Ah, 1996 – the Spice Girls were riding high in the charts, Oasis sold out Knebworth (twice), England hosted Euro 96 (but fell in the semi-final), and GamesMaster entertained millions on Channel 4 in the UK. Oh, and a small tech magazine by the name of T3 (Tomorrow’s Technology Today) hit the newsstands.
It was a glorious year all round, with the economy thriving and consumer technology on the cusp of a worldwide takeover. Smart(er) phones started to appear, gaming hit an all new level, and home entertainment changed forever.
So as part of our 30th anniversary celebrations here at T3, we take a look back at the gadgets, games and gizmos released in 1996 that effectively changed tech as we know it.
How many of these do you still own?
(Image credit: Toshiba)
Toshiba SD-3000
- Released: November 1996
- Price at launch: ¥77,000 (approx. £450 / $707)
As we predicted in the very first issue of T3, DVD proved to be a massive tech innovation that changed the home entertainment industry forever. And the Toshiba SD-3000, which launched first in Japan, led the way.
It could play music CDs as well as the new DVD-V discs, and it supported 5.1 surround sound – something previously reserved for Cinemas and Laser Disc. Perhaps its biggest feat was that a single DVD could fit an entire movie, as well as bonus content. Previous disc formats, such as CD-V had to split films across at least two.
(Image credit: Future)
Nintendo 64
- Released: June 1996
- Price at launch: £249.99 / $199.99
But that didn’t stop it becoming one of the most loved and revered consoles ever released. Super Mario 64 is largely the reason it first took off, but the following years also saw the releases of some of the best games of all time – including Golden Eye 007 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Palm Pilot 1000
- Released: March 1996
- Price at launch: $299 (around £200)
Electronic organisers had appeared long before Palm came onto the scene, but its Pilot range of devices pretty much became the PDAs of choice.
The Palm Pilot 1000 and 5000 models first arrived in the spring of 1996 and prompted various other manufacturers to follow suit. They failed to capture the spirit of Palm though – then owned by USRobotics.
You could keep your contacts, diary and jot down notes on its mono touch display, even play rudimentary games, with just 128kb of RAM running the show (on the 1000). A 512kb ROM chip was available for storage – a single text message can be larger than that these days.
(Image credit: Gldburger / Getty Images)
Tamagotchi
- Released: November 1996
- Price at launch: £15 (approx) / $17.99
The Tamagotchi was another device that arrived at the same time as T3. However, it can be argued that it didn’t have as much lasting power.
The electronic pet became an enormous trend after it first hit stores and many cheaper clones arrived soon after – much to manufacturer Bandai’s disdain. Everyone had one (or a rip-off version) and everyone soon grew tired of feeding a bunch of pixels each day – even more so cleaning up its poop.
But to be fair, it was a forerunner to the likes of 2005’s Nintendogs for the DS and the numerous AI pets of today.
(Image credit: Marc Gantier / Getty Images)
Nokia 9000 Communicator
- Released: August 1996
- Price at launch: £1,000 / $800
Anyone would think that foldable / flip phones didn’t exist before Apple launched the iPhone Duo, but apart from Samsung having made foldables since 2019 the clamshell form factor has been around for decades.
Motorola introduced the StarTAC flip phone in 1996 while Nokia went one better with a phone / PDA hybrid with a widescreen display and full QWERTY keyboard.
The Nokia 9000 Communicator was a brick of a mobile phone, but it was really designed to be used when flipped open. There were just two problems – it ran on the 2G network so didn’t really do much online, and its battery life lasted about three hours.
(Image credit: Sony)
Sony KV-28SF5 (Super Flat Trinitron) TV
- Released: December 1996
- Price at launch: ¥220,000 (around £1,300 / $2,020)
While we’re more than familiar with flatscreen TVs today, until the Sony KV-28F5 arrived in 1996 we made do with convex screens on our CRT televisions.
The new Sony set was truly groundbreaking at the time. Not only did it introduce a completely flat display, it was widescreen – something we hadn’t seen much of before. And although it only measured 28-inches diagonally, that was also seen as a large screen at the time.
Take it from me, it was also extremely heavy – I had to help carry a later model up three flights of stairs at one point and it took three of us. You could tuck a 28-inch LCD set under your arm these days.
(Image credit: JVC)
JVC GR-DV1
- Released: May 1996
- Price at launch: £1,600 / $2,995
Claimed to be the “world’s smallest digital camcorder” on its release, the JVC GR-DV1 was also one of the first to use Mini DV tapes – a format that offered vastly superior recording quality to VHS.
It came with a 10x optical zoom lens, with digital zoom capabilities allowing up to a staggering 100x, and there was a flip-out LCD screen built into the side for pocketability.
It wasn’t cheap at the time, with its £1,600 launch price being around £3,800 today with inflation, but no wedding seemed to pass by in the late 90s without someone holding one.
(Image credit: James Keyser / Getty Images)
Tickle Me Elmo
- Released: July 1996
- Price at launch: £28.99 / $28.99
Tickle Me Elmo was by far and away the most popular toy of Christmas 1996. Based on the hugely popular Sesame Street Muppet, the toy had interactive elements that kids couldn’t get enough of.
If you squeezed him, he giggled, but when you squeezed him three times, he shook and vibrated. Modern versions have since added more functionality, but this was innovative stuff back then.
Sadly, many kids who asked Santa for one ended up missing out that year – it sold out in the US after Thanksgiving and although restocked they also went in minutes. Parents queued for hours outside stores in the US, Canada and UK, many left empty handed.
(Image credit: Bang & Olufsen)
Bang & Olufsen 9000
- Released: 1996
- Price at launch: £4,600 / $4,000 (approx.)
Still as beautiful today as it was back then, the iconic 9000 system from Bang & Olufsen was the epitome of hi-fi design.
It featured a self-changing CD player that you could pre-load with discs and switch between automatically, while the matching speakers were as much a design statement as they were audio marvels.
The only issue was the price – the £4,600 price point for the CD player and speakers would be around £11,200 today.
(Image credit: Canon)
Canon PowerShot 600
- Released: July 1996
- Price at launch: £900 / $1,000
Where would digital photography be today if it wasn’t for the likes of the Canon Powershot 600? As the first camera in the Powershot range, it set the stall for quality compact cameras.
Looking back, it’s £900 price point seems mad considering it sported a 0.57-megapixel sensor – you get more on a kids’ toy these days. But the quality was pretty astonishing for the time.
Of course, there were no SD cards back then either, so its 1MB internal memory had to make do until you managed to connect a hard drive or PC.
