3D Pinball Space Cadet was a game first included in the ‘Microsoft Plus!’ pack for Windows 95, and it gained popularity for its inclusion in Windows XP. Even though the game doesn’t ship with Windows anymore, you can still pl…
It’s been a quarter-century since the IEEE introduced the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard. Since then, speeds have increased, and wireless internet has changed the world. Here’s a look back.
It’s been 50 years since Nolan Bushnell co-founded Atari, which brought video games to the mainstream. To celebrate, we asked Bushnell what he learned during the early years—and what we’ve lost sight of since then….
On a Mac extended keyboard, there’s a “Return” and an “Enter” key. On most PC keyboards, there are two “Enter” keys, but some say “Return” instead. What’s going on here? We look at the history behind the keys….
In the mobile OS landscape, Windows Phone wasn’t around for very long (2010-2017). It was never very popular, but Microsoft infused it with some new, interesting ideas. A few of those ideas ended up being ahead of their time….
45 years after the Apple II personal computer launched, the tech industry has arguably moved away from a few of the core principals that launched Apple and the personal computer into the mainstream. We spoke with industry lum…
When Steve Wozniak designed the Apple II—released in June 1977—he kick-started a wave of appliance-like home computers for average people. For the 45th anniversary of this monumentally important machine, we talked to Wozn…
During the age of the dial-up BBS, a special style of digital illustration emerged that utilized 256 text characters and 16 colors to create a vivid array of artworks. Here’s a look at why ANSI art emerged and how it still se…
If you’ve been browsing the web and hit a 404 error page or an unexpected redirection, you’ve seen link rot in action. Over time, the links that hold the web together break, threatening our shared cultural history. Here’s a l…
We use them dozens of times a day: The Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+V shortcuts that trigger Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste. But where did they come from, and why does Windows use those particular keys for those functions? We…
Adobe Flash powered most interactive content on the web throughout the 2000’s, but the introduction of the iPhone — and a directive from Apple CEO Steve Jobs — changed everything. Here’s how it happened….
Thirty years ago today, id Software released Wolfenstein 3D, a thrilling first-person shooter game set during World War II. It broke new ground for action-based PC games and continued a string of growing successes for id Soft…
Software and game preservation is an increasingly important topic, and the best way to keep software accessible for future generations is by releasing the original source code. That’s exactly what just happened for Microsoft …
Since its founding in 1975, Microsoft has grown dramatically. As new products and eras came along, the firm changed its branding image over the years to match. Here’s a look at all of its major logos from the past 47 years….
Over the past 37 years, Microsoft has used a variety of logo designs to represent its flagship product, Microsoft Windows. We’ll take a look at each major version as the design has evolved through the ages….
Phones today come at a wide variety of price points. On the upper end, there are devices that push close to $2,000. That may seem steep, but there have been much more expensive phones.
If you buy a computer that runs Windows, it’s usually called a “PC.” But sometimes a Mac is called a PC, too. What’s going on here, and why is a PC called a “PC” anyway? We’ll explain.
If you’ve used the internet or a smartphone, chances are high you’ve encountered Google, a successful tech firm that pioneered search engine technology in the late 1990s. But where did it get its weird name? We’ll explore the…
30 years ago—on April 6, 1992—Microsoft released Windows 3.1, which brought the company to a new level of success, kept the PC platform competitive with Macs, and set the stage for Windows PC domination. Here’s what was s…
Millions of people around the world use Microsoft Excel every year to create and manage spreadsheets as part of Microsoft Office. But have you ever stopped to think what “Excel” actually means? We’ll explain its origins….
Sixty years ago this month—in April 1962—a group of hobbyists at MIT released the pioneering computer game Spacewar! on the DEC PDP-1, which set the stage for the video game revolution. Here’s a look at its origins and it…
In 2017, Apple introduced the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X but skipped over the iPhone 9. In the following years, no iPhone 9 ever appeared. Why didn’t Apple release iPhone 9? We’re on the case to find out….
Google is one of many companies that love to join in on the April Fools’ Day fun every year. However, its best April Fools’ Day announcement wasn’t actually a joke at all. It was a little thing called Gmail….
It’s on your computer keyboard and your smartphone screen: QWERTY, the first six letters of the top row of the standard keyboard layout. But no one knows how it originated, and the puzzle has been frustrating historians for o…
The humble GIF file has been with us for a long time. Sadly, the creator of the GIF, computer scientist Steve Wilhite, passed away in March 2022. In honor of him and his contribution, we hope you enjoy these facts and think a…
