The 50 greatest gadgets of the past 50 years
(PC World)
Updated: 2005-12-27 11:29

9. M-Systems DiskOnKey (2000)

M-Systems DiskOnKey

For 20 years people had been predicting the death of the floppy, but it took a gadget the size of your thumb to actually sound the death knell. With 8MB to 32MB of flash memory at its introduction in November 2000, the DiskOnKey was easier to use than a diskette, and was the first device of its type that didn't need drivers for your PC. You just plugged it into a USB port, copied files to it, and popped it back into your pocket. Suddenly, moving big files from one computer to another was no longer a hassle. PCW photo by Rick Rizner.

10. Regency TR-1 (1954)

Regency TR-1 (1954)

The Regency took radio out of the parlor and put it in your pocket. Jointly produced by Texas Instruments and TV accessory manufacturer IDEA, the TR-1 was the first consumer device to employ transistors. The $50 item didn't sell well--Sony did much better with a similar product a couple of years later--but it inspired a host of imitators, which in turn helped popularize a then-obscure genre of music known as rock and roll. If not for transistor radio, nobody would have been dancin' in the streets. For more information, see the mini-history of the transistor radio. PCW photo by Rick Rizner.

11. Sony PlayStation 2 (2000)

Sony PlayStation 2

Sure, the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast were fun machines, but Sony's PlayStation 2 bought gaming to whole new level. Thanks to its 128-bit "Emotion Engine" CPU and Graphics Synthesizer, the PS2 introduced a dramatically new form of realism, setting the standard for other systems such as Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube. (See PC World's original review.) The PS2 also had things you wouldn't expect from a game console, such as the ability to play DVD movies. Despite a $300 price tag (twice that of competing systems), it quickly became the console of choice, and not just for gamers: In 2003 the US National Center for Supercomputing Applications used 70 PS2s to build a supercomputer capable of half a trillion operations per second. That's one hot gaming system. Photo courtesy of Sony Electronics.

12. Motorola Razr V3 (2004)

Motorola Razr V3

When PC Worldfirst wrote about the $500 Razr V3, we called it flat-out fabulous. The impressively slim and ultrasexy clamshell-style V3 sported a brushed aluminum casing, a color screen on the outside, and a strikingly bright 2.2-inch color LCD on the inside. The Razr V3 also included a 640-by-480-resolution camera with a 4X digital zoom, had MPEG-4 video playback capability, and was Bluetooth-enabled. It was so cool, you could almost see people drooling with desire when one came into the office. A great marriage of functionality and design. Photo courtesy of Motorola.

Before anyone could sign on to AOL Instant Messenger on a T-Mobile Sidekick, before the first SMS message was ever sent from a cell phone, and before a BlackBerry was even a twinkle in anyone's eye, Motorola gave early adopters a taste of the future: the ability to send, as well as receive, text messages on a wireless device. The PageWriter--which looked like a thicker version of Motorola's then-current one-way text pagers--sported a flip-top design that, when opened, revealed a QWERTY keypad as well as a four-line backlit monochrome LCD screen. Far ahead of its time, it was eventually superceded by less costly mobile messaging options. Photo courtesy of Motorola.