📟 Tech & Gadgets

2000s 2003

MSN Messenger

Where an entire generation did its socialising between four o'clock and bedtime, in front of the family computer.

📟 Tech & Gadgets

2000s 2003

The Digital Camera With A CompactFlash Card

Point and shoot digital cameras that ate batteries, filled a card in an afternoon, and were still a revelation.

📟 Tech & Gadgets

2000s 2004

Household Broadband And The Router On The Stairs

ADSL arrived with a microfilter on every phone socket and changed the household relationship with the internet permanently.

📟 Tech & Gadgets🛋️ Around The House

2000s 2004

Limewire And The Wrong Song

Peer-to-peer file sharing, where the file you wanted was 40% likely to be something else entirely.

🎵 Music📟 Tech & Gadgets

2000s 2004

The iPod Click Wheel

Apple's music player, and the click wheel that made scrolling through 5,000 songs genuinely pleasant.

🎵 Music📟 Tech & Gadgets

2000s 2005

The Motorola RAZR

A flip phone thin enough to be a fashion object, sold on looks rather than function.

📟 Tech & Gadgets👖 Fashion

2000s 2006

Bebo And MySpace Top 8

Social networks before Facebook, where you chose a profile song and arranged your friends in order.

📟 Tech & Gadgets

2010s 2010

The iPod Nano And The Last Click Wheel

The sixth-generation Nano dropped the click wheel for a touchscreen the size of a postage stamp, and people wore it as a watch.

🎵 Music📟 Tech & Gadgets

2010s 2011

BlackBerry Messenger

Free messaging when texts still cost money, on a phone with a proper keyboard.

📟 Tech & Gadgets

2010s 2012

Analogue Television Switch-Off

Britain completed digital switchover in October 2012, ending analogue transmission and taking teletext with it.

📺 Telly📟 Tech & Gadgets

2010s 2012

Instagram's Square Photos And X-Pro II

Before the algorithm, Instagram was square photos in chronological order with a filter called Valencia on top.

📟 Tech & Gadgets

2010s 2012

Netflix Arriving In The UK

Netflix launched its UK streaming service in January 2012 at £5.99 a month, with a famously thin catalogue.

🎬 Film📟 Tech & Gadgets

2010s 2013

Vine

A video app with a hard six-second limit that produced more genuinely funny content per minute than anything since.

📟 Tech & Gadgets

2010s 2014

The Selfie Stick

An extendable pole for your phone, briefly ubiquitous, then an object of universal embarrassment.

📟 Tech & Gadgets👖 Fashion

2010s 2016

Deliveroo And The End Of Ringing The Takeaway

Food delivery apps replaced the paper menu drawer and the awkward phone call in about four years.

🍽️ Food & Drink📟 Tech & Gadgets

2010s 2016

Snapchat Streaks

Consecutive days of messaging tracked with a flame emoji, which turned casual chat into an obligation.

📟 Tech & Gadgets