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Gadget Rewind 2005: Samsung YEPP YP-W3 (limited edition)
In 1999, Samsung launched the YEPP series aiming to deliver some of the smallest MP3 players on the market. These devices went beyond mere MP3 playback functionality with built-in FM tuners and voice recorders. By 2005, however, Samsung was looking for a better way to make its YEPP players stand out from the portable media players crowding the market. Its solution was the limited edition YP-W3: a diamond-studded MP3 player fashioned in the style of a pocket watch.
Gadget Rewind 2009: GoPro HD Hero
Not everyone's compelled to backflip across a canyon on a BMX bike or dive from suborbital space in search of extreme sports thrills. In fact, most of us armchair enthusiasts prefer to get our kicks secondhand. And, more often than not, that footage comes from the likes of a helmet-mounted GoPro camera. Action sports enthusiasts have been wearing these nearly "invisible cameras" (as GoPro calls them) since the company launched in 2004. It's proven to be a very a lucrative niche for founder and CEO Nick Woodman, too, considering the company's recent IPO filing pegged its valuation at $3.86 billion dollars.
Gadget Rewind 2005: Nabaztag
If robotic rabbits could multiply, we'd be overrun by "kawaii" (the Japanese word for "cute") by now. Thankfully, Violet's 2005 Nabaztag robo-bunny has kept its socializing strictly to the digital realm. This adorably designed, WiFi-enabled techno-pet was created as a hub for delivering streams of user data through color, motion and sound. In fact, interaction with this "smart object's" ambient notifications and playful exterior aimed to provide a relaxing and peaceful experience. Did we mention it was also programmed to perform Tai Chi (with its ears)?
Gadget Rewind 2007: Flip Video Ultra
It was the mid-aughts and user-generated video was on the rise: Google had just purchased YouTube and consumers were starting to get their first camera-equipped cellphones. Despite all that, the quality of video captured by phones at the time was poor, and full-fledged camcorders were still too costly for most consumers to consider. Those factors made for a perfect storm and left the market wide open for Pure Digital. In 2007, the company introduced its Flip Video Ultra, a portable device that offered a solution to all that subpar video. The Flip Video Ultra featured a simple camera that captured quality video at an affordable price. And when it was let loose on the market in late 2007, it was unstoppable -- at least for a time.
Gadget Rewind 2008: T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream)
In 2005, a small Palo Alto-based mobile software company called Android Inc. was quietly folded into Google's growing empire. The acquisition led to the release of the company's first-ever "Google phone" three years later: the T-Mobile G1 (or HTC Dream as it was mostly known outside of the US). Google's philosophy for the G1 centered on one-click search and a rich web experience, and leveraging T-Mobile's 3G network was essential to its success. The G1 was also the first smartphone to run the open-source Android operating system and after just six months on the market, it earned a fifth-place spot amongst top-selling smartphones in the US.
Gadget Rewind 2006: Nintendo Wii
Nintendo planned a "Revolution" for your TV. When it arrived in 2006, it was a lot more fun than the confrontational term might imply. Revolution turned out to be the code name for the company's new console, and just before E3 that year Nintendo ditched the subterfuge and unveiled its official title: Nintendo Wii. It was revolutionary, using motion-tracking remotes to get players off the couch and involved in the action. The Wii rapidly became the centerpiece at parties, stepping into the arena with classics like Pictionary and charades. The console's popularity was also a welcome turnabout for Nintendo, which had been languishing over its latest console's missteps.
Gadget Rewind 2004: iRobot Roomba Discovery
Little robot helpers found a place in our hearts and homes in 2002 when iRobot introduced the Roomba. This house-cleaning 'bot definitely made for an odd addition to the company's existing lineup of space exploration, minesweeping and tactical support devices. But beyond the novelty factor, the first Roomba model wasn't an immediate success for the company. After heading back to the drawing board, iRobot released a vastly improved model in 2004 called the Roomba Discovery. It had enhanced cleaning powers, longer battery life and was significantly smarter. The Discovery may not have been a true replacement to traditional vacuuming, but it definitely justified its cost and earned a solid customer base. It was also affordable, costing only a couple hundred dollars compared to competitor products like the 2004 Electrolux Trilobite, which shot well past the $1,000 mark.
Gadget Rewind 2007: ASUS Eee PC 4G
The ASUS Eee PC was launched in 2007 and while it had all the characteristics of a "netbook," it arrived before the term had wormed its way into popular vocabulary. This species of compact computer -- essentially miniaturized, internet-focused laptops -- took the market by storm in the late 2000's, but failed to have much staying power and ultimately faded from view. At the time, these stripped-down portables from Taiwan-based ASUS, filled a growing niche for people on the go. They offered just the essentials, while still managing to provide a surprisingly good bang-for-buck ratio. The Eee PC was aimed at users who rarely stepped beyond the bounds of basic web surfing and email, so it was easy for ASUS to trim the fat and offer a small, lightweight device. In fact, that undemanding demographic was the inspiration for its titular triple E's: "Easy to learn, Easy to work and Easy to play."
Gadget Rewind 2007: Aliph Jawbone
In the years before texting's domination of smartphones, the mobile-toting masses relied heavily on headsets and earpieces to stay connected. These people would often be seen shouting crazily into the air just so they'd be heard over environmental noise. That's about the time Aliph arrived with a solution with its first Jawbone earpiece. It sported military-tested noise cancellation and bone-conduction sound tech, as well as clean styling from designer Yves Béhar. The first wired iteration showed up in 2004, offering an alternative to the "business basics" style that was typical of mobile headsets at the time. It wouldn't be until 2007's Consumer Electronics Show, however, that Aliph would give consumers a redesigned and colorful wireless option with the release of the Bluetooth-enabled Jawbone.
Gadget Rewind 2007: Pioneer Kuro PDP-5080HD plasma
The bleeding edge for pixel-pushing displays has shifted, and 4K, aka Ultra HD, is the one to watch. Though the once-great 1080p HD specification has now become commonplace, seven years ago, it was an altogether different story. Pioneer, one of the leading manufacturers of plasma televisions at the time, chose to buck the popular trend toward pricey "full HD" sets, and instead focus on more affordably priced sets under 60 inches. But cost wasn't the only differentiator for Pioneer; it also aimed to deliver the best picture quality possible, regardless of the spec sheet. From this line of Kuro (meaning "black" in Japanese) displays arose an award-winning 50-incher called the PDP-5080HD, which sported a humble 720p resolution.
Gadget Rewind 2005: Lenovo X41 Tablet
Lenovo made headlines earlier this year when it took Motorola Mobility off of Google's hands, giving it a boost in smartphone markets outside of its usual stomping grounds. But that wasn't the first time it snatched up another company for industry leverage. In 2005, IBM gave up majority control of its PC business, allowing Beijing-based Lenovo to take over and effectively expand its reach to a global audience. The timing of the deal was a little bit off, however. One of the first products to launch under Lenovo's new ownership was the ThinkPad X41 Tablet, a laptop/tablet hybrid, which had already rolled off the assembly line and was still sporting an IBM logo.
Engadget Rewind 2008: BlackBerry Storm
Smartphone makers were still reeling from the arrival of Apple's touchscreen-only iPhone when 2008 rolled around. Research in Motion (RIM), a mobile manufacturer best known for its BlackBerry line and QWERTY keyboard prowess, was at the top of its game and primed to jump into this emerging form factor. That year, it launched the BlackBerry Storm smartphone -- a direct rival to Apple's handset. As RIM's premier effort in touchscreen smartphones, it offered an interesting spin on the interface with what it called SurePress. This was a touchscreen you could depress or click; an innovation RIM hoped would bridge the gap between the company's current physical keyboard-accustomed clientele and the next generation of smartphone buyers. The Storm was RIM's attempt to solve the "problems associated with typing on traditional touchscreens" and leverage its longtime experience with clickable keys. While the phone had a sleek and solid build, a vibrant 3.25-inch display and was backed by Verizon's network, that SurePress technology ended up doing more harm than good.
Gadget Rewind 2005: Xbox 360
The current-gen console wars may be tilting in Sony's favor with its PlayStation 4, but once upon a very recent time (i.e., the previous console generation), Microsoft had a big early lead. When the company released its Xbox 360 back in 2005, the console had a considerable head start on the competition, beating Sony's PlayStation 3 launch by a full year. There were, however, intrinsic pitfalls in rushing the 360 out to market so fast; hardware problems Microsoft paid for dearly.
Gadget Rewind 2006: Lego Mindstorms NXT
Lego, the popular toy brick maker, graduated from simple plastic playthings in 1998 when it released its Mindstorms Robotics Invention System (RIS). Born of a collaboration between Lego and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), these "toys" let users build a variety of interactive humanoid, animal and vehicular robots. Although the product underwent iterative revisions over the years, it wasn't until 2006 that the company decided to introduce its true next generation of Mindstorms kits, appropriately dubbed NXT.
Gadget Rewind 2004: Rio Carbon
Before the Rio Carbon arrived to take on Apple's iPod juggernaut in 2004, there was Diamond Multimedia's first stab at the digital music market: the Rio PMP300, a portable music player released in 1998. Since it was one of the first portable MP3 players ever to be sold, Diamond ended up embroiled in a fight for the future of the format. The PMP300's ability to play digital music files downloaded from a computer led to a groundbreaking legal battle with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The RIAA challenged the company in court, claiming that its use of digital music files was copyright infringement, but Diamond won out and cleared the way for a new wave of portable music players (PMPs) to hit the market.
Gadget Rewind 2006: Sony Reader PRS-500
Sony may not have been at the forefront of the digital music revolution, but when it came to e-books and e-readers, the company was certainly a pioneer. It all started in the '90s with Sony's first chunky, flip-topped Data Discman. This two-pound, paperback-sized player came bundled with a selection of reference books on disc, each capable of storing up to 100,000 pages of digital text. When that cumbersome early e-book solution failed to gain traction, Sony went right back to the drawing board and returned in 2004 with the Japan-only LIBRIé e-reader. This particular device used an innovative E Ink display and relied on an e-book loan program -- a distribution model that proved unpopular with consumers at the time.
Gadget Rewind 2005: Slingbox
A company called Sling Media burst onto the scene in 2005 with a relatively new idea: give customers the ability to access their home cable and video services while they're traveling. Its "place-shifting" concept was embodied in its first device: the Slingbox. While you're on the road, this set-top-like box served to connect you to your very own TiVo recorded shows, media PC or cable and satellite TV services, provided you had a computer with Sling Media's software and an internet connection (preferably high-speed). The original design was somewhat unique, resembling an oversized candy bar (Sling calls it an "ingot"), and it was a clear favorite of both Engadget editors and readers, earning the title of best home entertainment device for 2005. At launch, the $250 price certainly wasn't cheap -- especially for standard definition only -- and it was markedly Windows-centric, excluding Apple users until its Mac compatible software arrived around 2007.
Gadget Rewind 2005: Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP)
Engadget was lucky enough to get ahold of one before the end of 2004, but the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) was officially launched in the US in March 2005. This made picking a portable a difficult decision for impatient consumers who were wavering between the Nintendo DS and the PSP. The DS had already arrived by late 2004 and details about the Sony release were still a bit fuzzy. So, you decided to wait and snag the PSP, and according to the 2004 Engadget Awards, both editors and readers agree that you made the right decision. It offered several options including external storage, a 1.3-megapixel camera add-on and the ability to handle an array of image, audio and even video formats. The PSP also had a high-resolution 480 x 272 LCD and content looked great ... at least as long as the battery held out. The PSP had a rechargeable 1800mAh battery, but all the bells and whistles led to rapid depletion if you used it as a truly portable device.
Gadget Rewind 2004: Apple Cinema HD display (30-inch)
You managed to pick up one of the aluminum G5s or PowerBook G4s back in 2003, but that bubbly polycarbonate Cinema display was ruining the whole look. Enter Apple's 2004 display refresh. This time the monitors were wrapped in a sexy anodized aluminum skin to harmonize your workstation's vibe. The line included 20-, 23- and 30-inch models with varying resolutions, but the big boy of the bunch was rocking 2,560 x 1,600 and would vastly increase your screen real estate (and geek cred). Always the salesman, Steve Jobs said, "you can even run two of them side-by-side to get 8 million jaw-dropping pixels." If you did that, you'd be down about $6,600 (the 30-incher was a wallet-scorching $3,299 at launch), but your digital workspace would look good.
Gadget Rewind 2004: Motorola RAZR V3
It's our 10th birthday, and to celebrate we'll be revisiting some of the key devices of the last decade. So please be kind, rewind. Motorola had been slinging its "hellomoto" campaign for several years by the time the RAZR V3 hit the scene in 2004. It's likely that you'll remember the iconic design of this handset, either as your communicator of choice or with a faint twinge of envy at never having scored one yourself. This ultra-slim flip phone had a backlit keypad that screamed Tron and its magnesium and aluminum outer shell gave it a lightweight, yet solid build. Motorola made the right move by providing an array of colors to choose from -- not quite the rainbow of flavors that today's Moto X offers, but it was enough to satisfy those with funkier tastes. As its name implied, the RAZR V3 was the switchblade of cellphones and cut a strikingly sharp figure, especially when flipped open. A minor downside to the design was its width; at just over 2-inches it was an exception at the time, although still a few notches below what most of us are pocketing today.
