Page 8 - Home Computer News Today

>> there was a drastic mindset change in the whole country about what a computer was. and happened over a very short period of time. >> gather around and well tell you a lit bit more about the system. >> here at the west coast computer fair, the speed of development in this industry is so great that each fair virtually outdates the previous one. >> when it is lower prices that have helped the tremendous boom in home computer sales, about one home in ten will have a computer by the end of this ye...

Smart machines. >> companies that were starting to build personal computers, companies like atari, tandy, commodore, apple began to see them as a home market. and it was starting to seep into the public consciousness. >> personal computers have become the business of at least 25 manufacturers, with three companies -- radio shack, apple, and commodore -- grabbing three-quarters of the market. this personal computer costs about $1,400 and fits nicely on a desk corner. duplicating its performance f...

Technology. >> one of the striking things about the development of especially hardware during the 1980s was the fact that it was getting so much more powerful, so rapidly, that there developed a strong tendency on the part of people who were about to buy a computer, should i buy the computer today? no, in fact, if i wait six months, for the same money i can get twice the computer. >> the reason we are attracted to computers is it is a power tool that gives me power that i feel i should have had,...

There was a lot of counterculture people. so you had cheap semiconductors. you had people that would look at things differently than what the conventional person was, and thats what the technology needed then. >> one of the things that was really hard about making a computer was now on a chip. so all of a sudden, people who had a thirst for this stuff could go out and buy a home brew computer. you could make them yourself. >> there was a lot of this kind of revolutionary thing with a lot of the ...

People are fundamentally, naturally, mobile. >> i like to say the technology will go from a phone in the car to a phone in the briefcase to finally a phone in your pocket. >> and this is it. this is a portable cellular phone. youll be able to take this to any american city and call virtually any place in the world, and its maker, motorola, says a smaller version than this will be on the market next year. >> your first cell phones look like soviet army field telephones. these huge lunch boxes you...

Against the man in ibm. >> it is aimed at a largely untapped market of managers, professionals, and students. while they make up about 75% of the white collar workforce, less than 5% now use computers, mostly because of their complexity. macintosh is designed for simplicity. using a palm-sized unit called a mouse. >> it was the first time that a machine was personal, it was simple, it was friendly. >> it took the computer out of the exclusive domain of geeks and nerds and people who had memorize...

>> heidi and steve did have a fairly new desktop computer, and that was never seized by the police. >> so to this day we have no idea what that hard drive on the home computer wouldve shown? >> no. >> so your guy is being charged with a contract killing but nobody can product the contract? >> no. >> reporter: not only did investigators not have any computer records, they didnt have a record of bennets plane ticket, phone records, credit card receipts. eyewitnesses who saw bennett and cooke toget...

Immediately throw a big problem right in the middle of you and your problem, which is learning how to use the computer. substantial problem to overcome. once you overcome that, its a phenomenal tool. >> steve jobs thought that a computer should require no technical skill. he thought that it should be capable of generating artistic endeavors and not just number-crunching business things. >> is there anything that youd like to see? >> wed love to have it in a book right now, you know, about this s...

For example, with a free flow of information, can someone tap into my home computer and invade my privacy? will electronic mail eventually lead to electronic junk mail? will the stores as we know them today eventually disappear? and dont many shoppers really like squeezing the tomatoes? will we end up with a cashless paperless society? and do we really want one. these are the kinds of social questions which scientists say society should answer. well be doing for tv what f.m. did for radio. >> ...

Thin air called apple. >> since the apple computer company was founded five years ago, its sales have skyrocketed from $100,000 to more than $100 million. with the most popular typewriter-sized computer on the market today. steven jobs is 26 years old and he sees his computers future as the future of mankind. >> how many calculators do you own? >> two, maybe. >> right. you use the automatic bank telling machines? >> sure. >> so life is already seducing you into learning this stuff. its not going...