1. TECHNOLOGY

2. Thank goodness for the 80’s: Technology Much of the technology that was developed or greatly improved in the 1980’s began as the result of communication needs during times of war or to crunch large number for census reports. Advances in technology in 1980’s made way for the technology of today: cell phones, MP3 players, recorders, etc.

3. Mobile Phone (Cell Phone) Mobile phones came to the Americas in 1983. Advanced Mobile Phone System allowed for mass production of mobile (cell) phone. Mobile phone conversations could be heard on CB radios

4. Personal Computers Became available to the public on April 12, 1981. Very bulky, had to be plugged in to electrical and internet Microprocessors made production of PC easy and cheap. Computer was born out of a need to crunch very large numbers. 1983 Apple’s Lisa was a huge flop! However, it did have the first drop down menu and icons. 1985 Microsoft announces Windows The first dot-com domain name is registered on March 15, years before “www”

5. Videocassette Recorder (VCR) VCR’s could record programs off of TV’s with a timer. US film companies fought to prevent the VCR from being sold because of copyright. 1984 the Supreme Court ruled home recording of TV programs for later viewing as “fair use”. 2003 brought DVD’s, VCR became obsolete.

6. Game System 1981 the arcade video gaming systems were earning $900 million. The early 80’s was a race for the home gaming industry. 1982 Atari introduced Pac- Man and E.T. The beginning of the video gaming systems started in the early 80’s.

7. Camcorder Home video recording became the rage. 1983 Sony released the 1 st consumer camcorder. Before camcorders were used by television only. Today you can record from your phone.

8. Walkman 1980’s the walkman decade Cassette tape out sold the vinyl records for the first time in 1983. 1986 Walkman was in the Oxford dictionary. During the Walkman era walking for exercise increased by 30%. The Walkman lead the way for the MP3 players of today.

9. Compact Disk (CD) Billy Joel’s 52 nd Street was the first album to be released as CD on Oct. 1, 1982. By 1988, 400 million CDs were manufactured by 50 plants world wide.