Items tagged with Anniversary
Exactly 25 years ago, Microsoft launched the revolutionary Windows 95 operating system. Though I am just a youngster, I still remember using Windows 95 to play Oregon Trail, draw in MS Paint, and surf the web. Nowadays, I know a little bit more about Windows 95, and I can dive into some of the history (and jokes) therein. Releasing to retail on August 24, 1995, the iconic Windows 95 was a massive upgrade from Windows' previous versions. It included GUI updates, which are still used as a standard for Windows updates today, among other things. The Start menu, taskbar, and other desktop icons got their roots here and have been updated over time. Also, the classic startup sound for Windows started...
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Time flies when you’re having fun. Google Maps is turning fifteen years old in 2020. Google Maps is celebrating its 15th birthday with updated tabs, upcoming features, and a fresh logo. The new look and features are intended to improve navigation, encourage exploration, and provide information about public transportation. Google Maps is kicking off the birthday with a celebratory logo, which includes a pin to represent the evolution of Google Maps over the last fifteen years. There will also be a temporary party-themed car icon that will appear when users use the app to navigate. Google Maps will add five tabs that will appear on the bottom of the app-- Explore, Commute, Saved, Contribute,...
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You can now relive the glory days of mixed tapes, Sony is releasing a limited edition Walkman to celebrate the iconic device’s 40th anniversary. The NW-A100TPS Walkman will feature a 40th anniversary logo and a retro design. The NW-A100TPS Walkman does not play cassette tapes, but it does have 16GB of onboard storage. Users can directly download their favorite songs or stream via WiFi. The device is supported by Android so users should be able to access a wide variety of music apps. A LDAC, or a premium wireless codec, provides high-resolution audio music streaming, while a DSEE HX processor allows for audio upscaling. The Walkman will also include NFC and Bluetooth support, a...
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It seems hard to believe that it’s been eight years since the original iPhone was first announced. At the time many of us were using smartphones like the Samsung Blackjack, and if you were a true diehard, BlackBerry smartphones. And for those of us that didn’t have smartphones, there were still plenty of bar- and flip-phones out there to choose from. But Apple swooped in with its highly anticipated iPhone on January 9, 2007 at MacWorld 2007, right smack dab in the middle of CES 2007. Then Apple CEO Steve Jobs wanted to steel the thunder from the show that was taking place in Las Vegas, and he definitely got his wish. Just before Jobs revealed the iPhone, he remarked how Apple had created a "widescreen...
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One day you're sitting around playing a new game called Tetris and then BAM! -- it's 30 years later in the blink of an eye. So it goes in life that Father Time relentlessly marches on, even when you're too busy to notice. This is our way of saying we can hardly believe it's been a full three decades since Tetris first appeared, but lo and behold, here we are celebrating the title's 30th anniversary. Russian game designer and computer engineer Alexy Leonidovich Pajitnov, now 58 years old, created Tetris while working for the Dorodnitsyn Computer Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He made the game on an Electronika 60 with help from Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov, the latter of which...
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Look carefully at today's Google doodle on their homepage, or you might miss it. Yep, Google is spelled Googlle today, so the question is, why does Google have two l's today? First off, it's not because Google's gotten sloppy. And fortunately for us who can't wait for the answer, they're not going to draw out the mystery as they did earlier with their H.G. Wells series of tweets and doodles. Instead, the answer to the question "why does Google have two l's today?" is: it's birthday time (more or less). Mouse over the doodle and you'll see the message "Google's 11th birthday" pop-up. Those who were brought up on that old, late, lamented technology known as the typewriter will also recall that...
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About 10 years ago, in mid-November 1998, Valve Software released the first installment of one of the greatest and most enduring gaming franchises in history; Half-Life. The original Half-Life won Game of the Year awards in over 50 publications and set the bar for story-driven first-person shooter for years. It was also quite the technological achievement for the heady days of the late nineties, creating one of the most realistic and immersive environments of the period. The game's modding community also launched some of the most memorable multiplayer frag fests of all time, such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress, all of which are still enjoyed by thousands of gamers daily. It can also lay...
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Games for Windows Celebrates Two-Year Anniversary Like a Rockstar“Grand Theft Auto IV” ignites cocktail of hot PC titles coming exclusively to Games for Windows and Games for Windows – LIVE. REDMOND, Wash. - Sept. 22, 2008 - Microsoft Corp. celebrates its second anniversary of the Games for Windows initiative this month with the news that the year’s biggest blockbuster, “Grand Theft Auto IV” (Rockstar Games), will debut on the PC this November exclusively as a Games for Windows-branded title, joining a growing list of more than 85 top PC games from today’s hottest publishers. Liberty City comes to life through a revitalized Games for Windows – LIVE experience, including expanded online matches,...
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Google always does something "different" with the logo on its homepage on a holiday or other special occasion, and New Year's Day is no different. But it's not just about New Year's Day today.Today’s Google logo reads “2008” to celebrate new year’s, but also honors 25 years of TCP/IP. Clicking on it leads to a search result for the query January 1 tcp/ip. This protocol underlying the internet was fully switched to on January 1st, 1983, as Wikipedia’s entry on the subject knows.Look carefully at the confetti at the bottom of the logo to see if you can make out the special "message" there....
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As any readers of the comic strip Zits knows, text messages are the bane of parents of teenagers. However, it's also increased the amount of repetitive stress injuries people get (in their thumbs anyway), created new (and lame) ways of firing people, and even contributed to fatal accidents. At any rate, the SMS or text message celebrated its 15th anniversary earlier this week.Airwide Solutions, which helped pioneer the technology, claims it was the first message to be sent via the mobile GSM airwaves. 15 years ago in the first week of December, Airwide engineer Neil Papworth sent the test message to Vodafone's Richard Jarvis.Now, according to the BBC, British people are sending SMS messages...
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Hard to believe it's been that long isn't it? Or maybe that's not quite right. With the iPod and other MP3 players, along digital music downloads, perhaps the "Golden Age" of the CD is over, just as it reaches its 25th birthday. It was Aug. 17, 1982, and row upon row of palm-sized plates with a rainbow sheen began rolling off an assembly line near Hanover, Germany. An engineering marvel at the time, today they are instantly recognizable as Compact Discs, a product that turns 25 years old on Friday and whose future is increasingly in doubt in an age of iPods and digital downloads. Not only did the CD revolutionize music, it also revolutionized computer software....
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What measures 24" in diameter, contains 50 platters, weighs a few ton, and costs $50,000? Give up? The world's first hard drive in 1956 which weighed in at a whopping 5MB of total storage. 50 years later we are approaching the 1 Terabyte limit in single disk design. To put it in perspective, that is 200,000 times the size of the first disk in a package the size of a small paperback book. IBM introduced the first magnetic hard drive in 1956 with the introduction of the IBM 305 Random Access Method of Accounting and Control (Ramac). The device signalled the end of punch cards and magnetic drums as the primary...
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