The Automatic Digital Network System began development in the late 1950s as a joint project between IBM, Western Union, and RCA for the US Air Force to centralize communications for its vast number of logistics centers. Built on a network of “switching centers” in strategic locations in the US and…
The Z-80 Softcard was developed my Microsoft in 1980 to turn an Apple computer into a CP/M system. It’s first hardware product, it was based on the Zilog Z-80 and bundled with BASIC. It allowed Apple II computers to run the CP/M operating system and all of the software programs…
SENDMSG was one of the earliest e-mail programs ever developed for a multi-user system running the TENEX operating system. Along with READMAIL, it was the first networked mail system. Ray Tomlinson updated the program in 1971 to allow users of the ARPANET to send messages to one another. It is…
The IBM Simon was the first portable phone that combined modern telephone features with PDA capabilities. It could make cellular calls as well as send/receive faxes, email, and pages. The prototype was unveiled at the 1992 Comdex show and generated a lot of buzz, landing a picture on the front…
Introduced in 1959, the Xerox 914 was the first commercially available paper copier. This completely changed the document copying industry and was shown on national television in a live demo. So named because it could print originals up to 9×14, the 914 was so successful, the company that created it…
Electrophotography, or xerography, was Invented by Chester Carlson in 1938 using an originally cumbersome dry photocopying process. Awarded a patent in 1942, it was later renamed to xerography by the Haloid Photographic Company (later Xerox Corporation) who had agreed to jointly develop a commercial product with Carlson. The new name…
Printed circuit boards were originally invented in 1936 by Austrian engineer Paul Eisler while working on a radio set. The PCB as it later became known, would revolutionize electronic circuit design and assembly a few decades later. By World War II they were secret technology being used in proximity fuses…
Originally conceived in Japan in 1986, the first PlayStation was the result of Nintendo trying to work with disc technology. With the invention of CD-ROMS in 1985 by Sony and Philips, Nintendo approached Sony to develop a cd-rom addon to the SNES. For the next few years the two companies…
Announced and introduced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs in Jan. 2007 after rampant rumors and speculation, the Apple iPhone went on sale June 29th, 2007 to much fanfare. It featured an innovative touch screen interface that launched the multi-touch revolution in mobile phones and spawned a slew of similar devices…
CNN article; February 9th, 1998 Military researchers have developed a new bomb that is guided by satellites instead of lasers so pilots can hit their targets even during cloudy weather. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, pilots couldn’t always hit their targets with laser-guided bombs in cloudy weather because clouds…