April 25

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Podcast Episode

Day in Tech History: April 25th


Robert Noyce is granted a patent for the integrated circuit, precipitating a prolonged controversy between Noyce and Jack Kilby over the rights to the patent. Kilby invented a germanium version of the circuit, while Noyce developed the silicon integrated circuit. Integrated circuits will eventually replace transistors in computers, allowing the machines to be manufactured in increasingly smaller sizes.


Activision is founded as the first third-party software company for video game consoles by David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Jim Levy, Alan Miller, and Bob Whitehead. Four of the founders are former Atari employees who felt that they were not receiving enough recognition for their programming genius.

Texas Instruments, Inc. (TI) started giving away US$300 Peripheral Expansion Modules with the purchase of any three qualified TI-99/4a compatible computer products, including a 32K Memory Expansion card, a Disk Controller card, a Disk Drive, Mulitplan, a p-Code card, an RS232 card, and TI Writer.


Hubble Space Telescope was released into space off the Space Shuttle Discovery.


Yahoo! begins advertising their web-based search service on national television. The ads, which feature the tag line “Do You Yahoo?”, first air during Late Night with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, and Star Trek.

Yahoo! launches Yahooligans!


Sun Microsystems announces project JXTA, an open-source platform that will provide a basic framework for building peer-to-peer applications. The platform is a set of XML protocols that will allow devices connected to a network to collaborate and exchange messages regardless of the network’s topology. JXTA is designed to allow a wide range of devices, including personal digital assistants, personal computers, mainframes, and cellphones to communicate in a decentralized manner.


Microsoft releases the Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating system, otherwise known as Windows NT 5.2, for 64-bit systems. The OS is designed to use the expanded 64-bit memory address space provided by the x86-64 architecture.


NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha for the PowerPC is released. NeoOffice is a port of the open source office suite, OpenOffice.org, for the Mac OS X.


Google Docs can now be accessed if you are offline.


Craigslist founder, Craig Newmark, tells ABC Nightline that they have no plans to shut down the erotic services area of Craigslist.


Microsoft finalizes the Nokia acquisition

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