The Minitel was a Videotex online service accessible through telephone lines, and is considered one of the world’s most successful pre-World Wide Web online services.
The service was rolled out experimentally in 1978 in Brittany and throughout France in 1982 by the PTT (Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones; divided since 1991 between France Télécom and La Poste). From its early days, users could make online purchases, make train reservations, check stock prices, search the telephone directory, have a mail box, and chat in a similar way to what is now made possible by the Internet.
The Minolta MAXXUM 7000 (7000 AF in Europe and α-7000 in Japan) 35mm SLR camera was introduced in February 1985. It was the first camera to feature both integrated autofocus (AF) and motorised film advance, the standard configuration for later amateur and professional single lens reflex cameras.(Wikipedia)
