What Google Glass got right — and really, really wrong
Google didn’t invent the concept of smart glasses, but it did help make them mainstream. In retrospect, 13 years after their launch, this is both a good and bad thing.…
Vine walked so TikTok could run
What are thooooose? Well, they’re my Vines, the six-second videos that helped mint a generation of famous comedians and also kicked off the era of endlessly looping vertical video that…
How LimeWire ended the Napster music revolution
Quick: tell me how old you are by telling me which app you used to download free music. Was it Napster? Kazaa? Usenet? Gnutella? WinMX? Morpheus? The Pirate Bay? Were…
The tale of the Fire Phone, Amazon’s very strange smartphone
When Jeff Bezos decided Amazon needed to get in the smartphone game, he went all in. And the resulting device, the Fire Phone, wound up more densely packed with big…
Why the Zune never killed the iPod
The Microsoft Zune is mostly just a footnote in tech history. Microsoft spent years – and vast sums of money – trying to create a true competitor to Apple’s iPod,…
How Guitar Hero made everybody a rock star
“Sharp Dressed Man,” by ZZ Top. Hard on a good day, Medium when my friends were over, Expert once and then never ever again. That was my Guitar Hero sweet…
The Sony Watchman was must-see TV
To understand the Sony Watchman, you have to go back. Way back. Back to when “TV” wasn’t just a way to refer to any piece of content between 20 and…
How BlackBerry Messenger set texting free
Version History It’s important to remember that two decades ago, text messages cost 10 cents. Each. Back when we measured our cell phone plans in minutes, and when even 3G…
Version History is live — here’s how to find it
We’ve been working on a new show for the last few months, called Version History, and the first episode is now live! It’s called “Hoverboards: so hot right now,” and…