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Computers have spent many years becoming more powerful. Faster processors, larger screens, stronger graphics cards, and more storage are easy improvements to understand. The recent interest in netbooks suggests that another direction can also be attractive: maybe a computer can become useful by becoming smaller and simpler. Read more
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Apple introduced the first MacBook Air in January 2008 as an unusually thin notebook, just 0.76 inches at its thickest point. Reaching that size required removing or shrinking components that laptop users still considered normal. Read more
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By the end of 2007, Amazon Web Services had turned “cloud computing” from a vague phrase into a practical development model. S3 offered object storage, while EC2 let developers rent virtual machines by the hour instead of buying physical servers. Read more
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Google and a group of hardware and mobile companies announced Android in November 2007 through the Open Handset Alliance. Unlike Apple’s tightly integrated iPhone, Android was presented as a software platform that many manufacturers and carriers could adapt to their own devices. Read more
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November 10 is a day of remembrance, but it is also a day to think about the meaning of a republic built through extraordinary difficulty. Read more
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Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” was released in October 2007 with a stronger focus on desktop polish. Compiz desktop effects were enabled by default on supported hardware, and the distribution improved monitor configuration, printing, and automatic handling of graphics drivers. Read more
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When I was younger, looking something up usually meant finding the right book. An encyclopedia had weight, order, and a limited number of pages. If the information was not there, the search had to continue somewhere else. Read more
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Apple introduced the iPod touch in September 2007, only a few months after the first iPhone. It removed the phone radio but kept the multi-touch interface, Safari browser, Wi-Fi networking, and much of the same software foundation. Read more
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VMware released Fusion 1.0 for Intel-based Macs in August 2007. Boot Camp already allowed Mac owners to restart into Windows, but Fusion let Windows run inside a virtual machine while Mac OS X remained active. Read more
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Tactical environment software is an interesting example of software that must work with a large amount of changing information. In a military or operational environment, a user may need maps, weather data, positions, communication information, surveillance reports, and mission plans at the same time. The important problem is not only collecting this information. It is presenting the right part of it clearly enough to support a decision. Read more
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By 2007, dual-core processors were becoming standard in mainstream PCs, and the industry was clearly moving away from the old strategy of increasing clock speed every generation. Power density and heat had made that path increasingly difficult. Read more
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For many years, a mobile phone was mainly a phone. It made calls, sent messages, stored a few contacts, and maybe had a simple game. That idea is starting to look old. Read more
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The first iPhone went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007. It combined a capacitive multi-touch screen, a mobile version of OS X, a real web browser, phone functions, and an iPod-style media player in one device. Read more
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Google launched Street View in May 2007 with imagery from a small number of US cities. The feature turned Google Maps from a top-down map into something closer to a navigable photographic model of real streets. Read more
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Ubuntu 7.04 “Feisty Fawn” was released in April 2007. It arrived when desktop Linux distributions were working hard to make installation, drivers, multimedia, and wireless networking less intimidating for ordinary PC users. Read more
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Adobe announced Creative Suite 3 in March 2007, bringing major applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, and Dreamweaver into one generation of tools. For Mac users, CS3 was especially important because it was the first Creative Suite version designed to run natively on Apple’s Intel-based Macs. Read more
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When I look at today’s computers, it is easy to forget how young personal computing really is. Many of the machines that helped shape home computing and video games appeared only a few decades ago. They had tiny amounts of memory and very limited processors compared with modern systems, but they created a new relationship between people and computers. Read more
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By 2007, hardware-assisted virtualization was becoming a normal feature of x86 computers rather than something restricted to expensive servers. Intel VT-x and AMD-V added processor support that made it easier for a hypervisor to run guest operating systems safely and efficiently. Read more
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Trying another operating system used to feel like a serious decision. Installing it could mean repartitioning a disk, changing the boot configuration, and accepting the possibility that something might go wrong. For a curious user, the risk could be larger than the curiosity. Read more
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Windows Vista reached retail consumers on January 30, 2007. Microsoft promoted a redesigned Aero interface, improved search, stronger security, and new multimedia features, but the public launch quickly became dominated by questions about hardware requirements and compatibility. Read more