Odds are, you take your iPod or Zune for granted. You probably don't think about the crazy technological advancements we've made, but take a ten-year look back at the world's first MP3 player -- the MPMan F10 -- and you'll get a sense of just how far we've come. Manufactured by Korea's Saehan Information Systems, the device was launched in March of 1998 at CeBIT, and went on sale in the Summer through Eiger Labs for $250. The player featured 32MB of flash memory (which could be upgraded to 64MB via mail-in scheme), connected to PCs via parallel port, and had a miniscule LCD for playback info -- but it laid the groundwork for the tech we have today. Following the MPMan's release, Rio unleashed its PMP300, which received a warmer reception and all-but eclipsed the F10's status as "first" amongst players, likely due to the company's well-known (and groundbreaking) legal battle against the RIAA. Still, first is first, so help keep the MPMan's rich history alive, and celebrate its ten-year anniversary this month with campfire songs and story-telling. Check out the archived read link of the original Eiger Labs site for a wild and wacky trip through time.

[Via Register Hardware]

Ever wondered what it'd be like to have two birthdays in a single year? If so, just phone up, er, text SMS -- it's living the dream, baby! Apparently, the first "recorded text message" was sent from software engineer Neil Papworth to Richard Jarvis, a director at Vodafone, on December 3, 1992, which is arguably the birthday of SMS as we know it. Granted, the Short Message Service Center has been around just a hair longer, but without an official birth certificate tied to either, who are we to argue? So, here's to you (yet again), dear text messaging, but if you really try to sneak a third shindig in before the year's up, don't look to us to provide another round of hors d'oeuvres.

[Via TGDaily, image courtesy of The Sydney Morning Herald]

It may be underpowered, but it's got a big heart. Oh, and we hear it's doing alright for itself in this generation's console war, but that's all hearsay. That's right, Nintendo's Wii turns one year old today, and what a magical year it's been.

[Wii cake courtesy of Henry S.]

See that Wii or Xbox sitting under your TV? The PSP or DS tucked away in your messenger bag? That copy of Pac-man on your cellphone which cost five bucks and expires next month? Each of them owe a debt of gratitude to the granddaddy of all videogame consoles, the Atari 2600, which ushered in an era of unprecedented television usage, and which turns 30 years old this month. That's right, the first 2600 units rolled off the assembly line in October of 1977, delighting both children and kids at heart with games like Pitfall and Pole Position, and helping distract the nation after the untimely death of the King, the tragic crash of Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane, and Pele's retirement. So here's to you, dear 2600: Atari may only be a shadow of its former self today, but you've lived on in our fond memories, in retro Flashback products, and last but not least, in tricked-out mods from the great Ben Heckendorn.

Hard to believe that Wacom has been around for a quarter century, but this month marks its 25th year in business. To celebrate, the firm is introducing a trio of Intuos3 Special Edition pen tablets in a variety of sizes including 6- x 8-, 6- x 11-, and 9- x 12-inches. Each tablet touts "a refined and sophisticated black and gun metal gray color scheme," Wacom's Classic Pen to compliment the Intuos3 Grip Pen, an accessory kit, and a transparent overlay "to substitute with the traditional gray overlay." All three units play nice with both Macs and PCs and can be snapped up for $369, $409 and $489 from smallest to largest.

[Via PC World]

Just this summer we saw text messaging party down after turning 15, and now its time to get your weekend started right by celebrating 20 whole years of GSM. Reportedly, "15 phone firms signed an agreement to build mobile networks based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications" on this day in 1987, and while it took "12 years for the first billion mobile connections to be made," things have pretty much taken off since then. So here's to 20 incredibly fruitful years, GSM, you've earned it.

[Thanks James; image courtesy of RetroBrick]

Just days after the IBM ThinkPad threw a shindig for its 15th, now we've reason to don our party hats once more for yet another notable birthday. The mobile phone industry is celebrating the 15th year of the Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which was the "principal application behind text messaging first brought to market by Acision in 1992." Over the years, the basic SMSC box has evolved into an IP-based SMS architecture, and while early iterations had a capacity of ten messages per second, current setups can handle a nearly infinite amount (good thing, huh?). So here's to you, dear SMS, and while we certainly hope you manage to hang around another 15 years or so, how's about cooling off the perpetual price increases along the way?

[Thanks, John]

If you were looking for any reason whatsoever to hop into a celebratory mood, why not join IBM (or would it be Lenovo these days?) in celebrating the 15th birthday of the ThinkPad. Of course, tech historians are likely to bicker over the ThinkPad's true day of emergence, but reportedly, the IBM 2521 (later renamed the 700T) ThinkPad holds the honors of being the first of its kind to ship in July of 1992. Interestingly enough, one could argue that this very machine was actually more akin to a tablet PC than a bonafide laptop, but it proudly donned the ThinkPad logo nevertheless. So, ThinkPad owners, today's your day to gift that oh-so-industrious machine of yours with a few extra moments of rest, but before you do, why not let us know what model you're partying with if you're in the club?

[Via jkOnThRun]

It's time to find out who took home the last of the loot from our 3rd Birthday Giveaway -- including our grand prize OQO Model 02. The scores of delicious gadget-themed cakes that our loyal readers cooked up in honor of little old us definitely made this an agonizing contest to judge -- and not just because we didn't even get to eat any our own birthday cakes. But we did finally settle on some winners though, so click on to check out the top cakes (and hit the read link to see our full gallery)!

We know you want to take home the cake, er, OQO Model 02 -- and you've got your assignment. This weekend is the last you'll have left to construct and to submit your cake in our annual baking contest, though. In case you've forgotten, here are the prizes up for grabs:

• OQO Model 02
• Samsung Blackjack
• A copy of Gears of War and an Xbox 360 Wireless Headset
• v-moda vibe la mocha headphones
• Mystery swag bag #2

So what do you have to do to win? Well, first up we'd recommend you check out last year's cake contest. So that's right, bake us a gadget-shaped or Engadget-themed cake, send us a picture (or pictures) of the cake and the baking process and we'll pick five winners (as judged by the editors of Engadget). Last year's winners were pretty freaking awesome, so don't disappoint us!

A few rules:

1. No photoshops. Seriously, we shouldn't have to explain this one. Take lots of pictures -- be able to prove it's your cake, and that it's real! Note that you don't actually have to mail us a cake.
2. Contests are open to anyone in the U.S. Unless you work for Engadget or Weblogs, Inc.
3. Enter by dropping your pictures of your cake in comments, or email your pictures in to contest (at) engadget (dot) com, subject "Birthday cake" (no quotes).
4. Yes, even professional bakers are allowed to enter, so let's see some creativity! Best cake (as judged by Engadget) wins!
5. You've got until 11:59PM EST Tuesday the 13th to enter your cake.
6. You can enter this contest more than once and you may enter our other Birthday contests, but you can't win more than once. If you happen to win more than once (which is pretty unlikely, but still) we'll ask you to choose just one of your prizes.

Thanks and good luck!

While we doubt we've seen every single computing error that could possibly occur, there's definitely been a fair amount to surface, and while this story may not take the proverbial cake, it's good for a hearty chuckle if nothing else. Apparently, a certain Aunt Elsa was supposed to receive a custom baked (and messaged) cake from Wegmans Grocery to celebrate her birthday, and as the part-English, part-Italian message was emailed into Wegmans presumably automated printing machine, a bit of miscommunication ensued. Sure, it makes sense that the machine might not have been ready (or programmed) to handle languages outside of English, but surely someone actually looked at this thing before sending it out, right? Nevertheless, Aunt Elsa was graced with a cake that just barely got the whole "birthday" message across, and we presume even the supportEmptyParas tasted mighty sweet going down.

[Via BoingBoing]

We'll admit, there's not a whole of gizmos invented 100 years ago that we still rely on (and bicker about) on a near-daily basis, but broadcast radio has managed to stay in our homes, cars, hearts, and complaint letters for a full century. Exactly one hundred years ago today, Reginald Fessenden fired up his transmitting station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts in order to broadcast a "brief speech," followed by an Edison phonograph recording of Handel's Largo." He also sent out a few other holiday jams and well-wishes to those spending Christmas "onboard US Navy and United Fruit Company ships equipped with Fessenden's wireless receivers." Fessenden earned more than 500 patents in his lifetime, including credit for the "radio telephone, a sonic depth finder, and submarine signaling devices." So while the FCC tries to regulate it, and we prefer the cleaner, less ad-filled satellite rendition of radio, we're still raising our glasses to a technology that's changed technology over the past hundred years, and here's to a hundred more.

[Via Slashdot]

Never ones to shy away from shameless self promotion, or to hold back on birthday extravagances, we're proud to present a fresh collection of takes on the Engadget logo created by readers of the newly 1-year-old Engadget Spanish for their birthday contest. The first and second place winners received a PEBL and a SanDisk Sansa respectively, but every submission upholds the high standards of mad-Engadget-love we've come to expect from our own reader contests. Check the read link for the rest of the pics, alongside snarky commentary in a language we can barely order take-out in.

Wow, time really flies. Just a little over a year ago we had a bun in the oven called Engadget Spanish, and now it's all grown up and celebrating its first birthday. Next thing you know it's gonna be thiiis big and off to college, married, and with little Engadget spinoffs blogs of its own, and we'll just br here still blogging in English with our empty nest syndrome, hopefully collecting blogger social security. Oh, by the way, we hear they're giving something away -- but we won't spoil the surprise. Feliz cumpleaños Engadget Español!

Ah, it's ok, you can admit that you forgot our birthday. It's not too late to send us gift basket or anything, but you know how we roll here at Engadget, and so to celebrate our 2nd anniversary we're blowing it out with seven days of giveaways.

We're kicking things off with chance to win a brand new Slingbox. Winning this fine prize is easy: just tell us what's your favorite Engadget post of the past year. It can be anything (except this post): a regular post, an interview, a how-to, a review, or whatever, just post a comment below with a link to it along with a couple of lines about why it's your fave and we'll pick a winner at random. Three runners-up will each win an Engadget t-shirt.

A couple of things:

1. You can only enter each day's contest once. If you post more than once you'll be automatically disqualified and barred from all future giveaways. (Yes, we're checking thoroughly to ensure fairness.)

2. You can only win once. (If you win and go for a second prize, you'll be automatically disqualified and barred, etc.)

3. Contests are open to anyone, anywhere. Unless you work for Engadget or Weblogs, Inc.

We'll keep comments open for about 24 hours, best of luck to everyone and thanks for all of your support for these past two years!