[PCWorld]

Post your comments for The 50 Best Tech Products of All Time here

[kj1975]

Not too bad, but I can think of several products that should be on the list that are not. Beginning with the most significant gadget/application of this century: plug and play interoperability through a computer USB port. While developed during the late nineties, it took this century with the advent of all manner of devices such as digital cameras, the IPod (ranked number #6 but really does not belong in the top 40 in my opinion) and more importantly, USB flash drives, which also should be in the top five.

[drjoebdavis]

How could you forget the optical mouse in the Top 50? The mouse is an absolute necessity in almost all computer work. The optical mouse, circa 1980 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_mouse), has been the biggest boon to the typical user since the GUI. Gone are the days of the special mouse pad and the required--and tedious and seemingly endless--cleaning of the rollers encasing the ball. My vote is for the optical mouse in the Top 10, high up on the Top 50 list.

[world2020]

Still there are a lot of other products, but autor took just what he knew better.... Fore example QV-10 - first (!) digital camera, where it is?Do you remember QV-10 fun clubs abd photo excahnges on Internet, made with QV-10? Just in 1995-1996. Is it do less breaking-age product, than simple game Tetris...Where is manipulator as mouse? Not mentioned....So, list is not full at all. So, if to use criteria - products, that starts to help people in offices - I would propose also - Ergoclick ringpen SmartNav.Just things that changed way of thinking among ordinary products

[JazzGuyy]

Greatest technology products of "all time" and nothing before the last few decades. Where are the really great technology products like the light bulb, the electron tube, the transistor, the phonograph, radio, TV, magnetic tape, CDs and more? Even limiting things to computers, where is the 80xx CPU, COBOL and FORTRAN, etc? I wouldn't have a problem if they had said greatest technology products of the last 25-30 years. This is like saying the greatest films of all time and only allowing "Star Wars" and movies made after it.

[jmjohnson]

If the Apple ][ made it into the list, I'll vote for the Atari 800 and its successor the Atari 128XL. Neither the Apple nor Commodore 64 had a true OS. Rather they used BASIC and machine language subroutines for everything. The Atari 8-bit used a true operating system (several were available in fact) and introduced several architectural features used in later PCs, including many current models: banked RAM to grow beyond the 64K the 8-bit processor could directly address. (I had more than 1MB installed) the use of extra RAM as though it were a disk drive (RAMDrive) video that dynamically shared addressable RAM separately addressable video layers polyphonic sound multi-tasking (you could program alternate tasks to run during the vertical blank interupt between screen refreshes)* greater mathematical precision than PCs without a separate math co-processor.And the Amiga was actually designed by Atari, but sold to Commordore when the company ran into a cash crunch.

[Cernansky]

[quote name='JazzGuyy'] I wouldn't have a problem if they had said greatest technology products of the last 25-30 years.The article clearly states that it includes only items that were developed since the personal computer was introduced.

[JazzGuyy]

Then they can't call it "of all time". "All time" is a lot more than since the PC was invented.

[Montalvo]

Personally, I'm impressed by staying power. How about an electronic product that continues to dominate its niche and is virtually unchanged 26 years after being introduced? What is it? Take a guess...It's the HP 12C business calculator. I bought my first one two years after getting an MBA in finance and have used one ever since. OK, so maybe some of its appeal is based on its bizarre-sounding "Reverse Polish Notation" computation system. But users know that RPN is not just zany window dressing; it's something that really adds significant functionality and efficiency.A product that can survive, let alone prosper, in the highly changeable hi-tech market for more than a quarter-century really deserves some recognition. It's a marketing tour-de-force, something that's more than a bit ironic in that HP has long been known for its technology, not its marketing.Congratulations, HP! You built a damn fine calculator!

[rgd130]

I think you missed the boat on PDA's. In the early '90's the HP95, an XT computer with QWERTY keyboard in a 3.25"x6.25"x1" package was certainly pocketable. It's system manager allowed switching between Lotus 123, Phonebook, Appointments, Calculator, Word Processor, Stopwatch, Communications, etc applications like Windows does today. It ran many of the DOS applications of the day and considerable user written software was available through user groups. It and HP successors were THE palmtop computers of the first half of the 90's.

[csusi]

Is it really necessary to tell PCW my job title and company size to post a comment... anyhow I am surprised the WII is not on there. Perhaps it hasn't made a large enough impact yet, but I can foresee the day in a few years when homes are designed with rooms designed for interactive immersible video games. Where considerations such as open space for moving around and a projection tv (so u dont break the screen when u let go of your play-stick) are designed into the room. The Wii has the possibility to radically change home life much the way TV did 50 years ago.

[mikeed]

ummm... google????????

[mikeraz]

DNS? No listing for the software that allows us to type "www.pcworld.com" instead of "70.42.185.10"? Sendmail? Where is our email without the server software? Apache? Where's youre #1 pick without web servers to connect to? Not even a generic plumbing or infrastrcutre listing for these vital programs that make the Internet function. Shame on you guys.

[Dennisb1]

This is left coast/SV navel gazing but thanks for the trip down memory lane. Since there was nothing unique about the PC era as opposed to all of the informtion technology that came before it other than the invevitable and ongoing downsizing of footprint, it is not surprising that I can quickly identify products that predate the PC era: Wordperfect, Compuserve, Tetris (I think I remember it floating around on mini networks), and Red Hat Linux. I think the editors mix up the PC with workstations where convenient. The software technology fork between the mini and the workstation, Multics descendants and Unix descendants, hierarchical timesharing and peer to peer networking, support for dumb and smart clients, and so forth is meaningful. The ability to squeeze circuits on to smaller and smaller bits of silicon is just physics.But thanks again. It was fun

[operagost]

What an insult to the Commodore 64. A toy? A very popular toy, I guess, as it outsold the Apple II nearly every year it was offered. I liked the Apple II, but to pretend it had no real competition is disingenuous to all parties involved.

[josefr]

No Winamp? Please. With out Winamp there would be no iTunes. Also - making me sign up for a newsletter to post a comment - for PCWolrd? C'mon...

[athloi]

It was interesting to see that early MP3 and LZH compression programs were not mentioned, nor was BSD. Do "products" have to be for sale, or could it include freeware and hackware? Otherwise, on the whole, a great list that had me grinning with recollection. Please send it to Congress so they can see real greatness.

[Kenee]

The introduction of Visicalc, which ran on the Apple II, was really the turning point in the growth of the microprocessor market. No other event in the industry matches the sudden access to mathematical processing that became available to the public through this product. When Visicalc was introduced, sales of both it and the Apple II exploded.

[CombiVerde]

Opera is missing...thank to the Gods! Not only the Opera browser slowed down noticeably my PCs (all 3 ofem), their moderators are radical extremist...:idea: But Opera Blog is The BEST Blog for me.:arrow: DonYan the Ignorant

[jackifus]

HP 35 from 1972 : the first scientific pocket calculator changed the world. Do you folks have a memory?