How is modern technology possible?

This is a very complicated question because the inventions and ideas that led to what we see now took a very tortured and bumpy course in order to get here.

If you look at most new technology that we see today, it is dependent on two dominant digital devices, namely the microprocessor and memory. Both of these are the ultimate products of transistor science and integrated circuit technology.

The transistor (a solid state amplifier) was invented in 1947 at the AT&T's Bell Labs. Transistors were single discrete units that substituted for vacuum tubes in radios and TV's. Texas Instruments created the first integrated circuit (microchip) in 1958 and this led to the first IC computer processor chips in the 1971, the Intel 4004. The first practical computers using these integrated circuits (the Intel 8008 8bit microprocessor) appeared in 1972 and then the 8080 in 1974, but it wasn't until 1977 that the first practical home computer showed up.

But, these chips were large and required a lot of additional chips to create a complete computer device. It took a lot of miniaturization of these chips to get to a smart phone.

But, what did it take to get to the smart phone? Well, the modern smart phone is a combination of: Mp3 player, hand held computer, PDA, GPS device, cell phone, MP4 video player, camera, and gaming device. At one time these were separate devices.

Digital cameras came out in the mid 90's but were not really miniaturized until well into the 2000's. What they have in smart phones is truly amazing. They're able to take photos at 8 - 12 megapixels or better and video in HD or even higher.

Portable Media players (Mp3 players) go back to 1997. The only thing that you could use before that was a portable cassette tape player or a CD player. However, the Mp3 players of that era were terrible. They didn't hold that much music and there was no easy way to download music into them. That situation didn't improve until Apple came out with the first iPods in 2001. These had tiny hard drives, but it was iTunes that made them practical.

The first PDA's or personal digital assistants go back a ways. The first of these (Psion) came out in 1984, followed by Apple's Newton and the Palm Pilots. It wasn't until the early 2000's that these things could play music and get on the Internet. Ultimately, PDA's became the basis of the smart phone.

Palm had the idea for this (Treo), but never capitalized on it. Microsoft had Window mobile devices but still didn't put it all together. It took Apple to bring out the first really integrated device that combined all of these other functions and the addition of a touch control screen. Actually, the iPhone is just an iPod with phone capability. The iPod of that era could play Mp3 music, play videos, and do all the PDA functions and act as a gaming device. All that was needed was a phone. This happened in 2007, and then everyone else got on the bandwagon, including Samsung, HTC, and a bunch of other companies, including Microsoft and Blackberry even though they had phones out before then.

Apple didn't invent the smart phone, they added a touch screen and made it practical. This seems to be the way that Apple does things. They wait until other companies bring out a new device and then make it better. They did this with the home computer, the Mp3 player, the smart phone and the electronic watch. All of these were out before Apple made their versions. Steve Jobs was smart when it came to bringing out these neat new devices that everyone wants despite their exorbitant prices. Some say he was a genius.

The technology we see today is a product of many complex ideas coming together, including GPS circuits, graphics processing and tiny camera circuits and lenses as well as tiny microprocessors and memory chips. The other technology that had to be advanced is the touch activated LCD color flat screen and the video processor to make it work. That's what really makes the smart phone usable and practical. This is technology at its finest.

Thanks for reading.