10 technologies that complete 20 years of life in 2017 [video]

When you refer to the 1990s, it looks like it's pretty close, doesn't it? So maybe it's time to review your perception of time, because we've been through 1997 for no less than two decades.

That's right: Exactly 20 years ago, coach Zagallo would say, "You'll have to swallow me!" When Brazil won the 1997 America's Cup, the reelection was approved for executive positions in the country and Princess Diana died in a car accident. Along with these facts, a host of technologies, services, and programs that we use to this day (or have gained a place in our hearts) emerged. Here's a list of key highlights of the area - whether for the first time to see, refresh your memory or just make you feel older.

1. DVD players in the West

Natural successors of the VHS players, DVD players came into existence in late 1996 in Japan to a very small extent, but only started to win other countries the following year.

Like other technologies, they started out extremely expensive and with serious distribution restrictions. The problem here? Movie studios were concerned with copy protection of their films - something that actually happened later, but eventually ended up inevitable. Gradually, brands such as Toshiba, Sony and Panasonic gained the market with players and also the inputs for burning DVDs on computers.

2. Netflix

Yeah, Netflix looks extremely modern, but the truth is that the company has been around for a while. Prior to moving into the world of streaming in 2007, the company founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph specialized in making movie rentals over the internet, later introducing the monthly subscription to receive products without leaving home.

Hastings says he got the original idea after paying a video store $ 40 in fine

Whether or not this is a made-up story is unknown, but Hastings says he came up with the original idea after having to pay a video store $ 40 just for delaying the return of a feature film.

3. Winamp

If you use streaming services today to listen to your favorite artists and barely remember what life was like before then, believe me, it wasn't always like this. And, among time-consuming downloads and program settings, one of the most famous music players among those who took the stage of listening to MP3 files on their PC was Winamp.

Nullsoft's program stood out from the rest for a number of qualities. It had a much more modern look, the ability to install skins and plugins easily (which made the software totally customized to the user experience) and good playlist control. Winamp took some time to gain fame and expand, because the first version was so minimalistic that it had no window: it was just a bar with a simple playback menu.

4. WiFi

The year was also marked by the first major step in establishing this technology that may even be allowing you to read this article. Created in 1997, the so-called "IEE 802.11 legacy" was the first wireless networking standard that defined the protocols that would be used for this form of data transmission. To establish the rules, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) determined that WiFi would operate between the 2.4 GHz and 2.4835 GHz frequencies with 1 Mb / s and 2 Mb / s transmissions.

The original default has been almost completely modified.

Using one of the established techniques somewhat slowed down the data carried, but allowed for multi-channel transmissions and reduced interference and information loss. Two years later, the industry was led by the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA), now called the Wi-Fi Alliance. Coverage has grown and the original standard has been almost completely modified, but it has helped underpin one of today's most essential technologies.

5. CD-RW

Let the first stone throw who lived the 1990s and never recorded a CD by computer! Rewritable compact discs (CD-RW) revolutionized the world at the time by allowing you to burn files over and over, just requiring you to erase the previous content first. The secret of these models was the composition of the disc surface. It was made of a material that could change its shape by applying heat. Thus, when there is contact with the recording laser, it is possible to rewrite data to the media.

This technology popularized the sharing of content between people and even made new and more powerful readers on PCs. Each rewritable CD could have overlapped data about a thousand times.

6. Nero Burning ROM 1

And you usually used some software to make these recordings, right? Nero Burning ROM 1, or simply Nero, has become synonymous with the program to "burn" (copy some content) to CDs and later DVDs. It was not the first in the business, but it was certainly the most famous.

The interface was well simplified even at the time and several different procedures were supported, making it an ideal program even for those with no PC experience. And there's another one: if you haven't made the call yet, he was named after the Roman emperor responsible for setting fire to Rome.

7. Babel Fish

The Google translator is a reference today, but the role of transforming texts from one language to another has mostly been done by the Babel Fish service. He was born as part of AltaVista, another internet giant of the past, and was later acquired by Yahoo !. Since 2012, it has been completely replaced by Bing, Microsoft's search engine, but it still exists as a company.

Did you find the name of the service curious? It is a tribute to the Babelfish, an animal in the universe of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. In the work, he is used by humans and aliens to serve precisely as a "universal translator."

8. Pentium II

So, did you ever use a Pentium II processor on your computer? It was the sixth generation of Intel chips, then based on the predecessor Pentium Pro architecture, or P6. Reaching clocks of up to 450 MHz, this model brought compositional news to eliminate some not so important components and add new technologies.

The new circuit board integrated the processor and L2 cache, ensuring a cheaper production method without losing performance. The chip was still capable of reading 16-bit and 32-bit instructions at the same speed, making it ideal for both new systems - Windows 98 was the leader of the era - as well as older versions. The classic Celeron processor line was initially released based on Pentium II.

9. Yahoo! Mail

This is especially symbolic, as Yahoo! it will hardly continue to exist in the way we know it after 2017. The Yahoo! Mail was already the third most accessed in the world (according to Comscore data) in 2011, with 281 million active users. Plenty of storage and organization has been the keys to the service for a long time.

Yahoo! Mail has maintained the classic visual identity for several years.

Born from the Rocketmail client, Yahoo! Mail maintained the classic visual identity for several years, pleasing those who were already loyal to the brand. Unfortunately, security holes, massive advertising presence, and few changes to annoy competitors have made the domain lose credibility and fall behind.

10. Symbian

The market dominated today by Android and iOS once had an undisputed leader made by Nokia. This is Symbian, a mobile operating system that was used on handsets from various manufacturers in a still Jurassic era of smartphones.

At its peak in 2006, Symbian was present in 67% of smartphones sold worldwide and was widely praised for interface and processing. But soon it was outdated, with serious security holes and a lot of fragmentation, which led to incompatibilities between apps.

Via TecMundo.