The Verge - Status Symbols: devices that transcend time

Status Symbols: Porsche 959

2013-04-25T14:40:04Z

Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.

Run-flat tires equipped with a pressure monitoring system. All-wheel drive. Adjustable, electronically-controlled ride height. A top speed brushing up against the magical 200 mph mark. These thoroughly modern specifications could easily describe an exotic car from the world’s most exclusive automakers that you might buy today, if were you lucky enough to have a few hundred thousand dollars to spare — but this isn’t today. It’s 1986, and the car is the Porsche 959.

First...

Status Symbols: MiniDisc

2013-02-15T16:20:05Z

The MiniDisc represents Sony at the height of its 1990s arrogance. In 1992, when the MiniDisc was introduced, Sony could do no wrong in consumer electronics: the best TVs were Trinitrons, the Walkman was still booming and the Discman was a hit, and Sony’s legendary hardware design was at the peak of its powers before software changed the world. It’s no wonder the company thought it could launch a quirky new music format around the world through sheer will alone.

Status Symbols: Samsung BlackJack

2012-12-21T22:07:03Z

The Samsung BlackJack was my first "smartphone," and my first introduction to a phone with a full keyboard. Before that was a long line of Nokias, which I was fairly happy with. I didn’t buy the BlackJack, but inherited it in brand new condition, figuring I’d give it a shot.

The BlackJack was a Windows Mobile 5 phone with a 2.25-inch color screen (320 x 240 resolution), which at the time seemed gloriously, luxuriously giant and crisp. It was released in November of 2006, just...

Status Symbols: Neo Geo Pocket Color

2012-11-23T18:00:06Z

The handheld video game market has gone through a number of changes, but the basic formula has remained the same for some time: Nintendo dominates, while a company with more powerful hardware fights for what's left. This hasn't lead to a lot of room for companies that aren't Nintendo, Sega, or Sony. And that's something that SNK learned with its ill-fated Neo Geo Pocket line. Much like the company's overpriced console, the handhelds never quite caught on in a big way. But the...

Status Symbols: Game Boy Micro

2012-10-26T18:00:03Z

2005 was a good year for Nintendo handhelds. The original DS was on its way to becoming the most successful portable device of all time, while the Game Boy Advance SP let you play your entire Game Boy library — dating back to the monochromatic original — on one, handy machine. So it was a bit curious, then, when the company decided to release the $99 Game Boy Micro, a small, streamlined version of the handheld that could only play GBA games. It improved form at the expense of...

Status Symbols: Palm V

2012-10-02T16:00:02Z

Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.

This might come as a surprise to younger readers, but there existed an age before smartphones. The 1990s and early 2000s bore witness to dozens upon dozens of so-called PDAs — personal digital assistants, a term famously coined by ex-Apple CEO John Sculley upon the introduction of the ill-fated Newton — and Palm Computing was one of the PDA Age's superstars.

Today, of course, Palm is little more than a footnote in mobile history, but 1998 was a heady year for founder Jeff...

Status Symbols: Microsoft IntelliMouse

2012-07-18T15:00:13Z

30 years ago, Microsoft Hardware was born. The Word team wanted a mouse, and so the new group built what's affectionately known as the "Green Eyed Monster," thanks to its dual distinctive green buttons and so-ugly-it's-adorable form. It had a stainless steel ball and gold contacts, and shipped for $200 in 1983 alongside brand new version of Word.

Turns out, those Word guys were on to something. It's hard to overestimate the importance the mouse has had on computing. It allowed for...

Status Symbols: Pioneer Kuro

2012-05-22T17:01:04Z

There was a span of a couple years in my career as a technology journalist where I would endlessly flit from demo to showcase to product launch. Whether via bike or skateboard, I was everywhere in Manhattan, taking in product spiel after product spiel. I walked away nauseated from early 3D demos, and world-weary after witnessing 20 different iPod docks from a single company, but there's one company that never failed to impress: Pioneer.