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$360 million in 24 hours, the biggest launch in entertainment history
Call of Duty: Black Ops, released on 9 November 2010, sold about 5.6 million copies in its first 24 hours in the US and UK, worth $360 million, then the biggest entertainment launch ever. Its...
The slim, glossy 360 with built-in Wi-Fi
Announced at E3 in June 2010 and in stores days later, the redesigned Xbox 360 S was slimmer, quieter, had built-in Wi-Fi and a 250 GB drive, and included a port for Kinect. Xbox Live, at $50 a year,...
Conversations, labels, and 7 GB of storage
Gmail had left beta in 2009 and by 2010 was the email of choice for anyone under 35, with conversation threading, labels instead of folders and more than 7 GB of free storage. The year brought Google...
Free calls over the internet, video included
Skype was how families called abroad and how long-distance couples saw each other in 2010. It reported more than 500 million registered users, offered free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls, and...
Grainy 640-by-480 video for Skype, Chatroulette and vlogs
Most 2010 laptops had a built-in low-resolution webcam, and desktops used a Logitech clip-on, which made Skype calls, MSN video chat, Chatroulette and YouTube vlogging possible but grainy. FaceTime...
Chat inside your inbox
Google Talk, and the Gmail Chat box built into the Gmail sidebar, let people message and video chat without installing anything. In 2010 it was quietly replacing AIM for many, and Google Voice calls...
Retina display, FaceTime, and the antenna you could not hold
Announced on 7 June 2010 and on sale on 24 June, the iPhone 4 introduced the 960-by-640 Retina display, a front camera for FaceTime video calls, a 5-megapixel camera with 720p video, and a...
The $2.99 ringtone business in its last big years
Ringtones were still a multi-billion-dollar business in 2010, sold by carriers and services like Myxer and Jamster, and Myxer was one of Google's fastest-rising searches of the year. iPhone owners...
Microsoft's one-year-old "decision engine"
Bing had launched in June 2009 with a photographic homepage and a marketing budget that called it a "decision engine" rather than a search engine. In 2010 it took over powering Yahoo's search...
Nudges, winks and display names full of lyrics
Still called MSN by almost everyone, Windows Live Messenger was the dominant instant messenger outside the United States in 2010, with hundreds of millions of users. Its 2011 version, released in...
Five billion photos, and the iPhone as top camera
Flickr passed five billion uploaded photos in September 2010 and was the serious photographer's social network: albums called sets, Creative Commons licences, groups for every camera, and Explore's...
One deal a day, and a $6 billion offer refused
Groupon emailed one local deal a day, half-price yoga classes or restaurant vouchers, that only activated if enough people bought in. It was called the fastest-growing company in web history in 2010,...
Flash videos, viral clips and content wars
eBaum's World was a 2000s viral-media site that collected funny videos, Flash animations and images, often without credit, which made it notorious among creators. By 2010 it was still busy but...
The first serious Android tablet
The 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, released in November 2010, was the first major Android answer to the iPad. It ran the phone version of Android (2.2 Froyo) stretched to a larger screen, could make...
$139 e-reader, the one that made Kindle mainstream
The third-generation Kindle, later called the Kindle Keyboard, shipped in August 2010 with a sharper E Ink screen, a smaller body and a $139 Wi-Fi-only price. Amazon said it was its fastest-selling...
A $99 black puck for renting shows and streaming Netflix
The second-generation Apple TV, announced on 1 September 2010, shrank to a tiny black box with no storage, rented TV episodes for 99 cents and films from $3.99, streamed Netflix, and previewed...
Black Ops sold about 5.6 million copies in the US and UK in 24 hours, the biggest entertainment launch in history at the time.
Verified Supported Editorial Labels show how well each record is documented; open any result for its sources.
In the last week of August Gmail added phone calls from the inbox and Priority Inbox, which automatically sorted important messages to the top.
