1990s Gadgets, Inventions etc

1990
Adobe Photoshop
Developed in the late 1980s by PhD student Thomas Knoll, it came to the attention of his brother John, who drew on his experience working for George Lucas’ visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic. They approached Adobe, who bought the distribution licence, and Photoshop 1.0 was released in February 1990.

World Wide Web
The internet (a system of interconnected computer networks) was created in the late 60s, but limited to government departments and research institutions. Tim Berners-Lee a British engineer and computer scientist, working at CERN, developed the first web server, the first web browser, and a document formatting protocol, called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). He also created the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and a system of globally unique identifiers for resources on the Web and elsewhere, the universal document identifier (UDI), later known as uniform resource locator (URL). The first web site, published on December 20th, 1990, was quite rudimentary.

Hubble Space Telescope
Launched in April, it revolutionised astronomy. Its 5 main instruments observe in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to capture extremely high-resolution images with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes.

1991
Linux
During his second year at the University of Helsinki, Linus Torvalds he set out to build a new operating system for his Intel PC, which developed into the industry-changing open-source Linux operating system. This ended up as one of the largest platforms for internet companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter.

1992
Text messages

In 1992 Neil Papworth, a former developer at Sema Group Telecoms, successfully sent the first text message to Richard Jarvis, a director at Vodafone. At the time, cell phones didn't have keyboards, so Papworth typed his "Merry Christmas" message on a PC. Early on, text messaging was largely underutilized as phones and network carriers weren’t very accommodating. Screens were tiny and without a keyboard it was quite cumbersome to type out sentences with a numerical dialling input layout. It caught on more in the late 90s as manufacturers came out with models with full QWERTY keyboards.

Nokia 1011
Mobile phones (affectionately known as bricks) appeared on the market in the 1980s. When Nokia launched its first cell phone, the 1011 on 10th November 1992, it changed the way cell phones were viewed, being the first mass-produced GSM phone, and the first mobile phone to support SMS text messages.

1993
MP3s
This file format was defined as a standard for audio encoding by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) - a working group of industry experts. It uses lossy compression to encode data using inexact approximations and the partial discarding of data, allowing for a large reduction in file sizes when compared to uncompressed audio. The combination of small size and acceptable fidelity led to a boom in the distribution of music over the Internet in the late 1990s, with MP3 serving as an enabling technology at a time when bandwidth and storage were still at a premium. German engineer Karlheinz Brandenburg was part of the team at the Fraunhofer Institute who developed the format and, due to his contributions, is often regarded as the “father of the MP3.” The song that was chosen to encode the first MP3 was "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega. After some setbacks, including an instance in 1991 in which the project almost died, they produced an audio file in 1992 that Brandenburg described as sounding exactly like on the CD, and the format was officially published in 1993.

PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants)
These became popular in the mid-1990s with the release of the touchscreen Apple Newton in 1993, although it had a monochrome screen. Later in the late 1990s, the first full-colour PDAs were released, but they had a short battery life. These would gradually merge their features with mobile phones, leading to smartphones such as the iPhone.

1994
Smartphone
Credited as the first smartphone, the IBM Simon was manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric, which integrated features with its own cellular radio technologies. It featured a liquid-crystal display (LCD) and PC Card support. The Simon was commercially unsuccessful, particularly due to its bulky form factor and limited battery life, using NiCad batteries rather than the nickel–metal hydride batteries commonly used in mobile phones in the 1990s, or lithium-ion batteries used in modern smartphones.

1995
Windows 95
The successor to Windows 3.1, it was the first version to include the modern “Windows Feel” (Taskbar, Start Menu) and featured significant improvements over its predecessor, most notably in the graphical user interface (GUI) and in its simplified "plug-and-play" features. It gained immediate popularity and made Windows the standard operating system for most PCs. Windows 98 was even more successful three years later.

Global Positioning System (GPS)
The first prototype spacecraft was launched in 1978 and the full constellation of 24 satellites were installed in 1993, but the system didn't become fully operational for a couple of years. This satellite-based radio navigation system is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites.

1996
DVDs
The DVD (short for "digital video disc") was developed in 1995 and released in 1996 as a replacement for VHS. After the hassle of the VHS/Betamax competition, five of the leading computer companies (IBM, Apple, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft) banded together and came to an agreement on a single format. Toshiba released the world's first DVD player in Japan, the SD-3000, however Sony claimed to be the first player in the US the following year. Fujitsu released the first DVD-ROM-equipped computer on November 6 1996 in Great Britain, with Toshiba, Sony and several others appearing by the following May.

1997
Plasma screens
Although the concept was proposed in 1936, and the first prototype was created in the mid 60s, plasma flat panel televisions become commercially available this year, competing against CRT televisions. Philips introduced at CES and CeBIT the first large commercially available flat-panel TV, using the Fujitsu panels. Philips had plans to sell it for 70,000 French francs. It was released as the Philips 42PW9962. It was available at four Sears locations in the US for $14,999, including in-home installation. Pioneer and Fujitsu also began selling plasma televisions that year, and other manufacturers followed.
Although orange-on-black monochrome display plasma screens were available from early 80s, full colour flat panel computer monitors were released commercially to the public in the mid-to-late 90s.

Netflix
Originally launched during the dial-up Internet era, it began by offering DVDs mailed straight to one's home, which the user could select in an online queue. By 2007 it started to offer streaming directly from the Internet, making it a competitor to conventional network television.

1998
Google
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin met in 1995 at Stanford University. In 1996, the two were writing a program for a search engine called Backrub, and after the success of this platform, they registered the domain name Google.com in 1997. They continued to develop what would become the largest search engine of the in the garage of a friend Susan Wojcicki (who went on to be the director of YouTube). Google was officially incorporated as a company in September 1998.

1999
BlackBerry
The first version was released in January as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany, using the same hardware as the Inter@ctive pager 950, and running on the Mobitex network. It was a solution devised by RIM (Research in Motion) for delivering e-mail over several different wireless networks. The original BlackBerry device had a monochrome display while newer models installed colour displays.


Other Scientific notables
September 90 - The first successful somatic gene therapy trials began.
October 90 - Human Genome Project formally began, with the objective of determining the DNA sequence of the entire euchromatic human genome within 13 years.
January 91 - The first intracytoplasmic sperm injection in vitro fertilization produced baby was born by mechanically injecting a single, selected sperm cell into an egg.
1991 - Detection of extrasolar planets orbiting a pulsar was confirmed.
The development of web browsers such as Netscape Navigator (originally known as Mosaic) in 1993 and Internet Explorer in 1995 made surfing the World Wide Web easier and more user friendly.
From 1994 onward, businesses started building e-commerce websites; e-commerce-only companies such as Amazon.com, eBay, AOL, and Yahoo! grew rapidly.
1994 - The FlavrSavr tomato, the first genetically modified food sold in the United States was introduced.
1994 - Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem was discovered by Andrew Wiles and completed.
April 95 - The NSFNET backbone was shut down, making the Internet a unified and "centreless" network without any restrictions on traffic types and essentially causing the Dot com bubble by attracting large-scale corporate investment in the Internet.
July 96 - Dolly the sheep was cloned from an adult somatic cell. The cell used as the donor for the cloning of Dolly was taken from a mammary gland, and the production of a healthy clone, therefore, proved that a cell taken from a specific part of the body could recreate a whole individual.
1996 - Construction started on the International Space Station.
1996 - Google began indexing the World Wide Web.
1996 - USB ports were invented, allowing for computing devices to connect more easily. The USB flash drive debuted in December 2000.
1997 - The first hybrid vehicles are produced.
1998 - The first portable MP3 player, the MPMan was released.
1999 – For several years, certain people had been frantically worrying about the Year 2000 problem (commonly known as Y2K), the computer glitch disaster expected to happen on January 1, 2000.Millions of pounds were squandered in combing through software and on the day it had the impact of a damp squib.


Also in the 90s
Email became popular; as a result Microsoft acquired the popular Hotmail webmail service in 97, renaming it MSN Hotmail.
High-end cars of the 1990s were installed with automatic doors, windows controlled with electric levers, GPS navigation, and CD drives.
DNA identification of individuals, introduced in the late 1980s, found wide application in criminal law.
Protease inhibitors introduced in 1987 allowing HAART therapy against HIV became an important part of HIV treatment in the 1990s and helped to extend and save millions of lives.
Discovery of dark matter, dark energy, brown dwarfs, and first confirmation of black holes.
Active matrix laptop computers became popular and easier to afford.
Satellite television became commonplace.

1990s Men’s Fashions

One of the most diverse eras in fashion history, the 90s was multicoloured yet minimalist. Poppy yet punky. Tight-fitting yet oversized at the same time. It was also heavily influenced by everything from film and music to sports and video games. Exaggerated nonchalance was key to the end of the millennium. Here are some of the main styles:
Grunge Look
Made popular by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, this was akin to 70s punk with torn clothing, layered jewelry, and unruly hair. Generally dark, unconventional and edgy, it took dressing down to new depths, bottomed out with ankle-length boots (Doc Martens), converse shoes or scruffy trainers. It often featured tartan or checkered flannel shirts, relaxed-fit jeans, and a leather biker jacket, accessorised with chokers, sunglasses and a classic baseball cap or bucket hat.

Hip Hop Fashion
Popularised by rappers like Puff Daddy, Tupac and Biggie, this look mostly consisted of baggy jeans/cargo pants, oversized t-shirts/sweatshirts, athletic wear, and Timberland boots. Haircuts were often wild, the look accessorised with gold chains/jewellery and the distinctive hip hop style eyeglasses.

Preppy Style
Often associated with affluence and Ivy League schools, the preppy style is characterized by classic silhouettes and understated colors. This usually takes the form of a button-down shirt, polos, v-neck sweaters over collared shirts, chinos/khaki pants, and loafers/canvas slip-ons, topped with the ubiquitous blazers or cardigans.

Jock Fashion
The 90s were the golden age of jock fashion - all about feeling comfortable and stylish at the same time. Jocks would wear smart clothes that showed off their muscular physique, they were always well-groomed and smelled great. The white polo golfers t-shirt featured breathable cotton fabric to keep cool, worn with blue denims and a letterman sweater and/or bomber jacket. Vaguly related was Athleisure, featuring shorts outfits, track pants, and hoodies paired with sneakers or running shoes. The perfect example of 90s athleisure fashion is the iconic image of Michael Jordan wearing his Chicago Bulls jersey and shorts with a pair of Nike Air Jordan sneakers. This look was simultaneously comfortable, practical, and fashionable, making it a hit with guys of all ages.

Beach Fashion
The 90s was a decade of big fashion statements. Men’s beach fashion was no exception. Printed half sleeved shirts and tight-fitting shorts were all the rage. And if you wanted to stand out, you accessorized with a bandana or a headband. The overall look was suave yet youthful, adventurous yet stylish. It was a look that said you were confident and ready to take on the world. Related is the the skater-boy look. Skateboarders and surfers who sought a casual look comfortable with skate and surfing made this look popular. The look consisted of baggy jeans, flannel shirts, screen-printed t-shirts, and Vans shoes.

Hairstyles

Curtains – all about straight lines and smooth hair with a centre parting and long bangs flopping around either side of the head.
Frosted tips – involved bleaching only the very tips of the hair, which was usually cut short and spiked up vertically with wet-look gel.
Faux Hawk – involved shaving the sides of the head and leaving the hair on top longer. The top hair was then cut into a shape like a Mohawk.
Crew Cut – involved shaving the sides and back of the headshot while leaving the hair on top longer. The top hair was then cut into a shape similar to a crew cut.
Mullet – involved growing the hair long in the back and short in the front. The Mullet could be worn with or without bangs.
Bowl Cut – involved shaving the back and sides of the head short while leaving the hair on top longer. The hair on top was then cut into a bowl-like shape.


Massive shout-out to the following websites for providing the source material:
https://mensarray.com/90s-mens-fashion/#google_vignette
https://www.apetogentleman.com/90s-fashion-trends-men/

My Top Thirteen 1998

1. The Mavericks - Dance The Night Away 5-1998
2. The Corrs - Dreams 5-1998
3. The Beautiful South - Perfect 10 9-1998
4. Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing 9-1998
5. Cher - Believe 10-1998
6. LeAnn Rimes - How Do I Live 3-1998
7. Savage Garden - Truly Madly Deeply 2-1998
8. Bryan Adams ft. Melanie C - When You're Gone 12-1998
9. Cornershop - Brimful Of Asha 2-1998
10. Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On 2-1998
11. The Spice Girls - Stop 3-1998
12. U2 - Sweetest Thing 11-1998
13. Robbie Williams - Let Me Entertain You 3-1998

And the ones that got away:
All Saints - Bootie Call 9-1998
The Backstreet Boys - All I Have To Give 2-1998
Baddiel & Skinner and The Lightning Seeds - Three Lions '98 6-1998
B*Witched - C'est La Vie 6-1998
Boyzone - No Matter What 8-1998
Mariah Carey & Whitney Houston - When You Believe 12-1998
The Corrs - What Can I Do 9-1998
Culture Club - I Just Wanna Be Loved 11-1998
Destiny's Child - No No No 4-1998
Des'ree - Life 6-1998
Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight 7-1998
Five - Got The Feelin' 6-1998
Wyclef Jean - Gone Till November 5-1998
Madonna - Frozen 2-1998
Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next 8-1998
The Spice Girls - Viva Forever 7-1998
Steps - Heartbeat / Tragedy 11-1998
Stereophonics - The Bartender And The Thief 11-1998
Robbie Williams - Millennium 10-1998

My Top 13 Adverts

1. Guinness Classic ads 1998/9

Unforgettable TV adverts of the highest quality from Guinness, filled with stunning imagery, a pulsating soundtrack and a haunting voiceover.
1998 - Swim Black - An aging local sports hero’s annual swimming race against the ‘clock’ of a pint of Guinness being poured perfectly at his brother’s bar. He worries he won't make it one year, but his brother starts the clock a little later each year.
1999 - Surfer - A group of surfers, wait for the perfect wave. As it arrives, the crashing 'white horses' turn into actual horses. One by one, a surfer 'crashes out', leaving only one, who manages to conquer the wave. The others join him as they celebrate on the shore.

2. Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Drumming Gorilla 2007

It shouldn't work, it has nothing to do with chocolate bars, but watching a gorilla drumming to Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight. What’s not to like?
This advert was named as the nations all-time favourite at one point in time, and was created in a bid to bring fun and excitement back to the Cadburys organisation in 2007. Surprisingly the advert almost didn’t make it onto TV screens, but when it did it was 90 seconds long, didn’t involve any humans, and there were no Dairy Milk bars in sight. The advert holds the audience’s attention as for the first minute there is no backing track, and it shows a slow pan of the gorilla getting ready to perform. Ironically despite the lack of branding and mention of Cadburys, the advert is still very clearly for the chocolate giant, as the gorilla is placed in front of a purple backdrop. The directors of the advert wanted to showcase exactly how eating Cadburys Dairy Milk makes you feel, and the audience resonated with this as it became one of the companies largest and most successful campaigns.

3. Smash Martians 1973

A family of Martian robots would watch humans laboriously preparing mashed potato the traditional way on TV. The robots would then mock what they saw by chortling as they heard how the "Earth people peeled their own potatoes with their metal knives, boiled them for twenty of their minutes, then smashed them all to bits" – instead of using Smash instant mash. The catchphrase 'For Mash Get Smash' is still an iconic advertising slogan in the UK. From 1973 to 1992, viewers were treated to a delightful parade of TV commercials that showcased the aliens’ attempts to understand Earth’s obsession with traditional mashed potatoes. The series cleverly combined comedy and culinary appeal, turning what could have been a mundane product into a pop culture phenomenon. What made the campaign so enduring was its ability to connect with the Best of British nostalgia, capturing the essence of a bygone era. The whimsical aliens became unlikely cultural ambassadors, creating a sense of shared joy and laughter across living rooms throughout the nation.

4. Cinzano Collins & Rossiter 1978

Cinzano created an unlikely partnership between the glamorous Joan Collins and Rising Damp star Leonard Rossiter in this series of adverts. Viewers saw the couple on board an aircraft, on holiday, at a fancy dress party, at a ski lodge, entertaining Japanese businessmen – and in each scenario, a pretentious, accident-prone Rossiter accidentally douses his prudish wife Melissa (Collins) in Cinzano. Although the viewer always knew what was coming, the ads were perfectly timed and skilfully written, and the not-quite slapstick mocked the drink commercials of other brands aimed at a younger generation. Several accounts suggest the two co-stars’ relationship offstage led to the brilliant chemistry, and all credit due to Joan Collins’ wry delivery of the punchline after yet another soaking.

5. Renault Clio Papa and Nicole 1991-98

Renault Clio Advert set in Historic French town featuring Nicole who tries to sneak away from her dozing Papa to meet her boyfriend. She drives around narrow streets showing how easy it is to manoeuvre the car. He follows her in another Clio, then drives past them in a clinch to meet his petite amour. It ends with her returning to find him apparently still dozing, both sporting secret smiles. The majority of the dialogue in all the ads consists of two words: "Papa" and "Nicole," with meaningful intonations, and the final caption: A certain flair. Background music adapted Robert Palmers' Johnny and Mary.

6. Hovis The Bike Ride 1974

So simple, but so iconic. Voted Britain’s most favourite advert of all time, this ad for Hovis Bread was one of five directed by acclaimed film director Ridley Scott and has since been digitally remastered. It features a boy ushing a bicycle laden with bread up a picturesque English cobbled street. A voice-over, presumably of the boy at a later age, nostalgically describes the trip as he struggles up the steep hill to deliver bread, set to Dvorak’s stirring music. Many people think it’s set in Yorkshire, but it was actually filmed in Dorset and this scene of Gold Hill put Shaftesbury on the map – a memorial to Hovis now stands at the top of the hill.

7. Cadbury Milk Tray Man in Black 1974

It was one of the most popular and longest-running TV adverts of all time, where a man dressed in black overcame impossible odds to deliver a box of delicious Cadbury’s Milk Tray chocolates to his lady love. The mysterious hero appeared in over 20 adverts between 1968 and 2003. Over the years, we saw him jump on a moving passenger train, leap from a helicopter and swim through shark-infested waters. Why? “All because the lady loves Milk Tray”, of course. And the final scene always sowed said lady picking up his distinctive calling card while the camera panned in on the box of chocolates. The ads were inspired by the James Bond films, which had become smash hits at the cinema in the 1960s. The music, The Night Rider, was written by Cliff Adams, who also wrote the music for Fry's Turkish Delight advertisements.

8. British Telecom Beattie – Maureen Lipman 1988
Maureen Lipman created a TV advert legend as Beattie in this classic BT advert, and her Jewish granny character went on to star in 32 TV commercials and contribute the word "ology" to the English language.. Having been told by her grandson Anthony that he has failed most of his exams - only passing pottery and sociology, Beattie cries: "He gets an ology and he says he's failed... you get an ology you're a scientist..."

9. Wall's Cornetto Just One Cornetto 1980

The best-remembered advert (by Lintas) is from 1981, in which a curly-haired man sat in a gondola sings a revised version of the late 19th century Italian opera song "O Sole Mio" to a lady passing him in another gondola, before snatching her Cornetto from her. The lyrics to the song have been altered to "Just one Cornetto, give it to me. Delicious ice cream, of Italy. Creamy vanilla and chocolate dream, give me Cornetto, from Walls ice cream." The song ignores the fact that Cornetto is actually made in the United Kingdom, although its roots lie in Italy, as you will discover. However, the advert does display "Made outside Italy by Walls" at the end. In another similar advert first shown in 1982, a gondolier reaches up towards a bridge and grabs a Cornetto from a young lady. As he passes through to the other side of the bridge, she snatches it from his hand with a smile on her face.

10. Nescafé Gold Blend Couple 1987-93

Nescafé tried something different with this campaign, where they actually created a serial drama. Anthony Head and Sharon Maughan starred as Tony and Sharon, a couple who begin a slow-burning romance over a cup of coffee. The ads were in a serial format, with each ending with a cliffhanger. The commercials were extremely popular, and as time went on, the appearance of a new instalment gained considerable media attention. They are one of the most famous examples of serialised advertising. The ads had a notable effect on sales, increasing them over 50% in the UK alone. They have been heralded as a premier example of positioning, creating an atmosphere of sophistication, while remaining relatable.

11. R Whites Secret Lemonade Drinker 1973

The adverts featured actor Julian Chagrin in pyjamas creeping downstairs and shushing the dog. He raids the fridge for R. Whites Lemonade, impersonating a slightly crazy Elvis as he uses the bottle as a mic, only to be caught by his wife, played by Harriet Philpin. Ross McManus wrote and sang the advert's song, with his son Declan McManus (aka Elvis Costello) providing the backing vocals. There was also a version of the commercial in 1985 featuring John Otway as the secret lemonade drinker in a phone box. In the 90s, various celebrities replaced his wife in the commercials including comedians Ronnie Corbett and Frankie Howerd, actor Nicholas Parsons, tennis player John McEnroe and footballers turned pundits Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves.

12. Babycham Patrick Mower 1970s

In the 60s the iconic image of a baby deer was turned into a cartoon; it became a party deer, bringing a bit of pizzazz to the dullest of social gatherings. Fast forward to the 1970s, and the TV ads had turned up the glamour element. Raffish leading man (and future Emmerdale star) Patrick Mower is on his yacht somewhere in the Med, blonde companion on his arm, living the life of the international playboy. He pours a Babycham and says: "You don't need a cherry with it but here's one thing you DO need". He turns and passes the glass to a pretty girl. Music: Babycham's got sparkle Babycham's got life!
Further references to the ultimate in cool lifestyles (‘Hey, I’d love a Babycham!’) in the 1980s. A man in a bar asks for a Babycham, and it goes very quiet and everyone looks on in horror. A cool, tough-looking black guy: Hey, I’ll have a Babycham!” Then everybody wants one

13. Boddingtons Cream of Manchester 1997

The brand's creaminess was emphasised through items such as face cream, ice cream, sun cream and whipped cream. Originally a set of print advertisements, the campaign was extended to television in 1992. The television advertisements featured beautiful women with unlikely Mancunian accents (particularly Melanie Sykes) and "achieved the seemingly impossible task of making bitter glamorous". The most famous television advertisement featured a glamorous couple on-board gondolas on Manchester's River Irwell, in a parody of a well-known "just one Cornetto" ice cream advertisement. According to the Manchester Evening News, "it told the world something about the reinvention of the murky old city, that its once-filthy waterway could almost pass for Venice."