Computer history - 2017
Major computer events in 2017
On May 12, 2017, the WannaCry ransomware attack began targeting computers running Microsoft Windows. The worm infected over 230,000 computers in over 150 countries and demanded $300 - $1,200 in bitcoin to unlock the computers' encrypted data.
2017 computer and technology top terms
The following are some top computer and technology-related terms in alphabetical order that were introduced or popularized in 2017.
New computer products and services introduced in 2017
AMD introduced the Vega on January 5, 2017.
YouTube TV was introduced on February 28, 2017.
AMD introduced the Zen CPU (Central Processing Unit) microarchitecture and the Ryzen in February 2017.
CompTIA introduced the CSA+ certification in October 2017. Due to a trademark dispute, the certification would be renamed CySA+ in January 2018.
Intel introduced Optane memory, a type of fast flash memory, in March 2017.
In March 2017, the first minimum viable version of WebAssembly was released.
Microsoft began to release the Windows 10 Creators Update to users in April 2017.
AMD released its first Ryzen 5 processors, the 1400, 1500X, 1600, and 1600X models, on April 11, 2017. They have four to six cores, run at 3.2 to 3.6 GHz, and feature 8 to 16 MB L3 cache.
Amazon released the Amazon Echo Look in April 2017.
Intel introduced the Intel Core i9 in May 2017.
Essential Home was introduced in May 2017.
Amazon released the Amazon Echo Show in May 2017.
Apple introduced macOS X 10.13, code-named High Sierra, at the WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) on June 5, 2017. The operating system was made available to everyone on September 25, 2017.
Microsoft introduced the Surface Pro 2017 (fifth generation) and the Surface Laptop with the fourth generation of the Surface Pen on June 15, 2017.
AMD released its first Ryzen 3 processors, the Pro 1200 and Pro 1300 models, on June 29, 2017.
EPYC is a line of server CPUs designed by AMD and released in June 2017.
Epic Games released Fortnite on July 25, 2017.
The popular HQ Trivia mobile trivia game was released on August 26, 2017.
AMD introduced its Ryzen Threadripper workstation CPUs in August 2017, which included infinity fabric.
Amazon released the Amazon Echo Spot and Amazon Echo Plus on September 27, 2017.
Microsoft began progressively rolling out the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update on Oct. 17, 2017.
Google released the second generation of Google Pixel phones, the Google Pixel 2 and Google Pixel 2 XL, in October 2017.
Twitter officially expanded everyone's character limit from 140 characters to 280 characters on November 7, 2017.
On November 14, 2017, Mozilla announced the release of Firefox Quantum.
PUBG Corporation released PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds for PC (personal computer) on December 20, 2017.
Google introduced Google Home and began releasing Google Assistant on smartphones.
Google released Google Lens and Google Meet in 2017.
Blade SAS Shadow was launched in France in 2017.
Jawbone announced it would be liquidate all assets starting in July 2017. The Jawbone brand is now managed by Aliph Brands, which handles support for the Jawbone products.
The first block of Bitcoin Cash was created on August 1, 2017. Anyone owning bitcoin at that time automatically received an equal amount of bitcoin cash.
Android version 8.0 (Oreo) was released on August 21, 2017.
Pixelbook was introduced on October 30, 2017.
The cryptocurrency Binance Coin was founded in China in 2017.
Bixby was introduced in 2017 to compete with other voice assistants.
Cameo was released in 2017.
In 2017, HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) version 2.1 introduced eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel).
Essential Products introduced the Essential Phone smartphone in 2017.
The second generation of Google Daydream View was released in 2017.
Google Glass was brought back as Glass Enterprise in 2017.
KaiOS was introduced in 2017.
In 2017, Google's EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust) search algorithm changes began affecting many websites.
Lynda.com courses were re-branded and integrated into the LinkedIn Learning platform in 2017.
The OnePlus 5 and 5T smartphones were released in 2017.
The term "QLED" was first announced at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2017 by Samsung to brand its proprietary QD technologies.
Microsoft introduced Microsoft Teams in 2017.
Nintendo Switch was released in 2017.
Moto Z2 Play was released in 2017.
Samsung released the Galaxy S8, S8+, Galaxy Tab S3, and Galaxy Note 8 in 2017.
Google brought back its smart glasses, the Google Glass Enterprise Edition, for hands-on training in 2017.
Substack was introduced in 2017.
The IBM TS1155 generation 6 tape drive, released in 2017, can store up to 15 TB of uncompressed data.
Intel introduced the Intel UPI (Ultra Path Interconnect) to replace Intel QPI (QuickPath Interconnect) in Xeon Skylake-SP platforms starting in 2017.
Dell released the XPS 8930 and XPS 8920 in 2017.
Computer and technology-related events in 2017
On January 11, 2017, Norway became the first country to start switching off FM (Frequency Modulation) radio and switching to DAB, a digital broadcasting technology.
The SamSam ransomware was released in May 2017.
On August 11, 2017, OpenAI became the first AI (Artificial Intelligence) to defeat the world's best DotA 2 player, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, in a 1v1 game. Even more impressive was that the AI learned to play the game by playing itself in less than a month with a little human coaching.
Practical exploits for Meltdown and Spectre were discovered independently in 2017 by researchers at Graz University of Technology in Austria and Google's Project Zero in California.
Facebook added Facebook Stories in 2017.
The operating system Fuchsia began including a GUI (Graphical User Interface) in May 2017.
Netflix surpassed 1 billion viewing hours of people watching shows on its platform.
Computer company events in 2017
HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) acquired SimpliVity for $650 million in January 2017.
In January 2017, Mitsumi merged with Minebea and was renamed to MinebeaMitsumi.
China Oceanwide announced on January 20, 2017, that it had entered a definitive agreement to acquire IDG (International Data Group, Inc.).
On January 9, 2017, Atlassian announced that it was acquiring project management company Trello for $425 million. The acquisition was completed on February 3, 2017.
General Wireless Operations Inc. (RadioShack) filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 on March 8, 2017, and announced it started closing all its stores.
Samsung acquired Harman on March 10, 2017.
On April 3, 2017, CSC completed the merger with HPE to create a new company named DXC Technology.
HPE acquired Nimble Storage Inc. for $1.2 billion in April 2017.
About.com was renamed to Dotdash on May 2, 2017.
Boyd announced its acquisition of Aavid Thermalloy on May 18, 2017.
In May 2017, about nine months after Microsoft acquired Beam, it was announced that Beam would be changed to Mixer.
On June 12, 2017, Conexant was acquired by Synaptics Inc.
On June 13, 2017, Verizon acquired Tumblr when it purchased Yahoo! for $4.48 billion.
On June 16, 2017, Amazon announced it had entered a definitive merger agreement with Whole Foods Market, Inc. for $13.7 billion.
In June 2017, Intergraph was re-branded as Hexagon PPM.
The wearable maker Jawbone began liquidating its assets in July.
On July 11, 2017, Microsoft announced the immediate end of support for Windows Phone and app store.
DXC Technology purchased Tribridge and its affiliate Concerto Cloud Services for $152 million in July 2017.
On September 12, 2017, Apple introduced the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, with a new edge-to-edge and updated Secure Enclave. Apple also introduced the iPhone X and iPhone XS (iPhone 10) on November 3, 2017, with an OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) screen, Face ID (facial recognition and replacement to Touch ID), and removed the home button.
On December 11, 2017, Apple announced it was acquiring Shazam.
As of 2017, the Alps company is known as Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.
In 2017, Cavium was acquired by Marvell Technology for approximately $6 billion.
DeviantART was purchased by Wix in 2017.
DLive was introduced in 2017.
Vinpower Digital acquired the rights to the Optiarc brand and product line.
Shutterstock acquired Flashstock in 2017.
Time Warner Cable merged with Charter Communications and Bright House Networks in 2017 and is now known as Spectrum.
Houghton Mifflin Company changed its name in 2017 to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
MSC Software was acquired by Hexagon in 2017.
Data443 was founded in 2017.
Security breaches and leaks in 2017
On September 7, 2017, Equifax announced that it had a security breach in July and that up to 145 million American accounts were stolen. The stolen information included social security numbers, credit card information, and other personal information.
Computer-related TV shows and movies released in 2017
AlphaGo, a 2017 documentary about developing Google's DeepMind to play the 3,000 year old game Go and challenge the top player, Lee Sedol.
Crash Course: Computer Science, a TV series released in 2017, covers the elements of computer science and technology.
The documentary Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web was released in 2017 and covers the story of Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload and the most wanted man online.
The documentary Silk Road: Drugs, Death and the Dark Web about the Silk Road was released in 2017.
Discontinued products and services in 2017
Microsoft ended support for Windows Essentials in January 2017.
Oracle discontinued Hudson in February 2017, the fork of the still active open-source project Jenkins.
Microsoft ended support for Windows Phone on July 11, 2017.
On July 28, 2017, Apple announced it was discontinuing all iPod devices that were not running iOS. The iPod models marked as discontinued include the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle.
The ooVoo service was shut down in November 2017.
On December 15, 2017, AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) was discontinued as a service.
Google Tango, an augmented reality computing platform, was discontinued on December 15, 2017.
The social bookmarking site Delicious was discontinued in 2017.
PivotX announced in 2017 that it would no longer be actively developing its open-source blogging software.
Vidme was discontinued in 2017.
Computer pioneer deaths in 2017
Harry Huskey passed away on April 9, 2017 (Age:101).
Robert Taylor passed away on April 13, 2017 (Age: 85).
Alain Colmerauer passed away on May 12, 2017 (Age: 76).
Jean Sammet passed away on May 20, 2017 (Age: 89).
Charles Thacker passed away on June 12, 2017 (Age: 74).
Charles Bachman passed away on July 13, 2017 (Age: 92).
Lotfali Zadeh passed away on September 6, 2017 (Age:95).
Corrado Böhm passed away on October 23, 2017 (Age: 94).