Technology in the 90's

By lindsaykillian

  • Introduction of Magneto-Optico discs

    Faster than CD/RWs and DVD-RAMs, M-O discs used lasers that heated up the bits on the disc, after which a magnet would change the bit's polarity according to what was being written, thereby storing the information.

  • NSF Lifts Restrictions on the Internet

    National Science Foundation (NSF) changes its policy, the Internet is for the first time a publicly accessible network with no commercial restrictions.

  • First Text Sent

    Neil Papworth used his personal computer to send the first SMS text message to the phone of Richard Jarvis on December 3, 1992.

  • First Shooter-style Video game

    "Doom," the first shooter-style video game is released. The level of violence was criticized and cited as a prime reason for congressional hearings on video game violence in 1995.

  • First Flash Drive

    CompactFlash is introduced by SanDisk and is quickly adopted and becomes the preferred memory storage option in many consumer as well as professional electronic devices.

  • DVDs

    The Digital Video Disc (DVD) format is introduced, and its storage capacity is a huge increase over the common compact disc (CD).

  • Palm Pilot Introduced

    Palm Inc., founded by Ed Colligan, Donna Dubinsky, and Jeff Hawkins, originally created software for the Casio Zoomer personal data assistant. The first generation of Palm-produced devices, the Palm 1000 and 5000, are based around a Motorola microprocessor running at 16MHz, and uses a special gestural input language called “Graffiti,” which is quick to learn and fast. Palm could be connected to a PC or Mac using a serial port to synchronize – “sync” – both computer and Palm.

  • CD-RW

    The Compact Disc-ReWritable (CD-RW) is introduced. This optical disc was used for data storage and in the backing up and transferring of files to various devices. It was less robust than some contemporary storage media, and could only be re-written roughly 1,000 times. However, this factor seldom encumbered users who rarely overwrote data that often on one disc. CD-RWs that were created on CD-RW drives were often unable to be read on CD-ROM drives.

  • Furby Frenzy

    The Furby ignites a 1998 holiday season buying frenzy, with resale prices reaching $300. Each Furby initially spoke only “Furbish” but could gradually learn English commands. It communicated with other nearby Furbies using an infrared port between its eyes.

  • EverQuest Released

    Inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, as well as text-based on-line Multi-User Domains (MUDs), computer game programmer John Smedley develops EverQuest, a fantasy-themed Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game, or MMORPG. While beaten to market by rival Ultima On-line, EverQuest attracted nearly half-a-million players worldwide. EverQuest was also a critical success, winning awards ranging from the 1999 GameSpot Game of the Year, to a Technical and Engineering Emmy Award.