#166 History of iPad 2

The iPad 2 is the second generation of the iPad, a tablet computer designed, developed and marketed by Apple. It serves primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games and web content, and is available in black or white. The Foxconn China-manufactured iPad 2 has a lithium-ion polymer battery that lasts up to 10 hours, a new dual core Apple A5 processor and VGA front-facing and 720p rear-facing cameras designed for FaceTime video calling.

Apple unveiled the device on March 2, 2011, began selling it by website and retail stores on March 11, and released it in 25 other countries on March 25, including Australia, Britain and Canada. Apple announced that the iPad 2 would be released in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and other countries on April 29, 2011.

#165 Laptop

A laptop, also called a notebook is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard a pointing device (a touch pad or known as a trackpad, and/or a pointing stick) and speakers into a single unit. A laptop is powered by mains electricity via an AC adapter, and can be used away from an outlet using a recheargeable battery

Portable computers, originally monochrome CRT-based and developed into the modern laptops, and were originally considered to be a small niche market, mostly for specialized field applications such as the military, accountants and sales representatives. As portable computers became smaller, lighter, cheaper, more powerful and as screens became larger and of better quality, laptops became very widely used for all sorts of purposes.

#164 Stabilo

The company was founded as Grossberger & Kurz Bleistiftfabrik (pencil company) in Nuremberg in 1855 and acquired by the Schwanhäusser family in 1865. Taking the first part from the family name, the company was renamed Schwan Bleistiftfabrik and started using the swan logo as one of the earliest trademarks. In the 1930s, it expanded intocosmetic pencils, and this side of the business has grown to a significant part of the company since the 1970s. In 1967 it started a German-Malaysia joint venture calledSwan Malaysia Sdn Bhd in Malaysia. The company changed its name to Schwan-Stabilo in 1976 and to Stabilo International in 2005. It has three manufacturing plants for pens, one in WeiBenBurg in Bayern, Germany one in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and since 1991 one in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. Cosmetics pens are manufactured at the company headquarters in Heroldsberg Germany, and in the Czech Republic and sold as OEM products, but not under the Stabilo brand. Total employment in 2006 was 3000 people, and the company made €260 million that year. Stabilo introduced fluorescent markers for highlighting in 1971 and is the European market leader in this product category.

#163 Zapin

Zapin (Jawi : زافين) is a dance form that is popular in Malaysia(especially in the state of Johor) and in Indonesia especially in Malay-populated provinces in Sumatera (Riau Province, Jambi Province, Riau islands Province, North sumatera, and Bangka Belitung Islands and West Kalimantan It is believed to have been introduced by Arab, Muslim missionaries from the Middle East in the fourteenth century.

In the old days, only males were allowed to perform; nowadays, female dancers are included. It used to be performed exclusively for religious ceremonies but through the years it has become a form of traditional entertainment, hence the participation of female dancers is allowed.

The dancers usually perform in pairs and are accompanied by a traditional music ensemble which normally consists of the gambus, accordion, marwas (bongos), rebana (drum) and dok.

There are numerous types of zapin, and each type varies by the movement and style of dance:

• Zapin Melayu Johor
• Zapin Pulau
• Zapin Tenglu
• Zapin Tenglu 2
• Zapin Lenga
• Zapin Pekajang
• Zapin Arab
• Zapin Jambi
• Zapin Singapura
• Zapin Sekaki
• Zapin Pesisir
• Zapin Tembung

*Sources : Wikipidea.com :)

#162 History of the Iphone

The first concept for an iPhone type device came about in 2000 when Apple worker John Casey sent some concept art around via internal email, he called it the Telipod - a telephone and iPod combination. However, this idea eventually evolved into the iPhone we know today.

It was Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs who directed Apple's engineers to develop a touch sreen mobile phone. Jobs at first was considering am Apple tablet computer, that desire eventually manifested in the iPad, and Apple had already produced a palm device with a touch screen, the Newton MessagePad.

#161 Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. As of July 2011, Facebook has more than 800 million active users Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Facebook users must register before using the site. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists, e.g. "People From Work", or "Really Good Friends". The name of the service stems from the colloquial name for the bookgiven to students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the United States to help students get to know each other. Facebook allows any users who declare themselves to be at least 13 years old to become registered users of the website.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Enduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskocvitz and Chris Hughers. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the lvy league, and Stanford univeristy. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before opening to high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. However, based on ConsumersReports.org on May 2011, there are 7.5 million children under 13 with accounts, violating the site's terms.

A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users, followed by Myspace. Entertainment Weekly included the site on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?" Quantcasetestimates Facebook has 138.9 million monthly unique U.S. visitors in May 2011. According to Social Media Today, in April 2010 an estimated 41.6% of the U.S. population had a Facebook account. Nevertheless, Facebook's market growth started to stall in some regions, with the site losing 7 million active users in the United States and Canada in May 2011.

#160 Who invented Microsoft

Microsoft was founded by William Henry Bill Gates III and Paul Gardener Allen in the city of Albuquerque, in the United States, in April 1975. Both were friends in those days. Although Paul Allen officially distanced himself from the company in 2000, Bill Gates is still the CEO and the world’s second wealthiest man.

In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen demonstrated how Basic Programming language could be applied to Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, an American company which soon after agreed to distribute their product. The first office outside the United States was opened in Japan in 1978.

The first major breakthrough for the company came when Paul Allen managed to grab a contract by the IBM to create an operating system for the company in 1981. Microsoft didn’t have any operating system at the time. The company purchased a ready-made operating system QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), improved it, renamed it DOS and sold it to the IBM. This established Microsoft as a player to be reckoned with in the computer industry.

1985 saw the release of the first Microsoft Windows. Microsoft Office followed in 1989. Windows 95, an operating system, was launched in 1995 and it turned out to be hugely popular because of its ease of use. This was followed by improved windows and the latest in this category is Windows 7 which has been designed as a ‘simple to use operating system.’ Currently, the company employs more than 93000 employees in more than 100 countries and its assets were worth more than $77 billion in 2009.

Sources : The Gemini Geek :)

#159 Who invented Google?

The very popular search engine called Google was invented by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Google was named after a googol - the name for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros - found in the book Mathematics And the Imagination by Edward Kasner and James Newman. To Google's founders the name represents the immense amount of information that a search engine has to sift through.

#158 SpongeBob SquarePants History

SpongeBob SquarePants (often referred to simply as SpongeBob) is an American animated television series, created by Marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom". The series' popularity has prompted the release of a media franchise, contributing to its position as Nickelodeon'shighest rated show, the most distributed property of MTV network, and among Nicktoon's most watched shows.

SquarePants characters. He left the institute to become an animator in 1987, and later attended the California Institute of Arts in 1992. In the institute, he made his thesis film Wormholes (1992), which led to his hiring as a director, writer, producer, storyboard artist, and executive producer of the series Rocko's Modern Life by creator Joe Murray. He started to develop the series in 1996 following Rocko's Modern Life's, and pitched the series to Nickelodeon in 1998 and was later greenlit for a first season.

The basis for SpongeBob SquarePants was formed by Hillenburg in 1984 while teaching and studying marine biology at the Ocean Institution Dana Point, California, where he wrote the comic strip The Intertidal Zone, which starred various anthrophomorphic forms of sea life, many of which would evolve into SpongeBob

The pilot episode of SpongeBob SquarePants first aired episodes in the United States on Nickelodeon on May 1, 1999, following the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The first episodes were called "Help wanted "Reef Blower", "Tea at tredome. The "official" series premiere followed on July 17, 1999, with the second episode, "Bubblestand/Ripped Pants." The show reached enormous popularity by 2000 during the second season, and has remained popular since. A ffeature film of the series was released in theaters on November 19, 2004. The series celebrated its tenth anniversary on July 17, 2009. SpongeBob was renewed for a ninth season on January 3, 2011.So far the series has aired 306 individual episodes.

#157 Alexender Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.

Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first US patent for the telephone in 1876. In retrospect, Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.

Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecomunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics. In 1888, Alexander Graham Bell became one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society. Bell has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history.

*Sources : wikipidea.com :)