5 Inventions That Changed the World Since the Saints Won the Super Bowl

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"Pigs flew, and hell froze over" in 2010.  That was the awesome quote from legendary Saints play by play radio announcer Jim Henderson after the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl.   The Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in a game that featured the now famous on-side kick to start the second half. That was 12 years ago. A baby born then is in the 7th grade now... 2010... we were freaking out about the swine flu... (which was nothing compared to 2020 freak out)  2010... Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first female director to win an Oscar for her film The Hurt Locker. But since 2010 there have been several inventions that literally changed the world.

Apple iPad

Did you realize that when the Saints won the Super Bowl, no one was watching the game on their iPad? It wasn't even out yet... The Saints' Super Bowl was played February 7th, 2010.  The first iPad was released just a matter of weeks later on April 30th, 2010. And streaming live events on a mobile device wasn't an everyday part of life like it is today.  Speaking of streaming...

Netflix

Now you might say, but Netflix has been around since 1997.  But when Netflix first started, it was a DVD based sales and rental service. What made Netflix unique at the time was that you could keep a DVD as long as you liked, then turn it back in for another rental.  It wasn't until 2010 they changed their business model to online streaming. They had limited titles available at first, but grew into thousands of titles, and also eventually creating their own content.  They might even be credited with inventing "binge-watching" by releasing full seasons of TV shows.

Biometrics Identification

I first remember seeing fingerprint scanning in fast-food and retail outlets being used to allow employees to log on to the register system.  But it wasn't until phones started using fingerprint scanning that it began to be introduced to the masses.  You might think Apple was the first, but they weren't.  Actually, Toshiba introduced the G500 as the first smartphone with a fingerprint sensor.  And now, biometric identification has continued to evolve with facial recognition being used on smartphones.

Uber

This might not seem like it belongs on this list... until you think about it. It might seem like just a variation on a taxi, and it is, but there are distinct differences that weren't available before.... like GPS.  If you called a taxi service, you'd have to explain where you were, and where you wanted to go. Then after the ride, you had to pay the driver with cash.  With Uber, (and the others that are now available), you order the car with the app on your smartphone, and GPS basically does the rest. The driver knows where you are, you know where he/she is, and they know where you want to go.  And the financial transaction is all taken care of in the app.

Smart Speakers

Enjoying quality sounding music used to require a lot of expensive equipment. Some of us can remember going to the local stereo shop and researching receivers, amplifiers, tuners, and of course, speakers.  It was a great source of pride for audiophiles to have racks of equipment. But you were limited to enjoying that sound where the equipment was.  Today, you can take full, rich sound to the beach, sitting on the front porch, or in the backyard with smartspeakers. Manufacturers like Bose, JBL, Samsung, and Apple have advanced audio quality to a surpising level with deep basses, mid-ranges, and high end trebles in an incredibly small and portable package. And by connecting to your phone or iPad with bluetooth, you can take symphonic sound with you where ever you go.