February 27, 1998: Apple Newton is discontinued[/caption]
1998 – After Steve Jobs takes the role of Acting CEO (After the firing of Gil Amelio) he decides to trim some of the product fat. In result, the Apple Newton – it’s attempt at a PDA – was officially discontinued after 5 years. But not all was lost off this, for the mobile applications got shifted into their other Mac OS technologies. Cyberdog and OpenDOC were two other Apple programs that were discontinued after Jobs took the helm again.
Today marks a very special day for “Day in Tech History” – the 2,000th episode. I started this show as “This Week in Tech History” back in 2008. On August 10, 2009 I decided to make this a daily podcast – one of only 2 podcasts out there that created content 7 days a week.
Since then, new episodes have come out every day for you to consume. We have definitely had good and bad times – from hackers to missed scheduled items. But in the end, the machine continued to work forward, getting you the daily technology history rundown.
2006– Founded in 1851, Western Union was responsible for getting the important messages from point A to B. Whether through telegram or commercial messaging, Western Union was synonymous with the service. But on January 27, 2006, that all ended. As Western Union wrote:
“Effective 2006-01-27, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative.”
2006 – Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was a game that changed perception of the industry. The grit and cruelty of the GTA franchise has not only brought controversy, its also brought the fans.
One bit of controversy was the “Hot Coffee” minigame within GTA. Hot Coffee was a euphemism for sex. In the minigame, the main character and the girlfriend initiated in coitus, which got a lot of parents upset.
The Hot Coffee minigame was disabled by Take-Two, but people found ways around the block. This minigame prompted a re-rating to Adult, ultimately getting pulled from many game shelves.
1881 – Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison establish the Oriental Telephone Company of New York and the Angle-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. These companies were licensed to sell telephones in other countries such as Greese, Turkey, India, Japan, China and more.
Countries recieving phones would have 3-digit numbers, which changed to 4, 5, then finally 7. It is unclear when the Oriental Bell Telephone company dissolved, but some of the phone lines they installed are still functional to this day, as according to this article by Indiatimes.com
1915 – 34 years after the company established, the first transcontinental call would be made.
1948 – At IBM world headquarters, IBM dedicated the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC). The machine – otherwise known as Poppa – was the first computer to combine electronic computation with stored instruction. The 13,500 vacuum tube computer contained 21,000 relays.
The 1,800 square foot computer room had a large glass window so the public could see the building of Poppa. IBM created a raised floor for this computer so cables could run underneath and would not be tripped on. This was all in promotion to compete with the ENIAC computer.
The first calculations were of the positions of the Moon and planets. This would eventually be used by NASA to plot the course of the 1969 Apollo flight.
1896 – Although he was not the only person to be working on the technology and not the first X-ray, Wilhelm Roentgen gave the first public lecture and demonstration of his device. He photographed Dr. Albert von Kolliker’s hand at the Wurzburg Physical Medical Society.
The first X-ray he ever took was of his wife’s hand (with wedding ring on). The practice is also known as Röntgen rays.
1981 – While getting this up to 88 miles per hour doesn’t take you back in time, it was still a cool car to have. The First production Delorean DMC-12 was built. A prototype was made back in 1976 and all Deloreans were made in Ireland.
9,000 Deloreans were made before financial issues got to the company in 1983. A revival was attempted and announcements of an all-electric Delorean (with prototype), but as of this point has not come out of Vaporware.
There is one gold-plated Delorean in Reno, NV. I also got to experience the original “Back to the Future” Delorean at CES 2014 (video below).