The Internet has fundamentally changed nearly every aspect of our lives. From how we interact with friends, family, coworkers, and businesses, a technology that was in its infancy just 20 years ago is now considered indispensable to many people.
Companies understand the value that the Internet offers to them, providing interactive opportunities to connect with current customers and attract new consumers. As the Internet evolves, businesses will continue to refine their online marketing efforts, reaching a greater number of potential buyers than before.
Web marketing refers to a broad category of advertising that takes many different forms, but generally involves any marketing activity conducted online.
Markonline advertising spaces are free to use. Companies can upload videos to Youtube or start a blog for no cost at all. Other outlets like official websites or paid search marketing cost a fraction of what a major television advertising campaign would.
The web also presents exciting new opportunities for companies to profile their customers. The interactive space of the Internet simplifies a company's ability to track, store, and analyze data about a customer's demographics, personal preferences, and online behavior. This data allows the advertiser to provide a more personalized and relevant ad experience for the customer. (See also Behavioral Marketing)eters have shifted their efforts online because it tends to be significantly less expensive. Many
There is no easy answer to this question due to the many different classifications ofcomputers. The first mechanical computer, created by Charles Babbage in 1822, doesn't really resemble what most would consider a computer today. Therefore, this document has been created with a listing of each of the computer firsts, starting with the Difference Engine and leading up to the computers we use today.
Note: Early inventions which helped lead up to the computer, such as the abacus,calculator, and tablet machines, are not accounted for in this document.
The word "computer" was first used
The word "computer" was first recorded as being used in 1613 and originally was used to describe a human who performed calculations or computations. The definition of a computer remained the same until the end of the 19th century, when the industrial revolution gave rise to machines whose primary purpose was calculating.
First mechanical computer or automatic computing engine concept
In 1822, Charles Babbage conceptualized and began developing the Difference Engine, considered to be the first automatic computing machine. The Difference Engine was capable of computing several sets of numbers and making hard copies of the results. Babbage received some help with development of the Difference Engine from Ada Lovelace, considered by many to be the first computer programmer for her work and notes on the Difference Engine. Unfortunately, because of funding, Babbage was never able to complete a full-scale functional version of this machine. In June of 1991, the London Science Museum completed the Difference Engine No 2 for the bicentennial year of Babbage's birth and later completed the printing mechanism in 2000.
In 1837, Charles Babbage proposed the first general mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine. The Analytical Engine contained an Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), basic flow control, and integrated memory and is the first general-purpose computer concept. Unfortunately, because of funding issues, this computer was also never built while Charles Babbage was alive. In 1910, Henry Babbage, Charles Babbage's youngest son, was able to complete a portion of this machine and was able to perform basic calculations.
First programmable computer
The Z1 was created by German Konrad Zuse in his parents' living room between 1936and 1938. It is considered to be the first electro-mechanical binary programmable computer, and the first really functional modern computer.
First concepts of what we consider a modern computer
The Turing machine was first proposed by Alan Turing in 1936 and became the foundation for theories about computing and computers. The machine was a device that printed symbols on paper tape in a manner that emulated a person following a series of logical instructions. Without these fundamentals, we wouldn't have the computers we use today.
The first electric programmable computer
The Colossus was the first electric programmable computer, developed by Tommy Flowers, and first demonstrated in December1943. The Colossus was created to help the British code breakers read encrypted German messages.
The first digital computer
Short for Atanasoff-Berry Computer, theABC began development by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry in 1937. Its development continued until 1942 at the Iowa State College (now Iowa State University).
The ABC was an electrical computer that used vacuum tubes for digital computation, including binary math and Boolean logic and had no CPU. On October 19, 1973, the US Federal Judge Earl R. Larson signed his decision that the ENIAC patent by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly was invalid and named Atanasoff the inventor of the electronic digital computer.
The ENIAC was invented by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania and began construction in 1943 and was not completed until 1946. It occupied about 1,800 square feet and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighing almost 50 tons. Although the Judge ruled that the ABC computer was the first digital computer, many still consider the ENIAC to be the first digital computer because it was fully functional.
The first stored program computer
The early British computer known as the EDSAC is considered to be the first stored program electronic computer. The computer performed its first calculation on May 6,1949 and was the computer that ran the first graphical computer game, nicknamed "Baby".
Around the same time, the Manchester Mark 1 was another computer that could run stored programs. Built at the Victoria University of Manchester, the first version of the Mark 1 computer became operational in April 1949. Mark 1 was used to run a program to search for Mersenne primes for nine hours without error on June 16 and 17 that same year.
The first computer company
The first computer company was the Electronic Controls Company and was founded in1949 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the same individuals who helped create the ENIAC computer. The company was later renamed to EMCC or Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and released a series of mainframe computers under the UNIVAC name.
First stored program computer
First delivered to the United States government in 1950, theUNIVAC 1101 or ERA 1101 is considered to be the first computer that was capable of storing and running a program from memory.
First commercial computer
In 1942, Konrad Zuse begin working on the Z4 that later became the first commercial computer. The computer was sold to Eduard Stiefel, a mathematician of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich on July 12, 1950.
IBM's first computer
On April 7, 1953IBM publicly introduced the 701; its first commercial scientific computer.
The first computer with RAM
MIT introduces the Whirlwind machine on March 8, 1955, a revolutionary computer that was the first digital computer with magnetic core RAM and real-time graphics.
The first transistor computer
The TX-O (Transistorized Experimental computer) is the first transistorized computer to be demonstrated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in1956.
In 1964, the first desktop computer, the Programma 101, was unveiled to the public at the New York World's Fair. It was invented by Pier Giorgio Perotto and manufactured by Olivetti. About 44,000 Programma 101 computers were sold, each with a price tag of $3,200.
In 1968, Hewlett Packard began marketing the HP 9100A, considered to be the first mass-marketed desktop computer.
The first workstation
Although it was never sold, the first workstation is considered to be the Xerox Alto, introduced in 1974. The computer was revolutionary for its time and included a fully functional computer, display, and mouse. The computer operated like many computers today utilizing windows, menus and icons as an interface to its operating system. Many of the computer's capabilities were first demonstrated in The Mother of All Demos byDouglas Engelbart on December 9, 1968.
The first microprocessor
Intel introduces the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 on November 15, 1971.
In 1975, Ed Roberts coined the term "personal computer" when he introduced the Altair8800. Although the first personal computer is considered by many to be the KENBAK-1, which was first introduced for $750 in 1971. The computer relied on a series of switches for inputting data and output data by turning on and off a series of lights.
The first laptop or portable computer
The IBM 5100 is the first portable computer, which was released on September 1975. The computer weighed 55 pounds and had a five inch CRT display, tape drive, 1.9MHz PALM processor, and 64KB of RAM. In the picture is an ad of the IBM 5100 taken from a November 1975 issue of Scientific America.
The first truly portable computer or laptop is considered to be the Osborne I, which was released on April 1981 and developed by Adam Osborne. The Osborne I weighed 24.5 pounds, had a 5-inch display, 64 KB of memory, two 5 1/4" floppy drives, ran theCP/M 2.2 operating system, included a modem, and cost US$1,795.
The IBM PC Division (PCD) later released the IBM portable in 1984, it's first portable computer that weighed in at 30 pounds. Later in 1986, IBM PCD announced it's firstlaptop computer, the PC Convertible, weighing 12 pounds. Finally, in 1994, IBM introduced the IBM ThinkPad 775CD, the first notebook with an integrated CD-ROM.
The first Apple computer
The Apple I (Apple 1) was the first Apple computer that originally sold for $666.66. The computer kit was developed by Steve Wozniak in 1976 and contained a 6502 8-bit processor and 4 kb of memory, which was expandable to 8 or 48 kb using expansion cards. Although the Apple I had a fully assembled circuit board the kit still required apower supply, display, keyboard, and case to be operational. Below is a picture of an Apple I from an advertisement by Apple.
The first IBM personal computer
IBM introduced its first personal computer called the IBM PC in 1981. The computer was code named and still sometimes referred to as the Acorn and had a 8088processor, 16 KB of memory, which was expandable to 256 and utilized MS-DOS.
The first PC clone
The Compaq Portable is considered to be the first PC clone and was release in March 1983 by Compaq. The Compaq Portable was 100% compatible with IBM computers and was capable of running any software developed for IBM computers.
In 1992, Tandy Radio Shack became one of the first companies to release a computer based on the MPC standard with its introduction of the M2500 XL/2 and M4020 SX computers.
Other computer company firsts
Below is a listing of some of the major computers companies first computers.
Commodore - In 1977, Commodore introduced its first computer, the "Commodore PET". Compaq - In March 1983, Compaq released its first computer and the first 100% IBM compatible computer, the "Compaq Portable." Dell - In 1985, Dell introduced its first computer, the "Turbo PC." Hewlett Packard - In 1966, Hewlett Packard released its first general computer, the "HP-2115." NEC - In 1958, NEC builds its first computer, the "NEAC 1101." Toshiba - In 1954, Toshiba introduces its first computer, the "TAC" digital computer.
Android is now over seven years old and despite the green robotandroid peeking out of phone shops up and down the high street, there are still plenty of people who don’t know what Android is.
If you fit into this category then have no fear; this article is your complete guide to understanding what Android is, what it can do and where to find it, including the best Android mobile phones, Android apps, which games you can play on Android devices, the very best features you can enjoy and how to update to the latest version.
What is Android?
Android is the name of the mobile operating system owned by American company; Google. It most commonly comes installed on a variety of smartphones and tablets from a host of manufacturers offering users access to Google’s own services like Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and more.
This means you can easily look for information on the web, watch videos, search for directions and write emails on your phone, just as you would on your computer, but there’s more to Android than these simple examples.
What can an Android phone do?
Android phones are highly customisable and as such can be altered to suit your tastes and needs; with wallpapers, themes and launchers which completely change the look of your device's interface. You can download applications to do all sorts of things like check your Facebook and Twitter feeds, manage your bank account, order pizza and play games. You can plan events on from your phone's calendar and see them on your computer or browse websites on your desktop and pick them up on your phone.
Another neat feature of Android is that it automatically backs up your contacts for you. When you set up an Android phone you’ll need to create a Google Account or sign in with an existing one. Every time you save a number to the address book of your Android phone it will be synced to your Google Account.
The benefit of this is that if you lose your phone all of your numbers will be saved. The next time you get an Android phone (or an iPhone or Windows Phone if you prefer) and sign in with your Google Account, all of your contacts and friend's numbers will be displayed in your new phone’s address book immediately, no need to transfer or back them up anywhere else.
Syncing is a way for your phone to keep all your information; websites, contacts, calendar entries and apps up-to-date. This can happen over your phone's mobile data or WiFi connection, seamlessly, in the background.
What apps can I get on an Android phone?
There are hundreds of thousands of apps and games available to download from the Google Play store (formerly the Android Market). There are camera apps that allow you to take pictures with artistic effects and music players which allow you to stream music from the web or create playlists. You can customise the appearance of your Android handset with a number of wallpapers based on pictures you’ve taken yourself or downloaded from the internet too.
An example of a widget on the homescreen of an Android phone. This one let's you access music playback from Spotify without having to open the application.
There are also various on-screen widgets to download which allow access to and the alteration of settings on your phone, without the need to dive through menus as you would on non-Android devices. You can pretty much create your own system of shortcuts and menus to better suit how you uniquely use your phone.
You also can download a huge range of games for your Android phone, to keep you entertained on the go. Here are our favourite Android games of all time.
Asphalt Overdrive is a simple to play, tricky to master racing game.
How can I get apps on an Android phone?
The majority of apps can be downloaded from the Google Play store (the equivalent of Apple’s App Store), which includes a mix of free as well as 'premium' apps that you have to pay for. Some apps have ‘lite’ versions which are free, in the hope you’ll enjoy them and upgrade to the full premium version. Others - like Angry Birds - are free, but include adverts or the ability to make in-app purchases.
The same account that lets you backup your contacts can also have financial details added to it, allowing you the ability to purchase content from the Google Play store directly. You can pay either by debit or credit card and initial setup takes less than five minutes from a computer.
Although there are well over a million apps available to Android users in the Google Play store, some developers choose to make their apps available to download from their own sites or alternative app stores. In order to download these you'll have to change some settings on your phone before visiting these sites on your Android device's web browser. By downloading apps outside of the Google Play store, you do run the risk of attack in the form of data theft or leaving yourself more susceptible to viruses, so be careful if you choose this route.
Should you upgrade or change your Android phone; log into your Google account and you’ll be able to download your previously owned apps again, without being charged. In recent years, Google has expanded Google Play to offer more than just apps, with books, magazines, music and movies available for purchase and download in much the same way.
So who makes Android phones?
Any handset maker is free to make an Android phone if they want to. As well as the aforementioned Motorola, HTC, Samsung and Sony, Acer, Alcatel, Asus, Huawei, LG and ZTE have all made Android phones (and tablets) too. Blackberry also launched its very first Android phone, the strangely-named Blackberry Priv at the end of 2015.
Although Google owns the OS (Android), the company has not made any of the hardware on which it runs in-house. However, it has partnered with various handset manufacturers over the years to make its own-brand smartphones under the 'Nexus' name.
Google's Nexus phones are typically the first to receive new updates and are considered to be the flagship Android phones, even though some other Android devices sport larger screens, better cameras and more powerful hardware.
Android updates
Google is constantly working on new versions of the Android software. These releases are infrequent; at the moment they normally come out every six months or so, but Google is looking to slow this down to once a year. Check out our handy, comprehensive guide to every Android version out there.
Like Android phones, Android tablets come in all shapes and sizes. These can range from the 7-inch screen of the Asus-made Google Nexus 7 to far larger displays, such as the 10-inch display found on the Nexus 10.
Somewhat confusingly, some older Android tablets; like the original Samsung Galaxy Tab, launched running Android 2.2 Froyo - a version of Android designed for phones, whilst Android 3.0 Honeycomb was the first release of the OS specifically for tablets.
Older Android tablets which didn’t run on 3.0 Honeycomb couldn’t benefit from things like the redesigned YouTube app, improved widgets and certain tablet-specific apps like SwiftKey for Tablets.
This fragmentation between Android phones and tablets was eliminated with the launch of Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which was designed to operate on either type of device and scale accordingly. Android Jelly Bean introduced a number of improvements for both the smartphone and tablet experience over the likes of ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) and that trend continues with the latest release, Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Do Android updates cost anything?
Android updates are free to download and install. Updates bring a number of new features and changes to Android each time. Generally though, with each update the speed and overall performance of Android is improved upon.
Most of the high-end Android phones are scheduled to receive updates first. Most Android phones will have at least one update during their life cycle, with some having two. A life cycle is usually around 18 months, but depending on the phone this can be longer. These updates differ from app updates, which are smaller, incremental releases for individual applications installed on your Android device.
How do I get an update?
Android updates are normally received OTA (Over The Air), that is, sent directly to your Android phone without the need for a computer. Normally, once your Android phone or tablet is due to get an upgrade, you'll see a notification in the bar at the top of the screen. You'll then be prompted to connect to WiFi to avoid incurring extra data charges - updates can be quite big and downloading them over a mobile data connection isn’t advised as it may result in expensive data charges.
Updates are generally one-stage processes and relatively straightforward, but in some cases you may need to back up/save any media (photos, movies, music) or apps you've downloaded before updating.
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_w670_h330.png "[From left to right] The Google Nexus One was actually made by HTC and ran Android 2.1 Eclair; the Google Nexus S was made by Samsung and launched on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus launched on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the LG Nexus 4 was the first handset to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out-the-box; the LG Nexus 5 was the first handset to run Android 4.4 KitKat and the current Nexus handset the Motorola Nexus 6, is the is the first handset to run Android 5.0 Lollipop.")
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