The Big 8 in 2008
Today’s The Day
One Year Mini Daily Inspiration
Before we tread into the popculture peaks and tech-trend highs that're to come in 2018, let’s take a trip down memory lane to 2008.
From now-iconic pop-culture fixtures to groundbreaking consumertech innovations, following are 8 that came to be in 2008. Released in November 2008, “Circus” is the 6th studio album of pop-icon Britney Spears. Often described as a “sequel” to the 2007-released “Blackout” album, “Circus” compiled hits like “Womanizer”, “Circus”, “If U Seek” and “Radar”.
The album’s lead single “Womanizer” is hailed for being Spears’ bestselling song in the US since the 1999-released “…Baby One More Time.” Widely attributed as Spears’ comeback from the tumultuous twists in her life in 2007, the album sold four million copies worldwide and landed Spears a Guinness World Record for being the youngest female artist to have five albums debut at number one in the US.
The first “Twilight”.
The first movie adaptation of Stephenie Mayer’s “Twilight” vampire romance novel series premiered in the United States on November 21, 2008.
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke and top-billed by actors Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, the film scored big at the box office – setting the stage for the release of the series’ following titles “New Moon” and “Eclipse.”
The “Dark Knight”.
The movie is attributed to be the first live action Batman film that did not have the word “Batman” in its title. Directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan, it was the sequel to “Batman Begins,” released in 2005.
With a storyline based on the first appearance of The Joker in “Batman #1” published by DC Comics in 1940 (along with storyline infusions from the “The Killing Joke” (1998) graphic novel and “The Long Halloween” (1996) series, the film was made iconic by Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker which further concretized the criminal mastermind’s standing as one of the world’s most wellknown fictional villains.
Indiana Returns.
Released close to 20 years after “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is the fourth installment of the “Indiana Jones” action-adventure series.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film had Harrison Ford reprise his role as “Indiana Jones,” who races against Soviet agents in a search for a telepathic crystal skull. Released worldwide in May 2008, the film garnered generally positive reviews. (Rumor has it that a fifth Indiana Jones film is slated for release in 2020.)
The ‘droid. Though the “Android” mobile operating system was initially unveiled in 2007, the first commercial mobile device running on the mobile operating system was released in 2008 in the form of the “Dream” mobile phone by HTC.
The model ran with Android 1.6 (Android Donut) and was powered by a 528MhZ processor that was backed with 129 MB of RAM and 256 MB internal storage space. Topped by a display measuring 3.1 inches (320 x 480 pixels), it had a 3.15 megapixel camera.
3G.
The iPhone
The year 2008 had the unveiling of the “iPhone 3G” – the successor to the first iPhone released in 2007.
Though the handset had cosmetic and internal components that were similar to the first iPhone, the “iPhone 3G” was different as it came with hardware features like GPS and provisions for 3G data access. It also ran with a new operating system which introduced electronic consumers to Apple’s “App Store.”
App Store.
In more ways than one, Apple’s “App Store” revolutionized standards in the overall digital content distribution arena.
The store “opened” in July 2008 with the release of the “iPhone 3G” – which came pre-loaded with support options for the then-new online content-and-applications store. Today, the “App Store” is one of the world’s most active digital content distribution platforms.
DSLRs with video-recording capabilities.
As odd as it may sound to Millennials and “tech natives,” it was in 2008 when makers of DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras began unveiling camera models that could take pictures and record videos.
The “D90” by Nikon (unveiled in August 2008) is generally hailed as the first DSLR to come with video recording capabilities, with the “5D Mark II” by Canon (announced in September 2008) widely regarded to be the second.
Prior to the release of DSLRs with video recording functions, professional-grade videos were mainly captured using dedicated video cameras. There were also a number of point-and-shoot cameras of the time that came with video recording features, and many of these were used by end-users to record video clips of happenings and events.