How powerful was the Apollo 11 computer?
The Apollo Guidance Computer that helped land Apollo 11 had only about 4 kilobytes of erasable memory, millions of times less than a modern smartphone.
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Smartphone Facts
Smartphone facts and facts about smartphones.
20 facts on this shelf
How does a smartphone compass work?
Smartphones have a tiny sensor called a magnetometer that measures Earth's magnetic field to work as a digital compass.
What was the first smartphone?
The IBM Simon, released in 1994, is considered the first smartphone.
When was the first mobile phone call?
Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first handheld mobile phone call on April 3, 1973, calling a rival at Bell Labs.
When was the iPhone announced?
Steve Jobs announced the iPhone on January 9, 2007.
How many apps were in the first App Store?
Apple's App Store launched in July 2008 with about 500 apps.
What was the first Android phone?
The first Android phone was the HTC Dream, sold as the T-Mobile G1, released in 2008.
What was a "CrackBerry"?
"CrackBerry," a nickname for addictive BlackBerry phones, was Webster's New World College Dictionary's word of the year in 2006.
When was "selfie" named word of the year?
"Selfie" was named Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year in 2013.
What is Gorilla Glass?
Corning's Gorilla Glass, used on the iPhone, grew out of a toughened glass project the company developed in the 1960s.
Who runs GPS?
GPS is run by the US Space Force, and full accuracy has been available to civilians since 2000.
What sensors are in a smartphone?
Smartphones contain many sensors, including GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers.
Is there gold in smartphones?
Smartphones contain small amounts of gold in their electronics.
Who made the first handheld cell phone call?
Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first handheld cell phone call on April 3, 1973, calling a rival engineer at Bell Labs to brag.
When did the first iPhone come out?
Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone on January 9, 2007, and it went on sale on June 29, 2007.
How does a smartphone compare to the Apollo computer?
The Apollo Guidance Computer that helped land astronauts on the Moon had only about 4 KB of RAM, while a modern smartphone has millions of times more memory.
What was the first camera phone?
The Sharp J-SH04, released in Japan in 2000, is generally considered the first commercially sold camera phone.
Where did smartphone screen glass come from?
Corning's Gorilla Glass, used on the first iPhone and billions of phones since, was based on a strong glass Corning had developed back in the 1960s.
Who runs the GPS that smartphones use?
The GPS that smartphones use for maps is a constellation of US satellites operated by the US Space Force, and it's free for anyone in the world to use.
When did Siri come out?
Apple's voice assistant Siri launched on the iPhone 4S in 2011, bringing voice assistants to the mainstream.