Apple IIc

The Apple IIc, the fourth model in the Apple II series of personal computers, was Apple Computer’s first endeavor to produce a portable computer. The result was a 7.5 lb (3.4 kg) notebook-sized version of the Apple II that could be transported from place to place. The c in the name stood for compact, referring to the fact it was essentially a complete Apple II computer setup (minus display and power supply) squeezed into a small notebook-sized housing. While sporting a built-in floppy drive and new rear peripheral expansion ports integrated onto the main logic board, it lacked the internal expansion slots and direct motherboard access of earlier Apple IIs, making it a closed system like the Macintosh. However, that was the intended direction for this model — a more appliance-like machine, ready to use out of the box, requiring no technical know-how or experience to hook up and therefore attractive to first-time users.

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Yahoo Logo

Yahoo! Inc. was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 1, 1995. On January 13, 2009, Yahoo! appointed Carol Bartz, former executive chairman of Autodesk, as its new chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors.[7] On September 6, 2011, Bartz was removed from her position at Yahoo! by chairman Roy Bostock and CFO Tim Morse was named as Interim CEO of the company.[8][9] On January 4, 2012, Scott Thompson, former President of PayPal, was named the new chief executive officer.[10] On May 13, 2012, Scott Thompson was replaced by Ross Levinsohn as the company’s interim CEO.[11] On July 16 2012, former Google executive Marissa Mayer was named as Yahoo! CEO and President, effective July 17.[12] Yahoo has averaged one CEO a year for the last five years.

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A GSM Motorola StarTAC

StarTAC was unveiled in North America on January 3, 1996.[3] Then the smallest cell phone available, this AMPS phone was an immediate success. Successor TDMA and CDMA StarTACs were equally popular. GSM models were available in North America through Powertel, VoiceStream and other early GSM carriers. StarTACs remained popular until the early 2000s, appearing in many Hollywood movies of the period such as 8mm starring Nicolas Cage. Many MicroTAC owners switched to this particular model due to its compact size and light weight. During its initial launch, magazine ads for the phone would include an actual size cardboard rendition that could be pulled from the page to demonstrate the diminutive nature of the device.

The Motorola StarTac mobile phone was introduced at the price of $1000.

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Atari 2600 four-switch “wood veneer” version, dating from 1980-1982

The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F; however, the Atari 2600 receives credit for making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.

The console was originally sold as the Atari VCS, for Video Computer System. Following the release of the Atari 5200, in 1982, the VCS was renamed “Atari 2600″, after the unit’s Atari part number, CX2600. The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game—initially Combat[5] and later Pac-Man.

The Atari 2600 was wildly successful, and during much of the 1980s, “Atari” was a synonym for this model in mainstream media and, by extension, for video games in general.

The Atari 2600 was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York in 2007. In 2009, the Atari 2600 was named the second greatest video game console of all time by IGN, who cited its remarkable role as the console behind both the first video game boom and the video game crash of 1983, and called it “the console that our entire industry is built upon.”

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