past and present technology then and now
devices and gadgets that we use today
were radically different back when they
were first invented introduced or
popularized years or decades ago in this
look at technological transformations we
see what old-school designs have become
floppy disk
you’d need two hundred and thirteen
thousand individual five and a quarter
inch floppy disks each with a capacity
of 1.2 megabytes to hold
256 gigabyte of data
thumb drive now all you need is this 2
inch long thumb drive that easily stores
the same amount of data
books
1,400 physical books would weigh about 1
pound each that’s about as much as half
of a car
Kindle
the cheapest version of this electronic
reader can hold that many books in
digital form
Ford model-t
the first consumer automobile introduced
in 1908 produce 20 horsepower and had a
top speed of 45 miles per hour
for GT
the 2017 descendant has evolved into a
supercar with 600 horsepower and speeds
in excess of 200 miles per hour
television
the 1948 admiral model 19 a 12 TV set
had a seven-inch black and white screen
with a resolution of 653 by 499 pixels
UHD TV today’s 4k ultra high def TVs
have minimum resolutions of 3840 by
2160 pixels
video cam the super 8 millimeter film
cameras produced by kodak in 1965 had
film cartridges that recorded up to 2.5
minutes at 24 frames per second
high-def video recorder can record 1080p
video for up to 4 hours and 21 minutes
at 30 frames per second
laptop
the first true portable computer was
called osborne one built by adam osborne
in 1981
it weighed 24 pounds had a 5 inch screen
and cost
1795 dollars
compact ultra portables laptop Circuit
inch touchscreens blazingly fast
processors and cost $1,000 or less
mobile phone
in April 1973 Motorola researcher Martin
Cooper made the first mobile telephone
call using a device that weighed 1.1
kilos and measured 23 centimeters long
it had a talk time of 30 minutes and
took 10 hours to recharge
smart phone
there are nearly 150 mobile phone
manufacturers in the world today who
produce the latest iteration of this
device which is small light thin and is
virtually a carry anywhere computer
ENIAC
built in 1946 by Pennsylvania University
scientists the electronic numerical
integrator and computer ENIAC was a
30-ton BAM off with over 17,000 vacuum
tubes 70,000 resistors and 10,000
room
portable calculator
modern-day electronic pocket calculators
became available in the 1970s after the
first microprocessor was developed by
Intel for Japanese calculate a company
busy calm now pocket calculators by
Texas Instruments but enormous computing
power in a smartphone size package
Past and Present | Technology Then and Now
