The Apple Powerbook 100 has been chosen as the greatest gadget of all time, by US magazine Mobile PC. The 1991 laptop was chosen because it was one of the first "lightweight" portable computers and helped define the layout of all future notebook PCs. The magazine has compiled an all-time top 100 list of gadgets, which includes the Sony Walkman at number three and the 1956 Zenith remote control at two. Gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to warrant inclusion. The magazine specified that gadgets also needed to be a "self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own, not a subset of another device. In general we included only items that were potentially mobile," said the magazine. TOP 10 'GREATEST GADGETS' 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) * According to Mobile PC magazine "In the end, we tried to get to the heart of what really makes a gadget a gadget," it concluded. The oldest "gadget" in the top 100 is the abacus, which the magazine dates at 190 A.D., and put in 60th place. The most popular gadget of the moment, the Apple iPod, is at number 12 in the list while the first Sony transistor radio is at number 13. Sony's third entry in the top 20 is the CDP-101 CD player from 1983. Karl Elsener's knife, the Swiss Army Knife from 1891, is at number 20 in the list. Gadgets which could be said to feature surprisingly low down in the list include the original telephone (23rd), the Nintendo GameBoy (25th), and the Pulsar quartz digital watch (36th). The list also contains plenty of oddities: the Pez sweet dispenser (98th), 1990s toy Tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre Ronco inside the shell egg scrambler (84th). [BBC News] Hmmmm, I feel a discussion coming on ...