You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
W Apple 01<br />
16<br />
08<br />
09<br />
05<br />
12<br />
04<br />
Wepicked64of<br />
the top gadgets of all time<br />
and put them in a singleelimination,<br />
March Madness–<br />
style tournament. It wasn’t<br />
easy to come up with the top<br />
seeds in each group, but the<br />
Apple iPod, the RCA CT-100<br />
color television, the compass,<br />
and the Motorola StarTAC<br />
phone got our nod.<br />
Then, thousands of rabid<br />
gear hounds visited wired.com<br />
/greatestgadget to pick the<br />
winner of each matchup. Their<br />
votes pushed some products<br />
forward toward the ultimate<br />
prize and sent others home in<br />
humiliating defeat—including<br />
the compass, which was told<br />
to get lost in the first round.<br />
There were blowouts, like<br />
the Nintendo Game Boy’s rout<br />
of the Interplak electric toothbrush,<br />
92 percent to 8. Sony’s<br />
original CD player vacuumed<br />
up the Roomba with 88 percent<br />
of the match vote. And<br />
upsets abounded, as well: The<br />
15th-seeded BIC Cristal pen<br />
survived to the final eight, and<br />
the John Bird sextant, a number<br />
eight seed, made it all the<br />
way to the final face-off.<br />
In the end, the title match<br />
went to the RCA CT-100 in<br />
a 60 percent to 40 percent<br />
victory. The radiant idiot box<br />
stands alone at the top of<br />
the gadget heap, having<br />
vanquished all rivals as the<br />
greatest gadget of all time.<br />
—christopher null<br />
0 2 5 WIRED TEST<br />
13<br />
06<br />
11<br />
03<br />
14<br />
07<br />
10<br />
02<br />
15<br />
01<br />
16<br />
08<br />
09<br />
05<br />
12<br />
04<br />
13<br />
06<br />
11<br />
03<br />
14<br />
07<br />
10<br />
02<br />
15<br />
iPod<br />
2001<br />
Apple iPhone<br />
2007<br />
Black & Decker DustBuster<br />
1979<br />
Fuzzbuster<br />
1968<br />
Pickett N600-ES Slide Rule<br />
1960s<br />
Texas Instruments TI-30<br />
1976<br />
Sony Walkman TPS-L2<br />
1979<br />
Mr. Coffee<br />
1972<br />
Sony Handycam CCD-M8<br />
1985<br />
IBM ThinkPad 700C<br />
1992<br />
Atari 2600<br />
1977<br />
JVC HR-3300 VCR<br />
1976<br />
Polaroid SX-70<br />
1972<br />
Sony Digital Mavica MVC-FD7<br />
1997<br />
Leica A<br />
1925<br />
BIC Cristal<br />
1950<br />
RCA CT-100<br />
1954<br />
Nintendo Wii<br />
2006<br />
Sony PlayStation 2<br />
2000<br />
Nintendo Entertainment System<br />
1985<br />
Apple II<br />
1977<br />
Apple Macintosh Plus<br />
1986<br />
Victorinox Swiss Army Knife<br />
1897<br />
Leatherman<br />
1983<br />
Apple Newton<br />
1993<br />
Diamond Rio PMP300<br />
1998<br />
USR Pilot 1000 PDA<br />
1996<br />
Mattel Electronics Football<br />
1977<br />
AK-47<br />
1947<br />
W. E. Bassett TRIM nail clipper<br />
1947<br />
IBM 5150 PC<br />
1981<br />
Commodore 64<br />
1982<br />
Apple iPod<br />
Black & Decker DustBuster What<br />
the consumer needed was a lowpower,<br />
handheld vacuum cleaner that<br />
could push Cheerios into the corner<br />
more handily than a whisk broom.<br />
Texas Instruments TI-30 Reportedly<br />
the most popular TI calculator<br />
ever made, the TI-30 sported a full<br />
range of scientific functions and<br />
could be had for less than $25.<br />
Sony Walkman<br />
IBM ThinkPad 700C Not the<br />
first color laptop, but this<br />
ThinkPad had the largest screen<br />
of its era and launched the<br />
love-it-or-hate-it pointing stick.<br />
Atari 2600<br />
Polaroid SX-70 Printer of<br />
that famous positive that<br />
developed before your eyes—<br />
whether you shook it or not.<br />
BIC Cristal<br />
RCA CT-100<br />
Nintendo Entertainment System<br />
Leveraging its success with Donkey<br />
Kong and other arcade titles,<br />
Nintendo muscled its way into some<br />
60 million homes with the NES.<br />
Apple II Now celebrating its 30th<br />
birthday, the Apple II was many<br />
users’ first foray into computing<br />
outside the workplace.<br />
Victorinox Swiss Army Knife<br />
Apple Newton The much-maligned<br />
device has been hacked to work as a<br />
Web server, and its OS to run on<br />
Linux-based PDAs. Neither recognizes<br />
your handwriting very well.<br />
USR Pilot 1000 PDA<br />
AK-47<br />
Commodore 64 If you couldn’t persuade<br />
Mom to buy you an Apple,<br />
this dirt-cheap PC (which eventually<br />
sold for 200 bucks) is what you got.
Change language