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Which electric device made you go: "Woah!"

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First GPS navigation I've got (well Pocket PC with paired BT GPS but that's detail).
Almost all roads, POIs, adresses under my fingertips.
Live changing.
 
Easily when we finally got broadband at home in early 2002. The internet was such a weird thing to me before that, I knew what it was for but I never really realized its potential because using the internet was a trade off for the ability to use the phone.

Once we got broadband I was like AW YEAH NOW IM CRUSIN ON THE INFORMATION SUPER HIGHWAY NO BRAKES ALLOWED ON THE INFOBAHN LET'S SEE THE GODDAMN WORLD!
 
DS Lite
Wii
3DS

Nintendo has been impressing me for a long time. I do wish they would take a generation off from gimmicks though and push the internals a bit.
 
My first iPod Touch (I got an iPhone later), multitouch was the real deal as well as the accelerometer. I still remember the "wow" moment when I went into landscape in the music app and saw cover flow for the first time.
 
First bluray I ever watched was Planet Earth in 1080p. I said "Woah" and "Daaaaaamn" many times.
 
When my classmate got an 1G iPod Touch and took it on a class trip. I was floored how amazing it was. Had my uncle bring me a 2G when he went to the US.

Also when the PS3 was announced. I was in 7th grade I think, and the idea of a new Playstation (I had a PS2) was mindboggling. And you could even but Linux on it! Who needs computers now?
I never put Linux on my PS3

Also when I actually got to play a PS3 when they finally arrived here. It was at my uncles office (they sell Sony) hooked up to a projector and running Burnout Paradise. OH MY GOD!

And the first time I played Guitar Hero there.
 
This thing right here:

genesis_system.jpg


And this thing:

Apple_MacBook_Air_11-inch_35781454_13.jpg


lazygecko said:
Modular synths are great for impressing the uninitiated. Makes you think they're more impressive than they really are.
Click to expand...

I dunno, I know a lot about them and they're still pretty impressive to me.

Buchla_200e.jpg


Maybe not if you're into melodic polyphony, I guess?
 
None of these are as impressive as my Casio personal organiser, that mother fucker could change the tv channel

Not as good as my dads Psion though
 
Game Gear

The first time I held one my brain couldn't handle it. Seeing sonic running around on that little color screen was so awesome back then. My cousin had the tv tuner for it too, and that was another whole level of cool.
 
HDTV
Laptop (circa 95 maybe)
Writing/Pen convertible tablet (2005?)
Early, early BlackBerry. It was nuts to watch someone respond to email from a device the size of a deck of cards.
Central fucking air
 
Atari 2600
IBM PC (1981)
TiVo (first gen)
iPhone 3g (not the first smart phone I owned but first to put everything together)

Almost made list:
Plasma TV circa 2002 (yes, early adopter)

Pretty much all game changers from the consumer electronics perspective (although I'm sure the lightbulb was pretty much the shit back in the day :p).
 
When i think about it record players are still an amazing piece of technology

"You mean the music is stored in wax and in those fine groves" then thats put on a turntable and its amplified out of those boxes there. (I could accept CD's the music as waveforms being lasered onto a disc becuase i've done that througha computer, but vinyl came precomputer era)
Woah!
 
Metalmarc said:
When i think about it record players are still an amazing piece of technology

"You mean the music is stored in wax and in those fine groves" then thats put on a turntable and its amplified out of those boxes there. (I could accept CD's the music as waveforms being lasered onto a disc becuase i've done that througha computer, but vinyl came precomputer era)
Woah!
Click to expand...

To be fair, there are record players that don't use electricity as well.
 
Android18a said:
The N64 was a biggie for me. I remember before it came out we went to Toys R Us and they had a demo pod set up where you could play Mario 64 early. That was a pretty memorable moment of my youth. I think my little 13 year old mind was blown.
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I'm sorry, I think you have mistaken yourself for me. Because I had the exact same exeperience. There was a lot of awesome stuff growing up in that time, with Playstation, Snes, arcades and the sort, but the N64 was almost too much for my meager brain to comprehend.
 
This is something that actually made me go "whoa" yesterday.

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.

Big deal, it's a lamp, right? Yes. But also no - that thing is so much more. Quick back story: I'm a med student and was assisting at the OR yesterday. Part of that job involves moving the OR lights around to make sure that the surgeon can actually, you know, see stuff. So I do just that - grab the lamp and point it in the right direction.

Then I see a faint red dot on the patient. Followed by a faint buzz.

Turns out, these aren't your ordinary lamps - they come equipped with accelerometers that activate a laser range finder after you move them that automatically adjusts the reflectors optimally for the current distance.

Honestly blew my mind. I had no idea that something looking that humble could be so advanced. That's the definition of sci-fi for me - ridiculously advanced tech just two or three decades ago applied to something so mundane.
 
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The year was 2001 and I was working at CompUSA as a salesperson.

One day I notice this thing on the display floor. At this point, I had owned one Wacom Tablet (Art Z II), but hated using it for drawing. Only used it for coloring scanned in images. I knew about Wacom's pen displays before (this was a year before their Cintiq branding), but at $4000, I never even seen one in person.

But here was a computer with a Wacom pen display for $3000! I spent that day not selling shit and just drawing on the display model. It had Photoshop Elements pre-loaded on it so I was able to use something more substantial than MS Paint. Still have my very first pen display all digital drawing I did on it on the display unit that day. An embarrassing piece, but I had too much fun doing it.

Bought it the next day with employee discount (ended up $2700) and 18 months no interest financing. Been using Wacom pen displays (Cintiqs, Tablet PCs) ever since.
 
Baron Von Beans said:
I'm sorry, I think you have mistaken yourself for me. Because I had the exact same exeperience. There was a lot of awesome stuff growing up in that time, with Playstation, Snes, arcades and the sort, but the N64 was almost too much for my meager brain to comprehend.
Click to expand...

We'd probably have been bro's if we'd known each other.
 
As of late, I would say the original Microsoft Surface (the table top PC that can stretch to a wall) and the OR/Morpheus (though I have not witnessed these in person) have got to be the next most amazing thing. There have been some astounding advancements in robotics, too. I think we can all agree that no matter when it first happened to you, the times we live in now, there will be plenty more coming down the pike for years to come.
Android18a said:
We'd probably have been bro's if we'd known each other.
Click to expand...
I agree! Time travel old school high five...then on the rebound!
 
My new Samsung Tab S 10.5 as well as my trusty ol' Galaxy S3 both amaze me on a regular basis. Dat thinness. Dat lightness. Dat crisp image.

Also my iPod Classic 160GB... carrying a lifetime's worth of music in my pocket is magic.
 
I'd say, my first home pc computer. I think it was an HP and my first game was Final Fantasy 7 for the pc on it. Second was my first android phone, the G1!
 
A few "woah"s with the usual gadget upgrades but I guess the only "WOAH" in recent memory is trying out a modern luxury car and seeing how computerised it is - car settings and entertainment all in one screen on the dash.
 
Erm I'd probably say it's a toss up between the OG iPhone and the iPhone 4.

OG - because there was nothing else like it and it truly changed peoples idea of a mobile phone.

4 - because it upped the stakes dramatically from it's design to (at the time) best in class display. It was amazing. I remember getting it on launch day from the Apple Store, taking it home and just holding it, it was incredible.
 
My Xperia Z. First smartphone I've ever had. Had it for 19 months and it is still a dream. Absolutely beautiful, almost perfection.
 
When i got a generic MP3 player as a gift, i think it had around 128mb of space, but the sheer novelty of being able to listen to music on the go was huge. Sure i had a discman, but those skipped, were rather large, and you had to carry CDs with you.

On a software side of things, Xbox Live on the original XB was pretty impressive for its time.
 
We switched all our workstations to SSD drives after playing around with it a bit :)
I never heard something about slow PCs again ....after ~ 8years of all kinds of people complaining that the workstations are slow... SSD fixed that for me :O

Oculus Rift just for the possibilitys O_O
 
As a teenager, the PlayStation blew me away. I had been predominantly gaming on an Atari 2600 and NES up until that point so the jump was massive for me.

As an adult, my first smartphone. I came to grips with it rather quickly but those first few days was like an out of body experience. All this information in my hands.
 
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