Hi g, my autism for the past month has been about old PDAs and phones and stuffI really love this era of technology because it’s what directly evolved into what we have as phones today. I have so many things to talk about. Like, this past week I’ve been combing through old comp.sys forums for info and software for the sharp Zaurus line from the mid 90sDid you know that the Zaurus KPDA started as sharps reworking of the apple newton? I really just want some bros to talk about this stuff with, my normal friend groups don’t give a shit about any of this lol
>>100154818basedYou do anything with these anon?
>>100154818>sovlnow everybody just have generic black brick
>>100154887I like to try using them as is for a while to get a feel for how they were in their time. Putting aside my smartphone and sticking to a psion and 386 for a week or twoI also like how most of them can be used as t100 terminals. This summer I’m gonna put together a mud server to play on my different devices.
>>100154900I like seeing all sorts of different input methods. The umpteen attempts at hand writing recognition, unique takes on syllable input (basically chording) glyffs with Grafitti, old wonky voice input etcPictured is the docomo pacty. It’s an email terminal/pda designed for women to text and email easily on the go.It’s designed to look like a compact mirror or makeup thing, and it’s used with one hand by typing out the sounds of syllables in your words with 12 keys
>>100154970Forgor the pic lol
>>100154934devices like these usually make me sad because I cant help but think the times for when devices were relevant came and went, and I wasnt there to experience itAnyway, I just remembered this guy's blog, which coincedentally has something very relevant lastest articlehttps://handheld.computer/Also >mud serverJust skimmed over this, never knew this was a thing, sick
>>100155043Such a cool blog. Even if half of it is hipster coffee shop pics XD(Unfortunately I’m probably a hipster too if I think about it.. carrying around old gadgets n stuff :P)
>>100154970>used with one hand by typing out the sounds of syllables in your words with 12 keysIsn't that exactly how Japanese text input works on current smartphones? You start "spelling" the word with its syllables and select the words you want as they are suggested, since having keys for each of the thousands of kanji wouldn't be feasible. Not sure how this is different.
>>100154818Upper middle row, all the way to the left. 1996 Palm Pilot, right? I still have my dad's somewhere. I remember using it as a kid and deciding it was pretty terrible after a short while. I'm not sure how long he actually used it for, but I know he bought a newer version when it came out and I have that one somewhere too.>>100155043>I wasnt there to experience itI was a kid at the time like I said, but from my messing with it when I was a bit older I can tell you the things were REALLY primitive, so you weren't missing much. They were basically just an electronic notebook. Granted, at the time it was still the norm for people to have a rolladex or something to store phone numbers, so it wasn't like there was no niche.The early Palm pilots had touchscreens and a stylus so you could write notes down, but the early touchscreens were so bad that they couldn't accurately record strokes like modern ones. Palm shipped them with a sticker on the back that had their own made up cursive-esque alphabet you were supposed to use so they could better interpret whatever you scribbled.You could also just tap your entries onto an onscreen keyboard of course.
>>100155164They aren’t as archaic as you’re thinking. Yes there are plenty of devices that are JUST electronic organizers. But PDAs stemming from the newton were more like portable PCs than anything.In fact a good few of them ran straight up MS dos with custom shells. (Or just windows 3) The palm on its own may seem like nothing more than a electronic notepad, but remember that’s there are literally hundreds of thousands of programs for them.There are games, word processors, internet browsers, classic computer emulators etc. the original palm pilot 68k like cpu can do quite a bit, and was used in palms up through the early 2000s with little to no modification The newton takes the “assistant” bit to another level, being able to interpret what you write on the screen to do certain tasks.The party trick with the newton wasn’t that it could just read handwriting, it’s that you could scratch down “meeting with bob next weekend” and newton would know what you mean and schedule it for you These have more in common with smart phones than they do rolodexes
>>100155155That is one of the ways to type Japanese yeah. The pacty was one of the first handhelds to do such a thing ^.^
>>100154818Nice collection. I used to have a Compaq iPAQ in middle school. Was definitely not the target demographic for that product but I loved using it for writing notes and keeping track of school work. I can't remember what happened to it. I know I stopped using it once I entered high school, and by that time I had basic LG flip phone.Picrel isn't the exact model I had, but something that looked just like it.
PDAs and electronic organizers co-existed, and their bubbles certainly overlap. But to me “PDAs” stem more from those pocket computers that run basic than from old Casio digital rolodexes. An important device is the sharp-7000. It looks like a fancy calculator, but it’s a full basic computer, complete with shorty keyboard, serial IO, printer and tape storage, and even retail software sold on cartridges These type of small computers worked really well for vertical solutions. Oftentimes you’ll see psions (another type of pocket computer from the same era) with custom software on cartridges dedicated to some specific company.It’s software written to idk, do whatever that business needed you to do on the road.Prions specifically were used a lot by Coca-Cola for vending machine maintenance. So you can find some coke branded ones with coke cartridges in them
>>100155288I’ve got a couple compaqs. They were super popular circa 2001/2002. They were ahead of most other pocket PCs with their strong ARM cpu, and vast expansion options with different IO backpacks
>>100154818absolute SOVL
>>100154818
>>100154983Is she pregnant?
>>100155484Yes, you open it up and that’s where the phone cable goes
I like the omnigo, it’s a roughly nintendo DS sized clamshell with a keyboard and touch screen.The display flips all the way around to use it in a tablet mode. It runs Pen/geos- a graphic shell on top of DOS 6.2. It’s even got CGA drivers!For touch input, it had a version of palm’s graffiti. It has a type 2 PC Card slot. And since it’s just dos underneath, it’s real easy to get drivers for cards. I’m trying to find a cheap sound blaster pcmcia to use the device as a cool music player, alongside using it for text games
Here’s my ZaurusThe Zaurus sometimes gets criticism for how there isn’t much 3rd party software for it. However, all of the software that comes in rom is so so good that it really doesn’t need anything.It’s even got a compuserve client Compu-? Yes, compuserve.
Here’s a cute little infographic
I have a little discord server for sharing pics of old PDAs and computers and stuff. And also my daily drunken ramble of what makes my tizzy tingle
https://discord.gg/wuuKrexBHere it is, I hope some ppl join
>>100154818I just snagged myself a HTC G2 and Nokia n810 to add to my collection
>>100156011Posting discord links should be bannable
>>100156115I just want friends
>>100156075Those are sexy
I like these fold out keyboards
>>100154818I still have my Palm Pilot. I just wished my phone lasted as long berween recharges as the Pilot does.
>>100157487I wish phones lasted as long in generalA pilot from 1996 would have been totally viable up till like 2006
>>100157546I kept mine, with the docking station. It is super comfy and was a major status symbol back in the day.
>>100154818Is that picture your collection? I see there is a Magic Cap there, good find.
>>100154818kino threadbumped
>>100156178NTA but a general on /g/ would probably be far comfier. Scheduling it like, say, second Friday in each month will probably be fine and importantly avoid desperate bumping.Add a FAQ on the Installgentoo Wiki and you are golden.
damn this really is autismthe form factors are cool but im not really interested if I cant use it. I expect that most of these devices werent meant to last decades and repairing mini devices is really hard, so youll eventually have husks. I also imagine theyre super expensive relative to thier use.I would start a blog/journal about them and shill it on any relevant thread here.
>>100154818nice. I had Palm V, Compaq iPaq and various Blackberries in my time. iPaq was huge, with an extra battery and a safety holster on my belt. Palm V was and still is my favorite. Some problems with ActiveSync but never for long. Blackcberries were okay, at least the early ones with fixed keyboard.
>>100156334oh fuck I had them too. brilliant.
>>100158018yeah that's probably the best one, couldn't afford it and by the time I could it was a different time
>>100159579it was elite. i only got to play with it too, could not afford it at that time either. =/
>>100158818That’s a good idea anon, I’ll try that at the beginning of next month.I’m surprised so many people have posted in here, it makes me hopeful that maybe there is an audience for such a thing
>bump
>>100154818good stuff anon
My new omnigo just showed up in the mail the other day, and I’ve just now finished cleaning him up for use. I just learned that in 1998 Hp released a software package to support palm hotsyncing I hope this means that I’ll be able to sync with my similarly ancient and obsolete internet appliance- the ergo Audrey (supports hotsyncing to palms)Audrey was one of many attempts at “internet appliances” during the dot com bubble. The idea was to sell a cheap, easy to use alternative to a PC for unconnected families to get online. The problem was that, nobody could really make anything cheaper than just buying a low end PC. So time and time again these devices came out, and sold like shit because they were just worse than getting a real computerI like ‘em though I think they’re funny
>>100164087An exception to this rule was the netpliance I-openerThis was a similar device, except it retailed for only $99. The hope was that they could make their money back on ads and services what they lost on selling the device at a loss.However, this bit them in the foot when hobbyists realized that inside was a more or less standard X86 PCWith a little bit of elbow grease you could get a hard drive hooked up and run Linux or windows 9X on this $100 computerOfc those customers weren’t making netpliance any money on ads and services. oops
>>100164153Forgor the pic
