ISSUE 395|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2021 103
1999 2000 200 1 2002
103
⬅Withalaunchpriceof£1,^099 ,the
AppleiBookisaluxurious plastic box.
In arange of eye-poppingcolours,
thetoughcasehas abuilt-incarrying
handle,and there are no
vulnerablelatchesor
covers forthe USB,
Ethernetormodem
ports.Whatmarksthe
iBookoutasspecialis
that it’sthefirstportableto
boastinternalwirelessnetworkingaswellasan
optical drive.Itcan also be used as atoilet seat.
Text messages cross networks for the firsttime,
and anew fever is unleashed as college kids latch
on to this inexpensive technology fortheir
preferred method of communication.
➡The Handspring Visor kicks
off the smartphone market
with full PDAand mobile
phone functions. The Rio
PMP3000 becomes the first
commercial MP3 player,
liberating compressed audio
files from our computer hard
drives intoour numb skulls.
Domain name hijacks start to
make the news. Here comes
the 21st century.
AswelaughinthefaceoftheMillenniumBug,there’saspateof
ludicrouslawsuits,includingBT’sclaimtotherightsofallhyperlinks,
Amazon’sclaimtoone-clickordering,andMazTechnology’sclaimtoown
thepatent forencryption. Theyare all laughed out of court, as Microsoft
considers paying over abillion dollars to settle class action lawsuits brought
by Californian residents, who claim the company has abused its market
position and overcharged forits software.
⬅Honda’s humanoid robot ASIMO
steps on to the stage.Standing 1.3
metres tall, it can walk, run, throw,
catch and kick, which means it can
beattheEnglandfootballteam
without furtherprogramming.
TheNokia3310 is thephonethat
liberatesthemasses.At £129 and weighing
only 133 grams, it featurestextmessaging,
primitivegamesandmobilecalling.
➡Japan’sSoftBankintroducesthe
world’sfirstcameraphone.The
J-Phone has amaximum resolution
of0. 11 megapixels,a256-colour
display, andphotos can be
sharedwirelessly.
When Windows 2000
appears, it’s claimed to be
more reliable than Windows
95, 98 and NT.Itisn’t.
➡The BlackBerry 950 is
dubbed the ‘crackberry’
because users become
addicted so fast. As it
arrives in the UK it’s only
available forcorporate
deals and costs at least
£400 aunit, but there is
an immediatewaiting list of
hopefuls. No logging in, no phone line,noweb terminal, just a
little black box in your pocket that provides instant email
anywhere,anytime.Itisrevolutionary.
Computer power increases exponentially as high street costs
keep falling. AMD ships its first dual-core 64-bit desktop
processor,and rival Intel introduces the Core 2processor.
The Sony PlayStation has 20 times more processing power than
the Apollo moon-lander and 100 times more memory than the
Apple Classic. The personal details of 25 million UK citizens are
recorded on two CD-ROMs and then lost in the post.
The Mozilla Firefoxweb browserbecomes the biggest
competitor toMicrosoftInternet Explorer,possibly because
it works brilliantly and probably because it’s free.
Thepopular success of Microsoft’s Xbox is agenuine milestone
because it allows internet connections forreal-time multiplayer
games. The fact that it costs $299 in
the US and £299 in the UK is entirely
due to profiteering. Windows XP
claims to cure interminable
compatibility problems, but that’s
becauseso much time has passed
since the problems cropped up
that most of the incompatible
software is now obsolete.
➡The Roomba robot vacuum
cleaner invades the home,and
Apple’s new little gadget called
the iPod takes over the world.
