Apple's Powerbook 100 has been voted as the greatest gadget of all time. A new survey conducted by US magazine Mobile PC has decided that Apple's Powerbook laptop is top-dog gadget. The 1956 Zenith remote control is at the second position and Sony Walkman at number three.
In order to qualify for considerable, the gadget needed to be a "self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own, not a subset of another device". Basically, it had to be a good gadget on its own. Here is the top ten:
1. Apple Powerbook 100 (1991)
2. Zenith Space Command remote control (1956)
3. Sony Walkman (1979)
4. Motorola Startac (1996)
5. CDI mechanical mouse (1970)
6. Casio QV-10 digital camera (1996)
7. US Robotics Pilot 1000 (1996)
8. Diamond Multimedia Rio 300 (1998)
9. Atari 7600 (1977)
10. Tivo Series 1 (1999)
Other pre-electronic gadgets in the top 100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th position), the marine chronometer from 1761 (42nd position) and the Kodak Brownie camera from 1900 (28th position).