1925 – The first commercial radio facsimile transmission was sent from San Francisco, California to New York City. It was a photograph showing Louis B. Mayer presenting Marion Davies with a gift.
1930 – BBC Radio made the starling announcement that nothing terribly important had happened. Listeners who turned in to hear the news bulletin were told, “There is no news,” followed by piano music.
1983 – Osborne Executive Introduced
The Osborne Computer Corporation officially announced the Osborne Executive portable computer, the follow-up to its extremely successful Osborne1. This is the computer that according to lore, took down the company. Known as the Osborne Effect, the legend is that by leaking the announcement of this computer earlier in the year, dealers cancelled all orders for the Osborne 1, effectively destroying the company’s cashflow and hindering operations going forward. This resulted in the cancellation of the company’s IPO and eventually to bankruptcy.
The reality may not be so simple, but my research shows that the Osborne Effect may have been a contributing cause to the company’s demise, along with the rise of competitors, the introduction of the IBM PC, and mismanagement by the company’s president, brought in by investors to provide “adult supervision”.
1986 – IBM First to Use Megabit Chip
Newspapers report that IBM had become the first computer manufacturer to use a megabit chip—a memory chip capable of storing 1 million bits of information – in a commercial product, its Model 3090. The announcement is heralded as a notable triumph for American computer makers, whose work had been perceived as having fallen behind that of Japanese electronics industry.
2006 – HD DVD Format
Toshiba launches the HD DVD format in the US. The first HD DVD players were the HD-A1. RCA would rebrand the A1 to the HDV-5000. The first HD DVD with TrueHD soundtrack was the Phantom of the Opera.
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