Computer history - 2018
Major computer events in 2018
On January 3, 2018, information about the Meltdown and Spectre attacks was publicly released. The security flaws affect nearly all the world's computers and smartphones and could allow someone to access memory contents, including sensitive information such as passwords.
On March 17, 2018, The New York Times and the Guardian revealed that Cambridge Analytica harvested 50 million Facebook profiles and used that data to help Donald Trump's election team.
2018 computer and technology top terms
The following are some top computer and technology-related terms in alphabetical order that were introduced or popularized in 2018.
New computer products and services introduced in 2018
Google merged Google Wallet and Android Pay into Google Pay and released the service for all Android and iOS devices on January 8, 2018.
EOS, a cryptocurrency, was launched on January 31, 2018.
Two versions of PUBG mobile were released for Android and iOS on February 9, 2018.
AMD introduced an upgraded version of Zen, named Zen+, released in April 2018.
Apple introduced macOS X 10.14, code-named Mojave, at the WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) on June 4, 2018. The operating system was made available to everyone on September 24, 2018.
On June 21, 2018, the University of Michigan announced the creation of the "world's smallest computer," an ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) Cortex-M0 microcontroller measuring 0.3 mm on each side.
In June 2018, AMD announced the Vega Instinct, the first GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) manufactured with a 7 nm fabrication process.
In June 2018, Intel announced a limited edition i7 processor, the i7-8086K, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 8086 CPU.
Google introduced Google Ad Manager in June 2018.
CompTIA introduced the PenTest+ certification on July 31, 2018.
Microsoft released the Surface Go on August 2, 2018.
ByteDance acquired Musical.ly on August 2, 2018, and merged it into the TikTok app.
On August 13, 2018, NVIDIA announced its new Turing graphics processing architecture, which can perform ray tracing in real time.
Amazon released the second edition of the Amazon Echo Plus on September 27, 2018.
Microsoft released the Surface Studio 2 on October 2, 2018.
Microsoft released the Surface Pro 6 on October 16, 2018.
Google released the Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL in October 2018.
The Fire TV Stick 4K was released in October 2018.
Adobe Premiere Rush was released in 2018.
Apple introduced the Apple HomePod in 2018.
Intel announced Optane DC Persistent Memory in 2018.
Microsoft released Excel 2019 for PC (personal computer) and Mac in 2018.
Microsoft released Word 2019 for PC and Mac in 2018.
Project Atlas, a cloud gaming service, was announced by Electronic Arts in 2018.
Epic released the Epic Games Launcher in 2018.
The Measure app was introduced as part of the iOS 12 update in 2018.
Among Us was released in 2018.
Moto Z3 and Moto Z3 Play were released in 2018.
Samsung released One UI (User Interface) in 2018.
Poly was founded in 2018.
Portal and Facebook Gaming were introduced by Facebook in 2018.
Samsung released the Galaxy S9, S9+, Galaxy Tab S4, and Galaxy Note 9 in 2018.
Screen Time app and the Memoji were introduced by Apple in 2018.
The YouTube feature YouTube Reels became available to some users in 2018.
Computer and technology-related events in 2018
In February 2018, an RCE (Remote Code Execution) was discovered in Valve's proprietary Steam protocol that had been undetected for ten years.
In April 2018, Belgium became the first country to declare loot box systems illegal, saying they encourage addictive gambling behavior in children and adults.
Microsoft released the Windows 10 April 2018 Update in April 2018, the first major update for the Windows 10 operating system since the Fall Creators Update.
On May 21, 2018, Epic Games announced it would provide $100 million for Fortnite e-sports tournament prize pools in the first year of competitive play.
The European Union GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) law was enacted on May 25, 2018, for companies that conduct business in the EU. Some new laws GDPR enforces include:
- Companies must allow people to view, download, and delete data about themselves stored on a company's servers.
- If a company has a data breach, it must be disclosed within 72 hours of being discovered.
Companies violating laws could face fines of up to 20 million Euros or 4% of their global revenue.
The name "Bitcoin Cash" was proposed in July 2018 by ViaBTC.
In July 2018, Radioshack was reborn and sold its products within HobbyTown locations nationwide.
The Apple iPhone XS was introduced as an upgraded version of the X was released on September 21, 2018.
In October 2018, Apple announced that future models of the iPad would use the USB-C connection instead of the Lightning connection.
On December 7, the largest Mersenne prime was discovered by GIMPS (Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search) user Patrick Laroche in Ocala, Florida, using an i5-4590T CPU (Central Processing Unit) operating at 2.0 GHz. His number, 282589933-1, is the 51st discovered Mersenne prime number and is 24,862,048 digits long.
Blade SAS Shadow was released in the U.S. in 2018.
The Apple iOS 12 update in 2018 added Shortcuts and group calling capabilities to FaceTime, allowing a maximum of 32 iPhone users to join the same call.
The OnePlus 6 and 6T smartphones were released in 2018.
Samsung introduced the Samsung DeX in 2018.
Google introduced BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), a family of language models, in 2018.
Google merged Nest Labs into its home devices division in 2018, becoming Google Nest.
In 2018, Kaspersky reported an estimated 187 million viruses or related threats, including viruses and threats for computers and mobile devices.
Computer companies and organizations founded in 2018
Eve Systems was founded in 2018 by Elgato.
Surfshark was founded in 2018.
Computer company events in 2018
Microsoft's Groove Music platform was discontinued on January 1, 2018.
Signal Foundation and Microsoft partner to bring end-to-end encryption to Skype on Jan 11, 2018.
In January 2018, KrolLDiscovery changed its to KLDiscovery Ontrack, LLC.
In January 2018, Piriform Software Ltd. moved its website to CCleaner.
Signal Foundation announced on Feb. 22, 2018.
Amazon acquired Ring in February 2018, making it a subsidiary of Amazon.com.
In April 2018, T-Mobile announced it would be merging with Sprint.
On June 4, 2018, Microsoft announced it would acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion.
On June 30, 2018, StumbleUpon became part of a new social platform called Mix.
In June 2018, AT&T acquired Time Warner, and its name was changed to WarnerMedia.
Logitech announced it would acquire Blue Microphones for $117 million on July 30, 2018.
In September 2018, MetroPCS was re-branded as Metro by T-Mobile.
On October 28, 2018, IBM announced its plans to acquire Red Hat for approximately $34 billion.
Broadcom completed its purchase of CA Technologies on November 5, 2018, for $18.9 billion.
IBM and HCL Technologies reached an agreement on December 6, 2018, that HCL would acquire select IBM software products for $1.8 billion. These products included AppScan, BigFix, Unica, Commerce, Portal, Notes & Domino, and Connections.
CapTherm Systems went out of business in 2018.
Elgato was purchased by Corsair in 2018.
Flickr was purchased from Verizon by SnugMug in 2018.
In 2018, Microchip acquired Microsemi.
As of 2018, Twitter had 320 million active users and over $3 billion in annual revenue.
Computer-related TV shows and movies released in 2018
The movie Ready Player One was released in 2018. A movie about a VR (Virtual Reality) environment called the OASIS and its creator who makes a posthumous challenge to find his Easter eggs in his world. The first person to find all Easter eggs gets control of his world and his fortune.
Discontinued products and services in 2018
The Groove Music platform was later discontinued on January 1, 2018.
Microsoft support for Windows RT 8.1 ended on January 9, 2018.
On April 13, 2018, Google shut down its goo.gl URL shortening service, replacing goo.gl URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) with FDL (Firebase Dynamic Links).
Klout shut down on May 25, 2018.
Yahoo! officially shut down Yahoo! Messenger on July 17, 2018.
The social networking service Path shut down on October 18, 2018.
Essential Phone was discontinued in 2018.
Goobuntu was discontinued in 2018.
Support from Google for the Nexus 6P ended in November 2018.
The development of Swype was discontinued in 2018, and the application was removed from the App Store and the Google Play Store.
Computer pioneer deaths in 2018
John Barlow passed away on February 7, 2018 (Age: 70).
Stephen Hawking passed away on March 14, 2018 (Age: 76).
Gerrot Blaauw passed away on March 21, 2018 (Age: 93).
Burton Smith passed away on April 3, 2018 (Age: 77).
Peter Grünberg passed away on April 7, 2018 (Age: 78).
Gerald Weinberg passed away on August 7, 2018 (Age: 84).
Robert Everett passed away on August 15, 2018 (Age: 97).
Paul Allen passed away on October 15, 2018 (Age: 65).
Evelyn Berezin passed away on December 8, 2018 (Age: 93).
Lawrence Roberts passed away on December 26, 2018 (Age: 81).