The guys at Paste Magazine do some great lists, including the 50 Best Movies and 50 Best Albums.
They've just done their version of the best 20 gadgets of the past decade. We agree with some, not so much with others, but that's always the way with these sort of things.
Here are some of our favourites:
20. Jabra Bluetooth Earpiece (2000)
For months after Jabra’s bluetooth headset hit the market, we were all freaked out by the people wandering around in public talking to themselves. And while this advancement has certainly led to an increase in douchy behavior, it’s also probably saved countless lives, freeing hands for that all important thing called steering.
17. USB Flash Drive
The floppy disk of this decade, the USB flash drive is the most compact, portable data storage device used by PCs and Macs alike (and unlike many predecessors, no pre-formatting is necessary). The affordable and simple gadget has become one of the most essential computer tools that we use and is so ubiquitous you can buy it in any color or shape imaginable, including R2-D2, Predator or a replica human thumb.
13. Dyson Air Multiplier (2009)
The wow factor is still fresh in our minds for Dyson’s new magic-looking bladeless fan. Released just last month, it is superior to the bladed fan (what we used to just call “the fan”) in just about every way.
9. Blackberry (2002)
By mid-decade, this series of smartphones from Canadian company Research in Motion had become known as “crackberries,” and they’d become as indispensable in business as the briefcase used to be.
7. iPhone (2007)
When Apple launched it’s portable media player/web browser/gaming console/GPS, the phone application seemed the least of its concerns (after all, it partnered with AT&T for actual reception). But even as a phone, it added visual voicemail. And with new thousands of new apps, it’s the gadget that gets better every day.
4. Vodafone 3G Datacard (2004)
You are your own hotspot. It’s as simple as that. Laptops were meant to be mobile, so the Internet should be, too. When you can whip out your laptop in a moving car, any airport, on the bus, in the woods or in Starbucks (without paying “$9.99 for an hour”), well, that’s true Internet freedom. Others have since followed, but Vodaphone led the way.
1. iPod (2001)
Digital music was already swinging when Apple introduced its signature device in 2001, but the iPod (enabled by its software buddy, iTunes, with its grandma-friendly syncing) mainstreamed and legalized the revolution. Who needed a shelf full of CDs when you could carry all of pop culture—first music, then TV and movies—in your pocket, accessing everything with ridiculous ease? Filling a need we didn’t know we had, the little beveled box hit the sweet spot of form and function. It drove two of the decade’s biggest obsessions: portability and personalization. And there was nothing on it that we didn’t want on it—beauty is in the iPod of the beholder. In its early days, the gadget was an instant icon of cool. Then everybody from the Pope to your dad got one, and those white earbuds were no longer the hip fashion accessory they had been in ’03—the iPod had transitioned from a cult object to an essential accoutrement of modern life. Not having a pod was like not having a microwave: unthinkable. In The Perfect Thing, Steven Levy’s book about how the iPod conquered the world, John Mayer said the device “changed the chemistry of listening.” With the shuffle feature and easy skipping, it’s all one big celestial jukebox. There are no boundaries, only playlists. Five years into the pod’s reign, a research firm polled college students about the top “in thing” on campus. The iPod was #1. Tied for #2? Facebook and beer.
