-
Period: to
Timesline
-
Apple purchases NeXT
Apple announces it will purchase NeXT for $429 million, 1.5 million shares of Apple stock and that it will acquire Steve Jobs, Apples co-founder, as a consultant. This would lead to Apple becoming the largest and most successful company in history. -
Facebook comes online
The domain facebook.com comes online. When 'The Facebook' first started, it was only available to the students of Harvard University. However, once Mark Zuckerberg realised the potential of his idea he unleashed it to the world, and is now the owner of the largest social network the internet has ever seen. -
Rockstar games is created
You may know Rockstar Games already because of their controversial titles such as the Grand Theft Auto series and Manhunt. With 15 years of success and Grand Theft Auto V just around the corner, Rockstar will not be leaving us any time soon. -
The Melissa Virus spreads
The Melissa virus begins infecting computers, quickly spreads around the globe over e-mail and in hours becomes one of the fastest spreading viruses in history. This was one of the first mass-destructive viruses the world had ever seen, demonstrated the vulnerability of computers and made people question if a computer was a safe place to store personal information. -
We dodged the Y2K bug
As confusion started to arise about computers and their ability to work after 2000, people genuienely thought they were going to witness a drastic change in the world overnight because of programming issues. On Jnauary 1st people came to realise that the world was just as it was the previous day, and computers continued to work without any problems. -
Origonal Xbox released
With a new millennium and such progress in computing power, Microsoft thought it would be a smart move to create a gaming console.The first Xbox had many advantages over other consoles (Such as the PS2) for example; more memory, more controller inputs and a music player. The XBox became a great success and we are anticipating the release of the third generation of microsofts game console (Xbox One). -
1 Billion PC's worldwide
It was announced that approximately 1 billion PCs had been shipped worldwide since the mid-'70s, according to a study released by consulting firm Gartner. This displays how in a short space of time, computers became such a integral part of the worlds culture and how much easier they were to obtain compared to how they may have been 30-40 years ago. -
Steam comes to gamers
Valve were responsible for many of PC's gaming breakthroughs since its beginning. However, what started as a game development company was soon to create the largest game distribution service on PC which is called 'Steam'. This platform now has 30 million users and counting. -
First social network for the world
MySpace as we remember it (a free social network) was gaining popularity and building its way up to become a part of most peoples everyday lives. This was to be the case for another 3 years before Facebook took the world by storm -
Me at the zoo
The first YouTube video entitled "Me at the zoo" was uploaded by Jawed Karim. What I personally see as a humble beginning to the website, shows us all what YouTube is about; simplicity, ease of access and the abilty to share anything with the rest of the world. YouTube has become the largest video streaming service and continues to grow at a rate of 100 hours of video uploaded per minute. -
Infinate inteligence
Wikipedia volunteers create the article that passes the 1,000,000 article mark. This is an example of how freedom of information is certainly evident on the internet. Thanks to people who may or may not have had expertise that would be otherwise be tough to reach, people are now able to find the answer to almost every question it could conjour up, and all for free. -
Computer in your pocket
Apple introduced their first smartphone and shows the world that a phone could be used for more than calling, texting and maybe even sending an e-mail. The first iPhone had a web browser that could render full websites, a worldwide map with satillite images and a vast library of apps that were tailored to any situation. This phone may not have been the first smartphone, but it certainly changed the mobile industry. -
Google Chrome takes over
Google released its first internet browser which was praised by many because of its simplicity and ease of use. With features that other browsers did not have, (Such as Saved Passwords and the abilty to share your browsing sessions with tablets and smartphones) Chrome stood out from the crowd and is now the most widely used internet browser in the world. -
Minecraft alpha!
This open world game was released during it's development and had a following of millions even before it was released as a full game. If you ever wanted to stray off from the normal game modes, you can do so thanks to the games large userbase that created a vast amount of mods for the game. Some you may already know are 'Mo Creatures' and 'Too Many Items'. -
Digital music takes over!
Apple announced over 10 billion tracks had been downloaded from iTunes and shows us all how the digital format is taking over the music industry. Thanks to iTunes' ease of use and abilty to store music onto your iPod instantly, buying became no hastle and cheaper because of no hardware being needed to transfer the music to your iTunes library. However because of no security on these music files, people known as 'pirates' torrent this music for free at the cost of artists and producers. -
Steve Jobs passes away
The year 2011 seen the loss of one of the worlds most inspiring, creative and successful entrepreneurs, Steve Jobs after fighting a 7 year battle with pancreatic cancer. Since his diagnosis in 2004, he continuted his work with Apple and went on to create revolutionary porducts such as the iPod Touch, iPhone and the iPad. His death was mourned by many and his legacy continues as his products are still part of our worlds culture, and are being improved by Apple to still surpass competitors. -
Internet Blackout
The Stop Online Privacy Act was a US bill introduced to expand the laws around the online streaming of property that is copyright protected. This was good for producers and developers of entertainment media. However, this bill would conflict with freedom of speech on the internet. In protest to this Google, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, Wikipedia, and more than 115,000 other websites 'go dark' in protest of SOPA. Fortunately, SOPA did not pass through congress and the internet has not had to change. -
The next generation
This year we see a step forward in games consoles as the superpowers Sony and Microsoft announce their next generation of cutting edge consoles to compete with the ever-evolving PC's that are currently on the market. Both are to be released around november and are expected to become great successors to their predecessors (The Xbox 360 and PS3).
