Top tech and no cell phone?

Poor little cell phones

(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)

It's always a good day at our house when the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly arrives in the mailbox. And when last week's summer double issue arrived, an already good day was made even better. I love top 10 lists, but Entertainment Weekly managed to maximize my pleasure with an entire issue dedicated to "Celebrating the new classics: The 1,000 best movies, TV shows, albums, books, and more of the past 25 years."

Though it started out as a good read the last article forced me to put down the magazine in disgust--I even made it past Die Hard earning ninth place in the top 100 best films from 1983 to 2008. In the list of "The 25 gadgets and innovations with the biggest effect on pop culture since 1983" I was aghast to find the cell phone nowhere on the list. How could a gadget that revolutionized Hollywood business deals, spawned a celebrity accessory culture and served as the main plot device in such cinematic achievements as Cellular get beaten out by the likes of the Amazon Kindle and stadium multiplex seating? To me, it's completely unfathomable. Of course, the iPod and TiVo landed in the top five (how could TiVo not make it?) but satellite radio hardly deserves its ninth-place ranking. Here's the tech that made the top ten.

1. The DVD player
2. Napster
3. TiVo
4. iPod
5. YouTube
6. Realistic CG characters
7. Digital video cameras for consumers
8. Flat panel TVs
9. Satellite radio stations
10. Stadium multiplex seating

The iPod's 2001 introduction also earned top honors in a readers' poll on the top pop culture moment of the last 25 years. It managed to knock out Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video, Kurt Cobain's suicide and Ellen DeGeneres' "Coming Out" episode. Both Cobain and Jackson made it to the semifinals before a "late surge by Apple fans edged them out." Never underestimate the power of fanboys.

So what do you think? Do you agree that the cell phone was robbed of its deserved place on the list? And tell me about any other tech that you think Entertainment Weekly overlooked.