steve wozniak

June 20, 2014: Smartphone Kill Switch

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0620, aggregator, airs, anthony michael hall, Bill Gates, book fire, day in tech history, Electronics, fire in the valley, IBM, ibm 1gb microdrive, imdb entry, joey slotnick, lotus, lotus 1 2 3, Microsoft, noah wylie, Nokia, Nortel, pirates of silicon valley, Podcast, sequel, silicon valley, Smartphones, steve jobs, steve wozniak, stitcher, Technology, technology history, Technology_Internet, television network, tnt television, wikimedia foundation 0 Comments June 20, 2024

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Microsoft

2014 – Microsoft and Google agree to the Kill switch technology. In a California bill SB-967, Smartphones built after July 1, 2015 will consist of a hardware or software option to “kill” the phone. Further, a $500 to $2,500 fine will be issued to anyone selling a stolen phone.

Once switched, the device will not be able to turn on, even during a hard reset.

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1926 – First wireless phone is demonstrated
1989 – Lotus 1-2-3 version 3.0 is released
2000 – IBM 1GB Microdrive
2003 – Wikimedia Foundation is founded
2009 – Nokia purchases Nortel

Apple/ Day in Tech History

January 22, 1998: Microsoft and US Department of Justice

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0122, 3rd quarter, ad space, AOL, apple, apple macintosh 1984, blade runner, computer manufacturers, day in tech history, graphical user interface, interface gui, internet explorer, jan 24, launch, mac, macintosh, mhz motorola, Microsoft, Microsoft antitrust trial, motorola 68000 microprocessor, netscape, opportunity of a lifetime, Podcast, ridley scott, steve jobs, steve jobs and steve wozniak, steve wozniak, Super Bowl advertising, Super Bowl XVIII, superbowl, superbowl commercial, technology history, US Department of Justice, washington redskins 0 Comments January 21, 2020

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Microsoft

1998 – Microsoft reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice regarding Internet Explorer on Windows 95. In the agreement, computer manufacturers could have the IE link removed. This was a small step in the antitrust suit against Microsoft and using bundled software and drive out competition.

The Microsoft antitrust trial would begin on May 18, 1998 and go until November 5, 1999.

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The Famous Apple Macintosh Superbowl commercial
Microsoft releases IE for Mac
AOL sues Microsoft on behalf of Netscape for IE
Cell Phone Tax rejected

Apple/ Day in Tech History

January 3, 1977: Apple Computer Corporation is Incorporated

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0103, 28 years, aggregator, apple, Apple Computer Corporation, Apple II family, apple introduces ilife, atlantic flight, bitcoin, Business_Finance, charles lindbergh, computer, computer machine, day, day in tech history, dubious honor, existence, Geek, Google, iTunes, man of the year, matsushita, mca, mental floss, person of the year, Personal computer, Podcast, Ronald Wayne, RSS, satoshi nakamoto, steve jobs, steve wozniak, stitcher, technology history, time magazine, trans atlantic, twitter, venture capital, Yahoo, yahoo stock, year 1983 0 Comments January 2, 2020

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1977 – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak officially incorporate the Apple Computer Corporation. Mike Makkula jr. invests $250,000 in venture capital and becomes the first chairman of Apple.

They also decided to move operations of the company outside of Steve Jobs parent’s garage and rent a building in Coupertino. This was so they could improve production of the Apple II, which debuted on April 16,1977.

Of course, the third founder – Ronald Wayne – was not present as he sold his stake in the company earlier in 1976.

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Matsushita acquires MCA
Yahoo! stock hits $475.00
Computer was Time Man of the Year

Atari/ Day in Tech History

December 13, 1982: Atari 1200XL

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 1213, aggregator, Atari, atari 1200xl, bit system, byte, carparts, charles dickens, christmas, christmas carol, color enhancement, conversion, cyrix, day, day in tech history, decent success, Facebook, Geek, hacker, hackers, hybrid computer, john koskinen, keyboard layout, lawsuits, legions, Matthew Dent, moratorium, ninja, patents, Personal computer, Podcast, pointer data, ports, puppet, Royal Mint, RSS, s council, steve wozniak, sweet 16, tactile keyboard, technology history, twitter, uv light, year 2000 0 Comments December 12, 2019

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1982 – After a decent success of the Atari 400/800 line the company noticed the console was looking a little “old”. After all, the Atari 400 actually discolors upon UV light. The 400’s non-tactile keyboard was replaced with the 800’s raised key keyboard. Still, Atari felt they needed to bring this personal computer into the 80’s.Therefore, the 1200XL was born. It was a hybrid computer – using what they called “Sweet 16” – a byte language developed by Steve Wozniak. It was to manipulate 16-bit pointer data from an 8-bit system.

The Atari 1200XL also featured 64 KB of RAM and a redesigned cable port and keyboard layout. Unfortunately the community felt the 1200XL was poorly designed for certain ports were in the wrong place. There was also a color enhancement feature that couldn’t be used because it wasn’t connected to the monitor port.

The Atari 1200XL was $599.99

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Charles Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol
Cyrix files lawsuits over others who were using their patented technologies
Symantec licenses Java from Sun Microsystems.

Apple/ Day in Tech History

April 12, 1976: Apple’s 3rd Co-Founder Ronald Wayne

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0412, apple, apple computer, apple logo, apple stock, april 1, assets, billions, cisco, co founder, commercial spam, debts, emoticons, Google, gotomeeting, iTunes, partnership agreement, patent infringment, position, reason, Ronald Wayne, RSS, SEGA, Steve Job, steve jobs, steve jobs and steve wozniak, steve wozniak, SteveWozniak, twitter 0 Comments April 11, 2019

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April 12, 1976: Ronald Wayne gives up his 10% of Apple Stock

1976– What a position Ronald Wayne was in. He was the 3rd co-founder of Apple Computer on April 1 with 10% share. However, after two weeks Wayne sells his share for $800 back to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The reason why was because if the company was to go under, he would be liable for any debts incurred. While a solid reason why (Wayne had assets that couldn’t be risked in that nature), it turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes as Apple is grossed in the billions. Wayne designed the original Apple logo and wrote the partnership agreement.

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emoticons are first suggested 😉
Sega is guilty of intentional patent infringment
First commercial SPAM is reported.
Cisco discontinues the popular Flip brand camera

Day in Tech History/ Google

April Fools Day History

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0401, aggregator, apple, april 1, beta, cyrix, Geek, gmail, Google, invitation, iTunes, RSS, Steve Job, steve jobs, steve jobs and steve wozniak, steve wozniak, SteveWozniak, twitter, webmail service 0 Comments March 31, 2019

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Watch out today, as the internet becomes a bevy of fake information. The joke telling pre-dates the internet, but since the world started connecting online, the hoaxes have gotten not only more elaborate, but more fun.

Did you know that John C. Dvorak wrote an article in 1994 about a bill that would make it illegal to use the Internet while intoxicated?

Did you know in 2006, Apple pranked an add-on to your iPod that could allow it to make phone calls?

ThinkGeek made a few pranks that ended up turning into actual products, such as Unicorn Meat and the iCade?

What one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater are we going to see this year? Guess we’ll start to find out in the next 24 hours…

2004 – Google releases their Webmail service in “Gmail” . They release it as an invitation only beta. That would stay in effect until February 7, 2007.

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Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak incorporate Apple Computer Company
Windows Mobile 6.1 released
Cyrix vs. Intel Lawsuit settled.

Computer/ Day in Tech History

March 5, 1981: Timex Sinclair ZX81 launched

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0305, aggregator, altair, apple, apple computer, Atari, barak obama, building computers, cheap computer, cto, first apple, fred moore, Geek, homebrew computer club, iTunes, kundra, menlo, menlo park, menlo park ca, Menlo Park California, popular computer, Sinclair Research, Sinclair ZX80, Sinclair ZX81, Steve Job, steve jobs, steve wozniak, SteveWozniak, Timex Corporation, Vivek Kundra, WMS Industries 0 Comments March 4, 2019

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1981 – The successor to the Sinclair ZX80, Britain’s most popular home computer – the Sinclair ZX81 was launched by Sinclair Research – a Timex Corporation. It was a popular computer mostly because of the price – £69.95 ($99) or £49.95 in kit form.

The cheap computer had only a fraction of components that an Apple II did. Yet the Apple II was around £699. The Sinclair ZX81 only had 1 kB RAM with option to upgrade to 16 kB. The graphics were only in monochrome and the Z80 CPU ran at 3.25 MHz – 8-bit. This was actually faster than the Apple II processor (1.08 MHz) and only outbested by the IBM PC (4.77 MHz at 16-bit). The TI99/4A procesor was a 3Mhz 16-bit chip.

You could get a tape drive and printer, bringing the system up to about £160 ($250). The computer was succeeded by the ZX Spectrum.

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WMS Industries acquires Atari
President Barak Obama appoints Vivek Kundra as CTO

Day in Tech History/ Geek

March 1, 1990: The Raid of Steve Jackson Games

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0301, aggregator, apple, apple 1, apple confidential, Apple II, computer club, computer motherboard, definitive history, Electronic Frontier Foundation, first computer, hewlett packard, history of the world, homebrew club, IPO, iTunes, lisp programmers, Loyd Blankenship, march 1, msnbc, newsvine, Palm Inc., RSS, segway, selling computers, Steve Jackson Games, Steve Job, steve jobs, steve wozniak, technology history, Wheels of Zeus, woz 0 Comments March 1, 2019

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1990 – The secret service and Austin TX police raided Steve Jackson Games, along with the home of Loyd Blankenship, writer of GURPS Cyberpunk. Four computers, two laser printers and all of the companies’ hardware was seized. This was a part of a nationwide data piracy investigation.

It was a very sketchy reason for why the roleplaying and gaming company got raided this hard. This also brought on a six month battle to get back their hardware, which they finally were able to retrieve all but one hard drive. Finally, on October 21, 1990, Steve Jackson Games got to look at the warrant and reason why they were raided.

It turned out Blankenship was doing research for his book. He visited and talked alot about questionable topics at his home and at his work – Steve Jackson Games.

This incident sparked the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation – a nonprofit dedicated to the constitutional rights of computer users.

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LISP Programmers Manual is released
Palm Inc gets it’s first IPO
MSNBC.com launches Newsvine

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