Showing posts with label Primitive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Primitive. Show all posts

Monday, March 24, 2025

What computer technology amazed you in 2000 that seems primitive today?

 The year 2000, although 25 years ago, was not that different technologically than today. I think 1998/1999 was a turning point in personal technology and technology culture (2007/2008 was another turning point).

Computers running Windows and MacOS* existed. The internet existed. Email and instant messaging was common. Mobile telephony existed, even some rudimentary mobile internet. Many of the companies that form the backbone of our techscape existed - Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, even Netflix (though not in its current form). The only significant one missing is Meta.

In 2000, on a personal level;

I had a “multi-band” GSM mobile phone. This meant it worked in most places around the world. That was impressive.

I had a handheld computer. Contacts, calendars, notes, email, to-do lists, ebooks, all in my pocket and on the move. Synchronised with the equivalent on my computer. That was impressive.

I had WiFi in my home. That was groundbreaking.

I had broadband. No tying up a phone line and no screeching modem.

I had a supercomputer in my home.

So, not much different than what I have today.

Except;

Multi-band GSM is normal now - every phone is multi-band and GSM these days. And that phone was 2G - not even 2.5G - hence no data. Telephony and SMS only.

My handheld computer, some called it a personal digital organiser, was millions of times less powerful than the iPhone in my pocket. It had a 320x320 greyscale (4 shades of grey) screen, and no wireless networking capability (cellular, WiFi or Bluetooth). I had to sync it with a computer in order to update content, send and receive email etc. Update: I forgot I also had a modem for it that I could plug into a phone line if I needed to sync while away from a computer.

My WiFi (802.11b - 10mbps) was a thousand times slower than my current WiFi (6E - 10gbps). My home broadband - DSL over copper wire (I think it was 1mbps) - slower still.

My “supercomputer” was a 450MHz PowerMac G4. A few millions of times less powerful than my current M2 Apple Silicon MacBook, I’m not even going to look up the benchmark scores.

* although, not the modern MacOS - that first came out in 2001.