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A History of Portable Computing
PCM2 writes "MobilePC magazine is running an exhaustive history of portable computers, going all the way from the IBM Portable 5100 to last year's OQO. Do you remember the three-pound Epson HX-20 from 1982 that boasted a 50-hour battery life? Or that the first color portable came from Commodore? Interesting stuff." They have the compaq luggable I learned BASIC on in middle school in the 80s. 28lbs of power baby!
What about the Model 100/102/200? Those were some pretty good computers, and iirc sold quite well.
or at least it was my first laptop, and I have many fond memories of downloading games off of a bbs on a 300bps modem
Extra points if you post from the OQO.
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To expand on your comment... The military definition of portable is if two people can move it with vehicles, to include but not limited to a truck, crane, plane, etc..
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I think every laptop I have ever owned is basically a very similar variant of that simple design! Way to go Apple.
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They have the compaq luggable I learned BASIC on in middle school in the 80s.
I remember being a wee kid, and doing some simple programming on an 80s Compaq behemoth as well. I had a floppy disk (5 1/4", of course) that held roughly 20-30 games on it. Nothing like launching up Frogger and staring at the miniscule 6"x6" green-monochrome screen for hours. I'm surprised I don't wear glasses today.
Anyhow, imagine my surprise when I took a job a few years back, and noticed that we are using said Compaq as a status/communications monitor in one of our test machines.
Good times.
Here's an 1802 based handheld computer from 25 years ago, complete with specs and schematics.
Where can I buy a notebook with > 8 hr battery life?
I'd give up the CD/DVD, the color screen, the ghz proc. I'd give up most things to get a decent battery life. Now the ideal would be about 40hrs.
Any ideas?
Somewhat off topic, but, a neat side bar to the story would be "how long can you compute with out being plugged in".
Seems that batteries havnt really improved much in the last 20 yrs. The only thing that seems to have greatly improved is power-consumption with better, low power chip designs.
I wonder how long an old Apple ][e could run if it was re-designed with low power components? (not that I'd want to actually use it!) Could I run it for a couple days on flash-light batteries?
Anyone have any info on how many amps the old "Lugable" PCs would draw?
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Yep, I have two of these, actually. One I just purchased. They both are in 100% working order, though the first one has a home-made wood and aluminum handle on it, and I'm still looking for another keyboard cable. They both have JiffyDOS, and system reset buttons (to accompany the serial reset buttons). Great little machines. Was thinking about converting one to an internal LCD if I can do it without making any permanent mods to the inside of it.
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The IBM 5100 is the fav' of time travelers!
Visit, http://www.johntitor.com/ to see why!
That said, the reason he states is The 5100 has the ability to easily translate between the old IBM code, APL, BASIC and (with a few tweaks in 1975) UNIX.
This makes little sense to me, it can translate between 2 languages and an operating system? Perhaps this is a hoax *grin* Still, hundreds have read this guys postings, and he has been the topic of coast2coast more than once. The inconsistencies in his story lead little credence to his claims, as for Art Bell's show, that's for you to decide.
No idea what the original battery was like - I had to build my own battery from old cellphone ni-cads, and had to mod the case a bit to get it all to fit. I also managed to get the docking station (where you could add EISA cards and such). But the real treat was the keyboard...
It was detatchable! You could detatch the keyboard and it had a cord so you could position it how you wanted. In reality, it used a PS/2-style mini-connector (not sure how compatible it really was with PS/2 stuff), so the keyboard was like a mini-keyboard of sorts.
It was a great computer, and I played around with it and such a lot - even managed to use a form of Linux on it (my first Linux experience - it was Monkey Linux which ran on top of the DOS filesystem!)...
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Another trip down memory lane. For good grades in 8th grade I recieved my first computer, an Epson Geneva PX-8 bought from a DAK catalog. I feel so old.
Not only that, but the Newton didn't really "bomb". They sold over 100,000 units in the first year - far more units than Apple IIs or Macs in their first years of introduction.
The reason why so many people think it "bombed" was because they spent too long a time and too much money on R&D, they set their expectations too high, and later when the Palm Pilot entered the market, they looked bad by comparison. Before the Pilot came out, they were the best selling PDA by far.
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> It wasn't until 1989 that someone had the bright idea that the power of a luggable and the portability of a laptop didn't have to be mutually exclusive.
:) Borland Turbo C and FoxBase worked too. Batteries were completely dead in 1996.
Ten years ago, I owned an old PC laptop manufactured in 1987. I don't remember its name but in was 8088 (4.77 MHz) equipped with 512k of RAM and 720k 3.5'' floppy drive. The last OS that worked on it was MS DOS 6.22. Qbasic was amazing
An interesting article. Unfortunately, I found it to be very lacking. In 1992, I was a dirt poor college student. Strapped for cash, but needing a computer, I bought a KayPro portable computer. It had a 10MB hard drive and ran MS-DOS. Total cost at the time was $100.00 used. It was the first DOS-based computer I owned.
It's also sad that the Atari Portfolio wasn't mentioned. I'm not sure when it actually sold (sometime between 1997 and 1989). However, at 15.87 ounces with batteries and running a DOS compatible operating system, I'd say this piece of technology should stand out! A bit of notoriety: It was used in Terminator 2 when John Connor hacked an ATM. Full specs can be found at old-computers.com with a nice blurb at atarimuseum.com
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Nah, the 17" PowerBook is the worst. We have about 600 laptops at work, and the seven 17" ones we have are more trouble than the rest combined. The clutch (the hinge and friction catch that holds the monitor open) is not nearly strong enough to hold the huge screen open. I cracked my LCD after I tilted the laptop back just a little too far and the screen hit my engagement ring when it slammed close.
The other *major* problem is the keyboard on the 17" ones. Apple still hasn't made a decent backlit keyboard, and you're not allowed to order non-backlit keyboards unless you buy in huge quantities. Also, Apple doesn't sell the keyboard as a repair part. That means you have to ship it back to them, pay the $300 for the part then pay about $300 more for the three hours labor they claim it takes to replace and wait 20-60 days depending on if they have backlit keyboards in stock, which they usually don't.