It is needless to state that technology has come to stay; what might interest you to note is that technology will change and change our lives in ways we might not have given a thought.
Given the fact that technology reached different parts of the world at different times, it becomes difficult to pinpoints technology gadgets that have had high impacts at different climes. That said, there are basic technological gadgets that have impacted majority across the world over.
From that smartphone you constantly check to the camera that goes with you on every vacation to the TV set that serves as a portal to binge-watching and gaming to the door bell you might not know it’s working, every tech gadget owes its influence to one model that must have influenced you over the years.
Here are 12 tech gadgets that must have influenced you:
1. Nokia 3210
Nokia 3210 gave Nokia its prominence until the Finnish company started losing it all. Although, there seems to be a revival recently as there have been rumours that Nokia is making a comeback in 2016, Nokia have said HMD Global will announce branded Nokia android phones at the Mobile World Congress in 2017.
Historic candy bar-shaped Nokia 3210 is one phone that has modified the history of cell phones after it was released in 1999 until we are in the era of smartphones. With more than 160 million sold, 3210 became the smartest phone in its time.
The 3210 did more than just introduce the cell phone 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 with a battery life and clear reception that is second to none.
There is a list of 5 Nokia phones that made history here that will interest you.
2. Nintendo Game Boy
I am still the defending champion of Nintendo game boy. Buh, if you played Tetris or Car Race from level one to level 15 and back into level one, repeatedly; then, you should be set for a competition against me to decide who the defending champion of Nintendo game boy is.
From Nokia N-Gage to Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), Nintendo’s 1989 handheld invented the modern mobile game, a paradigm shift in mobile game designs that have influenced everything from competing devoted handhelds to Apple’s iPhone and even drone racing.
The gaming experience of the Nintendo game boy took a turn when a version that comes with a lamp on top. Meaning it can be played in the night. What an experience that was!
3. Sony PlayStation
From the young to the old, everyone love to play one game or the other, and the Sony PlayStation (PS) gaming console is the most notorious among gaming consoles. Sony PS is notorious because when gamers are actually about going down on Nintendo’s Wii or Microsoft Xbox, you hear them speciously say “let’s play PS”, and also Sony PS has had moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas dragging game pads with their wards.
The Sony PS was released in 1994 to astronomical sales, with PS 2 entering the Guinness book of record for bestselling console of all time – a record even Nintendo’s Wii hasn’t come close to breaking.
4. BlackBerry 6210
I need take a deep breath here… I never knew Google and Apple are such murderers! It is amazing how blackberry died off. BlackBerry used to be the phone of choice for politicians, celebrities, and the high and mighty in the society; but not anymore when the company announced its own obsequies.
BlackBerry made pocket-sized gadgets for accessing email on-the-go before the 6210, but the 6210 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.
Blackberry revolutionized mobile devices and died off. But, the Canadian tech company which backed off to start making security wares for enterprises, announced recently it has entered a long-term licensing agreement with TCL to start making and selling BlackBerry-branded mobile devices globally.
The market is long gone out of Blackberry’s reach but whether the mobile firm will make much impact on its second coming, is far known to the senses.
5. Apple iPad
I have listened to arguments from all religious circles whether the iPad has come to replace the physical spiritual books of the religious body. In the Christian circle, clerics have faced criticisms climbing the pulpit holding an iPad to preach. While some followers see everything wrong with this, arguing the iPad cannot replace the Bible, others see nothing wrong about it.
The argument is not far different in other religious circles.
Although, Apple’s iPad wasn’t the first tablet, it was radically different from what came before. 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.
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.
6. HP DeskJet
Majority of people who have come in contact with technology have used a material printed using a Hewlett Packard (HP) DeskJet, in one way or the other.
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.
7. 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.
8. 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, according to Time.
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.
9. Toshiba DVD Player
If you didn’t go to your neighbours home to watch movies or had neighbours come to your home to watch movies; then, you are probably given birth to in the year 2000 onwards.
The DVD Player took over from watching movies on TV from TV stations, took over from video cassette and CD 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. Sending noisy, tangle-prone magnetic tape packing, the DVD player made it possible to watch crisp digital movies off a tiny platter just 12 centimetres in diameter; still, the de facto size for mainstream optical media like the Blu-ray today.
10. 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.
11. 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 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 Discman CD player and the iPod.
12 Regency TR-1 Transistor Radio
Till date, I still have a Hausa friend you can’t take away his transistor radio. I have ever wondered and have had several discussions with him why he keeps using his transistor radio in this era where there are best alternatives; but I stopped wondering and also stopped arguing.
The Regency’s pocket radio was the first consumer gadget powered by transistors, ushering in an age of high-tech miniaturization.
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.
My Hausa friend can’t miss BBC Hausa any day, and the transistor radio is his bet companion readily available to deliver.
Bonus: 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.
According to Time, the N1500, predating the BetaMax versus VHS format war recorded television onto square cassettes, unlike the VCRs. But featuring a tuner and timer, Philips device was the first to let television junkies record and save their favourite 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.
A list such as this won’t probably capture all tech gadgets that have influenced you. Leave a comment below and lets discuss tech gadgets that have influenced you.
Online messaging and email services such as WhatsApp, iMessage and Gmail will face tough new rules on how they can track users under a proposal presented by the European Union executive on Tuesday.
