I love tech history. I enjoy how we evolved from computers that fill a room to computers we wear on our bodies. I have put a full archive of tech history together at Wikazine. You can also talk history at Google +. I am also a podcaster and V-caster at Geekazine and a Podcast Coach at How to Record Podcasts. You can also sign up for a Helpout
1968, 45 years ago, the first Legoland Park opened in Denmark – called Legoland Billund. This park was right across the street from the Lego factory. It featured expansive cityscapes modeled in Lego bricks. 625,000 will visit the park within the first year.
2005 – Steve Jobs spoke in front of the masses at the WWDC announcing that Apple will switch their processors from PowerPC to Intel. He then showed off the Mac OS X running on aPentium 4 CPU. The reasoning was that PowerPC chips took too much power to run and also ran hotter than an Intel chip.
2011 – It was also a sad day, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave what was to become his last keynote at WWDC. He introduced us to iCloud – a new service so you do not need a computer to connect your iPad or iPhone. iOS got an upgrade to version 5, and Jobs announced Mac OSX Lion. Also announced was iTunes Match, a way to keep your music in the cloud.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 6
1938 – Pedro, the Voder is the name for the first computer that could produce speech. Bell Telephone brought out Pedro to the Franklin institute to show the new option off. Of course, years later, we can replicate a persons sound, which was shown off when Roger Ebert was on Oprah taking for the first time since his surgery.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 5
1896 – Henry Ford gets ready to test drive the first Quadricycle (a.k.a. Car). Only one problem – They didn’t make the garage door big enough. Out comes the Ax – A couple chops and a wider door was created. The car ran 2 speed, but could not go in reverse.
2003 – Palm board of directors announce they have unanimously approved an agreement for Pam to purchase Handspring – one of its rivals in the PDA market. The deal is all stock realted where Handspring stockholders would get .09 cents of a share of Palm and no shares of PalmSource (Palm shares were at $13.89 and Handspring were at $1.27). The deal would be worth $169 million.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 4
1984 – Commodore adds to their line of computers. The Plus/4 – originally called the 264 – was released for $300. The Commodore 16 or TED-16 looked like a Commodore 64 with 16KB of RAM. It was called the “Learning Machine” and sold for $100
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 3
1997 – If anyone remembers the Windows 95 days, you may have had Pointcast playing as the screensaver. It was a push notification site that would send you content. Pretty innovative for it’s time, yet, time ended up getting the best of it. Creator and CEO Chris Hassett stepped down and Pointcast was re-organized.Ultimately, AOL purchased the company and incorporated it into their systems.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 1
2009 – Back in 1996, Psion trademarked the term “Netbook” to reflect a line of sub-notebook computers. Equipped with a StrongARM processor, the netbook debuted in 1999. However, Psion decided to shelve the device after the 2003 version (Netbook Pro) didn’t meet expectation. Therefore, when Intel decided to dub the term “Netbook”, Psion brought forward the trademark. However, after weighing in on options, Psion decided to drop the case and let Intel use the netbook name.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 1 [dithgtcarbon]
Steve Jobs becomes the major apple shareholder with 1.5 million
MN city makes Google remove Street view pictures
The first batch of Scotch Whiskey is made by Friar John Cor
1943– The building of the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) begins at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering. The Army financed the project during World War II, which cost almost $500,000. John Mauchly was the chief consultant and John Presper Eckert was the chief engineer.ENIAC was code named “Project PX”. The consent to build was signed on June 5. ENIAC was completed on February 14, 1946. This was a modular computer, designed in “panels”. You could build to suit. Of course, this machine was so big, it took up whole rooms. It ran hot, too – using Octal based radio tubes. ENIAC could be programmed to perform complex sequences of operations, including loops, branches, and subroutines.
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for May 31