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Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame

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Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame

The greatest gadgets of the past 50 years

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame

Here are the stories behind the best gadgets of the past 50 years

06 Dec 2018

2 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Special Reports Interactive

Consumer Electronics Timeline

Explore our interactive timeline of the Hall of Fame gadgets

06 Dec 2018

1 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Tandy/RadioShack TRS-80 Model 1

RadioShack hoped PC sales would offset the income decline caused by waning interest in CB radios

06 Dec 2018

2 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Atari 2600

This was the machine that finally let us play Space Invaders at home

03 Jan 2019

3 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Sony PlayStation Portable

By stuffing advanced tech into a handheld device, Sony’s PSP offered a preview of what smartphones would be doing a decade in the future

14 Nov 2019

5 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Pure Evoke-1 DAB Digital Radio

A superefficient form of broadcast radio languished until a brilliantly designed set helped it achieve liftoff

14 Nov 2019

5 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: GoPro Hero

The original action camera started as a home-sewn strap that secured a disposable camera to the user’s wrist

13 Dec 2018

4 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Motorola T250 Talkabout Walkie-Talkies

When the FCC designated a new swath of frequency for handheld, two-way radios, Motorola pounced

14 Nov 2019

7 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Boss TU-12 Guitar Tuner

An affordable, compact device gave guitarists everything they needed to stay in tune

14 Nov 2019

4 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Nest Thermostat

Why a former Apple engineer built not just a temperature controller but a “Trojan horse into the home”

14 Nov 2019

7 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: TiVo

A revolution in TV viewing was fomented in part by the need to let people answer nature’s call

07 Nov 2019

9 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Panasonic PV-1563 VCR

This premium VHS player emerged from the technical ferment of a peak year for VCR technology

07 Nov 2019

7 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Fitbit

The first computer-based wearable confounded expectations of what it should look like and what it should do

07 Nov 2019

6 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Casio F-91W Wristwatch

For about $10, this watch can do something that most luxury watches cannot: keep accurate time to within 1 second a day

07 Nov 2019

3 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Apple iPhone

Apple’s original iPhone, like the ones that would follow it, was at once trailblazing and irritating

07 Nov 2019

5 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Yamaha HP-1 Headphones

By combining aspects of a few different headphone types, Yamaha produced an audio breakthrough that still resounds

31 Oct 2019

5 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Texas Instruments’ Speak & Spell

A child’s toy helped propel Texas Instruments into a huge new technical discipline: digital signal processing

31 Oct 2019

4 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: Zircon StudSensor

When the inventor of an electronic stud sensor showed his prototype to some big tool companies, not one of them was interested

31 Oct 2019

4 min read

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: PhoneMate 400

The original telephone answering machine weighed four and a half kilograms and sold for $300

31 Oct 2019

6 min read

Photo of the SiriusXM Satellite Radio System

Consumer Electronics Topic Type Feature Special Reports

The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame: SiriusXM Satellite Radio System

The first satellite-radio subscription service tried to fix all the problems of terrestrial commercial radio

31 Oct 2019

6 min read

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© Copyright 2023 IEEE — All rights reserved. A not-for-profit organization, IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.