This Canon PowerShot G1, released in 2000 and listed at Best Buy for $800 in 2001, has held up well. Sure, 3.34 megapixels isn't much, but spec for spec, this codger can almost hang with the kids.
10 years ago, you could buy the HP Jornada 548 with a color screen, which let you listen to MP3s, surf the web, check your email, and keep a calendar. It had a touchscreen. It ran Windows. It was awesome.
I spent this decade hunting for the perfect gadget. I never thought I would end up with tech as good as this. But it's not the tech that interests me the most anymore.
Now I want you to close your eyes and squint really hard. Because I'm going to tell you about a time that feels ancient, a time when Sony made some of the baddest laptops around.
Turns out it was a tough decade for tech companies. First the bubble they helped create burst and took the rest of the economy down with them; now the credit markets have sunk them in return—with two notable exceptions.
While we're confident that we nailed our 50 worst gadgets of the decade, you commenters reminded us of a few truly awful gems that didn't make the cut. So here are eleven more worst gadgets for your enjoyment and derision.
LG Internet Refrigerator
Back in 2001, LG got so excited about this whole internet thing that they decided to put it in as many appliances as they could find. There were also a microwave oven and washing machine, but the Internet Refrigerator gets special mention for integrating a videophone, making it a double dip of…
Oh oh Cybiko! Presumably born of an illicit union between a walkie-talkie and a Palm Pilot, this 2000-era gadget was for kids who wanted to send messages to nearby friends. But could it also make men erect and cows flatulent?
This is the Creative Nomad Jukebox from the year 2000. It may have been shaped like a CD player to mentally ease technophobes, but it actually had a 6GB hard drive on board. And boy did we love it.
When it comes to websites, I've had my share of whirlwind romances. CuteOverload and I had a thing; Scrabulous whispered sweet nothings in my ear for most of 2007. But no site ever captured my attention like Kozmo.
The early '00s saw a lot of breathless reporting about the Segway. Steve Jobs endorsed it and Time magazine ran a massive piece with the humbling title "Reinventing The Wheel"—the conclusion of three months of in-depth reportage.
Video games have always been about fantasy. In 2000, my fantasy involved Regis Philbin reminding me about debt.
A decade ago, this marriage proposal was presented like a business proposal—for humorous effect. Now, that just doesn't seem so nuts to me. But any business proposal presented today without PowerPoint? I mean... that's just trippy.
Have a Merry Xmas and a Happy Next Decade! Much love, The Last Decade. [Thanks Abie Sussman]
"In the years since the new millennium, the world has seen such progress." So begins a noted Super Bowl commercial from 2000 that milked the Christopher Reeve sympathy/inspiration angle to show how well an investment firm can predict the future.
We're almost clear of the aughts. Just one more week, and we get to leave this decade behind for good. But before we do, it's worth taking stock of the absolute worst gadgets these last ten years have given us.
What does it mean to be have been born in 2000? In a video that went viral earlier this month, Allison Louie-Garcia interviews 9-year-olds who can't hum a Britney Spears song and learned about 9/11 from a library book.
Go tell it on the mountain: The Y2K banking computer glitch will bring about screwy traffic lights, a worldwide blackout and (maybe) the return of Christ. Oh those silly profiteering televangelists!
Print Club sticker booths, which still exist in some malls and big box stores, spawned a generation of Japanese young people who were referred to using the Japanese word for the machines: Purikura.
