20 Fun and Amazing Facts About Technology

Technology has revolutionized the world we live in. It has changed the way we communicate, works, and play. From smartphones to self-driving cars, technology has become an integral part of our lives. However, there are some fascinating and unexpected facts about technology that most people don’t know.

In this article, we will share 20 fun and amazing facts about technology that will blow your mind.

The first computer virus was created in 1983

In 1983, the first-ever computer virus was created by a computer programmer named Fred Cohen. The virus was called the “Elk Cloner” and was designed to infect Apple II computers. The Elk Cloner virus would spread by copying itself to any floppy disk that was inserted into the infected computer.

The first webcam was used to monitor a coffee pot

The first webcam was created in 1991 by researchers at the University of Cambridge. It was used to monitor a coffee pot in the computer science department. The webcam was connected to the internet so that researchers could check whether there was coffee in the pot before making the trip to the coffee room.

The first text message was sent in 1992

The first-ever text message was sent on December 3, 1992, by a 22-year-old software engineer named Neil Papworth. The message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone and read, “Merry Christmas.” It wasn’t until 1993 that Nokia introduced the first mobile phone capable of sending and receiving text messages.

The world’s first smartphone was IBM’s Simon Personal Communicator

The world’s first smartphone, the IBM Simon Personal Communicator, was launched in 1993. The Simon had a touchscreen, a calendar, a fax machine, and the ability to send and receive emails. However, it was very expensive, costing around $1,100.

Google’s first tweet was in binary code

Google’s first tweet was posted on February 26, 2009, and was in binary code. The tweet read “I’m feeling lucky” in binary, which is a reference to the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on the Google search engine.

The first-ever emoji was created in Japan

The first-ever emoji was created by a Japanese artist named Shigetaka Kurita in 1999. Kurita designed the emoji as a way to help people communicate with fewer words. The first set of emojis included 176 symbols and was designed for a Japanese mobile phone company.

The world’s first website is still online

The world’s first website was created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1991. The website was hosted on Berners-Lee’s NeXT computer and was used to provide information about the World Wide Web project. The website is still online and can be found at The World Wide Web project

The world’s first 1TB hard drive was released in 2007

The first-ever 1TB hard drive was released by Hitachi in 2007. The hard drive had a capacity of 1 terabyte, which is equivalent to 1,000 gigabytes. Today, hard drives with much larger capacities are widely available.

The first-ever electronic computer was invented during World War II

The first-ever electronic computer called the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), was invented in 1945 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. The ENIAC was used by the US military to calculate artillery firing tables during World War II.

The world’s first computer mouse was made of wood

The world’s first computer mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1963. The mouse was made of wood and had a single button. It was designed to be used with the oN-Line System (NLS), an early hypertext system.

The first-ever domain name registered was Symbolics.com

The concept of domain names wasn’t introduced until the early 1980s when the internet was first established. Symbolics.com, a computer systems company, was the first domain name ever registered on March 15, 1985. Today, domain names have become an essential part of establishing an online presence, with over 360 million registered as of March 2021.

The first-ever mobile phone call was made in 1973

On April 3, 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first-ever mobile phone call using a prototype device called the DynaTAC. He called his rival at Bell Labs to announce that he was speaking via a mobile phone, making history as the first-ever mobile phone call. It weighed about 2.5 pounds and had a battery life of around 20 minutes.

The first-ever portable music player was the Sony Walkman

The Sony Walkman was the first-ever portable music player that revolutionized the way people listen to music. It was introduced in 1979 and was a massive success, selling over 200 million units worldwide. It used cassette tapes to store music, and its lightweight and compact design made it popular among young people, who could listen to their favorite tunes on the go.

The first-ever email was sent in 1971

Email, short for “electronic mail,” was first developed in the late 1960s but didn’t become widely used until the 1980s. The first-ever email was sent by computer engineer Ray Tomlinson in 1971. The message he sent was just a string of letters and numbers, and Tomlinson himself admitted that he can’t remember what he wrote.

The first-ever video game was created in 1958

The first-ever video game was called “Tennis for Two” and was developed in 1958 by physicist William Higinbotham. It was a simple two-player game where players used knobs to control a dot on a screen that represented a tennis ball. It was played on an oscilloscope, which was a type of electronic instrument used to display and analyze waveforms.

The first-ever digital camera was invented in 1975

The first-ever digital camera was developed in 1975 by Kodak engineer Steven Sasson. The camera weighed about eight pounds and was the size of a toaster. It captured black and white images that were stored on a cassette tape. The camera was a significant innovation in photography, paving the way for the development of digital photography and cameras.

The world’s first computer was called the ENIAC

The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was the world’s first computer. It was developed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert in the 1940s and was used to calculate artillery firing tables for the US Army during World War II. The ENIAC was massive, taking up a whole room, and weighed about 30 tons.

The first-ever GPS satellite was launched in 1978

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that provides location and time information anywhere on Earth. The first-ever GPS satellite was launched by the US Air Force in 1978. It was part of a constellation of 24 satellites that orbit the Earth and provide GPS signals that are used by GPS receivers to determine a user’s location.

The first-ever CD was produced in 1982

In 1982, the first CD (compact disc) was produced by Sony and Philips. The CD had the capacity to store 74 minutes of audio, which was a significant improvement over cassettes and vinyl records. CDs were a game-changer in the music industry, and they quickly replaced cassettes and vinyl records as the primary medium for music distribution.

The world’s first 3D-printed car was made in 2014

In 2014, a car manufacturer named Local Motors created the world’s first 3D-printed car, called the Strati. The Strati was printed using a large 3D printer, and the entire process took just 44 hours. The car was made of just 40 parts, which is a fraction of the number of parts in a typical car. The Strati was a significant milestone in the 3D printing industry, and it demonstrated the potential of 3D printing for large-scale manufacturing.

Conclusion

Technology has come a long way since its inception, and these facts show just how far we’ve come. From the first computer virus to the first smartphone, technology has advanced rapidly. It’s amazing to think about how much technology has changed our lives and how much it will continue to change them in the future.