 | In my head 1981 doesn't seem that long ago, but in computing terms it was just the beginning of the modern technological age we all accept as normal today. IBM released their first home computer (PC), with Apple congratulating them in a famously sardonic advert in the August of that year. The Osbourne 1 was released to market, considered the first affordable "laptop". Affordable at $1725, and 24lb behemoth my have been a bit uncomfortable on your lap, but all that same. |
| The Osbourne 1 was doomed, and with the introduction of the IBM PC and it's MS-Dos operation system, the Osbourne was obsolete by 1983. That same year saw the introduction of the two home computers, the predecessors of computing giants that would revolutionise home computing only a year later. Commodore introduced the VIC-20, and Sinclair the ZX-81. By 1982, they would bring out the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. | |
 | Also 1981, KRON news did a little report about a small revolution happening in San Francisco, where people with a "modem" could read their daily newspapers via their home computer. "It's not as far fetched as it may seem", says the news anchor. You have to love the bit when the tech-guy from the San Francisco Examiner says they won't make any money from it, and the tag-line to the consumer/reader Richard Halloran, that simply states "Owns Home Computer". And how Mr. Halloran goes on to say, that you can copy the information off the computer onto "paper" to "save it". Oh how wonderfully naive things were back then. Now we're plugged into that "Internet" 24/7, on multiple devices with more computing power than the massive mainframe in Ohio, that Mr. Halloran was calling-up on his dial-up modem to read the newspaper. |
