-
Period: to
The History of Computing & the Internet
-
The First Video Game
Many people might not consider that video games are an important invention in today's society. But nowadays they are commonly used as a form of entertainment, education and socialization. Without video games the world would not look the same as it does today. The first video games was called Tennis for Two and it was created by Physicist William Higinbotham. It is a simple tennis game and it is considered the first because it was purely an entertainment product rather than something academic. -
The Computer Mouse
The computer mouse is an important device that translates movement of the device into motion of a pointer on a display giving a smooth and comfortable computer experience. The development of computer mice started in 1960 by Douglas Engelbart but the first computer mouse prototype was made in 1964 by Bill England and Douglas Engelbart, they worked together. The mouse really simplified the usage of a computer. There is no precise date available for when this first mouse prototype was made. -
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is a engineer, businessman and a industrial designer. He is a founder and CEO of SpaceX, early stage investor and CEO and product architect of Tesla. Tesla's vehicles use renewable energy and they are the only cars with autopilot. It uses cameras, ultrasonic sensors and radars to sense and see the environment around the car. This feature will most likely revolutionize the development of cars. He also founded PayPal which is one of the most common online payment methods. -
Apple Inc
Apple Inc is a multinational technology company that has its headquarters in California. Apple was founded during April in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne and they wanted to sell Wozniak's Apple 1 Computer. The sales of their computers with Apple 2 Computer grew quickly. Apple was never first with a major feature, but they popularized things such as the laptop and the smartphones with their sleek designs and I think that is why they are important. -
The First Laptop
The laptop changed computers forever. Without them, stationary computer use would be the only option. The first laptop was created in 1982 and it was enclosed by a magnesium case. The laptop was very expensive, it had a price of $8,000-10,000 which meant it was only available for specialized applications. The U.S military and NASA used this laptop, "Grid Compass" on the Space Shuttles in the 1980's. Laptops are no longer exclusive and students commonly use them for educational purposes. -
The First Windows Version
Windows is the most commonly used operating system and about 80% of the population that own a computer run this system. The first version of this operating system was released in November 1985 and the development was lead by the founder of Microsoft Bill Gates and ran on top of MS-DOS and this operating system relied on command-line input. The first Windows version was Microsoft's first attempt at making a graphical UI in 16 bit. This system made computers more commercially available. -
The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW) also known as The Web, was invented in 1989 by an English scientist Sir-Timothy Berners Lee. A lot of information and different documents are stored here and can be found by URLs and these are accessible over the internet. While he was working at CERN he also wrote the first web browser in 1990. Everyday use of the World Wide Web started in 1993-1994 and websites started becoming available for general use. It is now used for a lot of education and entertainment. -
The Smartphone
The first smartphone was released earlier than most people expect. A large majority of people think that the first smartphone was the iPhone, but the Simon Personal Communicator was the first smartphone. It wasn't considered a smartphone during the release date but its features made it later be considered as a smartphone. The iPhone is what really made smartphones known and it had some features such as a high resolution camera, social media, different games and apps and it was released in 2007. -
Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies (extra)
Bitcoin is like the poster-boy of cryptocurrencies, which are recently seeing use in the real world. Bitcoin's value is determined by the demand and it is currently worth over $50,000. Just like people accepted that we will use coins for currency, cryptocurrency might get the same acceptance. Recently Tesla made it available to buy their cars using bitcoin. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have features such as: fast transactions, being non-repudiable and you can choose your own commission.