Clip art gets a bad rap as an artform, in part because it’s everywhere. Let’s give it some grudging respect by filling in some historic gaps. | Continue reading
The rise of the ad-sponsored dial-up ISP offers some useful lessons on promising too much in the age of MoviePass. Good luck getting rid of that ad. | Continue reading
How cheap ballpoint pens, which are easy to lose and easy to make, changed the world due to their sheer disposability. They're really freaking cheap. | Continue reading
How music from the 8-bit video game era has inspired an entire generation of modern musicians and created new musical genres. | Continue reading
The famed mechanical keyboard switch manufacturer Cherry has been around since the 1950s—but it's only been defined by keyboard switches in the past decade. | Continue reading
Adobe was already a big company when it first made Photoshop, but its biggest competitor, Paint Shop Pro, was built by an airline pilot in his free time. | Continue reading
The story of Columbus, Ohio’s own QUBE Interactive Television, which—beyond breaking ground for cable TV—was social media for the ’70s, for good and bad. | Continue reading
Four decades ago, the Speak & Spell came about, and the result was Texas Instruments’ greatest gadget and a pop-culture icon. | Continue reading
The British company Codemasters, best known for the Game Genie, didn’t let a pesky lack of license get in the way of creating some of the NES’ best games. | Continue reading
Alexa’s Interface is treated as revolutionary, but you might be surprised to learn of your favorite opinionated cylinder’s predecessors from the mid-1980s. | Continue reading
Like spam messages, robocalls aim for the broadest possible audience in an effort to get someone, anyone, with its scam. And both are annoying as heck, too. | Continue reading
The Kindle and the Nook have defined the eBook, but there are literally decades of prior art for this device—an idea many readers still haven’t warmed to. | Continue reading