the Day in Tech History

1980 - The machine was code named "Sara". It was the Apple III and was planned to be the successor to the Apple II. However, the machine had enough failures that Apple had to re-launch this computer in August. Therefore, it was refered to as "Apple Failure III". Then IBM came out with the PC and App...

2001 - The computer animated movie "Shrek" hits theaters. The 90 minute movie was produced on a $60 million budget and although it's first weekend only saw $42 million , the overall theatrical run brought in $487 million. Shrek was the first computer animated film to win an Academy Award (Best Anima...

1985 - The last Lisa Mac XL computer rolls off the assembly line. It was first introduced on Jan 19th, 1983 for $9,995. Sun remarketing purchased about 5,000 Macintosh XLs and upgraded them. Some leftover Lisa computers and spare parts are still available today...

1998 - Steve Jobs, just fresh out of his return to Apple, announces one of the many changes in the Mac line. The iMac G3 computer. The iMac was the first computer to offer USB ports as a standard. The "All in one" computer had a front loading CD drive - but no floppy drive, built in speakers and cam...

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...

1977 - Apple Computer shows off the Apple II home computer at the West Coast Computer Faire. The $1,298 Home machine featured a 6502 processor, 4kb RAM 16kb ROM and for the first time - A home computer with color graphics.  Commodore also unveils the PET 2001, which is a full-featured computer. It...

2001 - The reason why I decided to highlight this event is to make you aware that Tablets are not a new thing. Computer companies have been trying to perfect the tablet for many years. in 2001, for example, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates introduces the Tablet PC initiative. Using a Crusoe processor and th...

1983 -IBM announces the IBM Personal Computer XT (eXtended Technology). It features a Intel 8088 processor,  10MB hard drive, 128 kB RAM, 40Kb ROM and double-sided 360 kB floppy drive. For $4995, it's all yours. The machine was also called IBM Machine Type number 5160...

1990 - Thomas Knoll was a student at the University of Michigan when he decided to write a program for his Macintosh Plus. The program was a simple image viewer, but when his brother - John Knoll - caught wind, he suggested that Thomas turn it into an image editor. Thomas took 6 months to develop th...

1978 - The first computer bulletin board system was created in Chicago, Illinois by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess. The Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) came together in 30 days, where it was then launched. Even though it was already turned on for testing, today was the day CBBS went into...