tech history
That Time Steven Spielberg and Sega Built the Arcade of Your Dreams
GameWorks was a Hollywood-powered barcade so glamorous, Carmen Elektra hosted its launch.
The MP3 Player That Made Every Other MP3 Player Possible
The Diamond Rio PMP 300 could barely even hold a single album, but it was a hugely important device in the history of digital music.
Was This the Best Small Computer of the 90s?
The keyboard-laden Psion Series 3 personal digital assistant helped prove that computers could be both small and highly functional—though the real star of the device turned out to be its operating system.
Copies of Copies: The Surprisingly Complicated Process of Making a CD
It takes a whole lot of steps to get an optical disc ready for your CD Walkman—yet it has a surprising amount in common with pressing a record.
The Story of Science Faction, the Company That Brought Lasers to Rock and Roll
Science Faction's Richard Sandhaus spent his twenties installing laser projections all over the world. He blew a lot of minds along the way.
This Is What 1970s Motion Capture Tech Looked Like
How one of the most infamous TV shows of all time—one apparently cancelled in the middle of its first episode—gave viewers a very early look at motion capture technology.
Microsoft Tightened Its Grip on 90s Internet With This Janky Editor
FrontPage tried to solve an important problem in the early-internet era—the idea of making web design accessible to mere mortals—but the code wasn’t so hot.
This Build-It-Yourself Watch from the 70s Was Impossible to Put Together
The story of the Sinclair Black Watch, a digital watch that, for some reason, was sold in kit form. It was not an easy watch to build.
How Airlines Fell in Love with In-Flight Movies, and Why They're Breaking Up
The in-flight entertainment system was once a novel idea that kept passengers enthralled. Now, the systems are expensive, outdated, and hard to upgrade.
This Trippy Image Shows How Supercomputers Helped Build Better Jet Engines
It's not a psychedelic desktop wallpaper from the future; it’s a compressor blade simulation from the past, produced by a Cray supercomputer.
The Great Failure of Wang Laboratories, the David to IBM’s Goliath
The minicomputer maker Wang Laboratories ran an ad during the Super Bowl long before Apple did. So why did the company and its minicomputers become a footnote?
This Tiny Terminal Was France’s Version of AOL
A French telecom scheme to replace the phone book with a dumb terminal soon became the world’s first mainstream online network. Problem is, Minitel never really evolved past that point.