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100 Best gadgets of ALL-TIME. Apple, Inc has 7 of them.

Prof.

Prof.

macrumors 603
Original poster
Aug 17, 2007
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All-TIME 100 Gadgets

TIME technology editor Peter Ha picks the 100 greatest and most influential gadgets from 1923 to the present

iPod
Newton
PowerBook 100
AirPort
iPad
QuickTake 100
iPhone
 
without meaning to sound like a complete fanboy, most of those should be there. They weren't always the first device of their kind but alot of them were "breakthrough" devices
 
QuickTake 100? Damn... Apple wasn't the first digital still camera, nor were they the first to "popularize" it (like the iPod - not first hard-drive-based MP3 player, but they sure made it popular,) nor was it particularly impressive, being simply a re-branded Kodak.

I have a QT200, and I think it was a passably good model for its day, but not worth being a "top 100 gadget"... (My high school had the Kodak equivalent of the QT100 back when they were new. I used it a few times.)
 
I have issues with that list and it is pretty clear that the creators are apple fan boys. Some items do not really belong on it. The Airport does not belong on that list. It always had and still is an over price router.
The Quickcam 100 is just a rebranded Kodak.
Those 2 items along does a huge amount to discredit the list. I am willing to bet digging threw there will be a lot more in it.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
I have issues with that list and it is pretty clear that the creators are apple fan boys. Some items do not really belong on it. The Airport does not belong on that list. It always had and still is an over price router.
The Quickcam 100 is just a rebranded Kodak.
Those 2 items along does a huge amount to discredit the list. I am willing to bet digging threw there will be a lot more in it.
Click to expand...

Airport absolutely *DOES* belong on the list.

When the original AirPort base station came out, there were only two other 802.11b base stations available (even the name "WiFi" hadn't been invented yet,) both were $1000. Apple's AirPort was $300, and included a modem. Apple's was the first "consumer" base station, and it was a good year or two before Linksys hit the scene with their reasonably-priced base station.

Back then (1999) I knew multiple businesses that used Apple AirPort base stations solely because they were 1/3 the price of the Lucent, even though they had the exact same Lucent 802.11b card inside as the $1000 Lucent. (I still have the Lucent WaveLAN Silver card that was inside my original AirPort base station, ripped out after the power supply died, four years later.) I didn't even own an AirPort-equipped Mac until after that AirPort base station died and was replaced with a Linksys. I used multiple PCs with Lucent WaveLAN cards (which each cost almost as much as the AirPort - which included the exact same card inside,) for years before getting an AirPort-equipped Mac. (I had a couple Mac desktops during the time, but they were all pre AirPort.)

One of the businesses that had an Apple was Intel! This was before Intel went into WiFi. I had mentioned 802.11b and the AirPort to my boss, and he asked me to bring my notebook and base station in so he could see how it worked. I did. He promptly bought WaveLAN cards for everyone in the department that used a laptop, and got two AirPort base stations that he set on opposite ends of our cube farm, sitting on the top of cube-wall intersections. Those gray Apple logos were easily visible halfway across the building. (And the signal *JUST* reached to the very edge of the cafeteria.)
 
Rodimus Prime said:
I have issues with that list and it is pretty clear that the creators are apple fan boys. Some items do not really belong on it. The Airport does not belong on that list. It always had and still is an over price router.
The Quickcam 100 is just a rebranded Kodak.
Those 2 items along does a huge amount to discredit the list. I am willing to bet digging threw there will be a lot more in it.
Click to expand...

Wow - you need to put a bit more thought into these.

I knew people that had these "new Digital Cameras" an Apple one (hooked up to a Mac) and an Agfa one (hooked up to a Windows PC) - guess which one worked well and was able to easily get them onto a computer... :eek:
 
Abstract said:
Newton
iPod
iPhone


These Apple products belong on the list. Not sure about the rest.
Click to expand...

The PowerBook 100 was the laptop that basically gave us the layout and design of all laptops on the market now. Perhaps some of the elements of it's design seem simple, but it really was "revolutionary" for it's time. It turned notebook computers into a mainstream item.

And the PowerBook 500 had the first touchpad, first stereo speakers, PC card slot, and the first 'smart' battery. Blah blah... :D

Apple pushed a lot of what is now simply standard for laptops.
 
The Commodore 64 was also on there, right? I was going through them, and got tired so I closed it. And I think it was Commodore 64.
 
Was the Newton one of the first 'tablets' (or something in that vein) then? I'm not sure why it's there, but it's simply because I don't know that much!
 
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