Top Surprising Tech Facts You Didn’t Know

Behind the sleek smartphones and AI advancements are curious inventions, peculiar coincidences and overlooked milestones that shaped the modern world.

23:52 14 May 2025

Technology has many surprises. Behind the sleek smartphones and AI advancements are curious inventions, peculiar coincidences and overlooked milestones that shaped the modern world. From unexpected sources to unusual applications, the tech industry is full of surprises that show that there is much more than meets the eye.

Whether you are a trivia buff or simply a fan of gizmos, the following are some of the most interesting technology trivia that are certain to have you looking twice.

The First Computer Mouse Was Made of Wood

Wood. The first ever computer mouse, devised in 1964 by inventor Douglas Engelbart, was fashioned from a rectangular piece of wood with just a single button on top. Far from today's sleek wireless models, this mouse looked like a chunky remote control on the end of a wire.

Its primitive form utilised two wheels set perpendicularly to sense movement. Though simple and seemingly awkward, Engelbart’s wooden device significantly advanced human-computer interaction. Without technology, the graphical user interface would probably never have arisen.

Golden Panda Was Once Mistaken for a Tech Company

When GoldenPanda went live in 2024, its sleek branding and rapid online growth prompted some technology forums to wonder whether or not it would turn out to be a new AI or blockchain business. The reality was much more thrilling for players. GoldenPanda is among the UK’s freshest and most promising online casino sites.

With a big selection of slots, live dealer games and sports wagering, there is something for users seeking a premium mobile gaming experience. Players in the UK can also enjoy hefty welcome offers, making this a viable competitor to some of the most well-known casino brands.

This mistaken identity indicates how the lines become blurred online, where a consummately produced rollout can generate assumptions about everything.

Email Came Before the Web

Most people think the internet and email existed simultaneously, but they were close to two decades apart. Email itself was conceptualised in the early 1970s by Ray Tomlinson, a computer programmer who also invented the "@" character to separate usernames and the machine hosts.

The World Wide Web, which many use daily, did not exist until 1991. Emails have been moving in both directions long before websites, social media or search engines existed. Email was, in fact, one of the first "killer apps" that spawned the growth of computing in offices worldwide.

Next time you check your inbox, remember that you are employing one of the oldest online communication devices that is still operational.

NASA’s Internet Is Slower Than You Think

It is not hard to picture astronauts floating around amid high-tech gadgetry, but the internet is not exactly flying through cyberspace for them either. The International Space Station has an average download speed of 600 Kbps, much slower than you would have with a 4G smartphone or even standard broadband.

The cause isn't old technology, but the extreme distance information has to travel from Earth to the ISS. Messages must bounce along a chain of ground stations and satellites before arriving at their destination. As NASA develops quicker solutions, such as laser communications, astronauts must be patient while waiting for websites to load.

There’s a Graveyard for Tech in the Middle of the Ocean

Farthest from human eyes, in the South Pacific Ocean, lies the most isolated point on the planet — so isolated, the closest human presence is generally astronauts on the ISS. Due to being so far from human settlement, it’s been assigned the perfect crash site for retired satellites, space stations and spacecraft.

More than 260 fragments of space trash, including remnants of Russia’s former mighty Mir space station, have fallen to Earth here. The location has been informally nicknamed “spacecraft cemetery.” As more space missions are launched and space is increasingly populated with satellites, Point Nemo will likely have even more interstellar garbage coming. It is a haunting reflection of how technological advancement also has fallout, even in space.

QWERTY Was Designed to Slow You Down

Not many people ever think about the configuration of their keyboard, but there is an unusual reason why the QWERTY configuration came to be standard. It was initially developed in the 1870s to keep people from typing too quickly. Typewriters tended to jam whenever people typed rapidly with many keys at a time. By putting the most frequently typed letters far apart, the configuration made people have to type at a slower pace, so that they would decrease jams.

Today, more efficient layouts like the Dvorak are intended to achieve maximum speed and ergonomic efficiency. But familiarity — and mass production — over the past decades have entrenched QWERTY. So the next time you struggle to locate a key, remember it’s not you—it’s the system.

Technology is Full of Curious Twists

With every technological breakthrough, there is always some strange backstory. There have been wooden mice, underwater graves for satellites and the online world is full of other odd facts and unexpected choices that continue to influence how people live, work and have fun.

And there are surprises like GoldenPanda, a casino site that resembled a start-up but went on to disrupt the online gaming industry. From discovering alien speeds in outer space to tapping away at a vintage keyboard, there is always something in store for you in the technological domain.

Why should tech facts have to be dull?