The most popular tech gadget from the year you were born

Zenith's remote control was called the "Lazy Bones." It had just one button for flipping channels. The remote pictured above is a slightly more advanced version, with four buttons. Zenith later introduced a wireless remote called the "Flash-Matic" in 1955.

The first videotape recorder worked by taking photos and converting them into electrical impulses, which were then stored on magnetic tape. It went for a cool $56,000.

The first transistor radio, "a fantastic pocket-size 'music player,'" made it possible to tune into your favorite AM radio station wherever you were for the first time ever and it revolutionized the way we listen to music today.

According to Sound & Vision, it cost $50, which is equivalent to around $480 today.

According to Wired, the microwave oven was born out of the radar systems used in World War II-era technology. It also weighed about 750 pounds and was nearly 6 feet tall. Now, they can fit comfortably on a countertop in the smallest of kitchens.

According to PC World, the drive held five megabytes of data at $10,000 a megabyte, and was the size of two fridges. Now, hard drives can be the size of a small tablet.

Earl E. Bakken was an electrical engineer, TV repairman, and co-founder of Medtronic Inc. He is the one who produced the first battery-operated wearable pacemaker in 1957, saving countless lives.

The Bell 101 modem was the first commercial modem for computers, and was released by AT&T in 1958. Modems are still in use today to connect computers and other devices to the internet.

In 1959, Wilson Greatbatch, an electrical engineer, patented the internal pacemaker. Dr. William Chardack reported the first successful use of the pacemaker inside a human in 1960, which changed the future of heart medicine forever.

Just a few decades after the TV was invented, Sony released the T TV-8-301 — the first complete transistor television — in 1960. It weighed about 13 pounds and could run on two six-volt batteries. However, it only lasted for two years before getting discontinued.

According to Medium, the audio cassette tape was first created by Philips in 1962 in Hasselt, Belgium. Though they were soon rendered obsolete by CDs, and then streaming, cassettes are having somewhat of a renaissance. Just look at Urban Outfitters.

According to The New York Times, some early versions of the mouse had three buttons, though Engelbart thought as many as 10 buttons would be more useful. Computer mice today still usually only have two or three buttons.

According to the New York Times, "From a booth set up in Grand Central Terminal, a person could talk to a friend in Chicago or Washington while also seeing them on a small video screen." It cost the small price of $16 for a 3 minute call — roughly $121 today.

It was the beginning of what we now know as video-chatting.

Before the invention of smoke alarms, people living in homes or apartments could expect that if their home caught fire, they'd have a one in 10 chance of that fire killing them. However, following their widespread use, that statistic has dropped to one in 100.

According to PBS, a Texas Instruments group led by Jack Kilby developed a calculator that was only 6 inches tall. It was far smaller than a previously released model, which weighed 55 pounds and cost $2,500.

RAM is a hardware storage device for computers. It was first invented by Robert Dennard, an electrical engineer and inventor, in 1968. Computers still use RAM to this day.

Microcassettes had the same width as the tape on the Philips Compact Cassette but used a much smaller plastic frame, making them even more convenient to carry around on your person and inside your car.

Floppy disks store data and were coined "floppy disks" for their relatively malleable outer casing.

Kids today mainly know floppy disks as the "Save" icon on their computers.

Carl Sontheimer, an American engineer and inventor, refined Verdon's machines to produce the Cuisinart, which is still one of the most popular brands in the world.

Pong is widely regarded as the game that sparked the video game industry. According to VentureBeat, Alcorn reacted to the explosion of the video game industry by saying, "It wasn't my intention. I'm just as surprised as the next guy."

According to EDN, Motorola's Marty Cooper made the first call on a mobile phone to Joel S. Engel, his rival at Bell Labs, on April 3, 1973.

In 2018, smartphone sales reached $522 billion worldwide.

According to Smithsonian, on June 26, 1974, in the small town of Troy, Ohio, the first item marked with the Universal Product Code (UPC) was scanned at the checkout counter of Marsh Supermarket.

Though the prototype was invented in 1975, Business Insider reported that the first digital camera made widely available in the United States was the Dycam Model 1. It finally made it to the market in late 1990.

According to Wired, the following year, VHS was introduced in North America at a press conference before the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. VHS tapes were the only way to watch movies at home for decades, before DVD and Blu-ray took over.

Wozniak and Jobs invented the first Apple computer, the Apple I, in 1976, but their vastly improved version, the Apple II, was released to consumers in 1977. Needless to say, Apple has become one of the largest companies in the world, and it can be traced back to the Apple II.

According to CNET, the first LaserDiscs that were created had analog audio tracks, but later versions featured stereo audio. The audio and video quality was considered by many to be superior for its time. However, even at the height of its popularity, it was still considered a niche product.

According to The Verge, a prototype of the Walkman was invented by Ohga when Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka asked for a more private way to listen to opera music. Selling for $150, the Walkman proved popular, with 400 million devices sold during the brand's lifetime.

According to Nintendo Life, Yokoi came up with the idea after seeing a Japanese businessman fiddling with a pocket calculator. Using LCD technology, the line of handheld games launched with a focus on short bursts of gameplay. Now, video games were portable.

Targeting consumers, the IBM Personal Computer was significantly faster than its competition and boasted 10 times the memory, according to Britannica.

According to Science Museum Group, the first CD was developed as a collaboration between Philips and Sony in 1982.

The first CD player, Sony's CDP-101, launched the next year, in 1983. The CD would effectively kill cassettes and vinyl as the go-to medium for music.

Developed by Sony in 1983, the Betamovie camcorder was the first to combine the camera and portable VCR into one item. Before the Betamovie, a portable VCR had to be connected to the camera by a cable.

According to The Guardian, the Macintosh was one of the first computers to have a graphics interface, which would quickly become the adopted standard.

According to Nintendo, the NES sold 60 million units during its lifetime, and introduced iconic characters like the Mario Brothers and Link to the masses.

According to CNN, the camera was developed by Fuji in 1986, and didn't hit the market in the United States until a year later under the Fujicolor Quicksnap name. Disposable cameras offered a cheaper alternative to consumers than traditional photography, though they are less immediate than a Polaroid.

Inventor Gene Dolgoff had been working on creating the first LCD projector since the 1960s. Finally, in 1987, Dolgoff improved upon his design and patented it, creating the company Projectavision, Inc. The first commercial LCD projector would be sold three years later in 1990.

According to The Guardian, the Sega Genesis was a competitor to Nintendo's system, the NES. Sega even had its own mascot — the blue hedgehog Sonic — to rival the popularity of Mario.

According to Nintendo, the original Game Boy sold over 150 million systems during its lifetime. Iconic franchises got their start on Game Boy, like Tetris and Pokémon.

One of the first versions of the photo-editing software was created for the Macintosh. It changed the world of photography forever when it was introduced — now, photos could be edited digitally.

Though it's been around for 30 years at this point, people are still making mistakes while editing photos.

According to the BBC, the first webcam was created by Dr. Paul Jardetzky and Dr. Martyn Johnson at the University of Cambridge. Jardetzky had set up a camera for researchers to watch the coffee pot, to see if it was empty before getting up to grab coffee.

Johnson, who was not connected to the campus' internal computer network, wrote a code that allowed him to view the feed through the World Wide Web for the very first time.

The people behind the Sonicare electric toothbrush wanted to improve upon the way people brushed their teeth, by offering a built-in motor and vibrations to help clean someone's mouth.

The MessagePad had a brief life, but it made a big impact. The device could take notes, keep track of your calendar, send faxes, and store contacts. There's even a museum dedicated to it, according to Wired.

The IBM Simon was a precursor to the modern day smartphone, according to Time. The personal assistant device was the first to have telephone capabilities. It also had a touchscreen and even apps.

Though it didn't prove to be successful, the device developed something of a cult following among collectors, and the idea of virtual reality was revisited years later with the Oculus Rift. In a way, it was far ahead of its time.

According to the Toshiba Science Museum, the first DVD player, the SD-3000, was designed in 1994 and introduced to audiences in 1996. The DVD would quickly replace the VHS for home media.

The electronic toy gave owners a virtual pet to feed and take care of, teaching plenty of kids and teens responsibility.

The toy attempted a comeback in 2017, according to Wired. There's also an app available to download for iPhones and Androids.

According to Vice, the first MP3 music player, the Diamond Rio PMP 300, was released in 1998. Rather than CDs or cassette tapes, the device used MP3 files downloaded from the web.

The Recording Industry Association of America attempted to sue Diamond over the device and lost, paving the way for future MP3 devices, iPods, and music streaming.

TiVo is a digital video recorder, designed to record TV shows and movies so the consumer could watch them at a later date, something that had only been done using a VHS tape.

According to Digital Trends, the first camera phone, the SCH-V200, was developed by Samsung and debuted in 2000 — though you still needed a computer to actually access the photos.

Unlike the touchscreens and mountains of storage that followed, the first iPod model had a click wheel and between five and 10 gigabytes of storage, according to CNET.

The robotic vacuum cleaner is known for its autonomous household cleaning. Say goodbye to long wires and loud vacuum noises.

The device proved to be a popular fad. Movies and TV shows were sold on VideoNow discs that played on the device.

The gaming system combined touch-screen technology with a stylus and dual screens. It was also the first gaming system to use WiFi and a built-in microphone, as well.

Popular video games for the system included the franchises "Halo" and "Gears of War." The Xbox 360 was replaced in 2013 by the Xbox One.

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