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25 Top 'It' Products of All Time
#25 - The Pet Rock
This blogger remembers when his dad first brought home his Pet Rock. The rock was in a box, resting in comfortable nest of straw, and his new pet had come with a 36-page training manual. "There are all sorts of tricks a pet rock can do," his father said. "Like, sit. It can play dead. And with a little push, it can roll."
· Full Post on the Pet Rock
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25 Top It Products of All Time
#25 - The Pet Rock
This blogger remembers when his dad first brought home his Pet Rock. The rock was in a box, resting in comfortable nest of straw, and his new pet had come with a 36-page training manual. "There are all sorts of tricks a pet rock can do," his father said. "Like, sit. It can play dead. And with a little push, it can roll."
· Full Post on the Pet Rock
25 Top It Products of All Time
#24 - Matchbox Cars
With remote control cars and simulated racing games clogging toy stores, it's hard to remember that, once upon a time, humble little die-cast cars represented the ultimate gift for any burgeoning car freak. Then, Matchbox's tiny little 1/78-scale automobiles were the absolute alpha and omega of child car culture.
· Full Post on Matchbox Cars
25 Top It Products of All Time
#23 - The Magic 8-ball
Why pay for a psychiatrist when you can go to the Magic 8-ball for advice and insight? Sure, the possible answers are limited to 20 (10 positive, five negative and five non-committal), but the Magic 8-ball will never ask you how that makes you feel, or cut you dead when your insurance lapses. It will probably just tell you ask again later, by which time you'll probably have solved the problem yourself.
· Full Post on The Magic 8-ball
25 Top It Products of All Time
#22 - The Slinky
The slinky requires no batteries. You can't buy fancy outfits for it. You can't play in on the Internet. You can't pay extraordinary amounts of money for extravagant versions, and if you're waiting for your kids to break it so you can throw it away, good luck. The slinky does one thing, and does it very, very well; it obeys gravity. As Jay Leno said, It's the one toy that encourages kids to play on the stairs.
· Full Post on The Slinky
25 Top It Products of All Time
#21 - CB Radio
In the mid-70s, the song "Convoy" was a number one hit on both the pop and country charts and CB trucker slang like "breaker, breaker 1-9" and "rubber duck" had entered the vernacular. As motorists discovered the thrills of dodging smokies and cursing out speed-crazed men driving 40-ton rigs, the CB joined the cassette deck as must-have auto options.
· Full Post on CB Radio
25 Top It Products of All Time
#20 - The Transformers
With the 2007 release of Michael Bay's Transformers movie, it's easy to forget that the toys have been with us for over 20 years. An adaptation of Japan's Microman and Diaclone lines, the Transformers offered something truly unique: toys that could, with a few deft moves, morph from one thing to another.
· Full Post on the Transformers
25 Top It Products of All Time
#19 - The Lava Lite
Excepting Aladdin's, it's the one lamp everyone seems to know, yet you can't even read by it. You maybe even owned one once, that torpedo-shaped vertical glass tube full of slowly churning goo. We call them Lava Lamps, but their real name is Lava Lite. The first Lava-Brand Motion Lamps lamps came out in 1965, just in time to help a generation of psychedelic dropouts tune in and drop out as they gazed into the gloopy miasma within.
· Full Post on The Lava Lite
25 Top It Products of All Time
#18 - My Little Pony
The 80's Saturday morning cartoon line-up included The Smurfs, Pee-wee's Playhouse and My Little Pony. Not only did a sense of right and wrong permeate those shows, the dolls and toys kids begged their moms for were a great inspiration to their childhood imagination. A shining, glitter-covered case in point: My Little Pony.
· Full Post on My Little Pony
25 Top It Products of All Time
#17 - The Princess Phone
Baby boomers will remember the 1930's classic -form follows function telephones - clunky, black and squat. You'll remember when colors arrived and the emergence of the wall phone. If you were a girl, though, what you'll remember most fondly is the girl's best friend, the princess phone.
· Full Post on The Princess Phone
25 Top It Products of All Time
#16 - The Mood Ring
The mood ring may be far out, man, but it has a practical, medical history. The ring was conceived in the 1960s, when Marvin Wernick went to an emergency call with a doctor friend, and watched him use a thermotropic strip to take a child's temperature. Wernick got some of the product and fitted ovals of it into rings with glass "gemstones" to show off the color. He wrote up some incredible claims about the connection between body temperature and mood, and a new psychological accessory was headed toward American history.
· Full Post on The Mood Ring
25 Top It Products of All Time
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By: Lillian on 4/09/2010 9:08PM
Preach!!
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By: Lillian on 4/09/2010 9:06PM
Apple uses a black man's hand in their iPad demo, and features a BLACK comic book!!!
http://www.apple.com/ipad/apps-for-ipad/
The black authors I personally know haven't created e-versions of their work. Hello!
So if the iPad had these black magazines, WHO would subscribe to them in their iPad format? Zinio, an online magazine stand, has Jet magazine as well as Body & Soul plus some others. Who do you know who subscribes to those mags on Zinio?
BLACK VOICES has YET to create an iPhone app. What's up? Is that Steve Job's fault? I think not!
As a huge Apple supporter, I am disappointed in this article. Have you browsed the technology portion of the BV board at all? It remains empty.
When the iPhone came out at $600, I got it, but blacks on BV and those I know in person were NOT willing to spend that on a phone.
The blacks I know in my family have money, but many are technologically illiterate. I gave one of them an iPhone, and he gave it away! Another had an iPhone and gave it away because she didn't know how to use it. Many blacks I've turned on to the iPhone have purchased the cheaper version and do know how to use it. But I still come across some who don't even know what it is, much less are they willing to pay $500+ for one.
You are talking about a market that overall will likely put that huge trillion dollar spending budget into vanity products like cars and hair before technology. I hate it, but that's how it seems.
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By: Edward Artiste on 5/02/2010 10:19PM
My thoughts exactly.
Like women love to say, they need to
"Step Thier Game Up"
The AA segment is treated like trash- and there are important reasons why. The audience has come to accept lackluster attention- and that's exactly what they get.
The black social media outfit i worked for did honestly try to elevate the level of content going to its members. However the problem was that the rumors, booty shots, and non essential, fluffy content brought in the ratings.
So while news and black business is important to a select group, that group is incredibly small compared to the masses- whether well employed or not- are just trying to live their lives, thus keeping their eyes peeled to the non essential categories.
Even the black women empowerment section merely turned into the gossip section. Gossip will always have a market, so that's not a bad things, but it get a hugely disproportionate chunk of the audience.
I value the great campaigns that i worked on for the AA audience, but its just a shame when we don't value our own news. With the overall depressing/negative tones attached to black media, its not hard to see why.
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By: Edward Artiste on 5/02/2010 10:00PM
I think it's high time you black publications get your head out of your asses, for lack of better words. No disrespect, just trying to get this across loud and clear.
Too many AA media entities dont even take themselves seriously. Spend the money and get yourself in the door. Send your salespeople. Pay other black media companies to build a iphone app. Push it to your readers. Do the damn work! Where is the mention of getting AA magazines on Zinio reader, or research of deals to leverage the work that Adobe is doing with other large online magazines like Wired?
Our so called buying power is a JOKE- that money is spread so long and wide across the spectrum that its pretty useless to throw it out there as such. Big media- save for mcdonalds- have practically given up on catering to this mysterious diverse audience- because of two reasons: 1- they admitted don't "get it", & too many whites making the decisions..and 2- they just don't see the ROI and/or its just too small a percentage for them to take seriously. Myself working in online social media for the last several years, I can honestly say that only black media cares about the black audience- no one else does, to be frank. That takes the value out of such efforts. And with the dismantling of black media production (except tired Tyler Perry movies) over the last 2 years, the only thing left to push to the AA market is the regular fare- cars, alcohol, and hair products.
Every major black media outlet should have some sort of presence on the iphone, i dont care how much revenue fell last year- its the cost of doing business, and ROI should be the only thing of concern. Build the apps, then use your sites to build the awareness, take a couple of grand and shoot a cheapo commercial and play it on your own networks and even during black television (whats left of it).
Everyone's been slaughtered in the last 2 years, but that's absolutely no excuse for the sorry state of black media on the web. No one is going to help our segment. And you should not expect apple or anyone to give you a seat at the table for diversity sakes- money is green, not black or white.
This just came off as a complaint piece, which is something the AA audience doesn't need any more of. no more coddling. no more whining. Do the work. Spend the money. Then reap the benefits only when you all deserve it.
If you guys need ideas, contact me and hire me and we will get a plan together to make this happen- i know small black business that build apps, widgets, the works- we can hire them and turn this sorry trend around.
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By: Alfred Edmond Jr. on 7/13/2010 4:07PM
In no way do we at Black Enterprise expect Apple to develop an app on our behalf. As has already been stated, it is up to individual media companies to decide when and if to exploit, mobile, the iPad and other new content delivery products/platforms. That said, I believe the writer is absolutely on point when he says that Apple and other technology/communications companies need to take the black consumer market seriously by, among other things, advertising their products in black magazines and other black-owned media.
Finally, I've had to bite my tongue until now, but we HAVE been at work on a BlackEnterprise iPad app. Hold tight; it's coming soon--VERY soon. (Check the August 2010 40th Anniversary issue of Black Enterprise magazine.)
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By: TJ on 8/25/2010 10:35AM
I agree with Johndowa. Too many times this generation believes it should be given everything by "right", not by making the effort and earning it. Remember when you point at others, there are more fingers pointing back at you. You can make the difference, the impact....just choose to do it.
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By: Queen on 9/08/2010 7:56PM
Don't buy it black people.
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By: Somebody black on 12/07/2010 10:31AM
I dont know who exactly is at fault, but it does seem slighted in the consumers eye. It seems as if you had a knew product and wanted to appeal to everyone you would beg, or insist that they (all types of magazines EVEN BLACK) would be represented on a new product. But, it would seem if you were a magazine you would chase down new media if you thought your company was in trouble. It goes both ways
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By: Ron on 12/16/2010 12:05PM
You think this is scandalous? Hardly! Apple has REFUSED to pay African Americans more than their white counterparts! That there is the REAL scandal
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By: Yalanda on 1/17/2011 5:55AM
Something doesn't sound right here... Apple make us care? Hmmmm... I definitely didn't need to see an ad in any African American pub to purchase my Mac, iPhone, or iPad....Most AA pubs are doing themselves a disservice by not taking the initiative to be fully present in this innovative space...It's NOT Apple's fault they are late to the party (or rather still unaware there is a party.) Besides, reading a mag in this space is green. AA pubs need to wake up (or not) and stop ignoring the % of their readers (or former readers) who ARE engaged in new innovation. Oh, one more thing, if they come, they need to step up their game b/c it's going to take more than being 'present' to keep their audience...
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