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TIME Names iPhone Most Influential Gadget of All Time
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To everyone saying 'fire' should be on the list ...
Really?
Fire is naturally occuring element, we just learned to recreate it, we did not invent it.
Really?
Fire is naturally occuring element, we just learned to recreate it, we did not invent it.
Ok yes you can say the smartphone in general has been influential, but before the iPhone launched Smartphones were cumbersome and not user friendly. Apple made it desirable and most importantly, easy to use. The iPhone changed the market, which lead to other manufactures and platforms attempt to emulate it. The communications barrier was definitely toppled once the App store went live and all the apps that were previously confined to a desktop were now in the palm of your hand and more now mobile. This meant that now you can Skype with your family member in Africa from a coffee shop or hotel wifi and not pay a dime! Do they even sell long distance calling cards anymore?? Not to mention other apps like WhatsApp that make simple communication effortless - I wonder how the 100MILLION Brazilian users who are currently shut out are feeling right now? The smartphone is a lifeline.
Also look how data and cell phone plans have changed! Remember paying 10-20cents per SMS? Remember domestic roaming fees? All the new cell phone plans with unlimited talk and text are due to the iPhone's (now smartphone's) popularity. While there were apps and whatnot before the iPhone arrived it was Apple who packaged up for the masses and made it mainstream. Smartphones were no longer for the techy guy who liked to tinker with his or her gadget. So yeah, I will still say the iPhone is definitely the most influential. It has given a platform to disrupt the status quo in many industries.
"The iPod, the precursor to the iPhone and the device that inspired Apple's line of mobile products, was listed as the ninth most influential gadget.
...agreed - fire is a discovery, not a gadget.
Flint and steel, safety match (non-safety math), cigarette lighter, or even that thing with a sort of bow and string for creating fire, however...
It all depends on your definition of gadget: washing machine, refrigerator... huge social impact (not the vacuum cleaner - that just obliged us to clean our floors too often but its nice to have clothes and food that don't smell)
Also, it is nonsense to have the IBM PC in there without the Altair 8800 which arguably started all the trouble, or at least one of Apple II, Commodore PET or TRS-80 which turned the personal computer into a plug-in-and-go appliance.
Also the IBM PC was a boring incremental development of existing CP/M machines who's only "innovation" consisted of the 3 letters on its badge - it was also proprietary in that only a IBM PC could run IBM PC software (the revisionist history that says it was "open" is presumably comparing it with other IBM business systems). The influential step was the appearance - despite IBMs best efforts - of IBM Compatibles that turned IBM PC into a de-facto open standard.
IBM Stinkpad? Really? Virtually all modern laptop designs follow the plan of the original Apple (designed with Sony) Powerbook 100, with the set-back keyboard and wrist0rest with central pointing device.
Fun game: name an application of personal computing that actually originated in the PC world. Not a specific software package: a use, e.g (take PC below to mean "IBM PC & Compatibles" not 'personal computer'):
Wordprocessing: WordStar on CP/M predated PC, I don't think that was the first.
Spreadsheet: Visicalc on Apple II (and ported to most other pre-PC systems) as far as I know
Database: Pre-microcomputer, later dBaseII on CP/M
Relational Database: probably Oracle or Ingres, PDP-11/VAX/Unix
Desktop Publishing: Mac - PageMaker, PostScript, LaserWriter and all that
Graphics - Vector: Don't know the first offhand, but remember BitStick on the Apple II and BBC Micro. Sure wasn't PC
Graphics - Bitmap/Photo: bitmap graphics since forever, "Digital Darkroom" on the Mac springs to mind
Video Editing: Premiere on Mac probably (although the first non-linear video editing system I saw was running on an Acorn Archimedes, but the idea was you 'edited' a grotty, but full-frame-rate highly compressed version and output an edit decision list).
3D/CGI/Video compositing: Probably mainframes or some super-duper workstation from Silicon Graphics or Sun. On personal computer hardware, Babylon 5 started off using Commodore Amigas.
Internet: certainly pre-dates PC. I think KA9Q was the first TCP/IP stack for micros and started on CP/M
WWW: I do believe that Sir Tim Berners-Lee used one of Mr Jobs' finest NeXT cubes.
Music: Pretty sure MIDI sequencing was on Apple, BBC Micro etc. before PC, and of course Atari ST, Amiga and Mac were the big 3 in music for a long time (and the major music manuscript editing system, Sibelius, originated on the Acorn Archimedes).
Come on - anybody got something that the IBM PC brought to the world of computing? Viruses (no, wait, I think that was Amiga, too) :->
Oh, I could have saved time and put:
Virtually Everything: The Mother of All Demos, 1968 (I see no PCs)
To be fair, the PC clones did make many of these things more affordable further down the line.
You'd need to add the camera as well, since photo/video is a huge part of the appeal of the device.
As to your point about branded devices, I gather they're being way more specific in regards to various technologies and their affect on society, so innovative brands take the honors.
I'm surprised by this comment. Maybe because I don't watch much TV, but I can't fathom how a passive viewing experience is more impactful than a handheld computer that's with you at all times which you can use to get directions, buy stuff, communicate (via text, email and video), play games, get information to just about anything, read/watch the news, shop for stuff, conduct online banking, buy/sell stocks, help stay organized, take pictures and videos, record memos... oh, and watch videos, including live events... just to name a few things that was made possible with iPhone.
Perhaps in the sense of the impact TV as a service has had on humanity as far as bringing immediate news to the masses, being able to disseminative information/disinformation, etc.? Sort of like an extension of radio, which is an extension of the printing press in that respect.
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Seems like the list is about what a particular product (or line of products) did to the industry that it was in or even beyond the industry vs. what the general concept of the underlying idea did. So not so much what a computer as a general idea did, but what impact the specific Mac or IBM computer had on the industry/world.
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Almost seems like some sort of an attempt to perhaps enhance/exaggerate the perception of depth/proximity (perhaps from some particular point of view) with the devices being sort of stacked up.Why dude, why? Cannot unsee.Same with the antenna lines. Seriously, what's up with that pic?
/scraps retinas with spoon
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Was that the click wheel?
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Still the most amazing looking laptop ever made, so, no.
Sorry for being pessimistic, but let's hope the "next big thing" isn't WWIII or some apocalyptic variation of it. I think I've been watching The Walking Dead and other apocalyptic television/movies too much.
Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!
Omg, what's it like being OLD?????!
Do you still have a rotary dial phone too??
I absolutely HATE television.
I chose a spouse, partially based on a mutual abhorrence for the medium... we raised children that never watched tv.
Gold Medallion Scholarship winners, one flew to China to demonstrate Wu Shu fighting techniques (two fighters back to back against a ring of opponents), they play rugby & basketball, one plays piano, they all play guitar, etc.
Lol @ "remove tv & see what life is like"...
The water is FINE boys; come on in!!!!
Btw, w/ regards to the "old" remark.... trust me- this IS the trend. Remember when it was considered "weird" to only have a cell & not a home phone... then a shift happened?
The same is happening with your precious television.
It used to amaze people that we've never owned a tv... now nobody bats an eye.
And that said, throughout the time that television has been around it likely had a much bigger impact on world affairs and all kinds of other things than some would think simply writing it off as some sort of a purely pointless entertainment medium (what likely various people did with radio at some point in time, or the printed word even at one point or another).Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!
Omg, what's it like being OLD?????!
Do you still have a rotary dial phone too??
I absolutely HATE television.
I chose a spouse, partially based on a mutual abhorrence for the medium... we raised children that never watched tv.
Gold Medallion Scholarship winners, one flew to China to demonstrate Wu Shu fighting techniques (two fighters back to back against a ring of opponents), they play rugby & basketball, one plays piano, they all play guitar, etc.
Lol @ "remove tv & see what life is like"...
The water is FINE boys; come on in!!!!
Btw, w/ regards to the "old" remark.... trust me- this IS the trend. Remember when it was considered "weird" to only have a cell & not a home phone... then a shift happened?
The same is happening with your precious television.
It used to amaze people that we've never owned a tv... now nobody bats an eye.
I agree there. I am not a contrarian.
I simply took umbrage to the idea that we as a society "can't live without" our televisions... indeed we can, & more are every day.
It had an impact, sure... but NOT like smartphones- nothing has.
We used to use encyclopedias, or have a series of friends with eclectic knowledge, or come up with our own theories, or simply forever wonder when we had questions about things.
Now literally ANYONE can have the answer to almost any question you could posit... in an instant. A compendium of human knowledge always within arms reach! Coupled with the means to communicate with your loved ones at any time (even whilst viewing them), the death of folded maps or asking for directions- anyone can find their way anywhere... the quality of photos that were once only taken at your wedding now available to show people your sushi, etc, etc.
It's not even a contest! "Looking at your radio" was neat, but smartphones upped the way we live by a HUGE margin.
At the same time plenty live without smartphones or mobile phones of any kind (and the vast majority of us lived like that about 20 or so years ago). Just to make that kind of a similar connection to being able to live without TV just fine.
I do, however, remember A LOT more pay phones back then.
At my age, I remember life before half of this stuff, and it was fine. But Apple, Sony, etc. did indeed show me the error of my ways.