Top 50 Ahead of the Curve: Tech & Gaming

Technology writer Alex Kidman on the devices and ideas that changed the way we live today.

They're the products that broke new ground and the innovators who transformed the worlds of work, entertainment and communication. In this third chapter of a series celebrating pioneers, Alex Kidman looks back at the devices and ideas that changed the way we live.

Sony Walkman

Music on the move

News_Image_File: The first Sony Walkman which hit the market 30 years ago.Sony Walkman

When Sony built the first prototype for its Walkman portable audio cassette player, its engineers probably didn’t appreciate what a monumental shift in music appreciation they were heralding in. There were many imitators, but the '80s were more or less defined by the Walkman, and it’s the ancestor of pretty much every portable music player we have today.

Computer Mouse

Input device

News_Image_File: FILE - In this April 9, 1997 file photo, Doug Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse and winner of the half-million dollar 1997 Lemelson-MIT prize, poses with the computer mouse he designed, in New York. Engelbart has died at the age of 88. The cause of death wasn't immediately known. (AP Photo/Michael Schmelling, File)

The first computer mouse, developed by Douglas Engelbart all the way back in 1963 — yes, that’s fifty-one years ago — wasn’t much to look at. We’ll be frank here — it was a block of wood. Then again, the graphical interfaces that made the mouse so indispensable didn’t really take off until the 1980s, making the Mouse incredibly far ahead of the curve.

Xerox Star

GUI

News_Image_File: The Xerox Star, also known as the Xerox 8010 Information System, was the first personal computer to use a graphical user interface

Apple’s often credited with popularising the graphical user interface idea that we use on desktops, laptops, tablets and mobiles, but even Steve Jobs admitted that it wasn’t his invention. Instead he borrowed the idea from Xerox Corporation. Its 1981 Xerox Star was the first personal computer to use a GUI, three years before Apple and four before the first version of Microsoft Windows.

Apple Newton

PDA

News_Image_File: LEMON STORY Apple Newton MessagePad 130. Compters / Hardware Pic. Supplied

Derided — most famously in The Simpsons — for its sometimes shaky handwriting recognition, the Apple Newton range, starting with the MessagePad 100, was a brave first attempt at a mobile companion tablet device. Customers didn’t flock to the Newton platform, instead opting for PDAs from Palm, but Apple’s pitch at this early market was easily ahead of its time.

Visicalc

Spreadsheets

News_Image_File: An early Apple computer, the Apple II PC from 1977.

Spreadsheets run the world today, whether you’re talking high finance or simple train timetables. 1979’s Visicalc was the father of all spreadsheet applications, originally running on an Apple II, pictured, with only 32k of memory. You might notice that you’re not using Visicalc today; like many inventions ahead of the curve it was eclipsed by a refinement of the idea in Lotus 1-2-3, which was itself then outdone by Excel.

Telecom Mobile Phone

"Handheld"

News_Image_File: The first mobile phones from Telecom were light on features but heavy on bulk.

You can’t go anywhere — even the middle of nowhere — without coming across a mobile phone in Australia. The first handheld mobile in Australia was Telstra’s — or rather Telecom, as it was then — car-based “Mobile Phone”, a $5000 (roughly $17000 now to allow for inflation) device that could only store 16 numbers. You weren’t likely to miss a call, however, as it would flash the lights and honk a horn to alert you to incoming calls!

Sony CDP-101

Digital music

News_Image_File: Sony CDP-101

The CDP-101 was the first commercially available CD player. CDs might seem a little old hat right now, but aside from audio fidelity (compared at least to cassettes), CDs also ushered in the age of fully digital music. Adjusted for inflation, the first player was worth around $1800.

Lithium Ion Batteries

Portable power

News_Image_File: A sample showing the insides of a new lithium-ion battery is on display during Toyota Motors' new Prius Plug-in Hybrid vehicle press preview at the company's showcase, Mega Webb in Tokyo, 14/12/2010. Lithium is not much to look at. It's a soft and light, silver-white metal known for its use in mood stabilising drugs. But the 25th most abundant element on earth could, one day, help cure the world of its addiction to oil -- as a key ingredient in batteries.

Just about every gadget you use relies on the chemistry in a lithium ion battery, but while their ascent has been rapid, the first demonstration of such a device using lithium cobalt oxide was performed at Oxford University in 1979. It took twelve years for the first commercial batteries, but now they power everything from handheld devices to the latest hybrid cars, and we couldn’t live without them.

Fuji DS-1P

Digital camera

News_Image_File: The Fuji DS-1P - the first consumer digital camera to store its images on a removable flash drive. source: http://www.digicammuseum.com/

Fuji’s DS-1P wasn’t quite the first digital camera, depending on how you measure it, but it was the first consumer digital camera to store its images on a removable flash drive developed by Toshiba.

Magnavox Odyssey

First console

News_Image_File: Magnavox Odyssey video game console and controllers.

The Atari 2600 is often thought of as the first video game console — but it wasn’t. That particular plaudit goes to 1972’s Magnavox Odyssey, a system that, among other things, also introduced the first gaming light gun.

Bend the rules

Be drawn in by the Samsung LED TV 8000 and feel like you’re part of the picture

News_Image_File: Samsung LED-8000 TV

Enjoy full HD picture, and a gentle curved arc giving you an incredibly immersive viewing experience. Enjoy games and entertainment, or another one of the five intuitive panels on your Smart TV.

Sponsored

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