Re: first palmtop?

["John Hoh" <johnhoh@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Listserv is alive; most of the users are just in neurostasis...
or maybe migrating slowly (?) to Palms, WinCE, and PocketPC devices.

But New Years's eve is time to be nostalgic!

The Poqet was definitely a late comer relative to the Sharp PC3000 and
PC3100.
The Gateway Nomad and other DOS 3.x based clones also predate the Poqet.
The Poqet made waves because it was smaller and had perhaps a more compact
and possibly better keyboard (though diehard PC3000 users would disagree).

The Atari Portfolio was a DOS emulator - I do not believe it was fully 808x
compliant and the screen size was pitful relative to the PC3000.  The screen
size was less than 40 columns if memory serves and not all DOS applications
could be run due to the graphics limitations.

Patches were written for the PC3000 that allowed it to run most monochrome
and many color programs *of the time* in 4 grayscale emulation mode.

The HP 95LX was probably released after the Poqet but had an even smaller
form factor.  However, it had a 40 column (shifting window) screen and a
stiff,
tiny chicklet, calculator keyboard on steroids feel which some found hard to
use.

A few 80286 and 80386 coat pocket PC's were made but the size never really
caught on as much as the size and functionality of the PC3x00, Poqet and
even
more so the HP100LX line.  The moderately more successful EPOC OS based
Psion series eroded the PC3x00 base and the company that developed and
marketed the PC3x00 line failed to nurture add ons and applications for
their
machines.

Diehard fans of all platforms like their respective machines as long as it
serves
the purpose or can be made to do undocumented neat tricks.  I still want to
find a way to connect wirelessly to my desktop with the PC3000 but I think
the creaky with age PCMCIA I card slot (any successful attempts?) and
power consumption are barriers.

Happy Holidays and best regards to all still reading this thread,

John


----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Fox <pgf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Poqet PC mailing list <poqetpc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 6:31 AM
Subject: first palmtop?


> is it safe to say that the Poqet Classic was the first palmtop?
>
> were there other, similarly-sized machines available before the Poqet?
>
> paul
> p.s. i'm also seeing whether this list still works...  :-)
> =---------------------
>  paul fox, pgf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (arlington, ma, where it's 34.9
degrees)