gadgets

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Gadgets are small electronic objects with specific functions that are often thought of as technological novelties.

The term gadget can be traced back to the 19th century, when the Oxford Dictionary defined it as a placeholder name for a technical item whose precise name one can't remember. The etymology of the term is largely disputed, with some sources holding that it comes from the french "gagee", which translated to a small and useful accessory. During the first half of the 20th century, the word gadget was mainly used in military lingo to refer to the rapidly evolving pieces of technology that were fitted onto military vessels.

Nowadays, gadgets include household appliances, GPS navigation devices, mobile phones, portable media players, mobile computers, wireless headphones, digital cameras and other inventions that are both light, easy to use and can garner popularity quickly. Some of the most fitting examples of today include the Apple products iPhone and iPad, Garmin GPS devices and the PSP (PlayStation Portable).

In the software industry, gadgets (often called widgets) refer to computer programs that can provide a series of services without requiring an independent application for each of those services. Consequently, they run in an environment that can manage multiple widgets. Examples include Microsoft Gadgets, Google Desktop, Yahoo! Widgets, Homescreen Widgets for the Android operating system, and Dashboard (for Mac OS).

The earliest known use of the term gadget to refer to innovative computer software dates back to 1985 when it was used by the developers of the Amiga operating system to denote a GUI widget.

At that time, widgets were graphical user interface elements that displayed information in an arrangement that could be modified by the user. In other words, widgets allowed users to directly manipulate data, an approach considered innovative with the launch of the first Windows operating system. Since the late 1980s, widgets have retained the generic meaning of software application intended for different platforms.

Software companies often use the term widget to name any innovative piece of technology, but will usually distinguish between desktop widgets, blidgets (widgets that connect users to blogs), mobile widgets, web widgets and TV-set widgets.

You'll find bloggers talking about gadgets at sites like techtalk.seattle.gov.

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Original Technorati articles tagged “gadgets”

Latest blogosphere posts tagged “gadgets”
 

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