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The History of PDAs in Words and Pictures
evanak writes "For the past four years, I've been studying the history of PDAs. It's all summarized in a 10,000-word article on my web site." This history is also illustrated with some pictures and photographs, which are worth it all by themselves.
I totally agree. While the page title is "history of PDAs" the document title is actually "The Evolution of PDAs."
While it could be argued that since the introduction of the Pilot 1000, PDAs haven't "evolved" much (except the merger with cell phones), there has been an explosion of types and functionality. The proliferation of commercial, shareware and freeware applications for the Palm OS led to the explosion of usage. Now, just about everyone can find an industry-specific application that is useful.
Also, the form factor and specifications have improved dramatically as well. The transition from the Pilot 1000 to the Tungsten T3 is worthy of its own essay.
Successfully condensing fact from the vapor of nuance since 1998.
The Tandy PC-6 would be IMHO a good addition. I had one in junior high in the mid-80s; it spoke BASIC and assembly. Not too impressive these days, but back then a pocket calculator -- with 16K(!) of memory, and which spoke BASIC was amazing. I even wrote a crude 3D version of "Hunt the Wumpus" for it.
The On-Hand PC is also pretty cool. I bought one a while back. While it goes through CR2025 batteries like they're candy -- and two at a time -- the idea that you can program yourself a new watch when you get tired of the old one is very cool.
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.