Computer history - 2019
Major computer events in 2019
Google shut down its Google+ service on April 2, 2019.
Apple announced iPadOS for its iPads in June 2019.
2019 computer and technology top terms
The following are some top computer and technology-related terms in alphabetical order that were introduced or popularized during 2019.
New computer products and services introduced in 2019
Computed axial lithography, a 3-D printing technology, was developed by UC Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and announced in January 2019.
The eMMC standard version 5.1A was released in January 2019.
Respawn Entertainment released Apex Legends on February 4, 2019.
Apple TV+ was announced in March 2019.
Google introduced the Google Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL on May 7, 2019.
Apple introduced macOS X 10.15, code-named Catalina, at the WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) on June 3, 2019. The operating system was made available to everyone on October 7, 2019.
Zen 2 was released on July 7, 2019.
Android version 10 was released on September 3, 2019.
Apple released the Find My app on September 19, 2019.
Google released the Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL on October 24, 2019.
The cloud-based gaming service Stadia was released by Google in November 2019.
A modernized Android version of the clamshell Motorola Razr flip phone was released as a smartphone in 2019.
Atlas VPN (virtual private network) was released in 2019.
Apple AirPods Pro were released in 2019.
Adobe Fresco was released in 2019.
Sridhar Ramaswamy and Vivek Raghunathan introduced the search engine Neeva in 2019.
The OnePlus 7, 7 Pro, and 7T smartphones were released in 2019
Pixelbook Go was introduced in 2019.
In 2019, IBM released PowerPC to the Linux Foundation, making it open source for everyone.
Disney+ was introduced in 2019.
Rockstar introduced the Rockstar Games Launcher in 2019.
Computer and technology-related events in 2019
The first folding smartphones were introduced in February 2019, with Samsung introducing the Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X from Huawei.
Huawei was banned from doing business with U.S. companies due to political tension with China. This ban led to Google no longer supporting Android on Huawei smartphones.
Google began drone-based delivery via Google Wing in select areas.
5G networks in America began service in April 2019.
As of April 2019, Amazon Echo users can access an exclusive, free version of Amazon Music supported by advertisements.
In May 2019, United States Senator Josh Hawley proposed legislation that would make loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions illegal in video games played by minors.
On May 31, 2019, BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) for Android and iOS officially shut down.
On July 1, 2019, NetComm was acquired by Casa Systems, Inc.
On July 31, 2019, the Microsoft Internet Games service ended for Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Apple released the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max in September 2019. The iPhone 11 kept the same notch design found on the X and XR. The iPhone 11 started at a lower price point than the flagship 11 Pro and Pro Max, the larger of which had three rear cameras.
Version 1.0 of the Nim programming language was released on September 23, 2019, after eleven years of public release, development, and community contributions.
On October 15, 2019, Sigma Designs announced its dissolution and liquidation of its assets.
Microsoft introduced the Surface Duo and Surface Pro 7 on October 2, 2019.
In November 2019, the government of China prohibited the sale of loot boxes to children under age 8, and restricted the amount of money adults can spend on loot boxes per month.
In 2019, Verizon caused a BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) route leak that caused problems for many services, including Cloudflare and AWS (Amazon Web Services). Because many websites and services rely on these companies, it caused hundreds of websites and services to be unavailable for almost two hours.
In 2019, Bridgefy experienced a 3000% increase in usage because of the Hong Kong protests, where protesters used the app to bypass government Internet censorship.
The BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) system (from SETI@Home) was as powerful as the world's fastest supercomputers.
Computer company events in 2019
In February 2019, Emerson purchased the Intelligent Platforms from General Electric.
On March 30, 2019, Renesas Electronics acquired IDT.
In April 2019, it was announced that Facebook had mistakenly exposed more than 540 million of its users' records (more than 146 gigabytes of data).
HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) announced the purchase of Cray for $1.3 billion on May 17, 2019.
In May 2019, it was discovered that 885 million First American user account details were posted online because of a data breach.
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation announced the sale of the Verbatim brand to CMC in June 2019.
Corel was acquired by KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) on July 3, 2019.
CORSAIR announced it had acquired ORIGIN PC on July 24, 2019.
Broadcom announced on August 9, 2019, that they were acquiring the Enterprise Security software division of Symantec for $10.7 billion, which included the PGP Corporation. PGP Corporation was responsible for security and PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) solutions.
Verizon agreed to sell Tumblr to Automattic on August 12, 2019.
Alien Skin Software was renamed to Exposure Software on August 29, 2019.
Cray was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise on September 25, 2019.
VMWare acquired Carbon Black for $2.1 billion on October 8, 2019.
Yahoo announced that Yahoo Groups would no longer accept new content on October 28, 2019, and that all user-created content would no longer be hosted after December 14, 2019.
Compro went out of business in October 2019.
Google announced it would acquire Fitbit for $2.1 billion on November 1, 2019.
Symantec was renamed to NortonLifeLock on November 4, 2019.
In November 2019, Promisec became a CYDERO company.
Amtrade Products went out of business in December 2019.
Apple discontinued the MagSafe connector on its MacBooks in favor of the USB (universal serial bus) Type-C connector in 2019.
Cable One was rebranded to Sparklight in 2019.
The Nest brand of devices and Google Home devices was changed to Google Nest in 2019.
In 2019, Roccat became a subsidiary of Turtle Beach.
L3 Technologies merged with Harris Corporation in 2019 and changed its name to L3Harris Technologies.
Samsung released the Galaxy S10, S10e, and S10+ and Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ smartphones in 2019.
As of 2019, Super Mario Bros. and its sequels have sold over 330 million copies worldwide.
Sam Altman co-founded Tools for Humanity in 2019.
Toshiba Memory rebranded as the name Kioxia in 2019.
Houseparty was purchased by Epic Games in 2019.
The Framework company was founded in 2019.
Insight acquired TigerDirect in 2019.
Verifi was purchased by Visa in 2019.
Computer-related TV shows and movies released in 2019
The first episode of Valley of the Boom was released on January 13, 2019.
Discontinued products and services in 2019
Apple announced it was deprecating the SPDY network protocol in favor of HTTP/2 in January 2019.
Amazon discontinued the Dash Buttons in February 2019.
Adobe Shockwave was discontinued on April 9, 2019, and the Shockwave player could no longer be downloaded from Adobe.
Google shut down Google Express in 2019.
UltraViolet service shut down on July 31, 2019.
YouTube Gaming was discontinued in 2019.
Computer pioneer deaths in 2019
Harlan Anderson passed away on January 30, 2019 (Age: 89).
Laurie Hendren passed away on May 27, 2019 (Age: 60).
Henry Perot passed away on July 9, 2019 (Age: 89).
Fernando Corbató passed away on July 12, 2019 (Age: 93).
Danny Cohen passed away on August 12, 2019 (Age: 81).
Thomas Nicely passed away on September 11, 2019 (Age: 76).
Gary Starkweather passed away on December 26, 2019 (Age: 81).