Top 50 gadgets of the past 50 years

As you may know, we at Engadget have been covering the gadget scene for decades. But it looks like the septuagenarians at PC World have us beat, since they've just put together a guide to the top 50 gadgets of the past 50 years. Not surprisingly, the pickings are a little slim for the first two decades on that list; just two gadgets from the 1950s (the Regency TR-1 transistor radio and the Zenith Space Command remote control) made the cut, along with a mere five from the 60s. But the 1970s unleashed a motherlode of gadgets, incuding PC World's number one pick, the Sony Walkman. While we agree with many of the magazine's choices, a few left us scratching our head; the Rolodex REX (a PDA that fit into a computer's PC Card slot) didn't exactly take the world by storm, and we think they're giving Microsoft a bit too much credit by picking the IntelliMouse Explorer as a "groundbreaking" product. Nevertheless, a good read, and an excuse to spend the holiday weekend digging through the attic to see how many of these toys you still have lying around somewhere.

[Thanks, Sammy]

[Chris Becker @ Dec 24th 2005 12:07PM]

HAHAHA thats great, i cant believe we liked that stuff

[Jeff @ Dec 24th 2005 12:38PM]

"a few left us scratching our head; the Rolodex REX (a PDA that fit into a computer's PC Card slot) didn't exactly take the world by storm"



You'd be surprised. I was selling electronics for a J&R at the time this was out, and for about six months it seems like every other call we had was an order for this stupid thing. And it's not like we didn't have a big selection; I mean J&R sells everything.



This was definitely a big fad. You may not remember it now because, like most fads, it faded away just as quickly as it took hold. But Rolodex had a whole huge business plan based around the popularity of this thing; they had a whole slew of new models set to come out and they were going to transition their whole company to just making Rex products.



You can still argue it shouldn't be on the list because it died an early death, but I'm sure it had some influence on the industry that's not completely obvious (the whole Blackberry thing was really combining the Rex and the PDA, since most of what people were using the Rex for was stuff like syncing email with their PC's that they could then easily take with them).

[Mark @ Dec 24th 2005 12:38PM]

The PlayStation 2? It's a decent system with some good games, but I would have thought the Dreamcast would be much better qualified for being the first video game console to come ready for online gaming out of the box.

[Sashimi @ Dec 24th 2005 12:41PM]

Ipod at 2 is over rated.



AND WHERE IS NINTENDO?



I think this should be PC USA's top 50 Gadget. Not PC World. They are seriously missing some key things here.

[Jon Acheson @ Dec 24th 2005 12:43PM]

The Apple Newton? The REX? Both of those were failures. And what's the point of listing the PS2, the PS1 was the innovative one.



And there are odd gaps here, like the total absence of GPS devices, or the Nintendo Entertainment System, or digital cameras (I'd nominate the early Casio models with the first LCDs on the back).



I'd have thrown in some golden oldies, too, like automobile radiophones from the 1950's.

[Reese @ Dec 24th 2005 1:00PM]

It may be just me... but does it annoy anyone else when #1 is listed first in a "Top X" list? It completely ruins the anticipation of reaching #1.

[evo @ Dec 24th 2005 1:39PM]

Good lord, how did they get the Poqet PC (#50) to run for over 100 hours on two AA batteries?! I can't think of anything that runs that long on batteries except maybe watches and remote controls, much less a fully functional IBM compatible with RAM and a CGA display! Have even low-power embedded processors today gotten so much more power hungry? It's inconceivable.



I'm thinking of trying to buy one of these off eBay. Think of it: 100 hours of pure, portable, NetHack pleasure on two AA batteries.

[Don @ Dec 24th 2005 1:42PM]

The Rio PMP300 helped shake the music industry, the iPod became the product of the music industry (along with good marketing), the Rio PMP300 should have had a significantly higher rating.



And the RAZR is a pathetic phone, especially for its sparse features and negotiable style, although I like the "knockoffs"; but the slim phone may help the mobile phone industry, but no way of revolutionizing it.



By the way, the NES saved the North American video gaming industry, such an omission from any list is ignorance on the editor's part.

[Derwin @ Dec 24th 2005 1:58PM]

when i saw this i just knew in my mind that my old Rio PMP300 32MB MP3 player would be in there. and sure enough...

[Tony @ Dec 24th 2005 2:07PM]

These types of lists bring back so many memories :)



Speaking of which, I saw the old Atari 2600 model, remade, selling at Walmart! I think they were going for about 120? Interesting to see

[Anawrahta @ Dec 24th 2005 3:12PM]

How did the Gameboy get placed under the razr?? Oh wait same reason lots of items got on the list and others didn't....$pon$or$hip

[Andrew Eller @ Dec 24th 2005 4:31PM]

What about the LCD monitors? I think this could easily have taken #49 away from the "Jakks Pacific TV Games" POS.

[Josh Judd @ Dec 24th 2005 7:37PM]

I agree that it seems they are giving a little too much credit to Microsoft for some the gadgets.

[Jesus @ Dec 24th 2005 9:12PM]

The speak and spell should be #1. Friggin' E.T. used it to phone home!

[Kim Laughton @ Dec 24th 2005 10:48PM]

I think the IntelliMouse Explorer did deserve a mention - a small evolution as far as mice are concerned perhaps, but it's rather hard to drastically change a mouse. It was at the very beginning of the 'plastic silver is sexy' and for a while looked really cool. When it came out every TV show with a computer on the set used the Explorer. It's maybe a little odd that the PCworld article shows a white one?

[Douglas @ Dec 25th 2005 1:42AM]

The Nintendo Entertainment System (or maybe the SNES) should be listed in the top 10. They are the ONLY reason that we all enjoy Xboxes, PS2s, and Nintendo DSes and PSPs today. THEY started the revolution, not the PS2.

[tino @ Dec 25th 2005 7:47AM]

OMG Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300, we meet again.



Does anyone's PMP300 _didn't_ have the battery door fail on them within the frist month?

[z @ Dec 25th 2005 10:50AM]

The intellimouse... Why just not simply the mouse, hm? Maybe because Microsoft wouldn't have been so pleased not to be in the top 50.. maybe...

[dalton @ Dec 25th 2005 9:48PM]

I do agree that it's stupid to do a "top 50" list and start with number one. I'll read the top 10 and go to bed, thank you very much.



I also find it hilarious that the article started with



"Portable music players are so cheap and ubiquitous today that it's hard to remember when they were luxury items, widely coveted and often stolen."



Yeah, because I don't know three people who were mugged this year alone for their iPods.

[Timbo J @ Dec 28th 2005 1:04AM]

I wanted a Rolodex Rex soooo bad when I was 15... It truely was a good gadget!

[Ryan @ Dec 28th 2005 6:05AM]

The inclusion of an Ipod is a joke...it wasn't/isn't at all original, just very strangely more popular than it should be. There are better products out, and back when Ipod started there were better products out then too...it certainly wasn't the first!

[illwafer @ Dec 28th 2005 4:25PM]

the first hard drive based mp3 player (and still my current player) should have been listed:



http://research.compaq.com/SRC/pjb/