology

Main findings

Many devices have become popular across generations, with a majority now owning cell phones, laptops and desktop computers. Younger adults are leading the way in increased mobility, preferring laptops to desktops and using their cell phones for a variety of functions, including internet, email, music, games, and video.

Among the findings:

• Cell phones are by far the most popular device among American adults, especially for adults under the age of 65. Some 85% of adults own cell phones overall. Taking pictures (done by 76% of cell owners) and text messaging (done by 72% of cell owners) are the two non-voice functions that are widely popular among all cell phone users.
• Desktop computers are most popular with adults ages 35-65, with 69% of Gen X, 65% of Younger Boomers and 64% of Older Boomers owning these devices.
• Millennials are the only generation that is more likely to own a laptop computer or netbook than a desktop:  70% own a laptop, compared with 57% who own a desktop.
• While almost half of all adults own an mp3 player like an iPod, this device is by far the most popular with Millennials, the youngest generation—74% of adults ages 18-34 own an mp3 player, compared with 56% of the next oldest generation, Gen X (ages 35-46).
• Game consoles are significantly more popular with adults ages 18-46, with 63% owning these devices.
• 5% of all adults own an e-book reader ; they are least popular with adults age 75 and older, with 2% owning this device.
• Tablet computers , such as the iPad, are most popular with American adults age 65 and younger. 4% of all adults own this device.

Additionally, about one in 11 (9%) adults do not own any of the devices we asked about, including 43% of adults age 75 and older.

In terms of generations, Millennials are by far the most likely group not only to own most of the devices we asked about, but also to take advantage of a wider range of functions. For instance, while cell phones have become ubiquitous in American households, most cell phone owners only use two of the main non-voice functions on their phones: taking pictures and text messaging.  Among Millennials, meanwhile, a majority use their phones also for going online, sending email, playing games, listening to music, and recording videos.

However, Gen X is also very similar to Millennials in ownership of certain devices, such as game consoles. Members of Gen X are also more likely than Millennials to own a desktop computer.

e-Book readers and tablet computers so far have not seen significant differences in ownership between generations, although members of the oldest generation (adults age 75 and older) are less likely than younger generations to own these devices.

These findings are based on a survey of 3,001 American adults (ages 18 and older) conducted between August 9 and September 13, 2010. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish, and the survey included 1,000 cell phone interviews. (More information is availabe in the Methodology section .)

In this chart, the dips in tech ownership registered in the September 2010 survey are mostly a result of the fact that Spanish interviews were added to the survey. Most of the Pew Internet surveys before 2010 were only conducted in English. The Project has added Spanish to this survey and that knocked down the overall tech-ownership numbers in some instances because respondents who wanted to be interviewed in Spanish were somewhat less likely than others to be tech non-users.

Background: Generations defined

This is part of a series of reports by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project exploring how different generations use technology (previous reports: 2010 , 2009 , 2006 ). All the generation labels used in these reports, with the exceptions of “Younger Boomers” and “Older Boomers,” are the names conventionalized by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book, Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069 (Perennial, 1992). The Pew Internet Project’s “Generations” reports make the distinction between Younger Boomers and Older Boomers because enough research has been done to suggest that the two decades of Baby Boomers are different enough to merit being divided into distinct generational groups.

The Pew Research Center recently published a series of reports that more closely examined the values, attitudes and experiences of the Millennial generation . 1  These reports are available in full at pewresearch.org/millennials . Many of these reports also compare this younger generation to older cohorts.

The primary adult data in this report come from a Pew Internet Project survey conducted from August 9-September 13, 2010, with some data from a survey conducted April 29 to May 30, 2010. For more information about these surveys, please see the  Methodology section at the end of this report.

Cell phones

Eighty-five percent of Americans age 18 and older own a cell phone, making it by far the most popular device among adults. Mobile phones are especially popular with adults under the age of 66, although the largest drop-off is for adults in the oldest generation (those age 75 and older), of whom 48% own a cell phone.

When asked further about the presence of mobile phones in their households, one-third (33%) of those who do not own a cell phone live in a household with at least one working mobile phone. This means that overall, 90% of all adults—including 62% of those age 75 and older—live in a household with at least one working cell phone.

As the proportion of households with at least one working cell phone rises, many are doing without a landline phone connection at all. In the first half of 2010, roughly one in four (25%) American adults lived in households that were “wireless only” in that they had at least one cell phone, but no landline. This includes more than half (51%) of young adults ages 25-29. 2

Though cell phones are now ubiquitous in American homes, the level of engagement with the phones does vary widely between generations. As shown in the above table, our May 2010 survey found that while roughly the same proportion of adults in the Millennial generation and Generation X own cell phones, Millennials are significantly more likely to use their phones for a variety of purposes. A majority of Millennials use their phones for taking photos, texting, going online, sending email, playing games, listening to music, and recording videos—making them significantly more likely than any other generation to engage in all of these activities.

In fact, the only two activities that are widely popular for all cell phone owners are taking pictures and sending text messages. Taking pictures is the most popular function on Americans’ phones, with more than half of all cell phone owners under the age of 75 using their phones for this purpose (only 16% of adults age 75 and older take photos with their phones). Text messaging, though also widely adopted, is less popular with adults over age 56.

Click here for a larger verison  

Desktop and laptop computers

As noted in previous reports , desktop computer ownership has fallen slightly since 2006, as laptops have gained in popularity. 3 Currently 59% of all adults own a desktop computer, and 52% own a laptop (76% own a computer overall).

Millennials are the only generation that is more likely to own a laptop or netbook (70%) than a desktop computer (57%). While 69% of adults in Generation X own a desktop, a close 61% own a laptop. While roughly six in ten adults ages 47-65 own a desktop, only 49% of Younger Boomers and 43% of Older Boomers own a laptop.

Only  45% of adults over age 65 have a computer of any kind (40% of adults in that age group use the internet), and they are increasingly likely to use a desktop: 28% of adults age 75 and older use a desktop, and 10% use a laptop. 4

Mp3 players

Almost half—47%—of adults own an iPod or other mp3 player. However, among the devices examined in this report, mp3 players saw the widest range in ownership rates between generations. While 74% of Millennials own an mp3 player, only 56% of members of Gen X do—and adoption rates continue to drop for each of the older generations. Only 3% of adults age 75 and older own this type of device.

Game consoles

Overall, 42% percent of all adults age 18 and older own a game console, and it is especially popular with members of the Millennial Generation and Generation X.  Sixty-three percent of all adults ages 18-46 own a game console like an Xbox or Play Station, as well as 38% of those ages 47-56. Ownership rates continue to drop off, to 19% of Older Boomers (ages 56-64), 8% of the Silent Generation (ages 66-74), and only 3% of the G.I. Generation (age 75 and older).

Additionally, as previously reported in “ Americans and Their Gadgets ,” parents with children living at home are nearly twice as likely as non-parents to own a game console—64% of parents own one,  vs 33% of non-parents. 5

e-Book Readers and Tablet Computers

As of September 2010, 5% of American adults own an electronic book reader such as a Kindle or Sony Digital Book, up from 2% of adults the first time the question was asked in April 2009.

Statistically, there is very little variation between the different generations, although the G.I. Generation is slightly less likely than younger generations to own such a device. Though age is not a strong predictor of e-book use,  our previous “Gadgets” report noted that ownership is more likely among college graduates and those with relatively high household incomes. 6

Though there have been several incarnations of tablet-like computers over the years, 7 they had not gained widespread attention until Apple introduced the iPad in early 2010. 8

As of September 2010, 4% of American adults own a tablet computer such as an iPad. Though education and household income are high predictors for owning a tablet computer, as with e-book readers, they are also more popular with adults age 56 and under (who are significantly more likely to own a tablet computer than adults age 66 and older).

In a previous May 2010 survey, when 3% of all adults said they owned a tablet computer,  roughly six in ten of tablet owners said they use their device to access the internet. However, given the small number of tablet owners these findings are not reported in detail here. 9

Infographic: Summary of gadget ownership

Click for a larger version

• Scott Keeter and Paul Taylor, “The Millennials.” Pew Research Center, December 11, 2009. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1437/millennials-profile ↩
• Stephen J. Blumberg and Julian V Luke, “Wireless Substitution: Early Release of Estimates from the National health Interview Survey, January-June 2010.” National Center for Health Statistics, December 2010. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless201012.htm ↩
• See “Americans and their gadgets” (2010): https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/Reports/2010/Gadgets/Report/Desktop-and-Laptop-Computers.aspx ↩
• See “Americans and their gadgets” (2010): https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/Reports/2010/Gadgets/Report/Game-consoles.aspx ↩
• See “Americans and their gadgets” (2010): https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/Reports/2010/Gadgets/Report/eBook-Readers-and-Tablet-Computers.aspx ↩
• Brad Stone and Ashlee Vance, “Just a Touch Away, the Elusive Tablet PC.” The New York Times, October 4, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/technology/05tablet.html ↩
• The iPad was introduced in January 27, 2010 and went on sale April 3. ↩
• See “Mobile Access” (2010): https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/Reports/2010/Mobile-Access-2010/Part-3/Mobile-access-using-laptops-and-other-devices.aspx ↩

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The most popular tech gadget from the year you were born

• Technology has undoubtedly changed how we live our lives.
• Since 1950, there's been a new technological invention or innovation every year.
• The first iPhone was introduced in 2007, revolutionizing cell-phone technology.

It's crazy to think about how in less than 100 years, we've gone from inventing the microwave oven to experimenting with artificial intelligence and virtual realities .

So many of the items we now take for granted were once incredible inventions and innovations, but that's the nature of technology: It constantly changes, improves, and problem solves to the point where younger generations can't even imagine a world without it.

Just look at the cell phone. The first mobile phone was released in 1973, the first smartphone arrived in the '90s, and then the iPhone dropped in 2007 and completely revolutionized the technology.

Now, 90% of Americans own smartphones compared to just 35% in 2011, according to a study released by the Pew Research Center in 2024; and, unsurprisingly, 18- to 29-year-olds are more dependent on them than any other age group.

So, while we all await the next big tech gadget to impress Gen Alpha, take a look at what world-changing product was invented or launched the year you were born (or at least until 2010) and marvel at just how much the world's changed since then.

1950: Zenith Electronics introduced the first remote controls, which were connected to television sets by wires.

Zenith's remote control was called the "Lazy Bones," according to the company's website. It had just one button for flipping channels. The remote pictured above is a slightly more advanced version, with four buttons.

Zenith later introduced a wireless remote called the "Flash-Matic" in 1955.

1951: Charles Ginsburg, a researcher at Ampex Corporation, invented the videotape recorder.

Smithsonian Magazine reported that the first videotape recorder worked by taking photos and converting them into electrical impulses, which were then stored on magnetic tape. It went for a cool $56,000.

1952: The movie-watching experience Cinerama premiered in New York City.

With the invention of television, Hollywood was interested in creating a movie-watching experience that couldn't be fully appreciated or captured at home. Thus, the Cinerama process was born.

Cinerama used three cameras to film during production, then the footage would be projected onto one large curved screen, like the one in the picture above.

The recently closed Cinerama Dome in Hollywood was a relic of this film era, as the industry had intended to produce a series of similar theaters across the country. Unfortunately, by the time the Cinerama Dome opened in 1963, the Cinerama process was no longer in use, Variety reported  in 2021, because it was too difficult and expensive. Only seven films were ever shot using the Cinerama process, per a blog post in the UCLA Library's Film & Televison Archive from 2016.

1953: Richard C. Laramy received a patent for his portable cooler.

Sports fans, beach goers, and picnic attendees alike can thank Richard C. Laramy for the invention of the portable cooler. He received a US patent in 1953 and the item quickly became a staple in households around the country, reported the Science History Institute .

1954: The first transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, was made by Texas Instruments.

The first transistor radio — "a fantastic pocket-size 'music player,'" as Sound & Vision reported — made it possible to tune into your favorite AM radio station wherever you were, revolutionizing the way people listened to music.

It cost $50, equivalent to around $480 today.

1955: Tappan released the first microwave oven designed for consumers. It made cooking faster and easier than ever.

In 2010, Wired reported that the microwave oven was born out of the radar systems used in World War II-era technology. The first iterations weighed about 750 pounds and were nearly 6 feet tall. Now, they can fit comfortably on a countertop in the smallest of kitchens.

1956: IBM released the first computer hard drive to be sold commercially.

Hard drives store digital data like documents, computer programs, and applications. This drive held five megabytes of data at $10,000 a megabyte, and was the size of two fridges, PC World reported. Now, hard drives can be smaller than the size of a tablet.

1957: The first battery-operated, wearable pacemaker was sold to consumers.

Earl E. Bakken was an electrical engineer, TV repairman, and co-founder of Medtronic Inc. He produced the first battery-operated wearable pacemaker in 1957, saving countless lives, reported Images in Paediatric Cardiology journal . It used an electric current to help regulate heart problems.

1958: The first modem, a machine that can translate data, was released, revolutionizing communication and paving the way for the internet.

The Bell 101 modem, released by AT&T in 1958, was the first commercial modem for computers, reported Tech Radar . Modems are still in use today to connect computers and other devices to the internet.

1959: Internal pacemakers became available.

Images in Paediatric Cardiology journal reported that in 1959, Wilson Greatbatch, an electrical engineer, patented the internal pacemaker, which can treat more serious heart conditions than external pacemakers can.

Dr. William Chardack reported the first successful use of the pacemaker inside a human in 1960, which changed the future of heart medicine forever.

1960: The portable television reached the market.

Just a few decades after the TV was invented, Sony released the TV-8-301 — the first complete transistor television — in 1960, reported The History of Television . It weighed about 13 pounds and could run on two 6-volt batteries. However, it only lasted for two years before getting discontinued.

1961: IBM's Selectric Typewriter was popular.

The Selectric overcame the problems faced by typewriters in the past by replacing "individual type bars with 88 characters positioned around the spherical type element," per IBM's website .

This prevented jamming and the need for a carriage, so users' productivity improved. By 1978, IBM was responsible for 94% of the electric typewriters on the market.

1962: Audio cassette tapes were developed.

The audio cassette tape was first created by Philips Company engineer Lou Ottens in 1962, reported the New York Public Library . Their small size made them a convenient way to listen to pre-recorded music, but they were later rendered nearly obsolete by CDs and streaming.

1963: Douglas Engelbart, an engineer and inventor, created the first computer mouse. It was made of wood and had just one button.

The New York Times reported that some early versions of the mouse had three buttons, though Engelbart thought as many as 10 buttons would be more useful. Computer mice today still usually only have two or three buttons.

1964: Bell Telephone's Picturephone went on display at the 1964 World's Fair. Much like video calls today, it let callers see the person on the other line.

"From a booth set up in Grand Central Terminal, a person could talk to a friend in Chicago or Washington while also seeing them on a small video screen," The New York Times reported in 2014. It cost the small price of $16 for a 3 minute call — roughly $121 today.

It was the beginning of what we now know as video-chatting.

1965: Duane D. Pearsall and Stanley B. Peterson invented battery-powered smoke alarms that could easily be installed and replaced in homes.

A 2021 report by the National Fire Protection Association found that "the risk of dying in reported home structure fires is 55% lower in homes with working smoke alarms than in homes with no alarms or none that worked."

The association reported that 57% of home fire deaths from 2014 to 2018 were caused by a lack of smoke alarms altogether and a lack of working smoking alarms.

1966: The industry standard microphone for performers today, the Shure SM58, was released.

Per the company's website , the first SM58 microphones were sold in 1966. The microphone is the preferred choice of famous musicians like Paul McCartney, Patti Smith, and Alice Cooper.

1967: Texas Instruments released the handheld calculator, the first model that could fit in a pocket.

PBS reported that Texas Instruments group, led by Jack Kilby, developed a calculator that was only 6 inches tall. It was far smaller than a previously released model, which weighed 55 pounds and cost $2,500.

1968: Random-access memory (RAM) was invented. It is considered one of the most significant advances in computer technology.

RAM is a hardware storage device for computers. It was first invented by Robert Dennard, an electrical engineer and inventor, in 1968, Computer Hope reported . Computers still use RAM to this day.

1969: The microcassette was developed by the Olympus Corporation.

Microcassettes had the same width as the tape on the Philips Compact Cassette but used a much smaller plastic frame, making them even more convenient to carry around on your person and inside your car.

1971: The inventor of the floppy disk is contested, but the device became available.

Smithsonian Magazine reported that Japanese inventor Yoshiro Nakamatsu, also known as Dr. NakaMats, received a Japanese patent for the floppy disk in 1952, but American company IBM insists its team of engineers were responsible for the invention in 1969. The first iterations were released in 1971.

Floppy disks store data and were coined "floppy disks" for their relatively malleable outer casing. Some Gen Zers may remember floppy disks as the "save" icon on computers.

1972: Video game developer Allan Alcorn created Pong, which was released by Atari.

Pong is widely regarded as the game that sparked the video game industry. VentureBeat reported that Alcorn reacted to the explosion of the video game industry by saying, "It wasn't my intention. I'm just as surprised as the next guy."

1973: Motorola released the first mobile phone. As seen in this photo, they were far clunkier than today's models.

Motorola engineer Martin "Marty" Cooper made the first call on a mobile phone to Joel S. Engel, his rival at Bell Labs, on April 3, 1973, reported EDN .

1974: Inside an Ohio store, a barcode scanner was used for the very first time.

Smithsonian Magazine reported that on June 26, 1974, in the small town of Troy, Ohio, the first item marked with the Universal Product Code (UPC) was scanned at the checkout counter of Marsh Supermarket.

Barcode scanners greatly reduced checkout line times.

1975: Steven Sasson, an engineer at Eastman Kodak, invented digital photography and made the first digital camera.

Though the prototype was invented in 1975, Business Insider reported that the first digital camera made widely available in the United States was the Dycam Model 1, but the model failed because of its high price tag, lack of color, and poor resolution.

1976: VHS, or Video Home System, was developed by JVC, making movies widely available for home viewing.

Wired reported that the following year, in 1977, VHS was introduced in North America at a press conference before the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. VHS tapes were the only way to watch movies at home for decades, before DVD and Blu-ray took over.

1977: Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs invented the Apple II, one of the earliest home computers.

The National Museum of American History reported that Wozniak and Jobs invented the first Apple computer, the Apple I, in 1976, but their vastly improved version, the Apple II, was released to consumers in 1977. Needless to say, Apple has become one of the largest companies in the world, and it can be traced back to the Apple II.

1978: LaserDisc launched as a home movie rival to the VHS tape and later the DVD.

CNET reported that the first LaserDiscs had analog audio tracks, but later versions featured stereo audio. The audio and video quality was considered by many to be superior for its time — however, even at the height of its popularity, it was still considered a niche product.

1979: The Walkman cassette player, which was invented by designer Norio Ohga, launched. It was the first way to listen to music on the go privately.

A prototype of the Walkman was invented by Ohga when Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka asked for a more private way to listen to opera music, The Verge reported . Selling for $150, the Walkman proved popular, with 400 million devices sold during the brand's lifetime.  

1980: Nintendo engineer Gunpei Yokoi developed the Game & Watch handheld game systems.

Nintendo Life reported that Yokoi came up with the idea after seeing a Japanese businessman fiddling with a pocket calculator. Using LCD technology, the line of handheld games launched with a focus on short bursts of gameplay. Now, video games were portable.

1981: Developed by the IBM Corporation, the IBM Personal Computer was one of the first personal computers on the market.

Targeting consumers, the IBM Personal Computer was significantly faster than its competition and boasted 10 times the memory, Britannica reported .

1982: The first compact disc (CD) player hit the market and changed the way people listened to music.

The CD was developed as a collaboration between Philips and Sony, and the first CD player, the Sony CDP-101, was launched on October 1, 1982, Science Museum Group reported . The CD would effectively kill cassettes and vinyl as the go-to medium for music.

1983: Betamovie became one of the first camcorders available to consumers.

Developed by Sony in 1983, the Betamovie camcorder was the first to combine the camera and recorder into one item, ACMI, Australia's national museum of screen culture, reported . Before the Betamovie, a portable VCR had to be connected to the camera by a cable.

1984: Developed by Apple, the Macintosh launched as competition to the IBM Personal Computer.

The Guardian reported in 2009 that the Macintosh was one of the first computers to have a graphics interface, which would quickly become the standard.

1985: Nintendo entered the home-gaming system market with the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES.

The NES sold 60 million units during its lifetime, Screen Rant reported , and introduced iconic characters like the Mario Brothers and Link to the masses.

1986: The Japanese public was introduced to the first disposable film camera on the market.

The QuickSnap camera was released by Fujifilm in 1986, with the idea that "everybody should enjoy photography with ease," per company history .

Disposable cameras offered a cheaper alternative to consumers than traditional photography, though they are less immediate than a Polaroid.

1987: The Sony Discman was a step up from the Walkman.

The successor to the Walkman, Sony's Discman represented innovation in its purest form, adapting from the cassettes of the past to CDs. In 1987, The New York Times called the Sony D-10 Discman "an engineering tour de force," noting that it was smaller, sleeker, and lighter than earlier iterations of the technology.

1988: The Mega Drive gaming console was released in Japan. The following year, North American audiences were introduced to it as the Sega Genesis.

The Guardian reported that the Sega Genesis was a competitor to Nintendo's system, the NES. Sega even had its own mascot — the blue hedgehog Sonic — to rival the popularity of Mario.

1989: Nintendo developed and released one of the best-selling video game systems of all time: the Game Boy.

Smithsonian Magazine reported that the original Game Boy sold one million systems in the US in just a matter of weeks after its release. Nearly 120 million Game Boys would be sold worldwide during the device's lifetime, kickstarting iconic franchises like Tetris and Pokémon.

1990: Developed by brothers Thomas and John Knoll in 1987, the first commercial version of Photoshop launched in 1990.

The photo-editing software was released exclusively for the Macintosh in 1990, The Verge reported . It changed the world of photography forever when it was introduced — now, photos could be edited digitally.

1991: Researchers at the University of Cambridge accidentally developed the webcam.

The BBC reported that the first webcam was created by Dr. Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Dr. Paul Jardetzky, and Dr. Martyn Johnson at the University of Cambridge. Stafford-Fraser and Jardetzky set up a camera for researchers to watch the lab coffee pot, which was located in a different room, to see if it was empty before getting up to grab coffee.

Johnson, who was not connected to the campus' internal computer network, wrote a code that allowed him to view the feed through the World Wide Web for the very first time, thus the first webcam was born.

1992: Though development started in 1987, the Sonicare electric toothbrush wasn't released until five year later.

David Giuliani co-invented the Sonicare electric toothbrush with University of Washington professors Dr. David Engel and Dr. Roy Martin because he wanted to improve upon the way people brushed their teeth, the Seattle Times reported .

1993: The Apple Newton MessagePad, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), went on sale.

The MessagePad had a brief life, but it made a big impact. The device could take notes, keep track of your calendar, send faxes, and store contacts. There's even a museum dedicated to it, Wired reported.

1994: The IBM Simon was the first PDA that also had telephone functionality.

The IBM Simon was a precursor to the modern day smartphone, Time reported . The personal assistant device was the first to have telephone capabilities. It also had a touchscreen and even apps.

1995: The Virtual Boy was designed by Nintendo as a foray into the world of virtual reality.

Though it didn't prove to be successful, the device developed something of a cult following among collectors, and the idea of virtual reality was revisited years later with the Oculus Rift. In a way, it was far ahead of its time.

1996: The DVD player entered the market as a challenger to both the VHS tape and LaserDisc for home media.

The Toshiba Science Museum reported that the first DVD player, the SD-3000, was designed in 1994 and introduced to audiences in 1996. The DVD would quickly replace the VHS for home media.

1997: Created by Bandai, the Tamagotchi was first released in the United States.

The electronic toy gave owners a virtual pet to feed and take care of, teaching plenty of kids and teens responsibility.

The toy launched a comeback in 2017, on the 20th anniversary of its US release, Smithsonian Magazine reported. There's also an app available to download for iPhones and Androids.

1998: A precursor to what was to come in the 2000s, the first MP3 music player was released.

The first MP3 music player, the Diamond Rio PMP 300, was released in 1998. Rather than CDs or cassette tapes, the device used MP3 files downloaded from the web.

The Recording Industry Association of America attempted to sue Diamond over the device and lost, paving the way for future MP3 devices, iPods, and music streaming, Vice reported .

1999: TiVo, developed by Mike Ramsay and Jim Barton, launched.

TiVo was a digital video recorder, designed to record TV shows and movies so they could be watched at a later date, something that had only been done using a VHS tape.

2000: The first camera phones hit the market, and thus the selfie was born.

Digital Trends reported that the first camera phone, the SCH-V200, was developed by Samsung in South Korea and debuted in June 2000 — though you still needed a computer to actually access the photos.

However, Digital Trends also reported that there's also an argument that the first "real" camera phone was actually produced by Sharp in Japan, the J-SH04, in November 2000 because it allowed users to send their photos electronically — a function the SCH-V200 didn't have.

2001: The first iPod was released by Apple.

Unlike the touchscreens and mountains of storage that followed, the first iPod model had a click wheel and between five and 10 gigabytes of storage, CNET reported.

2002: Launched by iRobot, the Roomba made its debut.

The robotic vacuum cleaner is known for its autonomous household cleaning. Say goodbye to long wires and loud vacuum noises.

2003: Launched by Tiger Electronics, VideoNow was a portable video player targeted at children and teens.

The device proved to be a popular fad. Movies and TV shows were sold on VideoNow discs that played on the device.

2004: Nintendo released its highly successful Nintendo DS handheld system.

The gaming system combined touch-screen technology with a stylus and dual screens. It was one of the first gaming systems to use WiFi and it had a built-in microphone, as well.

2005: The Xbox 360, designed by Microsoft, was released.

Popular video games for the system included the franchises "Halo" and "Gears of War." The Xbox 360 was replaced in 2013 by the Xbox One.

2006: Family game nights have looked very different since the introduction of the Wii.

The Wii by Nintendo was one of the first motion gaming consoles, prompting families to gather around their TVs for game rights rather than their kitchen tables. The game Wii Sports was bundled with the original consoles and is Nintendo's best selling game of all time, Screen Rant reported , with 82.9 million units sold as of 2021.

With virtual versions of sports like bowling, tennis, and even boxing, there was something for people of all age groups to enjoy. Other popular Wii games included Mario Kart Wii, Wii Sports Resort, and Wii Fit.

2007: Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, forever changing the world of smartphones.

The first iPhone seems almost prehistoric compared to today's standards. There was no app store, no texting photos, no Siri, no maps, and it was significantly smaller than iPhones today .

And yet, it fundamentally changed the way users interact with technology on a daily basis by consolidating different devices into one pocket-sized invention with a noticeably sleek design and user-friendly interface that Apple users still admire today.

2008: ABC News reported that netbooks were more popular than iPhones.

Apple and the iPhone clearly got the last laugh, but in 2008, netbooks were incredibly popular. Described by ABC News as "an ultraportable notebook," netbooks were essentially inexpensive mini laptops predating the tablets and better smartphones to come.

ABC reported that in quarter three of 2008, 5.6 million netbooks were sold in comparison to 4.7 million iPhones.

2009: The Kindle 2nd generation was released.

The Amazon Kindle 2nd generation was the most popular e-book reader of 2009, CNET reported. With improvements to its storage capacity and design, the Kindle 2 helped continue to usher in a shift toward digital reading that's still popular today.

2010: Three years after the first iPhone, Apple released the first generation of the iPad.

Completing the trifecta of Apple devices: phone, laptop, and tablet, the iPad made its worldwide debut in 2010. In a press release from January of that year, then-CEO of Apple Steve Jobs said, "iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive, and fun way than ever before."

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10 Breakthrough Technologies 2020

Here is our annual list of technological advances that we believe will make a real difference in solving important problems. How do we pick? We avoid the one-off tricks, the overhyped new gadgets. Instead we look for those breakthroughs that will truly change how we live and work.

Unhackable internet

Hyper-personalized medicine, digital money, anti-aging drugs, ai-discovered molecules, satellite mega-constellations, quantum supremacy, differential privacy, climate change attribution.

We’re excited to announce that with this year’s list we’re also launching our very first editorial podcast, Deep Tech, which will explore the the people, places, and ideas featured in our most ambitious journalism. Have a listen here .

This story was part of our March/April 2020 issue.

10 Breakthrough Technologies

Why it matters, key players, availability.

Later this year, Dutch researchers will complete a quantum internet between Delft and the Hague.

An internet based on quantum physics will soon enable inherently secure communication. A team led by Stephanie Wehner, at Delft University of Technology, is building a network connecting four cities in the Netherlands entirely by means of quantum technology. Messages sent over this network will be unhackable.

In the last few years, scientists have learned to transmit pairs of photons across fiber-optic cables in a way that absolutely protects the information encoded in them. A team in China used a form of the technology to construct a 2,000-kilometer network backbone between Beijing and Shanghai—but that project relies partly on classical components that periodically break the quantum link before establishing a new one, introducing the risk of hacking.

The Delft network, in contrast, will be the first to transmit information between cities using quantum techniques from end to end.

The technology relies on a quantum behavior of atomic particles called entanglement. Entangled photons can’t be covertly read without disrupting their content.

But entangled particles are difficult to create, and harder still to transmit over long distances. Wehner’s team has demonstrated it can send them more than 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles), and they are confident they can set up a quantum link between Delft and the Hague by around the end of this year. Ensuring an unbroken connection over greater distances will require quantum repeaters that extend the network.

Such repeaters are currently in design at Delft and elsewhere. The first should be completed in the next five to six years, says Wehner, with a global quantum network following by the end of the decade.

Novel drugs are being designed to treat unique genetic mutations.

Here’s a definition of a hopeless case: a child with a fatal disease so exceedingly rare that not only is there no treatment, there’s not even anyone in a lab coat studying it. “Too rare to care,” goes the saying.

That’s about to change, thanks to new classes of drugs that can be tailored to a person’s genes. If an extremely rare disease is caused by a specific DNA mistake—as several thousand are—there’s now at least a fighting chance for a genetic fix.

One such case is that of Mila Makovec, a little girl suffering from a devastating illness caused by a unique genetic mutation, who got a drug manufactured just for her. Her case made the New England Journal of Medicine in October, after doctors moved from a readout of her genetic error to a treatment in just a year. They called the drug milasen, after her.

The treatment hasn’t cured Mila. But it seems to have stabilized her condition: it has reduced her seizures, and she has begun to stand and walk with assistance.

Mila’s treatment was possible because creating a gene medicine has never been faster or had a better chance of working. The new medicines might take the form of gene replacement, gene editing, or antisense (the type Mila received), a sort of molecular eraser, which erases or fixes erroneous genetic messages. What the treatments have in common is that they can be programmed, in digital fashion and with digital speed, to correct or compensate for inherited diseases, letter for DNA letter.

How many stories like Mila’s are there? So far, just a handful.

But more are on the way. Where researchers would have once seen obstacles and said “I’m sorry,” they now see solutions in DNA and think maybe they can help.

The real challenge for “n-of-1” treatments (a reference to the number of people who get the drug) is that they defy just about every accepted notion of how pharmaceuticals should be developed, tested, and sold. Who will pay for these drugs when they help one person, but still take large teams to design and manufacture?

The rise of digital currency has massive ramifications for financial privacy.

Last June Facebook unveiled a “global digital currency” called Libra. The idea triggered a backlash and Libra may never launch, at least not in the way it was originally envisioned. But it’s still made a difference: just days after Facebook’s announcement, an official from the People’s Bank of China implied that it would speed the development of its own digital currency in response. Now China is poised to become the first major economy to issue a digital version of its money, which it intends as a replacement for physical cash.

China’s leaders apparently see Libra, meant to be backed by a reserve that will be mostly US dollars, as a threat: it could reinforce America’s disproportionate power over the global financial system, which stems from the dollar’s role as the world’s de facto reserve currency. Some suspect China intends to promote its digital renminbi internationally.

Now Facebook’s Libra pitch has become geopolitical. In October, CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised Congress that Libra “will extend America’s financial leadership as well as our democratic values and oversight around the world.” The digital money wars have begun.

Drugs that try to treat ailments by targeting a natural aging process in the body have shown promise.

The first wave of a new class of anti-aging drugs have begun human testing. These drugs won’t let you live longer (yet) but aim to treat specific ailments by slowing or reversing a fundamental process of aging.

The drugs are called senolytics—they work by removing certain cells that accumulate as we age. Known as “senescent” cells, they can create low-level inflammation that suppresses normal mechanisms of cellular repair and creates a toxic environment for neighboring cells.

In June, San Francisco–based Unity Biotechnology reported initial results in patients with mild to severe osteoarthritis of the knee. Results from a larger clinical trial are expected in the second half of 2020. The company is also developing similar drugs to treat age-related diseases of the eyes and lungs, among other conditions.

Senolytics are now in human tests, along with a number of other promising approaches  targeting the biological processes that lie at the root of aging and various diseases.

A company called Alkahest injects patients with components found in young people’s blood and says it hopes to halt cognitive and functional decline in patients suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. The company also has drugs for Parkinson’s and dementia in human testing. 

And in December, researchers at Drexel University College of Medicine even tried to see if a cream including the immune-suppressing drug rapamycin could slow aging   in human skin.

The tests reflect researchers’ expanding efforts to learn if the many diseases associated with getting older—such as heart diseases, arthritis, cancer, and dementia—can be hacked to delay their onset.

Scientists have used AI to discover promising drug-like compounds.

The universe of molecules that could be turned into potentially life-saving drugs is mind-boggling in size: researchers estimate the number at around 10 60 . That’s more than all the atoms in the solar system, offering virtually unlimited chemical possibilities—if only chemists could find the worthwhile ones.

Now machine-learning tools can explore large databases of existing molecules and their properties, using the information to generate new possibilities. This could make it faster and cheaper to discover new drug candidates.

In September, a team of researchers at Hong Kong–based Insilico Medicine and the University of Toronto took a convincing step toward showing that the strategy works by synthesizing several drug candidates found by AI algorithms.

Using techniques like deep learning and generative models similar to the ones that allowed a computer to beat the world champion at the ancient game of Go, the researchers identified some 30,000 novel molecules with desirable properties. They selected six to synthesize and test. One was particularly active and proved promising in animal tests.

Chemists in drug discovery often dream up new molecules—an art honed by years of experience and, among the best drug hunters, by a keen intuition. Now these scientists have a new tool to expand their imaginations.

We can now affordably build, launch, and operate tens of thousands of satellites in orbit at once.

Satellites that can beam a broadband connection to internet terminals. As long as these terminals have a clear view of the sky, they can deliver internet to any nearby devices. SpaceX alone wants to send more than 4.5 times more satellites into orbit this decade than humans have ever launched since Sputnik .

These mega-constellations are feasible because we have learned how to build smaller satellites and launch them more cheaply. During the space shuttle era, launching a satellite into space cost roughly $24,800 per pound. A small communications satellite that weighed four tons cost nearly $200 million to fly up.

Today a SpaceX Starlink satellite weighs about 500 pounds (227 kilograms). Reusable architecture and cheaper manufacturing mean we can strap dozens of them onto rockets to greatly lower the cost; a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch today costs about $1,240 per pound.

The first 120 Starlink satellites went up last year, and the company planned to launch batches of 60 every two weeks starting in January 2020. OneWeb will launch over 30 satellites later this year. We could soon see thousands of satellites working in tandem to supply internet access for even the poorest and most remote populations on the planet.

But that’s only if things work out. Some researchers are livid because they fear these objects will disrupt astronomy research. Worse is the prospect of a collision that could cascade into a catastrophe of millions of pieces of space debris, making satellite services and future space exploration next to impossible. Starlink’s near-miss with an ESA weather satellite in September was a jolting reminder that the world is woefully unprepared to manage this much orbital traffic. What happens with these mega-constellations this decade will define the future of orbital space.

Google has provided the first clear proof of a quantum computer outperforming a classical one.

Quantum computers store and process data in a way completely differently from the ones we’re all used to. In theory, they could tackle certain classes of problems that even the most powerful classical supercomputer imaginable would take millennia to solve, like breaking today’s cryptographic codes or simulating the precise behavior of molecules to help discover new drugs and materials.

There have been working quantum computers for several years, but it’s only under certain conditions that they outperform classical ones, and in October Google claimed the first such demonstration of “quantum supremacy.” A computer with 53 qubits—the basic unit of quantum computation—did a calculation in a little over three minutes that, by Google’s reckoning, would have taken the world’s biggest supercomputer 10,000 years, or 1.5 billion times as long. IBM challenged Google’s claim, saying the speedup would be a thousandfold at best; even so, it was a milestone, and each additional qubit will make the computer twice as fast.

However, Google’s demo was strictly a proof of concept—the equivalent of doing random sums on a calculator and showing that the answers are right. The goal now is to build machines with enough qubits to solve useful problems. This is a formidable challenge: the more qubits you have, the harder it is to maintain their delicate quantum state. Google’s engineers believe the approach they’re using can get them to somewhere between 100 and 1,000 qubits, which may be enough to do something useful—but nobody is quite sure what.

And beyond that? Machines that can crack today’s cryptography will require millions of qubits; it will probably take decades to get there. But one that can model molecules should be easier to build.

We can now run powerful AI algorithms on our phones.

AI has a problem: in the quest to build more powerful algorithms, researchers are using ever greater amounts of data and computing power, and relying on centralized cloud services. This not only generates alarming amounts of carbon emissions but also limits the speed and privacy of AI applications.

But a countertrend of tiny AI is changing that. Tech giants and academic researchers are working on new algorithms to shrink existing deep-learning models without losing their capabilities. Meanwhile, an emerging generation of specialized AI chips promises to pack more computational power into tighter physical spaces, and train and run AI on far less energy.

These advances are just starting to become available to consumers. Last May, Google announced that it can now run Google Assistant on users’ phones without sending requests to a remote server. As of iOS 13, Apple runs Siri’s speech recognition capabilities and its QuickType keyboard locally on the iPhone. IBM and Amazon now also offer developer platforms for making and deploying tiny AI.

All this could bring about many benefits. Existing services like voice assistants, autocorrect, and digital cameras will get better and faster without having to ping the cloud every time they need access to a deep-learning model. Tiny AI will also make new applications possible, like mobile-based medical-image analysis or self-driving cars with faster reaction times. Finally, localized AI is better for privacy, since your data no longer needs to leave your device to improve a service or a feature.

But as the benefits of AI become distributed, so will all its challenges. It could become harder to combat surveillance systems or deepfake videos, for example, and discriminatory algorithms could also proliferate. Researchers, engineers, and policymakers need to work together now to develop technical and policy checks on these potential harms.

A technique to measure the privacy of a crucial data set.

In 2020, the US government has a big task: collect data on the country’s 330 million residents while keeping their identities private. The data is released in statistical tables that policymakers and academics analyze when writing legislation or conducting research. By law, the Census Bureau must make sure that it can’t lead back to any individuals. 

But there are tricks to “de-anonymize” individuals, especially if the census data is combined with other public statistics.

So the Census Bureau injects inaccuracies, or “noise,” into the data. It might make some people younger and others older, or label some white people as black and vice versa, while keeping the totals of each age or ethnic group the same. The more noise you inject, the harder de-anonymization becomes.

Differential privacy is a mathematical technique that makes this process rigorous by measuring how much privacy increases when noise is added. The method is already used by Apple and Facebook to collect aggregate data without identifying particular users.

But too much noise can render the data useless. One analysis showed that a differentially private version of the 2010 Census included households that supposedly had 90 people.

If all goes well, the method will likely be used by other federal agencies. Countries like Canada and the UK are watching too.

Researchers can now spot climate change’s role in extreme weather.

Ten days after Tropical Storm Imelda began flooding neighborhoods across the Houston area last September, a rapid-response research team announced that climate change almost certainly played a role.

The group, World Weather Attribution, had compared high-resolution computer simulations of worlds where climate change did and didn’t occur. In the former, the world we live in, the severe storm was as much as 2.6 times more likely—and up to 28% more intense.

Earlier this decade, scientists were reluctant to link any specific event to climate change. But many more extreme-weather attribution studies have been done in the last few years, and rapidly improving tools and techniques have made them more reliable and convincing.

This has been made possible by a combination of advances. For one, the lengthening record of detailed satellite data is helping us understand natural systems. Also, increased computing power means scientists can create higher-resolution simulations and conduct many more virtual experiments.

These and other improvements have allowed scientists to state with increasing statistical certainty that yes, global warming is often fueling more dangerous weather events. 

By disentangling the role of climate change from other factors, the studies are telling us what kinds of risks we need to prepare for, including how much flooding to expect and how severe heat waves will get as global warming becomes worse. If we choose to listen, they can help us understand how to rebuild our cities and infrastructure for a climate-changed world.

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The Evolution of Technology and the Birth of Life Changing Gadgets

Technology has evolved since the discovery of using certain tools and resources to our advantage to help improve our way of life on this planet we call Earth.

Now in the year of 2018 we have moved from animal drawn carts to smart cars as a means of transportation.

Taking a look into what the first forms of technology were and how they helped benefit our planet will also give a better understanding about how technology designed the use of gadgets which have proved to be life changing. Smartphones being a key example, how on earth could millennials survive without them? Absolutely devastating just thinking about it! But then, if you think about how granny and granddad couldn’t function without their favourite eBook or game of Solitaire on the PC, should we really be having a laugh at the poor millennials that, let’s be honest, we also couldn’t survive without our smartphones and internet banking. And so along with the evolution of the generation before us, technology has prevailed and overcome glitches – revolutionising the world of users that enable technology.

The use of the word ‘technology’ has a vast amount of meaning behind it, making it nearly impossible to pin point the very first invention that shook the world. This is mainly because of how people look at technology and what it means to them. The very first impact that technology made on the masses, which is debatable, was the television. The first TV ever invented was in 1927 by a 21 year old inventor and was then later released to the American market in 1947.

Now you could say since the birth of the Television technology became sensational, as people were more aware of what could be created by using the latest technology available to them. But taking it one step further, were the inventors that thought of new and creative ways to improve technology itself. This created the birth of life changing gadgets that could well change one’s life by either making day to day responsibilities easier or quite literally save the life of a human being. Taking a look at what some of these gadgets are and what they can do may even get you thinking twice about buying that Go Pro.

Health Trackers

Garmin, Fitbit, Trax, VivoFit and other leading brands have all launched a variety of must have fitness gadgets. Each brand differs from the next; however they all keep count of the user’s steps taken for the day, activities that have been programmed into the tracker, calorie count and other vital information that is needed to improve one’s quality of life. Technology has allowed for most of these trackers to link up to one another so that users of the same brand across the world can challenge one another in order to get that step count up or track your sleep. How is this life changing you ask, well your answer is a simple one; by creating a gadget that encourages taking more steps, competing in health events and keeping track of progress made, people then generally tend to stay on the healthy path which in turn creates a better way of life for them.

The Luminion

Otherwise known as the ‘Smart Community-Based Candlestick’ this helpful and trendy little device allows the owner to track how much energy his or her house is using by changing colour and notifying the user. The information is sent to the companies’ smart cloud management system which then allows the user to compare their usage to that of the communities. This neat and pretty little gadget encourages users to save up to 20% of their energy consumption – a life changing amount for such a small gadget.

The Slot Machine

Invented in the late nineteenth century, the slot machine has become synonymous with casinos and Las Vegas and has also penetrated the online world. Invented by a mechanic in his basement, the slot machine, otherwise known as the fruit machine or pokie, was the birth of casino games in the modern era. There have been many forms of betting over the centuries but this was the first example of a mechanized form of gambling that soon became popular and addictive.

The ili Translator

Designed especially for the avid traveller, ili is a small portable gadget that translates a number of languages to your home language. The device is programmed to translate several different languages and in a matter of seconds. The user simply holds down the button, speaks into the device and there in the confines of this tiny gadget magic happens by sending the data back to the user translating to the language selected. This is a life changer for travellers finding themselves in a sticky situation and needing help or perhaps simply because technology has allowed people the opportunity to interact with fellow humans without actually having to learn their language.

These are only some of the gadgets that have quite literally impacted the quality of life for us as the human race. But what about the future? With technology evolving, what gadgets will be released in the future? With a little speculation and a bit of insight, 2020 or perhaps even after that, should hold a few of the following gadgets in its palm;

Implants or Devices to Wear to Monitor Health

Imagine an implant that automatically sends all your physical health data to your doctor, alerting him or her to any issues that may be caught in the nick of time. This could possibly be a game changer for both medical institutes and the user of such a gadget.

Self-Driving Cars

This may only be completely possible and legal in possibly only a decade’s time. Inventors are currently working on cars that don’t require drivers. And although that kind of progress may seem near to impossible, there are some situations where the car that has been invented can already drive itself. This could be a game changer for those with disabilities that may find simple tasks such as driving a challenging feat.

Smart Home Wireless Gadgets

We already have Alexa and inventors are hard at work to deliver a fully functional house that operates through voice activation. This may even be available to home owners within the year as progress seems to be made every day.

Technology has made life simpler for those that make use of it and each year holds the promise of something new.

With our current internet generation, it is almost thrilling to think of what the future may hold and if we will be privy to see some of the most fascination inventions in history.

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35 of the most revolutionary inventions that shaped our world

From ancient tools to the latest digital advances, these human inventions changed the world and transformed life on earth..

Christopher McFadden

An old steam train

Steven_Kriemadis/iStock  

• Humans are a very creative species.
• We stood on two feet from the very first day; we’ve been building things.
• But. some are more important in the grander scheme of history than others.

Human inventions and technologies have shaped civilizations and transformed life on Earth. As expectations and capabilities evolve, each generation cultivates its innovative thinkers.

From the invention of the wheel to the development of the Mars rover, many of these inventions have been genuinely revolutionary, even if that wasn’t always apparent then.

Most significant inventions don’t have just one inventor. Instead, they have been developed separately by many people, or many people have had a hand in their evolution from basic concepts to valuable inventions .

Here is a list of our top picks of revolutionary inventions that changed the world:

1. The invention of the wheel was a big deal

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The wheel is an original engineering marvel and one of the most famous inventions . This basic technology not only made it easier to travel but also served as the foundation for a vast number of other innovative technologies.

However, interestingly, the wheel is not that old. The oldest known wheel is from Mesopotamia, around 3500 B.C. By then, people had made metal alloys, built canals and sailboats, and made complicated instruments like harps.

This delay is because the primary intention here was not the wheel itself, which was likely invented the first time someone saw a rock rolling along, but the combination of a wheel and a fixed axle that allows the wheel to be connected to a stable platform. Without the fixed axle, the wheel has minimal utility. 

2. The compass ranks up there with the most important inventions

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Some believe this relatively modern invention  was first created for fortune-telling and “geomancy.” It was only later that it was adapted for navigational purposes. The Chinese most likely invented the earliest compasses similar to those we use today around 200 BC.

Earlier forms of the compass were made of lodestone, a naturally-occurring form of the mineral magnetite. Evidence suggests civilizations may have also used lodestones for similar purposes as early as the sixth century BCE. At some point, possibly around 1050 AD, people began suspending the lodestones so they could move freely and use them for navigation.

A description of a magnetized needle and its use among sailors occurs in a European book written in 1190 AD, so by that time, it is likely that using a needle as a compass was commonplace.

3. The modern world wouldn’t exist without the automobile

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Some people credit the birth of the modern car to the German inventor Karl Benz, who patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen in 1886. However, automobiles had been in the works since 1769, when Nicolas-Joseph Cugno developed the first steam-powered automobile capable of human transportation.

Over the years, many people contributed to the development of the automobile and its constituent parts. At the beginning of the 20th century, Henry Ford devised ways to make cars cheap enough for most people to buy. These techniques then became standard, with General Motors and Chrysler following suit. 

The history of the automobile reflects a worldwide evolution. Many people had to work together to make the internal combustion engine and the other parts that make automobiles. Dozens of spin-off industries were also involved, including oil and steel.

4. The steam engine was a true revolution in technology

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A Spanish mining administrator named Jerónimo de Ayanz is thought to have been the first to develop a steam engine. He patented a device that used steam power to pump water from mines. 

However, Englishman Thomas Savery , an engineer and inventor, is usually credited with developing the first practical steam engine in 1698 AD. His device was used to draw water from flooded mines using steam pressure. In developing his engine, Savery used principles set forth by Denis Papin, a French-born British physicist who invented the pressure cooker. 

In 1711, another Englishman, Thomas Newcomen, developed an improvement in the engine. Later, in 1781 AD, James Watt, a Scottish instrument maker employed by Glasgow University, added a separate condenser to Newcomen’s engine, which allowed the steam cylinder to be maintained at a constant temperature — dramatically improving its functionality.+ He later developed a double-rotating steam engine that, by the 1800s, would power trains, mills, factories, and numerous other manufacturing operations.

The world would never be the same again.

5. Concrete is another great invention

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Concrete is one of the most widely used building materials today. It’s a composite material made from a mixture of broken stone or gravel, sand, Portland cement, and water, which can be spread or poured into molds and forms a mass resembling stone on hardening.

One of concrete’s key ingredients is cement, which is thought to have been devised in 1300 BC . Later, cement would be combined with other materials to make a substance more akin to what we know as concrete today. The Romans, for example, are famed for their concrete; many structures built using it still stand today. But it could be older than that.

Middle eastern builders coated the outside of their clay fortresses with a thin, moist layer of burned limestone, which chemically reacted with gasses in the air to form a hard, protective surface.

Around or before the third millennium BC, Nabataean traders or Bedouins built the first concrete-like structures in the southern Syria and northern Jordan regions . By 700 BC, the significance of hydraulic lime was known, which led to the development of mortar supply kilns for the construction of rubble-wall houses, concrete floors, and underground waterproof cisterns.

Around 3000 BC, the Egyptians used early concrete forms as mortar in their building. In 1824, Portland cement was invented by Joseph Aspdin of England. George Bartholomew laid down the first concrete-paved street in the US in 1893, which still exists.

By the end of the 19th century, steel-reinforced concrete was developed. In 1902, August Perret designed and built an apartment building in Paris using steel-reinforced concrete. This building had wide admiration and popularity for concrete and influenced the development of reinforced concrete. n 1921, Eugène Freyssinet pioneered reinforced-concrete construction by building two colossal parabolic-arched airship hangars at Orly Airport in Paris.

6. Crude oil distillates fuel the modern world

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Without gasoline, there would be no transportation industry as we know it today.

Gasoline is a fuel derivative of crude oil , and it is called “gas” in the United States and “petrol” in many other English-speaking places worldwide.

More specifically, petrol is a transparent, crude oil-derived liquid used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. Interestingly gas was initially discarded as an unwanted byproduct.

Before the discovery and commercialization of gasoline, the fuel of choice was a blend of alcohol, usually methanol and turpentine, called camphene. Later, this would be primarily replaced by kerosene. The first oil well dug in the US, in 1859, in Pennsylvania, refined the oil to produce kerosene. Although the distillation process also produced gasoline, this was discarded as a byproduct. The method of distillation refining only produced about 20 percent of gasoline from a given amount of crude petroleum.

However, once it was discovered that the internal combustion engine ran best on light fuels like gasoline, the refining process was refined. In 1913, a new process began to be used to produce gasoline more easily using chemical catalysts and pressure. The new thermal cracking process doubled the efficiency of refining and made refining gasoline more practical.

7. Locomotives have proved to be powerful tools

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Locomotives can carry a large number of passengers with comfort while also being able to haul heavy loads over long distances. While tracks, or rails, have been used for carrying wagons since the sixteenth century, the history of modern train travel is just over 200 years old.

Richard Trevithick, a British engineer, built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive in the United Kingdom in 1804. It used high-pressure steam to drive the engine. On February 21, 18044, the world’s first steam-powered railway journey occurred when Trevithick’s unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway in Wales. 

However, Trevithick’s locomotives were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track than in use. The commercial appearance of train networks came in the 1820s. In 1821, George Stephenson was appointed as an engineer for the construction of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the northeast of England, which was opened as the first public steam-powered railway in 1825. In 1829, he built his famous steam engine,  Rocket , and the age of railways began. 

8. The invention of the airplane was a quantum leap in tech

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On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright achieved the first powered, sustained, and controlled flight. This was a day that would be remembered for all time.

Flying machines had been dreamt up since Leonardo da Vinci’s time and likely long before. But thanks to the work of countless inventors over several centuries, the Wright Brothers became the first to achieve controlled powered flight.

Beginning with their work on gliders, the duo’s success laid the foundation for modern aeronautical engineering by demonstrating what was possible.

9. Fire might be the most crucial invention of all

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Though fire is a natural phenomenon, its discovery as a useful tool marks a revolution in the pages of history . The controlled use of fire likely predates the emergence of Homo sapiens sapiens .

There is evidence of cooked food from around 1.9 million years ago — long before the evolution of Homo sapiens . There is also evidence of the controlled use of fire by our ancestors,  Homo erectus , beginning around 1,000,000 years ago. 

Flint blades burned in fires have been dated to roughly 300,000 years ago. There is also evidence that fire was used systematically by early modern humans to heat treat stone to increase its ability to flake for use in toolmaking around 164,000 years ago.

According to a heavily debated hypothesis, using fire for cooking allowed the larger brain of our species to develop in the first place by allowing hominids to eat a wider variety of foods.

From the past to the present, fire has been used in rituals, agriculture, cooking, generating heat and light, signaling, industrial processes, agriculture, and as a means of destruction. It can easily be considered one of the greatest inventions that changed the world. 

10. The nail is an underrated invention

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The nail is one of the most important and arguably underrated inventions . Before the invention of nails, wood structures were often built using rope to interlock adjacent boards. Some cultures developed sophisticated woodworking techniques to interlock wooden structures together.

We can’t be entirely sure when the first metal nails were developed, but bronze nails dating from around 3400 BC have been found in Egypt. These were later replaced by iron and steel over time, with most made by hand.

Hand-wrought nails were the norm until the 1790s and early 1800s. Today, nails are readily mass-produced and are so common most people take them for granted.

11. Humans have been using tools for as long as we know

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As with fire, using tools likely predated the evolution of Homo sapiens sapiens and may stretch back 2.6 million years or more. Today, several animal species are also known to use tools. 

Anthropologists believe using tools was an essential step in the evolution of humans . Some of the earliest tools may have been sticks, stones, and fire. However, almost anything can be a tool, depending on its use.

12. The lightbulb is another crucial invention

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The light we use today in our homes and offices comes from a bright idea from over 150 years ago. Electric lights were pioneered in the early 19th century by Humphry Davy, who experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. When he connected wires between his battery and a piece of carbon, the carbon glowed, producing light.

His invention was known as the electric arc lamp. Over the next seven decades, other inventors also created “lightbulbs,” but these were incapable of commercial application. 

In 1850 an English physicist named Joseph Wilson Swan created a “light bulb” by enclosing carbonized paper filaments in an evacuated glass bulb. But without a good vacuum, his bulb had too short a lifetime for commercial use. However, in the 1870s, better vacuum pumps became available, and Swan developed a longer-lasting lightbulb.

Thomas A. Edison improved on Swan’s design by using metal filaments, and in 1878 and 1879, he filed patents for electric lights using different materials for the filament. Electric Light Company began marketing its new product.

13. The mastery of electricity was a tremendous feat

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Electricity has become a basic need for daily life and is another essential invention. Of course, electricity has been around all along, but the practical applications to effectively use it first needed to be invented.

Alessandro Volta is generally credited with discovering the first practical ‘battery.’ He invented his voltaic pile in 1799. It consisted of discs of two different metals, such as copper and zinc, separated by cardboard soaked in brine. 

In 1831, British scientist Michael Faraday discovered the basic principles of electricity generation. The electromagnetic induction discovery revolutionized energy usage. The rise in electricity usability is now the backbone of modern industrial society.

14. The battery is another great invention

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The earliest device based on the principles of what would become the battery may date back to the Parthian empire, around 2,000 years old. The old battery consisted of a clay jar filled with a vinegar solution, into which an iron rod surrounded by a copper cylinder was inserted.

This device might have been used to electroplate silver. But, as mentioned in the previous entry, the inventor of the first electric battery was Alessandro Volta, who developed the pile battery.

After that, in 1800 AD, William Cruickshank designed the trough battery, an improvement on Alessandro Volta’s voltaic pile.

Batteries had a breakthrough in 1859 AD with the invention of the first rechargeable battery based on lead acid by the French physician Gaston Planté. The Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd) battery was introduced in 1899 by Waldemar Jungner. 

15. The printing press democratized information

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Before the Internet’s ability to spread information, the printing press helped information travel around the globe. 

German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg is often credited with inventing the printing press around 1436 AD, although he was far from the first to automate the book-printing process. Woodblock printing in China dates back to the 9th century, and Korean bookmakers were printing with moveable metal type a century before Gutenberg.

Johannes Gutenberg’s machine, however, improved on the already existing presses and introduced them to the West. By 1500 AD, Gutenberg presses were operating throughout Western Europe, producing vast quantities of written materials, from individual pages to pamphlets and books.

16. Morse Code and the telegraph machine greatly sped up communication

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The telegraph was developed between the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse and other inventors, and it revolutionized long-distance communication.

The system works by sending electrical signals that are transmitted by a wire laid between stations. In addition, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed a code, eventually called Morse code , for the simple transmission of messages across telegraph lines. Based on the frequency of usage, the code assigned a set of dots (short marks) and dashes (long marks) to the English alphabet and numbers.

According to some scholars, the telegraph was instrumental in laying the foundations for modern conveniences like telephones and computer code.

17. The advent of steel was of great importance

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Bronze was the first metal forged for use by humans. However, bronze is relatively weak. Iron was probably smelted throughout the Bronze Age, although it was seen as an inferior metal that was not as hard or durable as bronze. The use of iron became more widespread after people learned how to make steel, a much harder metal made by heating iron with carbon. Around 1,800 BC, a people along the Black Sea called the Chalybes began using iron ore to create sturdy wrought iron weapons with around 0.8 percent carbon.

Cast iron, with about 2-4 percent carbon, was first made in ancient China around 500 BC. The Chinese metalworkers built large furnaces to smelt iron ore into a liquid and poured this into carved molds. Around 400 BC, Indian metalworkers invented a smelting method that used a clay receptacle called a crucible to hold the molten metal. The workers put bars of wrought iron and pieces of charcoal into the crucibles, then sealed the containers and inserted them into a furnace.

This wrought iron melted and absorbed the carbon in the charcoal. When the crucibles cooled, they contained ingots of pure steel – a much stronger, less brittle metal than iron. The later development of the blast furnace led to even stronger steel. British engineer Henry Bessemer developed a process that blasted air through molten pig iron to create carbon-free, pure iron in 1856 AD.

The famous invention of the Bessemer Process  paved the way for the mass production of steel, making it one of the world’s biggest industries. Now steel is used in the creation of everything from bridges to skyscrapers.

18. Transistors are vital for modern electronics

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The transistor is an essential component in nearly every modern electronic gadget. In 1926 AD, Julius Lilienfeld patented a field-effect transistor, but the working device was not feasible as it was.

In 1947 AD, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley developed the first practical transistor device at Bell Laboratories. The trio was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for this invention.

Transistors have since become a fundamental piece of the circuitry in countless electronic devices, including televisions, cellphones, and computers, making a remarkable impact on technology.

19. Antibiotics have saved countless lives

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Antibiotics have saved millions of lives by killing and inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria. Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch first described the use of antibiotic drugs in 1877 AD.

In 1928, Alexander Fleming identified penicillin, derived from a mold species.

Throughout the 20th century, antibiotics spread rapidly and proved a significant living improvement, fighting nearly every known infection and protecting people’s health. But, their overprescription and use could soon render them ineffective .

20. Contraceptives changed women’s lives forever but are arguably controversial

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The prevention of pregnancy has a surprisingly long history.

The history of contraceptives dates back to around 1500 B.C., where records indicate that ancient Egyptian women would mix honey, sodium carbonate, and crocodile dung into a thick, solid paste called pessary and insert it into their vaginas before intercourse. However, many researchers believe old-world birth control methods are ineffective and possibly life-threatening.

The first known form of condom (from a goat bladder) was used in Egypt around 3000 B.C. In 1844 AD, Charles Goodyear patented the vulcanization of rubber, which led to the mass production of rubber condoms.

In 1914 AD, with a monthly newsletter called “The Woman Rebel,” Margaret Sanger, a nurse and sex educator from New York state, first coined the term “Birth control.” Later, Carl Djerassi successfully created a progesterone pill that could block ovulation.

“The Pill” was approved for sale in 1960 and launched an international revolution that allowed women to determine when they would have children and freed them from unplanned pregnancies, which could derail their lives. 

21. The harnessing of x-rays was a major medical advancement

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Since x-rays are a natural phenomenon, nobody can claim to have “invented” them. But, the development of the X-ray machine is undoubtedly one of the epoch-making advancements in medicine.

And they were discovered by accident by physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. While testing whether cathode rays could pass through some glass, he noticed a glow from a nearby chemically coated screen.

Because of the unknown nature of the rays, he named them x-rays. Through his observation, he learned that x-rays could be photographed when they penetrate human flesh.

In 1897 AD, x-rays were used during the Balkan war to find bullets and broken bones inside patients. In 1901 AD, he received the Nobel prize in physics for his work.

22. The refrigerator is another hugely important invention

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Over the last 150 years, refrigeration has offered us ways to preserve food, medicines, and other perishable substances. Before its conception, people often cooled their food with ice and snow or purchased only what they could use immediately.

James Harrison built the first practical vapor compression refrigeration system. However, the first widespread commercial refrigerator was the General Electric “Monitor-Top” refrigerator, which became available in 1927. The introduction of Freon revved up the refrigerator market in the 1930s by providing a safer, low-toxicity alternative to previously used refrigerants.

23. Television has changed many aspects of our lives

The invention of the television was the work of many individuals. Although TV plays an integral part in our everyday lives, it rapidly developed during the 19th and 20th centuries as a result of the work of several people.

In 1884, a 23-year-old German university student, Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow, patented the image rasterizer, a spinning disk with a spiral pattern of holes, so each hole scanned a line of an image. 

The first demonstration of the instantaneous transmission of images was by Georges Rignoux and A. Fournier in Paris in 1909 AD. In 1911 AD, Boris Rosing and his student Vladimir Zworykin created a system that used a mechanical mirror-drum scanner to transmit crude images over wires to a cathode ray tube or in a receiver. But the system was not sensitive enough to allow moving images.

In the 1920s, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird used the Nipkow disk to create a prototype video system. In 1925 AD, Baird gave the first public demonstration of televised images in motion. Later, in 1927 AD, he demonstrated the transmission of an image of a face in motion using telephone lines. This is widely regarded as being the world’s first public television demonstration. 

24. The camera was another significant technological development

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This modern invention has witnessed many phases of evolution — camera obscura, daguerreotypes, dry plates, calotypes, SLRs, and DSLRs. In 1826 AD, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a sliding wooden box camera made by Charles and Vincent Chevalier to click what is credited as the first permanent photograph.

With technological advancements, Digital cameras were introduced, which saved images on memory cards rather than using film. The history of the digital camera began with Eugene F. Lally’s idea to take pictures of the planets and stars.

Later, Kodak engineer Steven Sasson invented and built the first digital camera in 1975 AD. It was built using parts of kits lying around the Kodak factory. The camera was about the size of a breadbox, taking 23 seconds to capture a single image. 

Today, every smartphone has at least one built-in camera that can take videos.

25. The computer is, possibly, the greatest invention of the last Millenium

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In the early 19th century, the “father of the computer,” Charles Babbage, conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer. From those first tentative steps, the journey to the modern computer began.

Although there’s no single inventor of the modern computer , the principles of modern computer science were set out by Alan Turing in his seminal 1936 paper, “ On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem .” Today, computers stand as the symbolic representation of the modern world.

26. Email is an often overlooked significant invention

I going to make a greatest artwork as I can, by my head, my hand and by my mind/iStock  

Most developers of early mainframes and minicomputers developed similar but often incompatible mail applications. Over time, these became linked by a web of gateways and routing systems.

Many US universities were part of the ARPANET, which increased software portability between its systems. That portability helped make the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) increasingly influential. The first ARPANET email was sent in 1971 AD.

Ray Tomlinson is credited with inventing one common feature of the email system that we know today. In 1972 AD, while working as an ARPANET contractor, Tomlinson used the @ symbol to denote sending messages from one computer to another.

By the mid-1970s, email had taken on the form we recognize today. In the present day, most official business communication depends on email.

27. The Internet has changed the world

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Like other inventions, the Internet has no single “inventor. ” Instead, it has evolved. It originated around the 1950s, along with the development of computers.   

The first workable prototype of the Internet came in the late 1960s, with the creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. ARPANET adopted the TCP/IP protocols in 1983, and from there, researchers began to assemble the “network of networks” that became the modern Internet.

28. The World Wide Web is the modern-day equivalent of the printing press

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The Internet is a networking infrastructure, whereas the World Wide Web is a way to access information over the Internet medium.

The father of the World Wide Web is the British computer scientist and legend Tim Berners-Lee. The Web was initially conceived and developed to meet the demand for automated information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes worldwide.

Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first proposal for the World Wide Web in March 1989 and a  second proposal in May 1990 . Berners-Lee worked with Belgian systems engineer Robert Cailliau to formalize the proposal, including describing a “WorldWideWeb” in which “hypertext documents” could be viewed by “browsers.”

By the end of 1990, Berners-Lee had the first Web server and browser up and running at CERN. Only a few users had access to the computer platform that ran the browser, so development soon started on a more spartan browser, which could run on any system. 

29. Currency was an important invention

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From materials like livestock to shells, precious metals, and coins, the currency has taken various forms throughout history. Due to frequent shortages of coins, and portability issues, banks issued paper notes as a promise against payment of precious metals in the future.

The use of a lightweight substance, like paper, as a currency may have originated in China during the Han Dynasty in 118 BC. 

The switch to paper money, rather than money based on precious metals, relieved governments during crisis times. Thus, it changed the face of the global economy with a vital step in a new monetary system.

30. Credit cards are arguably another important invention

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At the dawn of the 20th century, most people paid for everything with cash.

The idea of the credit card  was introduced around 1950 by Ralph Schneider and Frank McNamara, founders of Diners Club, which allowed diners to sign for their meal and then pay later. While technology advances, paying for daily purchases with credit has become the norm.

While a bane to many people’s lives today, their sensible use can be very beneficial.

31. The ATM lets you get your cash on demand

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The invention of the ATM (Automated Teller Machine) is significant to modern banking. According to the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), there are millions of ATMs installed worldwide.

Customers can make various transactions using an ATM, such as cash withdrawals, check balances, or credit mobile phones. Many experts believe that the first ATM was the creation of Luther Simjian, called Bankograph.

In 1967, John Shepherd-Barron led the team that came up with a bright idea of a money vending machine implemented by a London bank called Barclays. These machines used single-use tokens that had been impregnated with radioactive carbon-14. The machine detected the radioactive signal and matched it against a personal identification number entered on a keypad. 

Soon, rival cash dispenser systems began to emerge, including one that used a reusable plastic card instead of a radioactive token. Dallas Engineer Donald Wetzel is said to have devised the first automated banking machine used in the U.S.

32. The telephone and mobile phones have shrunk the world

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Telephone history conceivably started with the human desire to communicate far and wide.

“Mr. Watson, come here, I want you,” were the immortal first words ever spoken on a telephone. Alexander Graham Bell said them on March 10h, 1876 AD, to his assistant Thomas Watson. This moment would change communications forever.

With the arrival of the mobile phone in the 1980s, personal communications were no longer shackled to cables.

The clever invention of the cellular network supported the revolution of the telephone industry. From bulky mobile phones to ultrathin handsets, mobile phones have come a long way. John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola demonstrated the first handheld device in 1973, starting a technological revolution we still live in today.

33. The robot has, and will continue to, change the world

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Robotic devices perform complicated, repetitive, and sometimes dangerous tasks. The word “robot” first appeared in R.U.R. ( Rossum’s Universal Robots ), a play written by Czech playwright Karl Capek in 1921. Coincidentally, the word “robotics” was popularized by a science-fiction writer, Isaac Asimov, in his short story “Runabout,” published in 1942.

But robots have a very long history. Around 3000 B.C, mechanical, human figurines were used to strike the hour bells in an Egyptian water clock. This marked the first mechanical design. As time flew, more designs and devices evolved. 

The foundation for modern robots was laid in the 1950s by George C. Devol, who invented and patented a reprogrammable manipulator called “Unimate.”

In the late 1960s, Joseph Engleberger acquired the patent to the Unimate and modified them into industrial robots. For this, he is often called “the Father of Robotics.” They are genuinely inventions that changed the world and are only just getting started.

34. Guns have been a force for good and bad

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Weapons have been used since the dawn of humanity. But it is undeniable that guns and gunpowder have revolutionized the world. Gunpowder was invented in China around the 9th century, but it may have originally been used for fireworks initially. One early firearm consisted of a bamboo tube that used gunpowder to fire a spear and was used in China around 1000 AD.

Another early type of portable firearm was the fire lance, a black-powder–filled tube attached to the end of a spear and used as a flamethrower; shrapnel was sometimes placed in the barrel so that it would fly out together with the flames. 

Gunpowder was made more potent by increasing the amount of saltpeter. This, in turn, meant that a more robust barrel was needed, the bamboo was replaced by metal, and the projectiles were replaced by smaller pieces of metal that fit into the barrel more tightly.

By the mid-to-late 14th century, knowledge of gunpowder and firearms had reached Europe, and smaller, portable hand-held cannons were developed, creating a type of personal firearm. The problem of needing to reload frequently was solved with the invention of a hand-driven machine gun called the Gatling gun. Richard J. Gatling invented it during the American Civil War. As the tech has continued to evolve, each following model has become more deadly. 

35. Films were another important invention

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Almost everyone loves to watch movies like love stories, comedies, dramas, horror, suspense, action, fiction, biography, etc. A film is also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film, photoplay, or flick. The word “film” originates from the fact that a photographic film has been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures.

Early inspiration for movies came from plays and dance, which had elements common to film: scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, and storyboards. Later in the 17th century, lanterns were used to project animation, achieved by various mechanical slides.

In March 1895, the first motion picture film shot with a Cinématographe camera was La Sortie de leucine Lumière a Lyon (Workers leaving the Lumière factory at Lyon). The commercial, public screening of ten of the Lumière brothers’ short films in Paris on December 28, 1895, is often thought of as the start of projected cinematographic motion pictures.

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With time, movies have evolved to include sound, color, and advanced digital technology. 

And that is your lot for today.

There have been tools for as long as there have been human beings. While simple in design, in the beginning, modern tools are highly complex engineering. Entirely what we’ll be inventing in the future is anyone’s guess, but rest assured, we will continue to make things for as long as our species exists.

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Christopher McFadden Christopher graduated from Cardiff University in 2004 with a Masters Degree in Geology. Since then, he has worked exclusively within the Built Environment, Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Consultancy industries. He is a qualified and accredited Energy Consultant, Green Deal Assessor and Practitioner member of IEMA. Chris’s main interests range from Science and Engineering, Military and Ancient History to Politics and Philosophy.

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New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”