1988

Internet T1 backbone completed Prodigy launches dial-up service CDs outsell vinyl records

1989

Atari releases first "palmtop" computer weighing in at 1 pound Single use, throwaway cameras are invented SONY releases its new videotape format: Hi8

1990

Kodak introduces the Photo CD player Unofficial death of the typewriter as IBM sells Selectric Division World Wide Web originates at CERN in Switzerland

1991

10BaseT ethernet is approved over twisted pair wire Internet is made available for commercial use Recordable compact disc drives, CD-Rs, are released Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) developed

1992

Compact disc music sales pass cassette tapes The Michelangelo virus disables computers worldwide New Web terms: HTTP and URL

1993

Intel releases the Pentium chip World conference adopts MPEG-2 for digital television pictures Mosaic, a graphical user interface, is developed for the Web HTML introduced as the code for web design

1994

U.S. gov. privatizes Internet mngmt. 25 years after creating it Netscape Navigator replaces Mosaic as the primary browser Zip drive with removable storage of up to 100 MB is released Yahoo is started by two Stanford graduate engineering students Banner ads appear on Internet websites

1995

Sun Microsystems introduces Java Microsoft introduces the Internet Explorer web-browser The first cyber-cafes open, serving Internet access & cafe latte Real Audio released, the first Internet audio streaming software Online auction ‘Auction Web’ is created, which becomes eBay Amazon.com sells its first book online 100BaseT Ethernet is approved and released Sony demonstrates a flat TV set

1996

Universal Serial Bus (USB) emerges as a standard PC I/O bus Total computers in use in the United States exceed 100 million U.S. Robotics unveiled its PalmPilot connected organizer @Home and Time Warner announce high-speed cable-modems Global Positioning System (GPS) is demilitarized & opened up Typical modem is 14.4K bits/sec., but new sales are for 28.8K

1997

DVDs go on sale Palm produces the first handheld device with the Palm OS Kodak releases the first point-and-shoot digital camera IBM computer defeats world chess champion Garry Kasparov

1998

Music industry up in arms as MP3 files downloaded for free HDTV broadcasts begin in the United States Iridium worldwide satellite cellphone service is born Internet2 plans are laid by universities, industry, & the gov. The Pentium II processor incorporates 7.5 million transistors Apple unveils the colorful iMac computer

1999

1000BaseT "Gigabit Ethernet" is approved and released Melissa virus plagues computers across the world Sega Dreamcast 128-bit operating system is released Ten million Web servers online throughout the world 3G (3rd generation) licenses sold for wireless Internet Bluetooth lets computers converse via low power radio signals

2000

Intel releases Pentium 4 The dot.com industry crashes People are reading e-books on book-size electronic units Y2K bug is fixed. Not as serious as initially thought Microsoft gives the mouse an optical sensor

2001

Apple Computer introduced the iPod portable music player Apple Computer releases Max OS X based on a UNIX core Microsoft launches Xbox Microsoft launches Windows XP Napster shuts down

2002

DVD sales pass VCR sales; 40+million U.S. homes have DVD

2003

Intel announces ‘wireless-Internet -on-a-chip’ for cell phones Apple unveils world’s first 17" laptop Apple unveils the "legal" iTunes online music service Apple unveils PowerMac G5 w/ new 64 bit processor containing 58 million transistors