Portal:Technology
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Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such as software. Technology plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life.
Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used during prehistory, followed by the control of fire—which in turn contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age, according to the cooking hypothesis. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including the printing press, telephone, and the Internet, have lowered barriers to communication and ushered in the knowledge economy. (Full article...)
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Image 1
The Aire and Calder Navigation is the canalised section of the Rivers Aire and Calder in West Yorkshire, England. The first improvements to the rivers above Knottingley were completed in 1704 when the Aire was made navigable to Leeds and the Calder to Wakefield, by the construction of 16 locks. Lock sizes were increased several times, as was the depth of water, to enable larger boats to use the system. The Aire below Haddlesey was bypassed by the opening of the Selby Canal in 1778. A canal from Knottingley to the new docks and new town at Goole provided a much shorter route to the River Ouse from 1826. The New Junction Canal was constructed in 1905, to link the system to the River Don Navigation, by then part of the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation.
Steam tugs were introduced in 1831. In the 1860s, compartment boats were introduced, later called Tom Puddings, from which coal was unloaded into ships by large hydraulic hoists. This system enabled the canal to carry at its peak more than 1.5 million tons of coal per year, and was not abandoned until 1986. To handle trains of compartments, many of the locks were lengthened to 450 feet (140 m). (Full article...) -
Image 2Route 99, also known as the Woonsocket Industrial Highway, is a 2.9-mile-long (4.7 km) freeway in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. Route 99 serves Manville and the Highland Industrial Park, providing freeway access to the city of Woonsocket from Rhode Island Route 146, which bypasses the city. The southern terminus of Route 99 is at a partial interchange with Route 146 in Lincoln. The freeway has one interchange in Manville, a village in Lincoln, before terminating at an at-grade intersection with Rhode Island Route 122 in Woonsocket.
Originally conceived as a freeway linking Route 146 and Interstate 295 with Interstate 495 in Bellingham, Massachusetts, Route 99 was constructed primarily to provide freeway access to Woonsocket and the developing Highland Industrial Park. Although originally proposed to serve Downtown Woonsocket, an alternate routing that terminated at Route 122 and ran closer to the Woonsocket–Cumberland border was later constructed by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT). The four-lane freeway began construction in 1987 and was completed in 1993. RIDOT has long-range plans to extend Route 99 north to Route 114 in Downtown Woonsocket, but plans for a northerly extension to I-495 have been abandoned. (Full article...) -
Image 3The Brooklyn–Queens Connector, abbreviated the BQX, was a proposed streetcar line in New York City. It was planned to operate on a north–south corridor along the East River between the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. A previous plan bearing similarities to the BQX was initially proposed in 1989 as part of a Brooklyn waterfront streetcar line connecting Red Hook with Downtown Brooklyn. A study by the city, published in 2011, found the proposal to be infeasible. A later proposal by the nonprofit Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, made public in January 2016, found backing from Mayor Bill de Blasio. A director for Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector was appointed in May 2016, and a list of possible routings was released in November 2016.
There was criticism of the project, namely that its completion date of mid-2020s might make it obsolete; that it did not have a clear source of funding; and that it was a poor substitute for subway service. The project was abandoned after de Blasio's mayoral term ended in 2021. (Full article...) -
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Ball Square station is a light rail station on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line located at Ball Square in Somerville and Medford, Massachusetts. The accessible station has a single island platform serving the two tracks of the Medford Branch. It opened on December 12, 2022, as part of the Green Line Extension (GLX), which added two northern branches to the Green Line, and is served by the E branch.
The location was previously served by railroad stations. The Boston and Lowell Railroad (B&L) opened Willow Bridge station at Cambridge Road (now Broadway) by 1850. It was renamed North Somerville around 1878, and a new station building was constructed in the 1880s. The station was served by the Boston and Maine Railroad, successor to the B&L, until 1958. Extensions to the Green Line were proposed throughout the 20th century, most with North Somerville as one of the intermediate stations. A Ball Square station near the former station site was officially chosen for the GLX in 2008. Cost increases triggered a wholesale reevaluation of the GLX project in 2015, and a scaled-down station design was released in 2016. A design and construction contract was issued in 2017. Construction of Magoun Square station began in early 2020 and was largely completed by late 2021. (Full article...) -
Image 5Delaware Route 1A (DE 1A) is a state highway in Sussex County, Delaware. The route, which is signed north-south, runs 2.01 mi (3.23 km) from DE 1 in the town of Dewey Beach north to another intersection with DE 1 west of the city of Rehoboth Beach. The route provides access to Rehoboth Beach from DE 1, heading north before turning to the west. DE 1A follows King Charles Avenue, Bayard Avenue, 2nd Street (southbound), Christian Street (northbound), and Rehoboth Avenue.
What is now DE 1A was originally a part of DE 14 between 1936 and 1942. The road was designated DE 14A by 1966. In the 1970s, DE 1A was designated along DE 14A for a few years before DE 14A was decommissioned in favor of DE 1A. Between 2002 and 2006, a streetscape project revitalized the Rehoboth Avenue portion of the route and a roundabout was added at the northern entrance to Rehoboth Beach. (Full article...) -
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The 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station (formerly 47th Street–50th Street–Rockefeller Center) is an express station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is located along Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) between 47th and 50th Streets, on the west side of Rockefeller Center. The station is served by the D and F trains at all times, the B and M trains on weekdays, and the <F> train during rush hours in the peak direction. In 2019[update], it was the 12th busiest subway station in the system.
The Rockefeller Center station was built for the Independent Subway System (IND), which had first proposed constructing a line under Sixth Avenue in 1924. The line's construction was delayed by a decade due to negotiations with the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad. A contract for the line segment that includes the Rockefeller Center station was awarded in 1936. The station opened on December 15, 1940, and its mezzanine was expanded in the late 1950s and the early 1970s. The New York City Transit Authority proposed renovating the Rockefeller Center station in the 1990s, but the station still has not been renovated as of 2024[update]. (Full article...) -
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Northgate station is a light rail and bus station in the Northgate neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States, and part of 1 Line on Sound Transit's Link light rail system. The transit center, located adjacent to the Northgate Mall (now named Northgate Station), has four bus bays served by 22 routes. The station also has parking for 1,475 vehicles.
The transit center opened in June 1992 as a major hub for North Seattle buses and was prioritized as a light rail terminus during planning later in the decade. Construction on the light rail extension to Northgate began in 2012 and station construction began in 2017. The extension of the 1 Line, including Northgate station and a pedestrian bridge over Interstate 5, opened on October 2, 2021. Northgate remained the northern terminus of 1 Line until the Lynnwood Link extension opened in August 2024. It was once proposed as a bus rapid transit terminal and is an area with potential for additional transit-oriented development. (Full article...)
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Image 1Photograph: NASATwo Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers stand with three vehicles, providing a size comparison of three generations of Mars rovers. Front and center is the flight spare for the first Mars rover, Sojourner, which landed on Mars in 1997 as part of the Mars Pathfinder Project. On the left is a Mars Exploration Rover test vehicle, a working sibling to Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in 2004. On the right is a test rover for the Mars Science Laboratory, which landed Curiosity on Mars in 2012.
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Image 2Image credit: WikipedianProlificAn animated cut-away diagram of a typical fuel injector, which is used to spray controlled amounts of petrol (gasoline) into an internal combustion engine. A solenoid is activated when fuel is intended to be delivered to the engine, causing the plunger to become pulled toward the solenoid by magnetic force. This uncovers the valve opening, allowing fuel to flow into the atomiser and out the spray tip. The route of fuel is shown in orange; grey/blue indicates no fuel present.
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Image 3Photo credit: Gretar ÍvarssonThe Nesjavellir geothermal power plant, located near Þingvellir, Iceland is the largest of five such plants in the country. Because of the high concentration of volcanoes in Iceland, geothermal energy is so inexpensive that in the wintertime, some pavements in Reykjavík and Akureyri are heated.
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Image 4A disc of copper made by continuous casting, the process whereby molten metal is solidified into a "semifinished" state for subsequent rolling in the finishing mills. Continuous casting replaced the creation of ingots using stationary moulds. The process allows lower-cost production of metal sections with better quality, due to the inherently lower costs of continuous, standardised production of a product, as well as providing increased control over the process through automation. After casting, this disc was then etched to achieve its final state.
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Image 5Diagram credit: AstroBidulesThe Soyuz MS is the latest revision of the Russian spacecraft series Soyuz. It is an evolution of the Soyuz TMA-M, with modernization mostly concentrated on its communications and navigation subsystems. The spacecraft is used by Roscosmos for human spaceflight. The Soyuz MS has minimal external changes with respect to the Soyuz TMA-M, mostly limited to antennas and sensors, as well as the thruster placement. The first launch, Soyuz MS-01, took place on 7 July 2016 aboard a Soyuz-FG launch vehicle towards the International Space Station. This exploded-view diagram illustrates and labels various components of the Soyuz MS spacecraft and the Soyuz-FG rocket.
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Image 6The OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive subnotebook laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries.
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Image 7Diagram: Jeff Dahl
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Image 9Photo: Arthur Rothstein; Restoration: Lise BroerA portrait of George Washington Carver, American scientist, botanist, educator and inventor, from 1942. Much of Carver's fame is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes. In addition to his work on agricultural extension education for purposes of advocacy of sustainable agriculture and appreciation of plants and nature, Carver's important accomplishments also included improvement of racial relations, mentoring children, poetry, painting, and religion. One of his most important roles was in undermining, through the fame of his achievements and many talents, the widespread stereotype of the time that the black race was intellectually inferior to the white race.
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Image 10An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy along large distances. It consists of one or more conductors suspended by towers or utility poles.
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Image 11A billet of enriched uranium, which is uranium where the percent composition of uranium-235 (235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Enriched uranium is a critical component for both civil nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons.
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Image 12A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axial bearing. The wheel is one of the main components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines.
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Image 13Image credit: Lewis HineA structural worker bolts beams on the framework during the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. The 1,250-foot (380 m) building opened on May 1, 1931, at the time the tallest building in the world, overtaking the Chrysler Building (seen to the right), which had just been completed the year before. The addition of a pinnacle and antennas later increased its overall height to 1,472 feet (449 m).
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Image 14Image credit: Prolineserver/TomiaThis diagram of four pulley systems illustrates how increasing the number of pulleys increases the mechanical advantage, making the load easier to lift. MA is the factor by which a mechanism multiplies the force put into it. In this diagram, 100 newtons is required to lift the weight off the ground. Each additional pulley increases the MA such that the four-pulley system only needs 25 newtons to accomplish the same task, but the rope must be pulled four times as far.
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Image 15Photograph: Diego DelsoThe Assut de l'Or Bridge is a white single-pylon cable-stayed bridge in the City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia, Spain. Completed in 2008, it was designed by Valencian architect and civil engineer Santiago Calatrava as a variant of his cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge in Seville.
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Image 16Credit: Berthold WernerA telephone, or phone, is a telecommunications device that converts sound, typically the human voice, into electronic signals suitable for transmission via cables or other transmission media over long distances through satellite.
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Image 17Photograph: Katsuhiko Tokunaga/SuperJet InternationalThe Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a modern fly-by-wire twin-engine regional jet with 8 to 108 passenger seats. Development began in 2000; the aircraft had its maiden flight on 19 May 2008 and entered commercial service on 21 April 2011. This aircraft is seen flying off the coast of Italy near Sanremo.
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Image 18The GameCube is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo beginning in 2001. Meant as a successor to the Nintendo 64, the GameCube sold approximately 22 million units worldwide. It was the third most-successful console of its generation, behind Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox. The GameCube was succeeded by the Wii in 2006.
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Image 19A diagram showing the parts of a tugboat, a boat used to maneuver large ships in harbours, over the open sea, or through rivers and canals. They also tow barges, disabled ships, and oil rigs. Equipped with powerful engines producing thousands of horsepower, extensive rigging equipment, and a fender of tires for protection, tugboats can push or tow large vessels with high precision and speed.
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Image 20Image credit: Joaquim Alves GasparAn animation showing how to use a vernier caliper, which is a caliper that uses a vernier scale to interpolate linear measurements. Vernier calipers can measure internal and external dimensions using, respectively, the uppermost and lower jaws, and also depths, using the depth probe (located at the right end). In this example, the first two digits (2.4) are decided by the location of the zero of the vernier scale in the centimeter scale, and the last digit (0.07), by the first line of the vernier scale that exactly matches a line of the centimeter scale above.
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General images - load new batch
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Image 1The wheel, invented sometime before the 4th millennium BC, is one of the most ubiquitous and important technologies. This detail of the "Standard of Ur", c. 2500 BCE., displays a Sumerian chariot. (from History of technology)
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Image 2A variety of stone tools (from History of technology)
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Image 4A rare 1884 photo showing the experimental recording of voice patterns by a photographic process at the Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Many of their experimental designs panned out in failure. (from Invention)
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Image 6Agriculture preceded writing in the history of technology. (from History of technology)
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Image 7Top 30 AI patent applicants in 2016 (from Emerging technologies)
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Image 83D printer (from Emerging technologies)
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Image 11The preserved Rocket (from History of technology)
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Image 12Newcomen steam engine for pumping mines (from History of technology)
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Image 13Self-replicating 3D printer (from Emerging technologies)
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Image 15Johannes Gutenberg's printing press was voted the most important invention of the second millennium. (from Invention)
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Image 16Eric M. C. Tigerstedt (1887–1925) was known as a pioneer of sound-on-film technology. Tigerstedt in 1915. (from Invention)
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Image 18Edison electric light bulbs 1879–80 (from History of technology)
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Image 20Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed by Levin Corbin Handy in Washington, April 1878 (from History of technology)
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Image 23Walls at Sacsayhuaman (from History of technology)
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Image 24Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto assembly line was the first. (from History of technology)
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Image 25Alessandro Volta with the first electrical battery. Volta is recognized as an influential inventor. (from Invention)
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Image 26'BUILD YOUR OWN TELEVISION RECEIVER.' Science and Invention magazine cover, November 1928 (from Invention)
Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

- ... that OPTi Inc. won a patent suit against Apple for unauthorized use of "predictive snooping" technology?
- ... that it was Caltech experimental physicist Rana X. Adhikari's idea to build a gravitational-wave observatory in India?
- ... that the Illinois Institute of Technology created Chicago's smallest park by deeding a 54-square-foot (5 m2) granite slab to the city?
- ... that touch-screen technology, pay-at-the-pump, car phones, and Coca-Cola Cherry were shown at the 1982 World's Fair?
- ... that the Japanese manga series Mink featured futuristic technology even though its creator was unfamiliar with computers?
- ... that Justin Yu, the current Classic Tetris World Champion, is also a cellist in MIT's video game orchestra?
- ... that Flathead Lake Biological Station can detect invasive aquatic species in real-time using eDNA technology?
- ... that ice XVII (structure shown) potentially has a use in green technology as a medium for storing hydrogen?
Top 10 WikiProject Technology popular articles of the month
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Image 1ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and released on November 30, 2022. It uses large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4o along with other multimodal models to generate human-like responses in text, speech, and images. It has access to features such as searching the web, using apps, and running programs. It is credited with accelerating the AI boom, an ongoing period of rapid investment in and public attention to the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Some observers have raised concern about the potential of ChatGPT and similar programs to displace human intelligence, enable plagiarism, or fuel misinformation. (Full article...)
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YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, who were former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in San Bruno, California, it is the second-most-visited website in the world, after Google Search. In January 2024, YouTube had more than 2.7 billion monthly active users, who collectively watched more than one billion hours of videos every day. As of May 2019[update], videos were being uploaded to the platform at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute, and as of mid-2024[update], there were approximately 14.8 billion videos in total. (Full article...) -
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Elon Reeve Musk (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in the world since 2021; as of May 2025,[update] Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$424.7 billion. (Full article...) -
Image 4WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices, and can be accessed from computers. The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up. WhatsApp was launched in February 2009. In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client. (Full article...)
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Image 5Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name derives from the face book directories often given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities. (Full article...)
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Image 6The Google logo used since 2015
Google LLC (/ˈɡuːɡəl/ ⓘ, GOO-gəl) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial intelligence (AI). It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" by the BBC and is one of the world's most valuable brands. Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., is one of the five Big Tech companies alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. (Full article...) -
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A QR code for the URL of the English Wikipedia Mobile main page
A QR code, quick-response code, is a type of two-dimensional matrix barcode invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara of the Japanese company Denso Wave for labelling automobile parts. It features black squares on a white background with fiducial markers, readable by imaging devices like cameras, and processed using Reed–Solomon error correction until the image can be appropriately interpreted. The required data is then extracted from patterns that are present in both the horizontal and the vertical components of the QR image. (Full article...) -
Image 8Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of research in computer science that develops and studies methods and software that enable machines to perceive their environment and use learning and intelligence to take actions that maximize their chances of achieving defined goals. (Full article...)
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Image 9Aerial view of Apple Park, the company's headquarters, in Cupertino, California
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Company by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, the company was incorporated by Jobs and Wozniak as Apple Computer, Inc. the following year. It was renamed Apple Inc. in 2007 as the company had expanded its focus from computers to consumer electronics. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue, with US$391.04 billion in the 2024 fiscal year. (Full article...) -
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Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple languages. (Full article...)
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