MobilePC has released a list of the Top 100 Gadgets of all time. This is a fantastic walk down memory lane for some of us older geeks. Remember that it’s gadgets, and that means you’ll see the Popeil Pocket Fisherman, The Bedazzler and the Tamagotchi. But it does have some great tech gadgets listed like the first notebook, the Radio Shack TRS-80, (which I have a working model), and it’s number one gadget of all time, the Apple Powerbook 100.
“Until Apple unveiled this 5.1-pound machine, most ‘portable’ computers were curiosities for technophiles with superior upper-body strength. But the PowerBook 100’s greatest and most lasting innovation was to move the keyboard toward the screen, leaving natural wrist rests up front, as well as providing an obvious place for a trackball. It seems like the natural layout now, but that’s because the entire industry aped Apple within months. The first PowerBooks captured an astounding 40 percent of the market, but more important, they turned notebook computers into mainstream products and ushered in the era of mobile computing that we’re still living in today.”