4 ms·

And the iPad of the 80's would be the Apple //c as featured in the movie 2010. It was seen being used on a beach, complete with LCD screen, and this was 1984.

And the iPad of the 80's would be the Apple //c as featured in the movie 2010. It was seen being used on a beach, complete with LCD screen, and this was 1984. There's a couple of issues though, the //c did not run off battery power, so you'd need a long cord, and the LCD was terrible, I don't think you'd be able to read it in direct sunlight. But if you have a long phone cable to go with the power cord, maybe you could have sent a fax? Or at least a telex.

ghaff 7y ago
You had a few early laptops like the DG/One [1] that could run off of battery by 1984. But there was really no way to communicate without plugging into a phone line. (You could maybe have used a radio modem in principle but you mostly had to connect to landline phone service to communicate.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General-One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General-One
DonHopkins 7y ago
In the early 90's, I remember seeing a dude typing away furiously on an Apple //c at a coffeeshop on Haight Street in San Francisco. I did a double take when I realized he didn't have a screen or a plug. It turns out he was a stenographer, just practicing his typing.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  I've seen pictures on the intarwebs of people using full Commodore PETs at coffee shops. I think in Toronto.
  - DonHopkins 7y ago
    My favorite Commodore PET appearance in a music video is Pete Shelley's 1981 Homosapien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HwmO_GZfzI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HwmO_GZfzI It's the professional version with the Big Boy keyboard, and it's running some silly BASIC program printing out text in a loop.
  - mceachen 7y ago
    There was an all-in-one Commodore 64 that would have been coffee-shop-friendly. It was "luggable" (a stone away from being "portable"). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_SX-64 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_SX-64
    - brokenmachine 7y ago
      I had one of those. It was fun, but "luggable" makes it sound more romantic than it was to carry around. It weighed 10.5kg. 10.5kg becomes heavy very quickly, especially because of its awkward shape.
    - HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
      > It was "luggable" (a stone away from being "portable"). It was "luggable" (a cinderblock away from being "portable".) FTFY
      - jasonkester 7y ago
        A stone is a common British unit of weight equalling fourteen pounds. You actually unfixed his sentence.
        HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
        TIL! I guess I Americanized it, then?
    - reaperducer 7y ago
      A hillbilly never-used-a-computer-a-day-in-his-life relative of mine has one. He bought it new, but never even turned it on. The last time I saw it was about five years ago, and it was in absolutely mint condition, even though he keeps it under a tarp with a bunch of junk in a barn. For decades he kept promising to send it to me since he has no use for it. Recently that changed to "I'm gonna use it some day" so I no longer have any hope of getting my hands on it.
sedachv 7y ago
TRS-80 Model 100 was released in 1983 and was supposed to be quite popular: http://www.oldcomputers.net/trs100.html http://www.oldcomputers.net/trs100.html It got 16 hours of runtime on four AA batteries. Way before my time, but I got to play around with one in 2000 and really liked the form factor. There were also glorified calculators like the 1980 TRS-80 PC-1 (https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=937&st=1 https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=937&st=1). Never used that particular model, but that style of keyboard/display in a palmtop computer is not very ergonomic IMO. There is a list of 1980s portables on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_portable_computers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_portable_computers That list may look long, but it is probably far from complete. For example, at the 2017 VCF PNW I got to play with a 1980s "glorified calculator" Lisp machine handheld. Can't remember the manufacturer, but it is definitely not on that list, and the only reference I was able to find with a quick web search was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Lisp_machine#Sony_and_Lisp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Lisp_machine#Sony_and_Lis... So there were a lot more portable computers around in the 1980s than you suspect.

ghaff 7y ago

You had a few early laptops like the DG/One [1] that could run off of battery by 1984. But there was really no way to communicate without plugging into a phone line. (You could maybe have used a radio modem in principle but you mostly had to connect to landline phone service to communicate.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General-One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General-One

DonHopkins 7y ago

In the early 90's, I remember seeing a dude typing away furiously on an Apple //c at a coffeeshop on Haight Street in San Francisco. I did a double take when I realized he didn't have a screen or a plug. It turns out he was a stenographer, just practicing his typing.

reaperducer 7y ago
I've seen pictures on the intarwebs of people using full Commodore PETs at coffee shops. I think in Toronto.
- DonHopkins 7y ago
  My favorite Commodore PET appearance in a music video is Pete Shelley's 1981 Homosapien: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HwmO_GZfzI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HwmO_GZfzI It's the professional version with the Big Boy keyboard, and it's running some silly BASIC program printing out text in a loop.
- mceachen 7y ago
  There was an all-in-one Commodore 64 that would have been coffee-shop-friendly. It was "luggable" (a stone away from being "portable"). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_SX-64 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_SX-64
  - brokenmachine 7y ago
    I had one of those. It was fun, but "luggable" makes it sound more romantic than it was to carry around. It weighed 10.5kg. 10.5kg becomes heavy very quickly, especially because of its awkward shape.
  - HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
    > It was "luggable" (a stone away from being "portable"). It was "luggable" (a cinderblock away from being "portable".) FTFY
    - jasonkester 7y ago
      A stone is a common British unit of weight equalling fourteen pounds. You actually unfixed his sentence.
      - HeWhoLurksLate 7y ago
        TIL! I guess I Americanized it, then?
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    A hillbilly never-used-a-computer-a-day-in-his-life relative of mine has one. He bought it new, but never even turned it on. The last time I saw it was about five years ago, and it was in absolutely mint condition, even though he keeps it under a tarp with a bunch of junk in a barn. For decades he kept promising to send it to me since he has no use for it. Recently that changed to "I'm gonna use it some day" so I no longer have any hope of getting my hands on it.

sedachv 7y ago

TRS-80 Model 100 was released in 1983 and was supposed to be quite popular: http://www.oldcomputers.net/trs100.html http://www.oldcomputers.net/trs100.html It got 16 hours of runtime on four AA batteries. Way before my time, but I got to play around with one in 2000 and really liked the form factor. There were also glorified calculators like the 1980 TRS-80 PC-1 (https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=937&st=1 https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=937&st=1). Never used that particular model, but that style of keyboard/display in a palmtop computer is not very ergonomic IMO. There is a list of 1980s portables on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_portable_computers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_portable_computers That list may look long, but it is probably far from complete. For example, at the 2017 VCF PNW I got to play with a 1980s "glorified calculator" Lisp machine handheld. Can't remember the manufacturer, but it is definitely not on that list, and the only reference I was able to find with a quick web search was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Lisp_machine#Sony_and_Lisp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Lisp_machine#Sony_and_Lis... So there were a lot more portable computers around in the 1980s than you suspect.