Gadget
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{{Articleissues|expand=June 2008|refimprove=June 2008}}
{{other uses|Gadget (disambiguation)}}
:''This is an article about gadgets. For Wikipedia Gadgets go to [[Wikipedia:Gadget]].''
[[Image:IPhone at Macworld (angled view).jpg|thumb|right|200px|The [[iPhone]] is a gadget that was released [[June 29]] [[2007]].]]
A '''gadget''' is a small<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gadget gadget - Definitions from Dictionary.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> technological object (such as a [[tool|device]] or an [[appliance]]) that has a particular function, but is often thought of as a [[novelty]]. Gadgets are invariably considered to be more unusually or cleverly designed than normal technology at the time of their invention. Gadgets are sometimes also referred to as [[gizmo]]s.
==History==
The origins of the word "gadget" trace back to the 1800s. According to the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], there is anecdotal evidence for the use of "gadget" as a [[placeholder name]] for a technical item whose precise name one can't remember since the 1850s; with Robert Brown's 1886 book ''Spunyarn and Spindrift, A sailor boy’s log of a voyage out and home in a China tea-clipper'' containing the earliest known usage in print.<ref name="quinion">[[Michael Quinion]]: ''[http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gad1.htm World Wide Words: Gadget]'' (accessed February 6, 2008) Also in<!--according to http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-30-n75.html-->: Michael Quinion: ''Port Out, Starboard Home: The Fascinating Stories We Tell About the Words We Use''. ISBN 978-0141012230</ref>
The etymology of the word is disputed. A widely circulated story holds that the word gadget was "invented" when Gaget, Gauthier & Cie, the company behind the casting of the [[Statue of Liberty]] (1886), made a small-scale version of the monument and named it after their firm; however this contradicts the evidence that the word was already used before in nautical circles, and the fact that it did not become popular until after World War I.<ref name="quinion"/> Other sources cite a derivation from the French ''gâchette'' which has been applied to various pieces of a firing mechanism, or the French ''gagée'', a small tool or accessory.<ref name="quinion"/> The spring-clip used to hold the base of a vessel during glass-making is also known as a gadget.{{Fact|date=February 2008}} The first [[atomic bomb]] was nicknamed ''[[the gadget]]'' by the scientists of the [[Manhattan Project]], tested at the [[Trinity site]].
==Mechanical gadgets==
[[Clock]]s, [[bicycle]]s, and [[thermometer]]s are amongst the very large number of gadgets that are mechanical and also very popular. The invention of mechanical gadgets though is based more on innovation of the inventor rather than education. {{Fact|date=October 2007}}
==Electronic gadgets==
[[Electronics|Electronic]] gadgets are based on [[transistors]] and [[integrated circuits]]. Unlike the mechanical gadgets one needs a source of [[electric power]] to use it. The most common electronic gadgets include [[transistor radio]], [[television]], [[cell phones]] and the [[quartz watch]].
==Programmable gadgets==
Most of the modern gadgets belong to this category. These gadgets are invariably based on a [[microprocessor]] and often have [[flash memory]]. {{Fact|date=October 2007}}
They use embedded [[software]] which controls their functions. Such gadgets are found not only in the pockets of gadget freaks, but also in their cars and homes. Some examples of gadgets in this category are [[notebook computer]], [[mobile phone]] etc.
==Application gadgets==
Computer programs that provide services without needing an independent application to be launched for each one, but instead run in an environment that manages multiple gadgets. There are several implementations based on existing software development techniques, like [[JavaScript]], form input, and various image formats.
: ''See: [[Google Desktop|Google Gadgets]], [[Microsoft Gadgets]], [[Dashboard (software)|Apple Widgets]]''
The earliest{{Fact|date=May 2008}} documented use of the term ''gadget'' in context of [[software engineering]] was in [[1985]] by the developers of [[AmigaOS]], the [[operating system]] of the [[Amiga]] computers (''[[Intuition (Amiga)|intuition.library]]'' and also later '''''gad'''tools.library''). It denotes what other technological traditions call ''[[widget]]''—a control element in [[graphical user interface]]. This [[naming convention]] remains in continuing use (as of [[2008]]) since then.
It is not known whether other software companies are explicitly drawing on that inspiration when featuring the word in names of their technologies or simply referring to the generic meaning. The word ''widget'' is older in this context.
: ''See: [[Workbench (AmigaOS)]]''
==See also==
* [[Appliances]]
* [[Electronics]]
* [[Domestic technology]]
==References==
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[[Category:Technology]]
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[[nl:Hebbeding]]
[[ja:ガジェット (電子機器)]]
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[[ru:Гаджет]]
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