Click to zoom in

It all started with Classmates.com, which apparently has 50,000,000 users now. On the top of the pyramid is Facebook and its 300 million users, followed by MySpace's 263 million. In the middle you have a huge constellation of sites, most of which I just can't recognize. Trombi? Vampirefreaks? Bigadda? Cafemom? Geni? Itsmy? Qzone? Xanga?

Please, stop saying words. [Focus—Thanks David Keyes]

Click on the image above to access the full timeline in 2800 x 1188 pixels.

I look back in time and I can't help but wonder what the hell is wrong with Sony. Sure, they have had they share of disasters, like Betamax, but overall they always were a company breaking new ground and opening new product categories.

Some of their products, like the Sony Trinitron or the Sony Walkman, changed the way we understood TV and music. Their professional U-Matic and Beta video series did the same, democratizing movie and video production. The Playstation introduced 3D graphics in the gaming world in a big way, destroying the status quo, which at the time had Nintendo as its king. Even their transistor radios were groundbreaking, not to talk about their stunning designs in the past.

Today, their product designs are bland. And their technology, except for a few exceptions that have their replica from other manufacturers, is just me-too. No spark, no true revolutionary innovation. Just a giant, surviving in a world where other brands now carry the torch they had for decades.

Look at the timeline and marvel at all the "world's firsts" these people had. I'm sure you will have the same feeling.

[Odelia Lee and Andrea Wang collaborated in the creation of this timeline]

I admitted it already while I went back in time in the Lego vault, and I will say it again here. My weakest spot when it comes to Lego is Lego Space, specially the sets from the 70s and 80s.

In fact, watching Star Wars for the first time and the Lego Galaxy Explorer is what made me want to be an astronaut for the first time. That's why I couldn't leave them out from our Get Me Off This Rock space week.

Here they are, plus a bonus treat: Confidential product shots from the 2009 Lego Space line—although if you ask me, nothing beats the sets for the late 1970s and the 1980s.

Click on this image to access the full high definition timeline

[Data from various sources]

We have worked with Lego to painstakingly collect and catalog almost every minifig ever produced into a photographic timeline. You will be able to see the evolution of the iconic figure, from the very first sets in the 70s that you saw in our exclusive tour of the secret historic Lego vault to the latest and greatest ones in 2008. Sensory overload ahead.

1978
Introduction of the first minifigs as part of the Town, Space and Castle sets. They are all plain. The first female minifig is introduced two months after the first male minifigs.

1989
First changes in faces introduced with the Lego Pirates. They maintain the basic expression but add extra features, like eye patches and beards.

1990
The first specialized minifig appears in Lego Castle: a ghost.

1993
Lego Island Adventure theme is introduced. That means minifigs wearing bikinis and thongs. Lego truckers also appear in Lego Town. Obviously, there's a connection between truckers and thongs.

1995
The Lego skeleton comes out of the closet, the second specialized minifig. Aquanauts line introduced.

1996
Lego Western appears, at last opening the possibility of forming the Village People with Lego minifigs: The sets include cowboys and, for the first time ever, a different Lego race: Native americans. By the way, this contradicts the answers about race that Lego gave us in our Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lego Guide.

1998
Adventurer Johnny Thunder, an Indiana Jones wannabe, appears. This comes before Lego ever got into the whole licensing of movies intellectual property.

1999
The now famous Lego Star Wars appears, introducing the first ever licensed minifig: Luke Skywalker.

2000
Lego Soccer scores a few goals with spring-loaded tabletop game action. This is a very bad year for the history of the minifig, however: Jar-Jar Binks minifig appears, the first figure with a molded head ever. It should have never happened. The minifig. And the movie.

2001
Lego Studios appears, so people can film movies with minifigs as characters. You know what that means (see bottom of post).

2002
Shorter legs appear for the same time. Now you can have short characters like Yoda. Double-sided heads are added too, so you can change the expresion of the minifig on the go.

2003
Real races are introduced at last, as part of the licensing program. Lego Mars Mission is announced, marking the return of astronauts.

2005
First Lego minifig with an electrical part appears: A lightsaber.

2006
Manga comes into Lego minifigs with Exo-Force, introducing new wacky hairdos made of rubber.

2008
Today, there are 4 billion minifigs in the world, making it the largest population on planet Earth.

You know what this grand finale means: Remember that the Go Miniman Go video contest deadline is tomorrow. If you want to participate and win one of the priceless classic vintage sets we are giving away, you need to send your 520 pixel-wide video (encoded as H.264 in high quality, if possible) using yousendit.com to jesus@gizmodo.com. [Go Miniman Go video contest]

Click on the image above to access the full high-resolution version. [Bill Gates' Retirement Party]

Other Gizmodo timelines

Sony Trinitron Timeline Shows Why It Will Live Forever In Our Hearts
The Analog Cellphone Timeline
LEGO Brick Timeline: 50 Years of Building Frenzy and Curiosities
100 Years of Tech in the Times Square New Year's Ball

Click on the image above to see the full high resolution version

[Wikipedia and Sony Japan]

For other Gizmodo timelines, check:

• Requiem: the Analog Cellphone Timeline
• LEGO Brick Timeline: 50 Years of Building Frenzy and Curiosities
• 100 Years of Tech in the Times Square New Year's Ball

(Click the image above for a huge 2000-pixel wide version of the timeline)

490 BC
Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to transmit the news of the victory over the Persians.
Signal was really bad back then: he died on the spot after delivering the message, according to Plutarch.

1876
First successful telephone transmission. Graham Bell says "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you" and Watson understands each word clearly. A century later, people would be "What? Say that again? Watson? Watson?" over cellphone lines.

1895
Marconi puts Tesla wireless communications discoveries to practice, develops commercial radio.

1906
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden demonstrates first wireless radio telephone.

1908
First US Patent on a wireless phone awarded to Nathan B. Stubblefield.

1926
Radio telephony starts to be used in the First Class of the Hamburg-Berlin train line.

1939
World War II starts. Germans start using radio phones in tanks on a large scale.

1945
Germany surrenders. Hitler kills himself, he never used a Windows Mobile Phone, (or a Playstation 3 or a HD DVD player).

1947
Bell Labs proposes hexagonal cells for mobile phones, with the three-sided antenna we know today. It sucked, because it was all theoretical.

1954
Linus Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart) uses a real mobile phone from his car in Billy Wilder's Sabrina (played by Audrey Hepburn).

1956
First fully automatic mobile phone (Mobiltelefonisystem A or MTA) system launched in Sweden by Ericsson. Each handset, pictured above, was 90 pounds (40 kg.)

1965
Ericsson's MTB is launched. This time, the headset is just 20 pounds (9 kg.) thanks to the use of transistors.

1970
Automatic "call handoff" system is invented, allowing mobile phones to move through several cell areas during a single conversation without loss of conversation.

1971
ARP, the first successful commercial cellphone network, is launched in Finland. You couldn't move from cell to cell seamlessly.
It was 0G (Zero G.)

1973
April 3, 1973: Motorola's Dr. Martin Cooper calls Joel Engel, head of research at AT&T's Bell Labs, while walking in New York City using the first Motorola DynaTAC prototype. The beginning of 1G networks.

1978
Bell launches first trial commercial cellular network in Chicago.

1982
Nokia introduces their first cellphone, the analog Mobira Senator. FCC approves the analog-based Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) and assigns frequencies in the 824-894 MHz band.

1983
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X is the first commercial cellphone available in the US. MTB shuts down, still with 600 clients.

1990
FCC approves the Digital AMPS, the beginning of the end for analog networks.

1991
First commercial GSM call in the world. Done using Nokia hardware. 2G and digital begins.

1993
txt msgng apprs 4 1st time LOL.

1996
Motorola StarTAC debuts.

2000
3G appears.

2002
FCC decides to shut down the analog network.

2003
GPRS and EDGE, technologies for faster (but not too fast) data transfers, launch. It's 2.5G. 3G networks are not available yet.

2007
iPhone launches. Still runs on 2.5G technology, but adds Wi-Fi for data transfer. 3G cellphones start to become ubiquitous.

2008
February 19
Cellphone analog networks can shut down.

[Wikipedia, Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and various other sources]

For other gadgety Giz timelines, click here.

(Click on the image to access the huge version—remember to zoom in if your browser auto-scales it.)

It all first started in 1947, when LEGO bought their first plastic injection machine. The brick was not invented then but took final form in 1958, when the shape of the stud-and-tube brick was patented. Since then, LEGO sets have been going through dozens of iterations, from the younger version, DUPLO, to the most sophisticated LEGO TECHNIC and LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT sets, going through all the different themes of LEGOLAND and, of course, the most successful line of all times according to LEGO, LEGO Star Wars.

LEGO brick curiosities

• There are about 62 LEGO bricks for every one of the world's 6 billion inhabitants.

• Children around the world spend 5 billion hours a year playing with LEGO bricks.

• More than 400 million people around the world have played with LEGO bricks.

• LEGO bricks are available in 53 different colors.

• 19 billion LEGO elements are produced every year.

• 2.16 million LEGO elements are molded every hour, or 36,000 per minute.

• More than 400 billion LEGO bricks have been produced since 1949.

• Two eight-stud LEGO bricks of the same color can be combined in 24 different ways.

• Three eight-stud bricks can be combined in 1,060 ways.

• There are more than 915 million combinations possible for six 2 x 4 LEGO bricks of the same color.

• 7 LEGO sets are sold by retailers every second around the world.

• The LEGO bricks sold in one year would circle the world 5 times.

• 40 billion LEGO bricks stacked on top of one another would connect the earth with the moon.

• LEGO bricks are so much more than just toys. They are used in classrooms from preschool to university level to teach everything from math, language skills and science to engineering and technology principles.

• The LEGO brick has inspired generations of innovators, like Jonathan Gay, inventor of Flash.

• World-renowned author Douglas Coupland believes the LEGO brick represents a "language in itself."

• A January 2008 Google search produces 57.6 million references to LEGO bricks.

• There are 55,600 LEGO videos on YouTube.

• Google co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, used LEGO bricks to build the external low-cost and expandable casing for 10 4GB hard disks when they were busy developing the Google search engine (today, they have reportedly been used in Google's college graduate recruiting exercises to test potential candidate's creative horsepower).

The first LEGO I remember—which I shared with my brothers and which my dad built for us, obviously without being able to contain his excitement—was a huge fair wheel, yellow. I don't even know where that set is anymore, but I remember the armless minifigs. Or perhaps I'm dreaming. The very first LEGO we got, and which I remember building clearly, was the LEGOLAND Space Galaxy Explorer, which came along with three other sets, including a Rocket Launcher, the Space Shuttle and the Mobile Tracking Station. Do you remember your first LEGO set? Tell us in the comments. [LEGO in Gizmodo]

The idea of a timeball was actually born in 1832 when Robert Wauchope, a Royal Navy Officer, devised a way for those at sea to sync their marine chronometers (watches) with the shore. A giant ball would drop at a pre-arranged time that could be seen for miles around. Sailors, of course, probably didn't throw confetti or kiss another in glee (though they were quite possibly drunk). Here's the rest of our timeball timline in written form.

1904 - Times Square coined.

1907 - The First Ball drops. It's made of iron, wood, 100 25-watt bulbs...and it's 700lbs.

1917 - First billboard with moving lights goes up (in Times Square).

1920 - Ball goes 100% iron, nearly 50% lighter at 400lbs.

1927 - Oleg Vladimirovich Losev discovers LED to little fanfare.

1939 - WWII begins.

1942 - Losev dies of hunger.

1942-43 - Ball out for WWII "dimout," people partied but offered a moment of silence at new year

1951 - Xenon lamps first went on sale in Germany.

1955 - Ball drops to 150lbs. Suck it, Oprah.

1962 - American scientists discover LED.

1976 - Times Square is declared most dangerous area of New York City.

1979 - Disco dies.

1981-88 - Ball becomes an apple for "I Love New York" campaign. Red lights, green stem...subsequent puke color not specified.

1989 - New Yorkers realize apple ball is stupid, go back to normal design with white lights.

1993 - BMW is the first to use Xenon lights in cars.

2002 - Gizmodo is born.

1993-2003 - Times Square violent crime drops 85%.

1995 - Ball is computerized, aluminumized, covered in rhinestones, and strobe lights.

2000-07 - Ball is made of Waterford crystal, now weighing 1070lbs (which is the heaviest to date, nearly 10 times its weight in the '50s). Lighting includes one 10,000W Xenon lamp and 432 multi-colored (5 colors) bulbs. Plus, it features 144 strobe lights and 92 rotating pyramid mirrors—disco anyone?

2008 - Today we have the same base crystal ball, but it's been fitted with 9,576 Luxeon LEDs from Philips with 16.7 million programmable colors. Needless to say, that's a lot more visual variety than the 5 available colors of just a few years back.

Happy New Year everyone!

For more information, check out New York's own guide and timeline on Times Square and this helpful wiki. And a special thanks to our own resident Jesus Diaz, who stayed in for part of his New Year's celebrations to make us this badass graphic.

It all started here, when Frucci asked for a graphic about The AT&T/iPhone Moral Quandary. Little did we know what would come later, with the iPhone unlock race that started as soon as Apple's cellphone was released:

8:00 AM ON WED JUL 18 2007. The first approach started here: the Dev Team partially unlocks the iPhone. As a result, you could use any SIM card or contract from AT&T, instead of those contemplated in the agreement.

11:55 PM ON TUE JUL 31 2007. A new milestone is achieved: they announce they have reverse-engineered the software which controls the iPhone's radio communications.

5:57 AM ON SUN AUG 5 2007. Another milestone: obtain the plans for the fucking Death Star, extracting the full content of the radio memory.

8:59 AM ON MON AUG 6 2007. First unlock is achieved: hackers in Europe use the information previously obtained to forge a SIM and fool the iPhone to believe it is working in the AT&T network.

11:10 AM ON WED AUG 8 2007. We try the forge SIM hack, but it doesn't work: it only works with first-generation SIM cards.

8:45 AM ON TUE AUG 14 2007. The first solution that unlocks 100% any iPhone is announced: using a TurboSIM card the iPhone doesn't know if it's not working on the AT&T network. Still, this costs money and the cards are scarce. The search for the free software unlock continues.

12:20 PM ON MON AUG 20 2007. The iPhone grass-roots developer community say to Steve Jobs "TFSU!" as third-party iPhone applications become mainstream. AppTapp and iBrickr demonstrate how easy is to install them.

3:35 PM ON TUE AUG 21 2007. Using information and code from the Dev Team, a hacker unlocks the iPhone using a hardware soldering. Later it was discovered by others that no soldering was needed, just a couple of metal pins and a bit of wire.

12:20 PM ON FRI AUG 24 2007. Partly using the information obtained by the Dev Team, a group called iPhone Sim Free announces the first software unlock, but they want you to pay for it. Weeks would pass until they released their paid program to the public, only to be rendered obsolete three days later by the iPhone Dev Team with the free software unlock.

11:30 AM ON SAT AUG 25 2007. Knowing that only the free software unlock was going to be The Real Thing™ and that the Dev Team was demoralized by the news and the attitude of some people in the community, Gizmodo asks for your support for the iPhone Dev Team ongoing efforts

6:23 AM ON TUE AUG 28 2007. A newspaper claims Israeli hackers get yet another new unlock. Shortly thereafter, we discover it is an error and they just used the modified version of the hardware unlock.

3:00 AM ON TUE SEP 11 2007. The first commercial unlock gets released and the Giz witnesses as the reseller has countless problems installing it in two clients' iPhones. Gizmodo discovers there's a bug in the iPhone Sim Free software that makes it unusable with certain SIM cards. As a result of this discovery, iPhone Sim Free fixes the bug hours later.

7:40 AM ON TUE SEP 11 2007. Later in the day, some hackers vow to reverse-engineer iPhone Sim Free's commercial unlock. The core iPhone Dev Team, however, keeps working in its own independent solution.

6:30 AM ON TUE SEP 11 2007. Hackers race to obtain the unlock. GeoHot claims in a IRC channel that he has reverse-engineered the iPhone Sim Free. This was discovered to be false a few minutes later.

7:10PM ON TUE SEP 11 2007. The Death Star explodes: the Giz is the only media outlet to witness as the core iPhone Dev Team unlocks the iPhone with its own solution. It gets released as free program at 8:10PM, only a few hours after the paid software unlock was released,

1:00 PM ON WED SEP 12 2007. The next day some stupid bozo tries to snatch $41,000 posing as the "sole developer" of a graphical tool to unlock the iPhone. He fools a major gadget site into thinking he's the author. Hours later, Gizmodo uncovers the imposter, a 23-year-old from Belfast who got the original code from Erica Sadun and convinced another developer to make it work.

1:36 PM ON WED SEP 12 2007. The UIkit team, a separate group of programmers who work in graphical applications for the iPhone, announce that they are working on the graphical software unlock, which was released on September 15.

The same day, the iPhone Dev Team confirms that Apple may re-lock the phone with future software updates.

1:26 PM ON WED SEP 26 2007. As they get ready to battle the next iPhone firmware update, the iPhone Dev Team irons out bugs in the software unlock, bringing it up to version 1.0.2.

So yes, the iPhone Dev Team is still working on the unlock. Not only that, as you probably already know, they are preparing software to un-brick the iPhone and return it to its original state. And hopefuly, unlock it again. You can support them by donating money to the following PayPal account:

iphone.devteam@googlemail.com (yes, it's googlemail.com, not gmail.com)

Short FAQ about the Dev Team
Q: Will the stuff you find out be freely available on the forum and the wiki?
A: Simply, yes [as shown again and again.]

Q: Why do you think you can do this?

A: Simply remember the AppleTV. Many good hacks, including running OSX on your aTV came from here.

Q: Isn't that illegal?

A: No, we don't live within the US, there are a lot free countries that allow you to break or modify stuff on your own.

Q: Were can we talk on the iPhone hacking?

A: join #iphone at irc.osx86.hu

Q: Where is the money going?

A: Not much left, hosting is paid, and other stuff around the project, most of the time we run minus