The next Social Media giant is right before our eyes, known as the photo filtering and sharing social mobile app, Instagram. Although its launch date was in October of 2010 it has gained 80 million users in less than two years. It took Facebook nearly 4 years after its initial launch and Twitter 5 years before its user base reached 100 million, so with 20 million more users Instagram will hit the 100 million mark. It will not be surprising if they do prior to their 2 year anniversary since their user base has increased by 166% after opening up on two mobile platforms, iOS and Android as well as the recent…

Many of us grew up writing letters long-hand and sending them via the Post Office. It wasn’t until 1965, that the concept of email emerged and about 6 years later that the very first email was sent out. In 2007, Google made Gmail available to the world and now that it is 5 years later, the big question is, “Do you still use email?” Whether you use Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail it is interesting to know how sending mail via the internet has evolved. …

It’s hard to imagine the world without Facebook right now. Even people who aren’t users are affected by it even if only because they are constantly bombarded with commercials, billboards, and other people telling them to follow this and like that. The site has become the center piece of a company that is expanding beyond the boundaries of social media and influencing the real world. Is it possible that Facebook can fall in the next few years? Yes, Facebook is doomed The brief history of the internet has brought us many companies that were too big to fail. They held the collective attentions of the…

Every year, Google composes a Zeitgeist report that attempts to capture the essence of the year and give a glimpse of what we can expect in the coming year. This year’s message was simple but fitting: “we made it.” It matches the sentiment shared by many through the tumultuous revolution around the sun known as 2011. We saw notable deaths that marked the end of eras, the end of regimes, and the end of legends. Disasters from above and below rocked the world in ways we haven’t seen in decades. People rebelled, occupied, and even found themselves in situations where the only way to make things seem sane…

Predictions of the future are often foolish and do not give an accurate representation of reality. In this case, they got it nailed pretty nicely. We don’t know the history of this video, but it seems authentic. In it, they predict webcam, online bill pay, email, and online shopping as well as a few other nice features of today’s technological world. Not bad for hippies of the 60s. …

It’s a sound that few of us have heard since the last time we saw a modem that looked like the one above. Still, it’s a sound that will always be recognized by anyone born in the 80s or earlier – the dial-up modem sound. We may have moved on and there may no longer be a need to hear that ever-so-annoying high-pitched whine again in its original form, but the people over at Geektastic slowed it down for us a lot and gave us something that can only be described as creepy. Listen to this and imagine it in a scene from an old M. Night Shyamalan film (think Sixth Sense and not much after that). Chilling. …

We all know that new tech gadgets are more expensive in the beginning when demand and expenses could bring a higher  price. With hard drives, it’s amazing to see just how expensive they are versus how much they used to be. Take a look at three shining examples of how 10- and 15-MBs looked in the past both in physical form as well as cost. Could you imagine paying that kind of money to get 10-MBs? Neither could I. Today, they’re much cheaper: …but they weren’t always that small… …and they weren’t always inexpensive. …

“You are only allowed to use your OWN knowledge, your OWN class notes, class handouts, your OWN class homework, or The Earth and Its Peoples textbook to complete assignments and assessments UNLESS specifically informed otherwise by your instructor.” Is this a cult? No. It’s actually the “Expectations of Integrity” for Westfield High’s AP World History class. Students are not allowed to use outside references for their class: You may not discuss/mention/chat/hand signal/smoke signal/Facebook/IM/text/email to a complete stranger ANY answers/ideas/questions/thoughts/opinions/hints/instructions….

In a striking move of almost unparalleled generosity, Apple has donated the source code for its MacPaint application to the Computer History Museum. The MacPaint application that debuted in 1984 and shipped for free with the first Mac computer is now open for all to see. MacPaint, stunningly advanced and powerful in its time is now entirely defunct, most likely not having been used for at least 20 years by anyone other than true lifelong nerds. The code, spanning just over 17,000 lines of code in 36 files was written in assembler language for the 68000 processor, which is currently only used in the…

In this day and age, it’s often all too easy to complain about the problems plaguing social networking sites, overpriced computers, and the lack of viable applications available amongst various smartphones. It’s important, however, to remember where we came from and acknowledge how far technology has come. Before you throw your keyboard at the wall after your next Firefox crash, take a deep breath and try to imagine a time before browsers even existed… a time before websites existed. Allow us to take you on a stroll down memory lane and put it all in perspective. 1. Computers Given the variety…