Category Archives: Mashable

50 Years Ago, Doug Engelbart’s Mother of All Demos Changed Personal Computing Tech Forever

² Imagine someone demonstrating a jet plane 15 years before Kitty Hawk. Imagine someone demonstrating a smartphone 15 years before the first cellular networks were even launched. Imagine someone demonstrating a controlled nuclear chain reaction 15 years before Einstein formulated … Continue reading

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20 Years Ago, Apple and Kodak Launched the Digital Camera Revolution

This is Steve Sasson. In 1975, he was a 23-year-old Kodak junior engineer and he invented the digital camera. After 19 years of development – 20 years ago this week – Apple started selling the Kodak-designed QuickTake 100, the first consumer … Continue reading

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Commerical GPS Turns 25: How the Unwanted Military Tech Found Its True Calling

Here’s the fascinating – and heretofore untold – story behind the first consumer GPS handheld device, the GPS NAV 1000 from Magellan, which went on sale on May 25, 1989, posted here at Mashable.com.

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The Videophone Turns 50: The Historic Failure That Everybody Wanted

Consumer videophone service turns 50 – except how we videophone today (Skype, Facetime, et al) differs radically from how engineers and futurists originally envisioned and implemented it. Read about AT&T’s historic videophone failure(s) that set the stage for today’s video … Continue reading

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The First Cellphone Went on Sale 30 Years Ago for $4,000

Possibly the most read story I’ve ever written – a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the first handheld cell phone (the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X) going on sale to the public – from Mashable.com.  

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