Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Hard to believe that Jack Kilby’s unsightly concoction (pictured above) turned 50 yesterday, but it’s true. Half a century ago, Mr. Kilby crafted the integrated circuit, which ended up having a monumental impact on taking computers from warehouse-sized to, well, not-warehouse-sized. As the story goes, the very first microchip was demonstrated on the 12th of September in 1958, and it passed its first test: “producing a sine wave on an oscilloscope screen.” Safe to say we all know how things progressed from there. Here’s to you, IC — and here’s to 50 more.

[Via MAKE]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Texas Instruments has a lot to do with the original microchip, if for no other reason than being the employer of inventor Jack Kilby. Now, however, TI is looking to produce chips and other related gizmos that require an infinitesimally small amount of energy to operate. The overriding theme guiding the engineers is “energy scavenging,” which alludes to grasping power from even the most unlikely of places — vibrations from a bridge as cars pass over, capturing wasted exhaust from a car or bottling up all that frustration your sibling shows when you own him / her again in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The possibilities are just about endless, with networked battery-free smoke alarms, solar-powered mobiles and gaming laptops that feed off of extraordinarily focused brain waves in the mix. Okay, so that last one is still eons from reality, but at least we’re headed in that direction.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Intel_turns_40′;
Happy 40th birthday, Intel! Now that you’re over the hill, we’d suggest buying a Porsche, building completely custom one-off chips for Apple, or in some other way jeopardizing your financial well being in order to actualize pent-up childhood dreams, but we’d say AMD’s recent struggles are just about the best present you could’ve asked for. Sure, the EU is trying its best to put a damper on things, but don’t let that get you down, your best years are still to come. Maybe.

[Thanks, Kevin]

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Portable Audio

Odds are, you take your iPod or Zune for granted. You probably don’t think about the crazy technological advancements we’ve made, but take a ten-year look back at the world’s first MP3 player — the MPMan F10 — and you’ll get a sense of just how far we’ve come. Manufactured by Korea’s Saehan Information Systems, the device was launched in March of 1998 at CeBIT, and went on sale in the Summer through Eiger Labs for $250. The player featured 32MB of flash memory (which could be upgraded to 64MB via mail-in scheme), connected to PCs via parallel port, and had a miniscule LCD for playback info — but it laid the groundwork for the tech we have today. Following the MPMan’s release, Rio unleashed its PMP300, which received a warmer reception and all-but eclipsed the F10’s status as “first” amongst players, likely due to the company’s well-known (and groundbreaking) legal battle against the RIAA. Still, first is first, so help keep the MPMan’s rich history alive, and celebrate its ten-year anniversary this month with campfire songs and story-telling. Check out the archived read link of the original Eiger Labs site for a wild and wacky trip through time.

[Via Register Hardware]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

Ever wondered what it’d be like to have two birthdays in a single year? If so, just phone up, er, text SMS — it’s living the dream, baby! Apparently, the first “recorded text message” was sent from software engineer Neil Papworth to Richard Jarvis, a director at Vodafone, on December 3, 1992, which is arguably the birthday of SMS as we know it. Granted, the Short Message Service Center has been around just a hair longer, but without an official birth certificate tied to either, who are we to argue? So, here’s to you (yet again), dear text messaging, but if you really try to sneak a third shindig in before the year’s up, don’t look to us to provide another round of hors d’oeuvres.

[Via TGDaily, image courtesy of The Sydney Morning Herald]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming

It may be underpowered, but it’s got a big heart. Oh, and we hear it’s doing alright for itself in this generation’s console war, but that’s all hearsay. That’s right, Nintendo’s Wii turns one year old today, and what a magical year it’s been.

[Wii cake courtesy of Henry S.]

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming

See that Wii or Xbox sitting under your TV? The PSP or DS tucked away in your messenger bag? That copy of Pac-man on your cellphone which cost five bucks and expires next month? Each of them owe a debt of gratitude to the granddaddy of all videogame consoles, the Atari 2600, which ushered in an era of unprecedented television usage, and which turns 30 years old this month. That’s right, the first 2600 units rolled off the assembly line in October of 1977, delighting both children and kids at heart with games like Pitfall and Pole Position, and helping distract the nation after the untimely death of the King, the tragic crash of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane, and Pele’s retirement. So here’s to you, dear 2600: Atari may only be a shadow of its former self today, but you’ve lived on in our fond memories, in retro Flashback products, and last but not least, in tricked-out mods from the great Ben Heckendorn.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!