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The 50 greatest gadgets of the past 50 years
(PC World)
Updated: 2005-12-27 11:29 39. Play, Inc. Snappy Video Snapshot (1996)
Before
PCs came with composite video inputs, before TV-tuner cards became de rigueur,
before USB-connected video input devices became ubiquitous, there was the Snappy
Video Snapshot. Attached to your PC's parallel port (and sticking out several
inches), it supplied standard video inputs, thereby allowing you to capture
still digital images from an analog video source. Snappy lovers may read more at
this dedicated page.
40. Connectix QuickCam (1994)
How techie were you in the mid-1990s? Found at your desk--typically astride a
huge 17-inch CRT monitor--this fist-size grey globe signified connectedness. You
were part of the QuickCam generation, embracing Internet video in its infancy,
sending short, choppy, and highly pixelated greyscale moving images over (most
likely) the office or college LAN. The QuickCam's image quality left much to be
desired, but its low price and unique design--a spheroid "eye" set in a
pyramid-shaped base (which, despite appearances, worked surprisingly well as a
tripod substitute)--made it a popular starter Webcam for video-crazy, pioneer
digerati. Much more advanced QuickCams are still available from the line's
current owner, Logitech. For more, read what one user had to say about it. Photo
courtesy of Rodger Carter, DigiCamHistory.com.
41. BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator
(1993)
Not to be confused with the Milton Bradley game Simon
(#38), the Personal Communicator was the first mobile phone to include a
built-in PDA. Jointly marketed by IBM and BellSouth, the $900 Simon was a
combination phone, pager, calculator, address book, calendar, fax machine, and
wireless e-mail device--all wrapped up in a 20-ounce package that looked and
felt like a brick.
42. Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (1969)
The first portable two-way radios introduced during World War II weighed
up to 35 pounds apiece, but the HT-220 weighed just 22 ounces--in part because
it was the first portable radio to use integrated circuits instead of discrete
transistors. Back then it was a favorite of the Secret Service; today it enjoys
a small but fiercely dedicated following of radio geeks. Photo courtesy of
Motorola.
43. Polaroid Swinger (1965)
In the mid-1960s, no gift for teens and preteens was cooler than the $20
Polaroid Swinger instant camera. (Okay, it actually cost "nineteen dollars and
ninety-five," as immortalized in one of the catchiest ad jingles of the decade.)
The Swinger's big innovation was its pinchable focus button: When the shot's
focus was just right, the word "YES" lit up in the viewfinder. Of course, the
newbie photographers for whom the camera was intended were likely to "focus"
more on the "YES" than on the actual composition of the shot. Photo courtesy of
Polaroid.
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