April 28: Apple iTunes Music Store Launches

Apr 27, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Apple, Day in Tech History

Apple

2003-Apple launches the iTunes Store. iTunes has been around since 2001, but without option to get new music. Before the iTunes store, users would have to burn from CD or copy previously made MP3 files. The store sold 1 million songs within a week.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 27

Other Events in the Day in Technology History

• 3DO sells to Samsung for $20 Million
• Sanford Wallace – the SPAM king – was sued by MySpace
• Intel removes processor ID tracking technology

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April 27: Koko Gorilla Takes over AOL Chat

Apr 26, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: AOL, Day in Tech History

1998 - Using AOL chat, a sign language interpreter and an active audience, a female gorilla named Koko answered questions to the public. Koko resides at the Gorilla Foundation and with a vocabulary of 2,000 words, was able to respond to the chat room.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 27

• Xerox introduces the 8010 Star Information System.
• Captain Midnight hijacks an HBO satellite
• Giants Pitcher Brian Wilson‘s Twitter is shut down due to posts that could give advantage

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April 26: TRS-80 Model 4 Released

Apr 25, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

TRS80-4

1983- The Trash-80, as it was so admirably called in the day, a.k.a. the TRS-80 Model 4 is introduced. It contains a 4 MHz processor, 16 KB of RAM, a cassette interface, Keyboard and Monochrome monitor. $1000 for the base model, or $2000 if you upgraded the RAM to 64 KB and 5.25 disk drives. The first TRS-80 was released in 1977.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 26

• IBM 7030 – the Stretch Supercomputer
• Last release of the Nemesis
• AOL purchases Flea-Flicker

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April 25: Activision is Formed

Apr 24, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Gaming

Activision

1980 - Activision was technically founded in 1979, but it wasn’t until April 25 that the “Fantastic Four” joined up as the first third-party software company for video games. David Crane and Alan Miller left Atari August 1979 to start programming under the Activision name. Larry Kaplan and Bob Whitehead stayed behind until April 25th when Activision came out. Richard Muchmore was the venture capitalist and Jim Levy rounded the group as Activision’s CEO.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 25

• Sun Microsystems announces project JXTA
• XP x64 OS
• Yahoo begins the national TV ad campaign

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April 24: Apple Introduces Apple IIc

Apr 23, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Apple, Day in Tech History

Apple IIc

1984 - Apple introduces the Apple IIc, their answer to a portable machine. It weighed 7 1/2 lbs and featured a 1.023MHz CPU and 128 KB RAM. $1,295. The device device had a built-in floppy and peripheral expansion ports. This was a closed system – no expansion slots to plug in cards. It was deemed an appliance computer, which meant was ready to go when you pulled it out of the box.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 23

Other Events in the Day in Technology History

• IBM PC first announced (but wouldn’t be released until Aug 12th)
• Amiga 3000 announced
• Cnet / Yahoo deal

Related articles

• Introducing the Apple IIc G4: 2004′s technology crammed into a 1984 body (theverge.com)
• Resurrecting a Mac LC for server duties (hackaday.com)
• March 8: IBM Announced IBM PC XT (dayintechhistory.com)

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April 23: Standards Eastern Automatic Computer SEAC is Retired

Apr 22, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

SEAC

1964- The Standards Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC) is retired after fifteen years. SEAC was the first to use all-diode logic. SEAC was bason on EDVAC. It had 747 vacuum tubes, and the clock rate was under 1 mHz.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 23

• Internet Explorer 2.0 is released for Mac 7.0.1
• Carnegie Mellon warns users of the CIH virus
• Ubuntu 9.04 is released

Related articles

• TPN Live CES Coverage: Samsung, IonRoad, Carnegie Mellon(geekazine.com)

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• April 16: Debut of Commodore Pet, Apple II(dayintechhistory.com)

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• April 20: Oracle Buys Sun Microsystems(dayintechhistory.com)

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April 22: Mosaic Web Browser Released

Apr 21, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Internet

Mosaic Web Browser

1993 – The National Center for Supercomputing Applications releases version 1.0 of the Mosaic Web Browser. It was the first browser with a Graphical user interface for content. Marc Andreesen and Jim Clark were the lead developers. The browser would take the internet by storm and continue to lead until 1998 when IE and Netscape came on the scene.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 22

• Juno launches Juno free e-mail
• Connectix stops shipping the Virtual Game Station for Mac
• eBay sues Craigslist over “Diluting of Share”

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April 21: MITS vs Bill Gates, Microsoft on 8080 BASIC

Apr 20, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Microsoft

Microsoft

1977 - Two days prior, Microsoft send MITS a letter with the allegation that they were not up on royalty payments and if they didn’t catch up, MITS would be in breach and the 8080 BASIC would be pulled. MITS sends a letter stating that they are not correct. Ultimately, this would begin a debate that would end in November when Microsoft pulled the 8080 BASIC out.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 21

• The Tanday 5000MC
• Intel 3 GHz Pentium 4
• Firefox 3.0.9 is released

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April 20: Oracle Buys Sun Microsystems

Apr 19, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Software

oracle

2009 - Oracle announces they have purchased Sun Microsystems in a $7.4 billion dollar deal. This includes stock at $9.50 / share. That would also be the acquisition of SPARC processors, Solaris OS, Java and MySQL, among other items. The deal would be finalized on January 27th 2010.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 20

• Compaq and Sears-Roebuck offer Presario line of personal computers
• Bill Gates and Paul Allen write the letter to MITS on breach of contract
• IBM opens it’s first PC store in New York City

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April 19: Cassiopeia, iPAQ and Jornada with Microsoft Pocket PC

Apr 18, 2012 by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine    No Comments    Posted under: Day in Tech History, Geek

Jordana

2000- Before smartphones, Personal Digital Assistants were the device to have. You could store contacts, write memos, set up, read and send email and even play a nice game of Solitaire, or the game where you eliminated color marbles. I – in my IT career – not only had a Palm III, but also ran with an iPAQ 3650, Handspring Visor and Jornada.

Well, while this was not the first handheld, we would see a day where many vendors would release the new versions of their devices. It all hovered around Microsoft and their release – the Pocket PC specification: Windows CE 3.0 with mobile IE, Windows Music Player and Mobile Word. Compaq then releases the iPAQ, HP releases the Jornada 545 and Casio introduced the Cassiopeia E-115.

Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes for April 19

• Simpsons debut on Tracey Ullman show
• Assassin’s Guild BBS is seized
• Mandrakesoft releases MandrakeLinux v. 8.0

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