I still prefer my pocket computers

[dbouley]

I much prefer using my collection of pocket computers and PDAs over anything produced today. Sure, a "smart phone" can do everything. But, because they can do anything, there's nothing special about them.

Each one of the pocket computers I have in my collection is special and unique, and I'll happily choose those over anything produced today.

My first pocket PC, my Tandy PC-3, which I bought in 1986:

My Sharp EL-6890, Franklin BookMan DBS-2, MWD-440, eBookMan EBM-901, and RF-8121.

[Trent]

Very nice collection. But when I see PDA, I think about my Palm Prē with the amazing webOS, and I'm feeling very sad . I also had a HP Prē 3, same beast but with a bigger screen, a very powerful CPU and more RAM (Very useful to have a lot of ram when the OS is made to launch web apps ).
Keyboard was amazing, user interface was amazing, multitasking was amazing, gesture area was amazing. Now that's it, I'm feeling sad 🥺.

(After my Prē 3, I had a BlackBerry Passport, also a great PDA/Smartphone with a great OS which is dead today . I have a gift to choose the technologies wich will die).

[dbouley]

@Gwen-Dragon They are, indeed. And to be still working today, while I've had to replace my "smart" phones three times in past decade shows just how well they could build electronic devices back then.

[dbouley]

@Trent I feel the same way... the electronic devices that I really liked have faded away into history. I liked the Blackberry brand, too. But now, these devices are all the same. They've all conformed into the nondescript wafers everything is made into today.

Boring.

[greybeard]

I had one of those Tandy-Like thingys (labeled as a Sharp PC-1500) a handy tool and learnt a lot from programming on it.
Also still have a Clamshell Compaq handheld running the first version (I think) of Windows CE and miniature versions of Word and Excel on it. Secure file transfer via IR was the greatest. Lost my PCMCIA card during the last move so can't connect any adaptors to it.
Oh Well....

[Catweazle]

I remember some very handsome Casio in those years.
They had a great advantage over current smartphones in their field, the freedom to be able to program their own applications, according to the need at all times, there were no apps with fixed functions and full of ads, like now.

[dbouley]

@Catweazle Exactly! And no one tracking your activities, either.

[dbouley]

@greybeard Yes, I used mine to learn BASIC, too. In my grade 12 mathematics class, I wrote programs for it that did all of the formulas and calculations that we had to learn.

[greybeard]

@dbouley said in I still prefer my pocket computers:

@greybeard Yes, I used mine to learn BASIC, too. In my grade 12 mathematics class, I wrote programs for it that did all of the formulas and calculations that we had to learn.

I used mine for work. I had to take stuff home to calculate survey data for the next day's work (well I didn't have to but it was interesting to me).

[Catweazle]

I also think that these junk even today can be useful, for students and also engineers, since they still make a round and a half of any scientific calculator and easier to have on hand than a PC or laptop.

[wlithennie4]

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