On this day in 2009, the Day in Tech History started. I was running the show as “Week in Tech History”, then went to a daily format to increase listeners. The show has been running for over 1000 episodes, never missing a day. It is now entering into it’s 9th year.
It’s a great day for Apple in 2004 as they hit th one millionth song. They started back in 2001, so to hit 1 million songs in 3 1/2 years was a big milestone. Of course, since then and since the introduction of the iPhone, that number has increased exponentially.
Apple has always controlled it’s products – The Application store is no different. This might be a great case why. An application was put into the store – Called the $1000 app. It did cost $1000, which means after Apple’s 30%, the developer received $700 per purchase. The application simply showed a ruby.Apple took the app down quick, but not after the application was purchased 8 times.
Apple released a series of new items in 2000, including a new “button less” mouse, iMovie2 and the iMac DV series with the PowerPC G3 processor. But they also introduced the PowerMac G4 Cube – a 450 or 500 MHz computer with Velocity Engine – A Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) which operates concurrently with existing integer and floating-point. Add with it 2 Firewire ports, 10/100BaseT Ethernet, Modem and 20 GB hard drive and you had a serious system at the time. The cube could not take cards because of it’s case sizes and the DVD drive was located on the top of the device. It was designed with a case that made it possible to eliminate the fan.
2007 – Oracle releases what they called the $10 billion / year Database software in Oracle 11g. It was the first update since 2004. Oracle’s what as refered to as an object-relational database management system (ORDBMS). It is produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation.
2011 – HP announced the TouchPad, their entry into the tablet market. Using the WebOS software they purchased from Palm back in 2010, the TouchPad introduced some new features, including the ability to sync with the upcoming Pre3 phone by touching the two together. However, the tablet was squashed in September by then CEO Leo Apetheker.
Since then, HP abandoned WebOS, making it open source. They have put out another tablet in early 2013 using the Android software.
2000 – Remember the days of the Instant Messenger? Yahoo IM or Microsoft Messenger, ICQ, AIM and many more. In 2000, a company called Trillian tried to capitalize on the market by making a IM client that could connect to all of these instant messengers. Only problem is that Yahoo! and Microsoft didn’t want to allow this to happen. They tried to block the software. However, new patches were installed and Trillian was able to access the messengers again.
Trillian (www.trillian.im) is still in existance to this day. You can download for your Mac, PC, Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and more!
Funny thing, in 2004, Microsoft put out a multiple – IM software called IM2.
2000 – Dr. Alan chow and brother Vincent announced they successfully placed a silicon microchip beneath human retinas. The chip is smaller than the head on a pin and only microns thin. These chips also contain solar cells to help power the chip.
In what is called “Optobionics”, the ASR chip is inserted behind the retina in the “subretinal space”. This is a 2 hour procedure and the chip can last up to 8 years after (depending on care).
Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for June 30
2000 – IBM unveiled the ASCI White – their fastest computer yet. This supercomputer was based on IBM’s commercial RS/6000 SP computer. 512 computers were connected to make this supercomputer. over 8 million processors, 5 Terabytes of memory and 160 TB of disk storage.
The computer was completed on this day in New York, and would go on-line on August 15, 2001 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
1997 – Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Unwired Planet create a partnership to start and build on the Wireless Applications Protocol (WAP) as a non-profit organization. The industry group was formed to keep wireless devices on track, bring Internet connected devices to all who need it, create a wireless protocol that works on all network technologies, make scalable applications and content, and work with existing standards to expand as wireless needs grow.