Every day of our lives, humans continue to come in need of one thing or the other. Over the years, technology has helped immensely in meeting these aspects of our needs through the invention of gadgets that bring high level convenience to us and our activities. These inventions come up at various times and as the time goes, we are able to decide the ones that are essential, very important and the others that are less essential; depending on the individuals’ daily activity, financial abilities and etc.
The following list is composed of the ten (10) most important gadgets as assessed from the average majority population:
1. Blackberry
The phone is considered a breakthrough. It is one of the earliest smartphone before the other brands. The blackberry phone is equipped with features that makes work outside the office, possible. For some people, this has helped them stay back at home with their families while doing their work. Exciting features include the MS word, and its ability to prepare formal document formats. Another important feature that brought the device to prominence was the blackberry messenger (BBM) service- an instant messaging application service. Copyright of the app was sold, enabling its use on android and other devices.
2. Digital Camera
Now, gone are the days when you have to go through a lot of trouble trying to get a clean sharp snap shot. The world of digital camera has made it easy to do photography with pictures that are more accurately taken, and edited before printing, thus effecting quality. The digital camera stores images electronically, as it has an inbuilt computer unlike the analog. It also enables electronic sharing of pictures via e-platforms like the social media etc. Also, pictures can be seen instantly, as they are taken.
3. Smartphones
Smartphones have become integral part of our lives because they help us in doing many things, all at the same side. It can make phone calls, send text messages, keep calendar and address book, play music and entertain you, check e-mail, take pictures and do a countless other things. They allow users install and run applications, and at the same time. These applications may be some better modified features to the one that was manufactural. Other abilities of a smartphone would include creating a Wi-Fi network that can be used simultaneously by multiple users, data synchronization, and management of personal information such as to-do and events list, payment of bills using platforms that provide payment options and so on.
4. Portable Media Centers
Useful for busy people on the go. They can be used to watch TV shows and movies, access digital files easily. Portable media centers are especially liked because of their portability (hence the name). They are small and easily carried about, yet they perform functions that may most times be performed on a PC. An added advantage to their usage is the fact that they have a high memory capacity which is essential for large file storage such as video files. Supported media formats are Microsoft windows media video and Microsoft photo story files with resolutions of 320*240 pixels and a bit rate of less than 800 kilobytes per second, .mp3 format, .jpeg, .jpg formats etc.
5. IPods
Introduced in 2001 by the Apple Company, the iPad is an mp3 player with a storage capacity of up to 5 gigabytes. After years of modifications and improvement, the iPod now plays music files, videos, photo slides and can store files of capacity up to 160 gigabytes, depending on the specifics. Sales of the device has continued to increase despite low battery duration and difficulty in repairs of the iPod. Devices in the iPod series are the iPod classic, iPod touch, iPod Nano, and iPod shuffle.
6. Noise- cancelling Headphones
Noise-cancelling headphones are devices used in minimizing external noise influence on the user- ambient sounds, using active noise control engineering. The headphones are designed to maximize listening experience without having to raise the volume excessively. It can help a passenger sleep, in a noisy vehicle. The device functions by using active noise control to cancel lower frequency portions of noise while soundproofing may be used to prevent higher frequency noise.
7. Satellite radio
Satellite radio are service broadcasts from satellites usually sent to cars. They have a much wider range and can cover a wider geographical area than the terrestrial radio signals. The technology allows for nationwide broadcasting such that listeners can hear same station all over the country irrespective of distance. The satellite radio receiver is a subscribed service.
8. Tablet PC
These are mobile computers with touchscreen display, a circuitry and battery in a single unit. They are larger than smartphones and are equipped with features such as microphones, sensors and accelerometer. PC Magazine reported in March 2012, that 31% of US internet owned a tablet which they used mainly for viewing published content such as videos and news.
9. GPS receivers
GPS receivers are great devices used in location-finding and identification. It uses signals from satellites to identify its exact location on the earth. Although it was initially used by the US military, it is now been used by non-military individuals. GPS devices may show maps, navigation, traffic points. It may also calculate the time required for a journey to a stated location.
10. Trendy Cell phones
Different phones with mouth-watering specs are continually introduced into the market. Actually, what gets people interested in any new phone is the specification of the phone, what task the phone is capable of carrying out. So, this is basically the cause for competition in the cell phone manufacturing business.