Apple’s early mouse prototype borrowed a deodorant ball and a butter dish
Dean Hovey’s reviewed oral history connects a weekend mockup to the friction and maintenance problems his team had to solve.
By Chris PirilloRead the story
From the vault This day in tech history, November 7
- 1996
NASA launches Mars Global Surveyor
The 1,030-kilogram orbiter left on a Delta rocket, reached Mars orbit in September 1997 and looped the planet for a decade before a computer error silenced it in November 2006.
- 2017
Twitter doubles the tweet to 280 characters
It went to every language but Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Before, 9 percent of tweets hit the 140 limit; in the test, 1 percent hit 280, and only 5 percent ran past 140 at all.
- 2017
Video Game History: Xbox One X comes out
Microsoft billed it as the world's most powerful console, with 40 percent more power than any other and true 4K gaming, for $499. It launched in 35 Xbox One markets.
Then and now
1982: A Commodore 64: $595. Today: $180 for a Raspberry Pi 500, keyboard included. The Pi 500 has 8 GB of memory, which is 131,072 times what the 64 had.
