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Email
With the creation of File Transfer Protocol came Raymond Tomlinson's ARPANET's proprietary electronic mail system and the first use of the @ symbol for an address syntax and a precursor to the internet.
image of Raymond Tomlinson owned by Raytheon BBN Technologies -
Floppy Disk
IBM engineer's led by Alan Shugart invented the first commercially available memory disk aka as the floppy disk for it's flexibility, an 8" plastic square disk with a coating of magnetic iron oxide. This was the first instance of being able to save, read, and write memory from a computer to a disk.
image from Alan Shugart - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia -
Pong
Created by Allan Alcorn, Pong was the first commercially successful video game that allowed for the video game industry to thrive and expand on the idea of video games.
image of Allan Alcorn with the "home edition" of Pong from WIRED article "People of CGE: Al Alcorn, Creator of Pong | WIRED" -
Cromemco Cyclops
The first digital camera created by Terry Walker, Harry Garland, and Roger Melen allowed for 32x32 digital pixel images to be created using a modified MOS memory chip.
This invention revolutionized digital feeds to consumers and transitioned digital media as the main source of media consumption.
Roger Melen, Terry Walker, and Harry Garland (shown in 2017) co-authored the 1975 Cyclops article for Popular Electronics. -
Walkman
The first portable music player, created by Sony's engineer team, the Walkman TPS-L2 allowed for cassettes to be listened to on the go, instead of having to be in a car or at home.
image from the Walkman Archive of an original Sony Walkman TPS-L2