The History Of Tiny Computers (PDAs) - Where Did They Go?
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- čas přidán 19. 04. 2023
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Personal digital assistants, PDAs, palmtops and pocket computers used to be very popular. But where did they go? Let's take a trip back in time and explore the history of those tiny computers :) #PDA #technology #history
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Nathan Sivewright
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PDAs and pocket computers featured:
Radio Shack EC-21 (1978)
Psion 3A - 1991 (3A, 1995)
Sharp ZQ-650 - 1997
Apple eMate 300 - 1997
Palm III - 1998
Psion 5MX - 1999
Palm VX - 1999
Psion Teklogix Netbook Pro - 2003
Palm Tungsten E2 - 2005
HP iPaq RX1950 - 2005
Nokia N73 - 2006
Blackberry 9000 - 2008
Nokia N97 Mini - 2009
Music Used:
"Soaring" "Past Sadness"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b... - Věda a technologie
Thanks for watching! I hope you enjoyed this style of video. More content on its way soon :) - Nathan
Overview was fine but as the video is short, I was missing more in-depth presentation of what it could do but again, Understand. Maybe tip for future, took some iPaq and install on it few games from Archive. if I remember, there were few titles for Windows Mobile that were fun (Pocket Ever quest or Quake III Arena).
thanks for the content
you should have mentioned the King of the PDA's the HTC HD2
it rocked 1ghz 512mb storage and ram windows mobile 6.5 and got a port of basicly any handheld os ever
I used a Palm III or a Palm Pilot (don't recall exactly but looked similar to the one in your video). I think I still have it in a box somewhere.
gpd win max 2 is rlly cool :D
I still remember getting my 5MX, I felt like I was living in the future. It was almost entire useless, but that didn't stop me loving it.
How my parents feel about me lol
@@julioibarra7156damn
That sliding keyboard was just the coolest thing
You can get a new version of the mpsion from planet computers.
How quickly we all forgot what it was like carrying around a phone, and iPod and a PDA all separately! We knew no different, and it was peak personal technology at the time. I remember using the HP iPaq RX1950. I feel as though they must have been a common model in their time, but man was it ever useful to have one of them. Always enjoy your videos Psivewri!
When I got my first, "big boy job," my wife bought me a Handspring Visor Prism as a gift...since I needed to do adult things like have a calender, and contact book, and a paper organizer just wouldn't cut it. I played a lot of SimCity on that thing! I even got the cellular modem Springboard and remember showing off getting my emails to a friend at the bar. He was like, "wow, now your work can bother you even on your day off!"
Your friend must be someone from the future 😂😂😂😂
Cut to 2024, where nothing stops work from bugging you on your day off!
I got a second hand Palm m505 back in 2007 with a faulty battery and it was still a blast to use until it got stolen during my last year of middle school, a month or so ago I got a Tungsten T3 and it's more or less the same but much more capable as it can actually play MP3 and videos at 240p, the charm of the Palm really comes to the very unique software created for it from MS-DOS clone games to full fledged remote apps.
I have a tungsten E2 myself
That was Palm OS - I always liked it as well. At the time, it was competing with Windows CE Pocket PC devices.
I had a Palm Tungsten T myself and loved it. It was nothing more than a glorified diary but back in the early 00's, it was the "cool" factor of having a PDA which counted. Once the iPhone came along in 2007, it basically rendered all PDAs useless.
Did a lot of gaming on my Tungsten T3. Space Trader, some choice RPGs. Games were pricy though. So are games today, and they probably would've died out if not for all the IAP/microtransactions, + ads. :\
I still collect the old PalmOS and Windows Mobile devices. Always fascinated by them as a kid, I was lucky to have a Zire 21, and later as I got older was able to collect all the Tungsten T and E series phones, lots of WM5 and WM6 devices as well. My first Palm device was the Palm IIIe, and I now have the IIIc in my collection. Love your videos!! Should do more on PalmOS!!
I beg you to show off your collection 😬
Palm did some innovative things, until Microsoft muscled in to kill them off.
I got a palm tungsten t3
I just bought the TX, very nice!
It is compatible with 10.4 Tiger on the 2008 iMac 17"
I'd add the Casio Cassiopeia to this list. I had an A-11 with 4MB RAM, manufactured somewhere between 1996 and 1999, and used it up to 2009: it was a great companion to take quick notes and transfer them back to the PC through a serial cable (at least until serial ports where a thing on PCs). Great memories.
I love that you reflect on these evolutionary dead ends, I had a couple fo PDA's from Casio and Palm even when they were new I just had a feeling that they were somewhat pointless and sold them on after awhile.
But they evolved into Smartphones! I went from Atari Portfolio to Palm to Windows CE to "Pocket PC Phone Edition" to Windows Phone to iPhone. None of these was pointless for me, nothing was a dead end.
The first iPhone killed the PDA market when it launched in 2007. It made a basic handheld computing device (converged with a cellphone), mainstream, popular, and far more affordable than the exotically overpriced PDA models the big OEMs were selling as corporate/prosumer productivity tools.
Apple was the nail in the coffin for the traditional PDA market.
But HP, Dell, Acer, and all the rest of the big OEMs had already poisoned and suffocated the PDA market with their own diseases. Too greedy, too anti-consumer, too much DRM, too often, for too long. Their heavyhanded proprietary software and hardware controls were so excessive that even the dinosaur corporate customers quickly abandoned fleets of these machines for mainstream consumer replacements.
I used a Dell X51v for years. With aftermarket memory and processor upgrades. I loved that little machine. Although, of course, I was part of the enthusiast minority who preferred "PPC" over the loathsome term "PDA".
Still, I was happy to finally see a giant blunder into the corrupt PDA market and smash the old paradigm apart. It was already past time for it to evolve or die.
@@pwnmeisterageThe first iPhone launched in 2007.
@@OrangeUp1st gen iPhone launched in US on 29 June 2007. And broke records by selling almost half a million units on release day.
@@pwnmeisterage I wrote this just bc upstairs you said it launched in 2009.
After rebuilding the battery packs on both my IPAQ 3950 and 3630 i still use them regularly as their battery last way longer than my phones so they are super useful for using as digital notepads or for reading off scripts. I also have a 3830 but its so similar to the 3950 i just stripped it for parts to fix the other one.
That’s so cool! I love the idea of using older technology in the modern era since they still could be useful to some degree!
@9:06 is in Korean, and I think is for korean electronics EMF approval/registration. By the way, Palm Pilot was incredibly popular in US in the 90's, and I worked at a computer store and had a lot of customers buying them. Later, I bought the Handspring, a popular clone of Palm Pilot series, with additional cell phone module, so it was like one of the pioneer of modern smart phone.
Glad to see someone pointing it out, it is indeed a Korean EMF approval sticker
The two characters on the top left of the sticker is in Chinese/Kanji though, strange.
@sengyew83 While Korean language system has Hangul for their writing/reading system, lot of words are still technically in Chinese(한자/Hanja).
Nowdays, they're almost always written in Hangul but back in as late as early 2000's, you're able to find some words written in Chinese here and there.
@@juny5531 thanks!
While familiar with the ancient usage of Chinese script (and later disuse) in Korea, I never knew it was still present as recent as the 2000s.
I think Handspring was an offshoot created by the original founders of Palm, after they left the original company.
I remember around the year 2001, one of the local doctors where I worked had a pda with the plastic pen and he was constantly using it for phone contacts, and other uses. To him, it was a neat gadget that served its purpose at the time. I did not have one, but he used it all the time.
I remember seeing a bloopers roll from a TV show with Brian Blessed as the presenter, struggling to use a 'Palm Pilot' to follow the shows running order. The studio producer keeps reminding him to 'Look at the Palm Pilot' to which he responds: 'Palm pilot? That sounds like the name for a w&nking machine!' 🤣
And now the term "personal digital assistant" is transforming to just "digital assistant", and now it's in a completely different form (as a built in assistant and AI chatbot in the phone and computer)
The time flies
You and I grew up in the same era. I remembered every single one of those PDAs and actually owned a Sharp, Palm III, IPAQ and the N73! I was also obsessed. So funny you mentioned the Japanese e-dictionary. We used to host Japanese exchange students and I always wanted to mess with their e-dictionaries! Thanks for the good bit of nostalgia.
I was a technical writer at Apple for a few years, and casually knew Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinski before they left to start Palm, Inc. and later Handspring. We had a couple Palm Pilots at home, and later Handsprings, my favorite, and eventually a Sony Clie that my wife favored.
Now pretty much all the functions are rolled into your smart phone, and better functionally, to boot.
Your collection of vintage tech is quite impressive! It would be great to see a walk-through of your collection and what you've acquired so far.
Excellent video as always! ☺️
I got that Psion 3a used as a gift when I was 14 or so. It came with a great Basic environment, „OPL Basic“ IRC, so I wrote a silly little side-scrolling shooter during the holidays. 1:24
Never thought you'd show such Public Displays of Affection Psivewri! What a throwback this video was! Cheers for the memories! 🤣
I went to the launch of the Nokia N95 in Melbourne when I worked at Vodafone as a 29-something. That was my first true smart phone after owning an O2 windows mobile PDA/Phone. The N95 really changed up what I could do with 3G. Loved that thing!
I remember the Apple eMate 300 back around 1998 when my high school in Darwin provided them for us seniors to work on our essays. I thought they were so super futuristic looking.
When I was in Japan, there where buckets and buckets full of PDAs in the Hard-Off stores for just under 50 cents.
There where a few "high end" models there too, but again they're super cheap.
Japan is a country that really loves its electronic gadgets.
I'm not that old, and I know about PDAs. They're honestly pretty cool, but today, your phone is basically that and more. I have an old Sony Clie that my parents used to use.
I still have a Goldstar H-120, not used anymore however.
Great little retrospective/collection show and tell
05:56 Sorry Nathan, I lost it here 😂😂
Man I love this video already it's talking about my favourite thing tech😁 good on ya keep up the good work
12:34 maaaaaan seeing the n73 brought back so many memories
It was the phone that really got me into photography
I started collecting these on ebay as soon as I could afford it. Wanted them since I was a 90s kid and smartphones just didn't hit the same way.
I use an Hp620lx Palmtop for writing stories, and a Palm Tungsten E2 for handheld games & ebooks.
Brilliant video! I remember being so facinated by these as a kid.
I had two Dell palm devices. I got movies and games on it. Great fun and it was futuristic at the time. Then I got a Psion organiser. It had flash memory that you could use once. You couldn’t overwrite 😊
Great video! When I was younger PDA’s were the best I was obsessed!
As an engineer student during the early 2000s to me, the best handheld computing device was one of three options, the HP48(S, G, GX) calculator or the Texas TI 82 and 92 calculators. The 3 are programmable graphing calculators, they had amazing communities of users sharing all kind of software in it. Among my class mates we had HP48s and we had games in it, and a lot more software, and it was just a 4 bit CPU.
I watch your videos daily and love every single one of them. Thank you
I had a classmate who had many of the palms you showed today. Great video as always! Thank you!
I loved Psions. I had a 3a when I was a student and wrote loads of my essays on it.
about Electronic Dictionaries (or でんしじしょ "Denshi Jisho" in japanese) I recently brought one to help me study the language, kinda clunky to use in my opinion but really good once you get used to it (surely way better than google translate)
4:55 Did my Bachelors & Masters theses on an eMate. Great little machine. Especially with the tripod stand for fieldwork. Keyboard a little small but definitely usable once you got used to it & could type away on the daily 3h bus commutes to College. Bought a network card & adaptor & managed to find a department printer from the library and print remotely. That was a big deal & nobody was doing this in '98/'99. Also soldered & pinned out the serial port (I think) to get it to sync to a Windows 98 PC at home. That was actually easier to do compared to when we bought our first iMac due to it going to USB. Crazy times. Still works when plugged into the mains but have been meaning to rebuild the battery with 4 rechargeable AAs soldered together. One of these days...
Palm Tungsten E was my first PDA and I loved the heck out of that thing!
I had palms and handspring visors. I still have a couple. I loved it for work for my calendar and notes I did for my mental health clients. It was great for the time, and I still miss how well the calendar functioned.
Good video. But an important missing PDA for me is the “Zoomer” (Casio Z-PDA), an x86-based PDA that ran PC/GEOS and completed with the Newton. Great device, I still have one. I also have its cellphone descendant, the Nokia Communicator 9000.
Personal Digital Assistant. As a techno-junkie, I had a succession of these. I owned a Psion 3a, a Psion 5 (the hinge gave out on both of them though, which was a pity, I wrote a chemistry program on the 3a using OPL, the language used for the Psion devices, which was a Pascal derivative), a Windows CE device that I think was made by HP, before discovering I could combine my phone and Windows CE PDA in one device, an O2 PDA that I don't remember the model number of, but it current matter, I later learned that O2 and a bunch of other companies all just rebranded HTC devices (had a few of those as well). Up until that first O2, all my phones were Nokia (recognised a few models I owned in your video as well, and my Dad had a couple of those Sharp devices, but bigger, and later a Blackberry, which I have somewhere, and it still works). After that first O2, I think I had a few HTC devices, before discovering Samsung tablets, and could effectively use those as my phone, without having the limited screen real estate.
Very cool. I also enjoy your selection of watches.
I love your videos really informative 😊
Awesome vid mate
brings me lots of memories, thanks
I always loved PDAs growing up. I started wish a Casio SF-5590SY (still got it). Used it quite a bit, even if I thought it was really limited. Then in high school I upgraded to a Casio BE-300. I LOVED that thing! I got it because I found there was a mod available for it called Bee-OS or something along those lines. Made it run a much more stock Windows 3.0 experience then what it came with. I had so much fun installing all these different applications and games for Windows CE. I remember playing emulators up to the 16 bit consoles, watching movies, playing mp3s... it was awesome. Nowadays I have a collection of other ones I had wanted back then, like the HP Jornada 720. So yeah, as you could probably tell I enjoyed the video!
Great video, and I had a chepo Casio PDA in high school, and a Palm M100 PDA back in the early 00's I had gotten used, and loved them for what they where using my Palm M100 for a few years with a snap on keyboard attachment to take notes in meetings with one of my first real jobs out of high school before I could afford a decent enough Netbook for the task, and as long as I remember to sync it with my PC each day, and recharge the AA's it was all good.
These days I feel the closest we get to a PDA that are not our phones, are tablets with a keyboard attachment, which have gotten so good for the money on the Android side that if you shop right, they can handle most if not all the compute needs of a lot of people, and I feel for some PDA makers back in the day, that was their ultimate goal. 👍
the psion teklogix reminds me a lot the nokia booklet 3G of 2009. Always liked those, you should try and find one to review! maybe it could even be functional in 2023 with an ssd, ram upgrade and linux installed
Awesome video!!
Ahoy, thanks for the fun look back. I worked as a network tech (mostly OS/2) for HP until 2006. I was lucky and got a free HP Jornada 720 palmtop with the StrongARM cpu. It ran WinCE 3.11. I mostly used it to keep my schedule and jot down notes. In 2010 a "house guest" decided to rob me at 2AM. He took anything electronic including my palmtop. Today I have 2 Venturer 10.1 tablets with keyboards docks, 4+64G, and an N4000 CPU with UHD600 igpu running Win10 and upgradeable to Win11. Much more useful even though I'm retired... Keep the vids coming please. Cheers, daveyb
Thanks, this was very interesting.
please never change the music at the end - I really enjoy it every time if it is there.
I got Palm 3 as a child from my aunt who lives in USA since her childhood and I had no idea how to use it since I didn't know english at all back then, but looking back I rly hope I can find it and explore it now.
Brilliant video, mate. I absolutely LOVED my PDAs, especially my Newton. Now if I could only get MacOS to run on a Planet Computers Astro Slide…might make a good video!
I used a Handspring Visor PDA back in the day. Loved it.
These are amazing. I still have my Handspring Visor with me and I love it.
this is nice i like seeing videos like this i didn't have a PDA at all as i didn't know what they were in early 2000
Great video. I still use my Palm Vx.. but my favorite PDAs were my Philips Nino's.. one monochrome and one colour. Even got a Linux kernel to run on them once..
Another interesting old video.
Well done, Psivewri
great vid! ive been watching since year four, now im in year six!
Omg I was obsessed with PDAs as a kid, my dad gave me loads of hand me downs. My fave was the revo, I remember taking it to school with me when I was like 10 😂
so happy you did this, this is a subject that there are not many videos about. But i love watching computer chronicles ep,s about tiny computers.....bcuz if u was rich in the 80s thats the ultimate tech must have...and there so cool looking...my friends son just bought a 8086 kit off line and he's 14....and I myself am working on a project to add real retro operating system thats connected to your virtual reality home, u can use in VR...and transfer files from your desktop to a Virtual Reality Computer in a computer in a computer...he he he
Great review love your work true legend never forgot 🥰
I always wanted a psion so it was cool to see many different ones featured here! My handspring visor deluxe was fun back in the day tho.
Very nice video!
I went to Japan in 2019 and PDA are still a thing over there, I went to that huge electronics store chain they have there and one entire floor of the department was dedicated to PDAs there must've been at least 50 different models on display brand new.
Pilot was bought by U.S. Robotics, then it was bought by 3Com, then spun off, then bought by HP.
I have numerous Palm OS devices over the years, starting with the Pilot 1000, then Palm II, IIIc, and also numerous Windows CE, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile devices as well. Never owned a Sharp, Psion, Newton etc, but knew of them. Also used HP scientific calculators with some PDA like programs so no need for a Sharp digital diary at the time. Thanks for your video. I still have a few devices, but sold most of them before, some died or broke as well.
My childe hood in 15 min and my obsession with PDA’s thanks man that was a blast of the past! Loved it
Listening to you start up the Apple Newton, I am curious do you live next door to an aviary? I live in the UK and if that is the natural sound of birdlife in in Aus then you are a lucky young man.!!!
Dude! it is one of the best video. I like the making. it is similar to 8 bit guy. Hats off!
I had the Psion Revo and even connected it via IR to download my emails while traveling. My dad had the Series 5 and was always proud to send some holiday mails from his camping trips over the IR from his Nokia 8210. Simpler times, but we always tried many things to stay connected to friends and family via helpfull devices, to get around the high SMS costs.
I had a Palm Treo with the keyboard. I loved it
There was a time when everyone wanted a palm device, and so many companies were licensing the OS. In college, I worked for a shop that gave all he employees Windows mobile devices. We had these infrared printers to print out invoices when we were on site. I ended up using it for emulators. 😂 they were cool but it was missing that wireless data component we are so dependent on today.
As a kid I was also obsessed with PDAs. I had a Palm IIIxe, Palm Vx, Casio EM-500 to name a few. I was part of a ton of online community forums and chat rooms about them too. I think my last PDA was a cell phone version of the Palm Treo.
My 1st one was a Casio Cassiopeia back in 98. It had a full PCMCIA slot, and ran MS Dos 5.
My 2nd one was an upgraded model with a full color display!
As always, great video
if i recall the Psion 5 series was rebranded by Ericsson and sold as the Ericsson Mc 218 , still have the Sony Clie` pda nx-70 which ran the palm os , used it as a mp3 player back in college .. surprisingly , the battery for it still can be found
Nice! You should also try one of the phones in the Nokia Communicator series, mostly the 9110 or 9000, because they can run DOS apps!
7:19 Brings back memories. I read entire books on that green 160x160 display. %)
3:33 look at that little space shuttle there I guess it was built from the space shuttle people. 1981-2011
The Psion S3 was such a great device for the time. Used one for a while back in the day.
Yeah I was obsessed with PDA's that looked like little laptops back then too... and ACTUAL little laptops too for that matter.
Amazing talent true legend never forgot love older tech great review ❤
I myself picked up three Palm handhelds like 5-7 years ago.
One of them is the T3 which is probably the best but from its form factor, I actually fell more nostalgic for earlier monochrome models.
It's true there is not much that can be done with these these days but I love the cradle mine came with.
There are a number of games you can play on old Palm PDAs both the monochrome, and color ones, I used to play Tetris, and Mahjong on my Palm M100 killing time at work, while looking like I was still working at my desk. 😅
@@CommodoreFan64 I had a couple way back in the day actually but getting that weird PalmOS Simulator from back then to work was always weird 👀
Bro i got a tungsten t3
The nearest thing I had was an Amstrad NC100 notepad which I used for writing. It was a handy portable unit to carry about, but the only way to export your text was via a cable, and only in a very basic way which lost all your formatting. I still love typing on little networks.
I actually owned a Palm Pilot when I was in school... I used it to write all my notes and keep appointments and schedules. I actually could write faster on it than pen and paper, it had a hand writing style you learned and it was crazy good.
Then when I got home I dropped it into the dock and pressed the sync button, would transfer my notes and calendar to the windows one, and it would perform a backup.
It was great. (Before mobile phones became a thing, which didn't happen till after I finished school).
This brings back some memories.
I had a Palm Zire 31 back in the days.
Paired with a Bluetooth gps puck and a copy of Tom Tom I crossed all around the Netherlands with my wife and kids.
I later switched to an HTC Artemis with Tom Tom . It ran windows ce.
That was the last of my PDA and my first so to say Smartphone experience.
Quite a good selection of old pdas. Maybe something for the computer museum. 😊
@4:15 That kind of screen degradation, I recently heard another CZcams refer to it as "vinegar syndrome". There's adhesive on one of the polarizer layers that degrades from humidity. If you're ultra careful and can source a replacement polarizer it's possible to repair that.
I love the PDAs. Loved them since I was a child. My uncle had a Nokia 9110, later a 9210i. When I was older, like 11, 12 ears old, I found a HP Jornada 720 on a second hand shop for like 5€. That was awesome and my entry into handheld/computing :) I went on and collected these things. Later XDA IIi etc.. it was great, I had a lot of fun.
I wanna be honest , as a 90s kid i still love those AAA & AA Rechargeable Batteries because we don't have user replaceable batteries these days , and the abundance of AAs & AAAs is also a plus point
HTC made a cool PDA/Pocket PC. Great episode. Thank you.
the PSION 2 was great, I even used it for college from 1996-2002 to plan out my work. And it was great because the reminders would go off when it was sleeping, and the 9 volt battery worked for as much as 6 months.
Absolutely great video, as usual! Visit sydney and hope to say hi to you someday haha
Lovely video I loved these as well. The Nokia n93 was a really cool phone it was flip but screen rotated and because like a mini computer running simbion S60 platform it was really cool had WiFi and Carl Zeiss lens with optical zoom.
Yeah, the handspring Visor is the one glaring omission. Got me through grad school, and was really the first workable smartphone when someone introduced a cell phone cartridge for the springboard slot.
I still use my Palm m505 almost on a daily basis. I bought it back in Aug 2001. The battery did have to be replaced at one point, but that was an easy task. Rather than waste a mobile phone battery charge, I use this instead when in need of a portable calculator and portable dictionary/thesaurus. Even when I go grocery shopping, it comes with me such that I keep track of exactly how much I am spending. ( I combine that with PC Optimum points in a manner such that if I spend say $100, I will get in return an average of $50 worth of points. )
I remember that I used to have a Casio PDA which had a diary, date and calculator function. It was pretty cool for its time to say so myself
What a walk down memory lane! I was doing IT for small tech companies in this era. I only got to play with a Newton once. My roommate had it. He said he loved it, but it really wasn't that useful. I still wanted it. I got to play with the emate300 at the a store. They really wanted to target an education market, but it was too expensive.
I think I still have my Palm V. I tell people all the time it basically saved my undiagnosed ADHD life. Love that device.
I remember the Handspring coming out, first PDA with cell service (with an add-on piece of hardware)! I wanted one SO badly. I could
I have a Tungsten, too, that I got as a teaching program for elementary kids using Palm handhelds.
I also got to play with the HP one (an exec had it).
I need to pull them all out and boot them up again. I did a few years ago for my kids and they all still worked, but with terrible battery life.
In 2003-4, my job had a Symbol scanner for inventory. It was Palm III based, and I used it for some VERY basic web access during work hours.