History Of Modern Technology: OLED and Beyond | Technology Education

Technology Tap: CompTIA Study Guide

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Explore technology education and IT skills development through the history of modern tech, from CRTs to OLED displays.

A single glowing dot in a glass tube changed how we understand the world. We follow that spark from Carl Ferdinand Braun’s cathode-ray breakthrough to radar operators reading life-and-death blips, to living rooms lit by television and desktops shaped by GUI windows. Along the way, we show why screens didn’t just display information—they taught humans to think in frames, patterns, and pixels.
I walk through the interface pivots that mattered: when computers stopped spitting paper and started talking back visually; when text terminals gave way to Xerox PARC’s icons and pointers; when Apple and IBM normalized monitors as the heart of personal computing with standards like CGA, EGA, and VGA. Then we dive into the flat panel turn: the physics of liquid crystals, the jump from passive to active matrix TFT, and the moment LCDs escaped laptops to conquer the desk. We weigh plasma’s cinematic highs and practical lows, and how LED backlights, higher refresh rates, and HDR transformed clarity, contrast, and color.
From there, we explore OLED’s promise—self-emissive pixels with true blacks, flexible forms, and motion precision that redefined smartphones, TVs, and creative workflows. We compare Mini‑LED’s local dimming advances and MicroLED’s potential for brightness, longevity, and perfect blacks, while noting the manufacturing roadblocks. Finally, we look ahead: curved, foldable, and rollable designs that adapt to you; VR and AR that pull displays onto your eyes; and early steps toward holograms and light field systems that project depth without headsets. The through-line is simple and profound: as control over light improves, the screen fades and the experience takes its place.
If this journey reshaped how you see your monitor, share it with a friend, subscribe for more deep dives, and leave a review to help others discover Technology Tap.

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Art By Sarah/Desmond
Music by Joakim Karud
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פרקים

1. Framing The Screen As A Window (00:00:00)

2. Braun’s CRT And The First Glowing Dot (00:01:56)

3. War Radar And Visualizing The Invisible (00:04:00)

4. TV Trains The World To Trust Screens (00:05:03)

5. From Printouts To Interactive CRT Terminals (00:05:59)

6. Text Terminals To The GUI Revolution (00:07:04)

7. PCs, Standards, And Desktop Monitors (00:08:51)

8. Hitting CRT Limits And Going Flat (00:10:03)

9. LCD Breakthroughs: From Watches To Laptops (00:11:06)

10. Active Matrix And Flat Panels Take Over (00:12:37)

11. Plasma’s Rise And Fade (00:13:43)

12. LED Backlights And The Resolution Race (00:15:00)

13. OLED Emerges And Redefines Black (00:16:41)

14. [Ad] Psst! The Folium Diary has something it wants to tell you - please come a little closer... (00:17:19)

15. (Cont.) OLED Emerges And Redefines Black (00:18:08)

16. HDR, Mini‑LED, And MicroLED (00:19:09)

17. Curved, Foldable, And Vanishing Screens (00:20:23)

18. VR, AR, And Displays On Your Eyes (00:21:18)

19. Holograms, Light Fields, And Ubiquitous Screens (00:22:51)

20. Closing Reflections And Listener Links (00:25:31)