101
1992 19931994 1995
The IBM ThinkPad is arecognisably
modern laptop.Its keyboard foldsout
like abutterflywhen thelid is opened to
give afull-sized arraywider than the case.
Elsewhere,Kodak comes up with an
amazing 6.2-megapixel DSLR camera.
The only problem is it costs over eight
grand. Without the lens.
➡The PlayStationisa32-bit video ggame
console from Sony. Thesoftware is
loaded from CDs,which publishers
like because they can be
made cheaply
depending on
demand. But
the CD pirates
like them even
more,especially
whenHewlett-Packardbreaksthe$1,000
barrierwith its CD-R. Data is written in a
single pass on aone-time recordable disc,
but the discs are cheap and toughand
hold 400 times as much data as the rival
3.5in floppydisk.
➡Windows^95 islaunched
with MS-DOS bundled as a
hybrid operating system.
This kicks off the lunatic
habit of junking hardware
because it can’t handle new
software. When Apache
open-source web-server
software arrives, Bill Gates
finally admits this internet
thingy could become rather important,
and pops the Internet Explorer
browser intoWindows. Microsoftalso
launches voice recognition and speech
synthesis within Windows applications.
Pierre Omidyar starts abusiness
called eBay,but he can’t afford to hire a
single employee.
⬆The Atari Falcon is a£299flop.
Based on a32-bit processor,with
many powerful features, performance
suffers because the data bus is only
16-bit. Atari ceases all desktop
production the following year to
concentrateonvideo games consoles.
Colourprintersbecomepopular,
andreputablemerchantssuchas
WHSmithandSonsstarttosell
colour cartridge ink at the equivalent
of £7,000 per gallon.
Abunchofresearchersat
Cambridge University aim avideo
camera at acoffeepercolator,and
keep it bubbling as the first worldwide
webcam hit. And Neil Papworth uses
apersonal computer to tap into
Vodafone and send the firstever text
message to his chum Richard Jarvis in
Berkshire.Itreads,‘Merry Christmas’.
Aftervariouscombinationsofyellow,
blueandred,themastheadonthecover
ofComputerShopperissetinfriendly
whitecapitalletters.Themagazineis
nowprintedonthesortofrazor-sharp
glossy paper that shareholders in
Elastoplast drool over.Advertisers
queue up to parade their wares before
our ever-increasing readership.
➡Apple enters the handheld
computer market with the
Newton. Dubbed aPersonal
Data Assistant, it has many
of the features that will
define handheld computers
fortwo decades. But the
handwriting recognition
software is rubbish, and so are sales.
ThePentiumisthefifth-generation
x86microprocessorfromIntel.It
introduces the ability to executeseveral
instructions at the same time and has
good support forgraphics and music.
Thetruepurposeofcomputing is
revealed at last, as uncountable
millions playMortalKombat, ajolly
game about death, and Doom, another
jolly game that gets folk to hook up
multiple PCs and kill their friends.
⬆Anyonewith£500tosparecansnap
up the Apple Quicktake 100. This is the
first digital camera to hit the market for
home consumers, and it handles
640x480 pixels very badly.
AUSlawfirmsendsoutthousands
ofcopiesofanunsolicitedimmigration
lotteryservicetotheUseNet
newsgroup.Their idiocy is treated as a
joke until inboxes start to get clogged
up with junk. Spam has arrived.
ForChristmas1994,Shoppergives
awayafreefloppydisccontaining“16
essentialscreensavers”,butwesoon
cover-mount CD-ROMs packed with the
latest utilities and entertainment. We
also set the trend forsticking booklets
to our covers to make sure that only the
most sedatereaders can collect a
pristine set of the magazine,while the
rest of us rip the covers to shreds.
ISSUE 395|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2021
