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2010
The Assistant, installed on the Google Home smart speaker, Google phones, and other devices, converses with people primarily by voice. At your command, it can compose messages, make calendar reminders, or scan the internet for answers to questions--sometimes with a dose of humor--and can instantly translate spoken words into 27 different languages. When it comes to accurately understanding what you want, it's leaving Siri and Alexa in its dust. -
2011
Crispr: The technology is still in its early days, but there's no denying the world-changing potential of the gene-editing system known as Crispr. Essentially a process for slicing out undesired strands of DNA--i.e., disease--and replacing them with new ones, the tech is being used by scientists and startups to try to cure diseases from sickle cell anemia to cancer. -
2012
SpaceX's Reusable Rocket
SpaceX spent much of the decade developing its reusable rocket system. In December 2015, when its Falcon 9 rocket launched, delivered a payload into orbit, and then landed at Cape Canaveral, it ushered in a new era of space travel. -
2013
Venmo: Send money to people instantly by tapping a few buttons on your smartphone. Launched by college roommates Andrew K, Venmo created a new way for people to split their dining bills or pay their rent and left a generation wondering how their predecessors ever settled IOUs. The company, which was purchased by PayPal in 2015, boasts 40 million annual users--a digital customer base larger than that of most major banks--and expects its 2019 payment volume to exceed $100 billion. -
2014
Nest Thermostat: Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod, and former Apple engineer Matt Rogers? The pair founded smart thermostat company Nest in 2010, a surprising pivot after designing one of the most popular gadgets in history. Nest's thermostat lets you preprogram a temperature schedule. It learns your habits over time and, based on motion sensing and devices that are connected to your Wi-Fi, can tell whether someone is home and adjust accordingly. -
2015
iPad :the iPad has sold 400 million units to date and spawned competitors from the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung, and Google. Today, tablets have become essential devices for business. Just look at how they've made the foodservice industry more efficient by replacing cash registers and helping track inventory. More than one million iPad-native apps now live in the App Store, touching every industry from real estate and medicine to education. -
2016
The Self-Driving Car
Google and Apple secretly started testing fully autonomous cars in the first half of this decade. Most of the major car manufacturers, plus ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft, have since followed suit, and today, passengers can hail driverless cabs being beta tested in cities like Phoenix and Pittsburgh. -
2017
Consumer LED Light Bulb
LED bulbs are much more energy-efficient than the incandescent ones that have been used for decades, which waste 90 percent of their energy consumption on generating heat. But until 2010, LED bulbs were bulky, costly, and unfeasible for anything besides large industrial spaces. -
2018
Ring Doorbell
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff was unanimously rejected when he pitched his smart doorbell on Shark Tank in 2013. Five years later, Amazon bought his company for a cool $1 billion. The Wi-Fi-enabled doorbell starts recording video automatically when its built-in motion sensors are activated, and a two-way intercom lets homeowners speak with the person at their door via an app. -
2019
Tesla Powerwall: Tesla's Powerwall, launched in 2015, offers that ability with a high level of sophistication, letting you program your usage to collect energy during off-peak hours, then consume it at peak times. As states begin to implement energy pricing that varies based on time of use--California, Arizona, and Massachusetts already have--that means it will save you even more money while also putting less stress on local power plants.