Technology fun facts. You ever fall down a weird internet rabbit hole at like, 1:38 a.m. when you should be sleeping or doing literally anything else? Yeah. That was me last week. Except instead of stalking my old MySpace photos (yes, those still haunt me), I got weirdly obsessed with technology fun facts.

Like… who invents this stuff? And who decided to make a refrigerator that tweets?? (That’s a real thing. We’ll get there.)

Anyway, I ended up texting my cousin at midnight like, “DID YOU KNOW THE FIRST COMPUTER MOUSE WAS MADE OF WOOD?!?!” and she responded with “go to bed.” Rude, but fair.

So now I’m sharing these with you. Because this is what friends are for—random but mind-blowing gadget trivia that’ll either impress people at your next game night or just make you feel like a walking episode of Black Mirror.

1. The First Alarm Clock Could Only Ring at One Time

Like… one. Single. Time.

No snooze. No options. Just 4 a.m. Yep. That’s the time the first mechanical alarm clock was set for. It was made in 1787 by a dude named Levi Hutchins who just wanted to wake up to milk cows.

Respect. But also—4 a.m.? Sir. I can barely do 7:45 with three alarms and a prayer.

2. Your Smartphone Has More Power Than NASA’s Computers in 1969

Like… all of NASA. When they sent humans to the moon.

Let that sit for a sec.

The iPhone in your pocket? It’s more powerful than the computers used in the entire Apollo 11 mission. And we use it to take selfies and argue with strangers on Twitter (sorry—X? whatever).

3. The First Computer Mouse Was Wood. Actual Wood.

Picture this: it’s 1964. A guy named Douglas Engelbart (cool name, right?) is like “Hey, let’s move a cursor around the screen with this box on wheels.” So he builds it—out of wood.

It worked. Somehow. Which is kind of amazing. Also, I would 100% buy a wooden mouse now if Apple made one and called it “iBranch” or something equally ridiculous.

4. Your Microwave Was Invented by Accident

The story? A guy named Percy Spencer was working near a radar and noticed the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. Did he panic? No. He put popcorn in it next.

Honestly, that’s the energy I aspire to—confidently turning a weird accident into snack time.

5. Bluetooth Is Named After a Viking

I SWEAR I’m not making this up.

Bluetooth is named after King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson, a Viking king known for uniting parts of Denmark and Norway. The creators of Bluetooth wanted to reflect how the tech “united” devices.

And the logo? It’s literally his initials in runes. (Insert Viking horn sound.)

6. Nintendo Used to Sell Playing Cards

Not games neither consoles. Not Italian plumbers fighting turtles.

Playing. Cards.

Back in the 1880s. I told my nephew this and he said, “They had electricity back then?” 😬 Kids, man.

7. There’s a Toothbrush With Wi-Fi

You read that right. A toothbrush. That connects. To the internet.

WHY? So you can track how long and how well you brush. Because apparently brushing your teeth without data analytics is unacceptable now.

Honestly, if it doesn’t floss for me, I’m not interested.

8. The World’s First Webcam Watched a Coffee Pot

Before Zoom or YouTube. Before cat videos took over the internet.

The first webcam ever was pointed at a coffee pot. In a lab at Cambridge. So people could check if the pot was full without walking over.

I’ve never related to science more.

9. There’s a Smart Toilet That Can Read Your Poop

I wish I were joking.

There are toilets now—actual toilets—that scan your… “deposit” and give you health feedback. Like your own mini doctor that lives in the bathroom.

Future: wild. Privacy: gone.

10. iPhones Are Basically Tiny Gold Mines

Each iPhone has about 0.034 grams of gold in it. That sounds tiny, but when you consider how many phones are out there, that’s a lot of bling just chilling in junk drawers across America.

I kinda want to crack one open like a techy piñata. (Don’t. I Googled it. It’s not worth it.)

11. Siri Was Originally Meant for the U.S. Army

Yup. Apple’s sassiest assistant started as a military AI project. Imagine a battle commander saying, “Hey Siri, drop the drone.”

We live in the weirdest timeline.

12. Alexa Records More Than You Think

This one’s kinda creepy, but also fascinating.

Alexa listens for your command words, right? But sometimes she starts recording even when you don’t say “Alexa.” A bunch of couples have had their convos emailed to random people.

Privacy breach or free podcast? You decide.

13. The First Email Ever Sent Was Just… “QWERTYUIOP”

Seriously.

It was sent by Ray Tomlinson, the guy who invented email, just testing things out. He didn’t write a love letter or a recipe. He just slammed his keyboard. Honestly, same.

14. The Original iPod Could Hold 5GB

And we all thought it was infinite. Like, “You mean I can put 1,000 songs in my pocket??”

Now my phone needs 5GB just to open a food delivery app. Progress is wild.

15. Someone Made a USB Pet Rock

Why? No idea. It didn’t even do anything. You plugged it in, and it just sat there. Like a digital-era Tamagotchi, minus the stress.

10/10 would buy for the irony.

16. One of Google’s First Names Was “BackRub”

Can you IMAGINE saying, “Hold on, I’ll BackRub it”?

It was a search engine that “crawled” backlinks—hence the name. Honestly, sounds like a rejected massage chair brand.

17. The First Text Message Ever Sent Said “Merry Christmas”

In 1992. Sent from a computer to a phone. No emojis. No typos. Just vibes.

Now texting looks like:
“yo”
“u up?”
“can u send meme”
technology has evolved beautifully.

18. Your Smartwatch Has More Tech Than the Apollo Spaceship

Literally. Again. The spaceship. That. Went. To. The. Moon.

Meanwhile, I use mine to check heartbeats and pretend I’ll close my exercise rings someday.

19. There’s an App That Tells You If You’re Ugly

Yup. It scans your face and gives you a “beauty score.”

I tried it once and it gave me a 6.8. I mean, rude—but also, kinda fair. It was a Monday.

20. Roombas Can Map Your House

Cute little vacuum bot? More like sneaky little spy.

High-end Roombas use sensors to map out your home. Some even send that data to the cloud. So your vacuum knows your house better than you do.

(Also explains why mine always finds the one sock I lost three weeks ago.)

So, What’s the Point of All technology fun facts?

Honestly? No point. Just technology fun facts that made me say “wait, WHAT” and now I’m passing that chaos onto you.

But maybe that’s kinda the beauty of it. Gadgets aren’t just tools—they’re little time capsules of human weirdness and curiosity. From Viking Bluetooth to poop-scanning toilets, it’s a wild, messy, brilliant ride.

And if you ever invent a gadget that makes coffee and compliments you in the morning, hit me up. I’ll invest.

Anyway, if you made it this far—you’re my kind of nerd. Go hug your Roomba or whisper sweet nothings to your smartwatch. Whatever works.

💬 Got a favorite weird tech fact? Drop it in the comments or text me at midnight. I’ll probably be awake, Googling if WiFi dreams are real.

Peace ✌ and power cords,
—Me, the gadget goblin

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