8 March, 2021 12:47HRS
This decade has done a lot for us in the technology sector. Although the ending wasn’t what we hoped for, the story of technology during this decade is the story of gadgets going from the corners of our lives to everywhere all the time. The Gadgets which helped us advance to the next phase of our civilisation. From VR Gaming to the Mic Industry, we have seen enormous changes from when the devices first came out. So here we are making a list of the decade’s most important and influential gadgets.
Isn’t obvious? The iPhone 4 was one of the greatest mobile innovation of the decade. Apple introduced its first camera with high-quality “Retina Display Technology". It included an OS (iOS 4) with the feature of multitasking and the first phone to feature Facetime video calling, which targeted both the young and the older audiences. The iPhone 4 had a uniquely different design from the previous iPhones which made it the thinnest smartphone in the world at that time. It was released in June 2010 and apple announced that the iPhone had received more than a million orders within 24 hours of it going on sale.
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Everything wrong with the Nintendo Wii U, made the Nintendo Switch did better. The Game Boy which was one of most portable Gaming consoles of all time was launched 28 years prior to the arrival of The Switch. The Switch is one of the most versatile and mobile console of this decade, you could take it anywhere and play single player or you could connect it to a TV and play with your friends with different controllers.
The Switch was transformative as it could be taken anywhere you wanted, on the plane, in the bathroom, or anywhere else. This console maybe the most important contribution by Nintendo to gaming industry yet. The original model cost about $299.99 USD. Nintendo gained popularity very quickly cause of its wide range of open-world games and 2-4 player fighting games.
It wasn’t Graphically Equivalent to the other consoles like PS4 and Xbox but it created a new genre of gaming and is successful more than ever.
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These modern small sized Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAVs are quickly replacing the conventional aerial photography or aerial surveillance systems because the use of drones in place of helicopters is extremely cheaper and easy to handle or manage. This drone was released in the month of January in the year 2013. With more and more models kept coming out, DJI kept improving quality, usability and stamina, and today’s model capturing stunning 60fps 4K footage with a boasting 30 minutes of flight time.
The original DJI Phantom required a GoPro but after 3 months of release of the First DJI Phantom, the company released another model with an all direction moveable and active tracking view camera. Its signature all-white design makes it hard to miss, and this drone is the perfect device for beginner pilots. These high-end drone companies such as DJI and all generally pointed their R&D towards making the drones more compact and easy to carry, but their flagship design was the DJI Phantom, it is large and more operational than other drones therefore it made its place in the market firmly.
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The possibilities are endless. The idea of a computer the size of chip which is affordable seems like a far-fetched dream. Not anymore. It looks more like a chip used in a supercomputer. It was originally made for promoting coding in schools, there is a very big scope of the uses of a Raspberry Pi and the programmability it provides. The original Raspberry Pi 1 Model B was launched in 2012.
To use a Pi, you’ll need an already working computer first but once it is plugged in, sky’s the limit. One can use it to learn to code, but it’s got the juice to handle literally everything. It can even be used for robot automation, cloud servers, smart speakers, even to touch up some Google Homes and Alexas to do or say anything the user wants.
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Think cars can’t be gadgets? You should drive the new Tesla Model-S. EVs are now the new and hip thing that everyone’s is dying to get their hand on. The Tesla’s Model-S is a high-tech five door car, with passenger doors for cabin and a hatch in the back to easily access the storage area, it is also the highest selling electric car in the world for the year 2015-2016. Obviously, it didn’t beat the more affordable Nissan Leaf, but. One of the only drawbacks of putting so much of high-tech futuristic technology into a single car was the price, the Tesla Model S costs about an average of $120,000 and given that it became the second most sold electric car in the world by the year 2018.
Features like - downloadable software and UI updates for the entire vehicle, a 17 inch touchscreen cinematic display and advanced autopilot automated driving capabilities makes it feel like more like a smartphone than just a car. One of the most futuristic technologies such as the auto-driving autopilot capability, automated valet system and self-securing Tesla’s sentry mode which is also getting enhanced further by Tesla’s software updates were include in the Model S. The electric sedan has slowly reshaped the trajectory of the automotive industry, which has also forced competitors to embrace a battery-powered future instead of the gas-guzzling present, and crushing the belief that electric cars can’t be cool A smartphone you can go to Starbucks in.
This car changed the infamous belief that electric cars are the slowest cars on this planet. Also excitingly the Model-S can go 0 to 60 in just a matter of 2.5 seconds, making it the fastest accelerating sedan car in the world and it can also cover 379 miles in single charge which takes just a few hours.
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Google’s Chromecast retails around USD $35 which is a cheaper price than its competitors in this market, it provides really good internet service which is highly ideal for online gaming community Google’s Chromecast dongle was released in 2013, and changed face of the very concept of streaming. Since the release of this device in the year 2015 the services and newer version of this device have continued to improve further and further.
Chomecast offers a high internet download and upload speed allowing users to easily stream on the internet or play games online without facing any lagging issues. It gave the experience of living in the future without owning a pricey smart TV, or a gaudy streaming box. Experts will say that the introduction of Chromecast might not be the most wanted piece of technology during the decade, but there’s no denying that it changed the face of streaming for a brief period.
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People found the idea of a smart thermostat during the beginning of the decade to be hilarious. As soon as the Nest Learning Thermostat came onto the scene in 2011, all that changed. Designed by a team including a person known as the ‘father of the iPod’, from the looks of its large screen and rotating control wheel Nest’s first thermostat it certainly looks like something Apple would come up with.
The reason every The Nest thermostats made a home a smart home because they’re capable of learning and understanding your behaviors and needs. Users don’t even have to change the temperature every second you feel a little hot.
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Since the introduction of paper prints in the human history the conventional books and publishing industry didn’t see a major change, just until Amazon released its Kindle era. The Amazon’s kindle made a solid impact on the era of conventional paper books and reading. The joy and calmness of sitting on the porch enjoying a rainy day with a book in your hand a hot cup of Earl Grey Tea.
Or to tuck yourself into bed on a cold night with a book a hot cup of coffee. As readers use more and more of screens, they become more keen for reading through screens as it is convenient for dark environment with less amount of lights and others such problems therefore with time it becomes quite hard to get used to reading paper books once again.
There is also a dark side to this like the terrible anti-competitive market practices that have put book stores and publishers out of business. But Kindle is still soaring through the markets. Since its introduction in 2012, Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite is the device people use when tucked into bed now.
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In the early 20th century the concept of home virtual reality was like a science fiction dream just as home computers in the 19th century. But a startup called Oculus changed that. They designed affordable VR Headset with sophisticated motion tracking sensors also including modern smartphone screens. Oculus Rift’s 1st generation VR headsets looked futuristic in design and appearance it looked like a gloss black flat goggles with tracking systems and tech from the future that made VR feel truly immersive.
But the Rift proved that not only is high-fidelity VR within our reach, it was also fun. Prior to the arrival of the Oculus Rift (and the HTC Vive), people’s idea of The Virtual Reality was only came from awkward old sci-fi movies like Lawnmower Man and the Nintendo Virtual Boy. This device is not any less expensive to purchase however the experience it provides was worth the upgrades.
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Before Amazon came out with the Echo in 2014, people had only seen Voice assistants like JARVIS in movies and could only be owned by rich billionaires running massive Fortune 500 companies. First generation of these Echo home AI devices didn’t seem to work as expected, they didn’t clearly understand human commands, didn’t function well and even sometimes considered ambient noises as commands, but that problem just remained until the new version of Amazon’s AI, the so called Alexa was introduced. Alexa may not be the thing we saw in that first Iron Man movie, it is pretty close.
Alexa wasn’t—and still isn’t—perfect, but became the first viable voice assistant ever. Suddenly, Amazon Echo products were the new thing you’d add to your smart home to make it smarter. Amazon’s Echo just appeared Amazon.com one day back in the month of November in the year 2014 and people were questioning the reason why it wasn’t advertised, will it be soo bad that they didn’t want risk advertising or will it be revolutionary that all will just know it? for the Latter half of this decade. It remains the most important in its maker’s ever-multiplying line up.
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