Samsung would later make a 40-inch version, which was discontinued in 2014. Renamed as the PixelSense in 2012, it could respond to up to 52 touches simultaneously, and its large size made it ideal for use in shops, restaurants and museums. Microsoft Surface (2008)Īpple may have made multitouch mainstream but Microsoft’s original Surface brought it into the commercial world: a 30-inch multitouch HD display that looked like a table, it let its user (or users) manipulate on-screen objects through a variety of gestures. It also came with Mac OS 1.0, one of the first-ever graphics-based user interfaces, and served up impressive performance for the price – costing about $2,500, you could use it for graphics applications for which you’d have previously needed a $10,000 PC. Despite its beige colour, it was a design hit. The first Apple Mac was an all-in-one computer based around a 9-inch black-and-white CRT monitor. While it was never a huge success, it demonstrated that big guns like Samsung were serious about ultra-mobile computing, and is a direct ancestor of today’s Galaxy Tab. The original Q1 had a 7-inch touchscreen, a 40GB hard drive and three hours of battery life, but its largish frame made it awkward to hold. Samsung’s Q1 sparked a short-lived craze for UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs), computers tiny enough to be tucked into a manbag for a weekend away. Although capable of performing a range of tasks, the Amiga was most commonly used as a games machine: who can forget classics like Lemmings, Speedball 2, Cannon Fodder and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis? Commodore Amiga 500 (1987)Ĭommodore scored a huge hit with its range of 16-bit computers, and the Amiga 500 became the most popular home computer in Western Europe. And the way its screen automatically flips up when you touch the heat-sensing strip on the top with your fingertip is achingly cool. It’s the thinnest laptop ever made, no less – and a real looker too, proving that grey-plastic-loving Dell can create something truly gorgeous. Think the MacBook Air is thin? The Adamo makes it look like a chubber, being a wafer-esque 9.99m in depth. Random access memories: the ZX Spectrum at 40 – and six of the best Speccy games.He then invented the C5, for which he should have been de-knighted. What Spectrum owner could forget the banshee-like screeching that accompanied a game loading via data cassette? Or that it lasted about ten minutes? The Spectrum was perhaps less powerful than its great rival, the Commodore 64, having a palette of only seven colours (plus black) and a single channel of sound – but it became hugely popular, particularly in the UK, and led to a knighthood for its creator Clive Sinclair. This compact, rubber-keyed 8-bit classic became a common fixture in British bedrooms and studies during the 1980s, chiefly as a games machine. These plastic behemoths were as beefily-specced as they were wallet-emptying expensive, and their UFO-inspired looks (glowing alien eyes!) moistened the underwear of adolescent FPS addicts worldwide. The PC was the uncontested ruler of the world of hardcore gaming, and Alienware’s desktops were widely considered the most scarily powerful gaming PCs available. The BBC Micro is 40 years old – here’s why it matteredĬast your minds back to a time before hi-def games consoles.Despite being largely ignored outside the UK, it’s undoubtedly one of the most iconic computers ever and found some success as a home computer, games machine (classic titles like Elite debuted on the BBC Micro) and even as a tool for synth-pop bands like Erasure, Yazoo and Depeche Mode. Guaranteed to trigger a flood of memories for anyone who went to a British school in the ’80s or early ’90s, the Acorn-designed “Beeb” swiftly became the go-to computer for educational establishments, who prized its durability, power and versatility.
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