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Miscellaneous Episodes – Internet History Podcast
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From Netscape To The iPad
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Ryan Mac on Soundcloud
Aug 6, 2017Tap to summarizeSummary: Just as last week’s episode posted, another great piece about SoundCloud was posted on Buzzfeed by the great Ryan Mac. So, in a rare attempt by me to be topical, today’s episode is with Ryan Mac, discussing his article, which fills in some of the details about what Christina and I were speculating on last week. Ryan’s article can be found here. Listen: Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link SoundCloud YouTube Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link Download Here SoundCloud YouTube
Transcribe →Christina Warren on SoundCloud
Jul 30, 2017Tap to summarizeSummary: Our friend Christina Warren is back for another analysis episode. Christina recently posted a tweetstorm about SoundCloud, and its prospects for the future. So she kindly agreed to come on the show, look at the history of SoundCloud as a company, and try to help me figure out why SoundCloud finds itself on the brink of oblivion. You all know Christina from her years at Mashable and most recently, Gizmodo. As you’ll hear toward the end, she’s at Microsoft now, and you can always hear her on the Rocket podcast. The Verge article we refer to can be found here. Listen: Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link SoundCloud YouTube Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/148-don-melton-on-apple-safari-webkit-and-netscape/id829119009?i=1000390220212&mt=2 Download Link http://traffic.libsyn.com/internethistorypodcast/149._Christina_Warren_on_SoundCloud.mp3 SoundCloud YouTube
Transcribe →Brian Merchant, Author of The One Device
Jun 18, 2017Tap to summarizeSummary Finally! A detailed history of the development of the iPhone inside Apple. But not only that, an extensive history of all the technologies that came together to make the iPhone possible. Lithium ion battery technology, touchscreen technology, Gorilla Glass, GPS, digital photography, maps… everything. The author, Brian Merchant, was kind enough to send an advanced copy and, as you’ll hear when I talk to him, I couldn’t have been more excited to read! This is the book I’ve been waiting for for about ten years. Buy your own copy here! Listen: Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link SoundCloud YouTube Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link Download Here SoundCloud YouTube
Transcribe →Nathan Latka of The Top Entrepreneurs Podcast
May 13, 2017Tap to summarizeSummary Check out The Top Entrepreneurs Podcast here! Books recommended on this episode: Storming the Magic Kingdom Walt Disney Unconventional Success Say Everything The Wikipedia Revolution The Innovators The Expanse Listen: Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link SoundCloud YouTube Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link Download Here SoundCloud YouTube
Transcribe →Yahoo’s Acquisition of Overture (Crossover Ep. With the Acquired Podcast)
Mar 13, 2017Tap to summarizeDay 2 of the GeekWire Summit 2016 at the Seattle Sheraton, October 5, 2016. Photo by Dan DeLong for GeekWire Summary Today’s episode is a special event, a crossover episode with the Acquired Podcast, which you can find in your podcast directory by searching for the word Acquired, or by going to Acquired.fm. Acquired is hosted by Ben Gilbert, the Co-Founder of Pioneer Square Labs and David Rosenthal a Principal at Madrona Venture Group out in Seattle. To mash up our two models, we’re going to talk about Yahoo’s acquisition of Overture, and how that related to Google’s ultimate success with Adwords. We talked about a lot of this with Gary Flake in episode 133, so, for a bit of context, here is that entire story. Please enjoy, and please, do check out the Acquired podcast at Acquired.fm. Listen: Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link SoundCloud YouTube Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link Download Here SoundCloud YouTube
Transcribe →The History of the iPhone, On Its 10th Anniversary
Jan 6, 2017Tap to summarizeSo… Three things: A widescreen iPod with touch controls. A revolutionary mobile phone. And a breakthrough internet communications device. An iPod… a phone… and an internet communicator… An iPod, a phone… are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device! And we are calling it iPhone.” Steve Jobs, January 9, 2007 Those words have become so famous in the history of technology that I imagine a large percentage of readers have them memorized. Ten years ago this Monday, January 9, Steve Jobs stood on stage and announced the iPhone to the world. It was the crowning achievement in the career of the greatest technologist of our time, the moment that the modern era of computing began. On the ten year anniversary of the birth of the iPhone, this is the story of that moment and the history of that device which can take a rightful place alongside the original Macintosh, the first IBM PC, the Apple I, the Altair 8800, the DEC PDP-8, the IBM System/360 and the ENIAC as one of most important machines to have brought computing into everyday life. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of an Internet History Podcast special episode marking the 10th Anniversary of the iPhone. You can listen to the full episode here: And if you enjoy what you hear, please consider subscribing to the podcast for more than 125 episodes of Internet History just like this. Keep reading below… The Roots of the iPhone At the beginning of 2007, Apple was a company on a winning streak. Its flagship Mac line of computers was growing in market share at the expense of traditional PCs. The iPod, introduced a little over five years earlier, had transformed Apple from a niche company that made high-end personal computers into a company that made the most sought-after gadgets in the world. And yet, despite this success, few (outside the company, at least) would have been brave enough to predict that Apple was about to release the gadget-to-end-all-gadgets—the most transformative (and most personal) computer of the modern era. The Newton MessagePad Apple was famously (or, infamously) one of the pioneers in handheld computing. The Newton MessagePad was the first PDA (a term Apple coined) to generate broad mainstream appeal when it was released in 1993. The Newton had many details that eerily echoed what would come later: the device measured 4.5″ x 7″, had a touchscreen in lieu of a keyboard, was priced at $699 (about $1129 when adjusted for inflation), sported a 32-bit ARM CPU and it even had a Siri-like feature called the Newton Assistant. But this was 1993. The web had not yet gone mainstream. There was no such thing as ubiquitous cellular data networks or wifi hotspots. And crucially, multi-touch technology was not available. Users interacted with the touchscreen via a stylus, not their fingertips, and input information via text-based handwriting recognition software. Problem was, the handwriting recognition wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, as the comic strip Doonesbury and the tv show the Simpsons lampooned endlessly. The Newton became a joke and sold less than 50,000 units in its first four months. A few years later, when Steve Jobs returned to Apple and famously streamlined the company’s bloated product line, the Newton was discontinued. But in the meantime, it had pioneered the PDA market that Palm and others would exploit to great success in the later 90s, and would set the functional template for smartphones in the 2000s. This experience beyond traditional computers, disastrous as it may have been for the company, nonetheless planted some residual ideas within Apple’s corporate DNA. And after Jobs returned to save the company from extinction, memories of pocket-sized devices resurfaced to take Apple into a new era. The iMac might have been the product that saved Apple as a company, but the iPod was the product that transformed it. Released in 2001, the iPod reached beyond Apple loyalists and became a bonafide mainstream sensation. Eventually, the iPod was responsible for 45% of Apple’s total revenue. It also captured 70 percent of the MP3 player market. This is something that has been a bit glossed over in recent histories of the company, but stop for a minute and imagine how momentous a change the iPod engendered within Apple itself. This was a company that, for nearly 30 years, had been a personal computer company. The blue sky thinking that allowed Apple to make a stand-alone MP3 player—to enter a mature market as an outsider and believe it could dominate—also engendered the sort of fearlessness that made it possible to break with other long-standing Apple shibboleths. The iPod eventually worked with Windows machines, even at the risk of cannibalizing Mac sales. iTunes eventually worked with Windows machines. Apple (gasp) made a Windows app! As Phil Schiller told Walter Isaacson in his Steve Jobs biography: “We felt we should be in the music player business, not just in the Mac business.” It was this conceptual leap, this strategic bravery (just as much as a penchant for good design and reliable manufacturing) that would be responsible for Apple’s success in the 2000s. Apple was no longer just a computer ...
Transcribe →The History of Sierra Online with Laine Nooney
Jun 5, 2016Tap to summarizeSummary Ken and Roberta Williams were the founders of the legendary PC gaming company Sierra Online. Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the School of Literature, Media and Communication at Georgia Tech, Laine Nooney, joins the show to discuss the history and legacy of Sierra Online. You can find out more about Laine’s work at her website, LaineNooney.com and by following her on Twitter at Sierra_OffLine. Here are some photos of Ken and Roberta Williams and a few screen caps of the Games we discuss: King’s Quest II: Romancing the Throne Graphics had improved by Kings Quest V Leisure Suit Larry Listen: Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link SoundCloud YouTube Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link Download Here SoundCloud YouTube
Transcribe →Analysis Episode 5, The History And Future of Auto Tech with Mike Dushane
Apr 10, 2016Tap to summarizeSummary: I know it’s a bit beyond our usual chronology of 90s-era technology, but car tech has come up so much in recent episodes, that I thought it was high time to learn more about the history and future of automotive tech. Electronic vehicles, Tesla, autonomous vehicles, but also, basic recent car tech advances like navigation systems and the like. So, to help me with that, I spoke with Mike Dushane, a 20 year web veteran, like myself, but also a veteran of Automobile Magazine, Car and Driver and, generally, an observer of and participant in the automotive industry over the last couple of decades as digital technology and cars have collided. Listen: Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link SoundCloud Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link Download Here SoundCloud
Transcribe →The Man Who Could Have Been Bill Gates? The Gary Kildall Story
Mar 13, 2016Tap to summarizeSummary To celebrate our 100th episode, we’re taking a special look at one of the foundational legends of the technology industry. It’s about the man who invented the modern disc operating system (the OS) and the concept of the software platform. That man was Gary Kildall. And the question we examine in this episode is, why is Bill Gates the richest man in the world, and not Gary Kildall? In this episode we use audio from the following documentaries: Triumph of the Nerds and Computer Chronicles Special thanks to Justin Schwinghamer for the original score and the voice acting. Listen: Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link SoundCloud YouTube Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link Download Here SoundCloud YouTube
Transcribe →Minitel, the “French Internet” That Came Before the Web
Jan 3, 2016Tap to summarizeA Minitel Terminal. Click for full size and resolution. Summary Today we’re going to talk a bit about alternate Internets. In previous episodes, we have outlined how, going back to the 1970s and 80s, early experiments with networked computing and online services began using a technology called Videotex. So, I wanted to dig deeper into these experiments to look at them as valuable precursors to the world wide web and the modern Internet. It is unlikely, for various technical reasons, that videotex could have evolved systems that could have challenged the modern TCP/IP internet as we know it, but it’s fun to explore these other systems and imagine an alternative net that might have developed. And most interestingly, to me at least, this exercise will allow us to examine Minitel, the French Videotex network that grew to prominence a full decade before the World Wide Web. Special thanks to Laurent Bristiel @LaurentBristiel for his research assistance on this episode. The New York Times on the death of the Minitel This is the Reply All episode about working for a Minitel Rose service Listen: Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link SoundCloud YouTube Listen Right Here On Web Listen on iTunes Download Link Download Here SoundCloud YouTube
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