20 ms·

27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

341 points by bishopsmother 3y ago

atdrummond 3y ago
I loved my Psions. I truly miss having a smaller form factor computer. If I could possibly an iPhone with an attached physical keyboard, I’m certain that I could do a huge amount of work that I presently do with my laptop. (I know I can get an external keyboard but there’s something far more useful and satisfying about a properly integrated device.)
- bayindirh 3y ago
  The Era of the PDA was completely different and IMHO superior era to today's hyperconnected smartphones. Yes, today's iPhones and Android devices do much much more, but the devices of older days were much more polished, to the point and streamlined. iPhone is a great evolution of Palm hardware and design philosophy, but the gamification kills most applications, and oh, the notifications too. Glad that most of the useless notifications are turned off, so I can get some battery life and my attention back.
  - atdrummond 3y ago
    I completely agree. I’ve done quite a bit to get my phone experience to a useful level but it’s required a level of customization and careful use to create an experience that simply existed properly, out of the box, with the purposeful PDA operating systems of the 90s.
- regularfry 3y ago
  There do exist things like the Gemini and the Astro Slide, which I've always looked at as a potential replacement, but they always seem to just miss the mark. The closest I've come to the same sort of experience was the Nokia N900, which was remarkable in a lot of ways.
  - ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
    I'm still waiting for delivery on the Astro Slide after ordering it over a year ago. As it was on IndieGogo, I can't even get my money back. Probably best to avoid Planet Computers - they lie about availability and delivery dates.
    - syockit 3y ago
      My contribution for Astro Slide is dated Oct. 2020. They've locked my contribution, so I consider it money burnt. While I was still naively waiting for it to come, I held on to my Gemini PDA for so long, even after its battery had bulged to the point that the back panel covering it had dislodged. After all the troubles it had caused me, I decided to give it up and get a normal smartphone instead. Life has been much better since then.
      - k_ 3y ago
        Same date here, but I don't even think they locked mine. I did give up too, but not on physical keyboard phones. I bought a unihertz titan pocket and I love it. Keyboard is great despite the top row that is really weird coming from blackberry (but I guess it's because of B patents..). Form factor is weird but I actually like having a small phone, and it's ok for most of my use cases.
      - theodric 3y ago
        I see the Astro Slide 5G is 'NEW - JUST LAUNCHED! PRE-ORDER NOW TO SECURE YOUR PLACE IN THE ORDER LIST!' '£982.80 inc VAT' 'STOCK EXP. JULY 2023' IANAL, but one might be interested in talking to the class of people who didn't get their purchased product from a company that is apparently mere weeks away from shipping the next revision of it.
  - oever 3y ago
    The Nokia N950, which only made to a development edition, was much better. Unfortunately, mine met with a watery end.
  - theodric 3y ago
jxf 3y ago
I've never had a Psion, but as I've become a dad, I've wished for devices for digital literacy that weren't tablets or phones. Something dumb with a dictionary, encyclopedia, calendar, an editor, and a few games, and physical keyboard is a great, safe introduction to the digital world.
- monkeydust 3y ago
  100% this as father of 6 and 4 year old. I still remember fairly vividly when my dad, an engineer, can from work one day and showed me the 3a, blew his and my mind especially. Not many tech devices have done that since.
- gawrex 3y ago
  You should check out uConsole [1] from ClockworkPI. It still has WiFi, but you can probably disable it. [1] https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/uconsole-kit-rpi-cm4-lite https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/uconsole-kit-rpi-cm...
  - jagged-chisel 3y ago
    It’s a Linux system. You can definitely disable anything you want. (The current question is whether the uConsole ever ship)
  - teruakohatu 3y ago
    This device seems too good to be true. Have they shipped any?
    - gawrex 3y ago
      There is a whole forum thread about that [1] with updates from the devs, but I don't think anybody received theirs yet. [1]: https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/update-uconsole-shipping-related/9774/1 https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/update-uconsole-shipping-rel...
- rchaud 3y ago
  Try an Android e-ink tablet like a Boox Note. They have wifi, but it's mostly for file sync and stuff because web browsing on e-ink is bad enough to not be worthwhile.
lelag 3y ago
I used to be a heavy user of my Psion Revo back in the 2000s. It had a highly usable full-featured office suite, and I truly used it as a laptop replacement at the time. I was able to touch-type my university course on it, and it could even fit a shirt front pocket. Honestly, the only thing that quickly made it obsolete was the lack of network connectivity (limited to infrared). It's still one of the computing devices for which I have the fondest memories.
- regularfry 3y ago
  If I'd had better connectivity for my 5mx at the time, I don't think I'd ever have put it down. Phenomenal piece of kit. I don't even remember it being that expensive.
appstorelottery 3y ago
I loved my 3a - which followed my Nokia communicator, which replaced my cassiopeia, none of which I actually really used lol... The 3a held the most promise with it's built in basic language... looking back I wish I had just enjoyed it more rather than being tied up in the illusion of the dot com boom. Thanks for the nostalgia!
- edizms 3y ago
  It was far from an illusion.
tobiasbischoff 3y ago
I will never understand why we do not have this kind of device anymore. A small computer, running linux, proper keyboard, integrated LTE - it would be a messaging and writing dream. Back in the days i developed custom software for the Revo, the SDK was a dream to work with as well.
- bayindirh 3y ago
  A high quality screen is much cheaper to design and build than a high quality keyboard, that's why. Also half of the people buying these devices are buying for the show. This is why MacBooks are still called $2000 Facebook Machine sometimes.
  - ChuckNorris89 3y ago
    You're wrong about Macbooks. They're $2000 Reddit machines now.
    - bayindirh 3y ago
      Thanks! Oh, looks like I'm old now. :c
      - coldtea 3y ago
        Reddit is for old geezers, so I doubt any of the above answers is in any way in touch with 2023. And I'm not sure who calls Macbooks "$2000 Facebook machines". That sounds like the ancient DOS era bs that "Macs are toys" (funny, the PC ended getting all the gamers and meat-and-potatoes OS needs, i.e. email+web, older people). In the west, where they can afford it, a huge chunk of programmers, graphic designers, data analysts, video editors, musicians, writers, etc use Macbooks, disproportionally more so than the general public's share of macOS, or the share of those professions on Linux).
        ChuckNorris89 3y ago
        >Reddit is for old geezers Please let all the Gen-Z-ers know they should vacate Reddit.
unwind 3y ago
I realized I had no idea what actual platform these were (I'm old enough to remember longing for one of these but never had one back in the day). It's powered by the NEV V20 [1] processor, which is a 16-bit chip that is code and pin compatible with the more famous Intel 8088. The NEC chip was launched in March of 1984 which is interesting given that the Psion 3a came in 1991. It feels like today launching a product based on a 7-year old CPU is more rare. It would be cool (but perhaps sacrilegious) to upgrade the existing motherboard to some Arm SoC/microcontroller, if possible. I thought of it now while writing this, so clearly someone has already done so. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEC_V20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEC_V20
- regularfry 3y ago
  > It feels like today launching a product based on a 7-year old CPU is more rare. Well. The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 has an ARM Cortex-A53 SoC. The Zero 2 was released in October 2021, and the A53 line in October 2012. I don't think you'd struggle to find other A53 devices being released after 2019. It almost feels like the A53 line is a bit of a special case, but then again, so was the 8088...
  - unwind 3y ago
    Good point, thanks! I guess the RPi's special relationship with Broadcom is shining through a bit there, or something.
- LeoPanthera 3y ago
  The operating system was called SIBO, which rather unimaginatively stood for SIixteen Bit Operating system. It is a direct ancestor of EPOC, which in turn was later renamed to "Symbian", as made popular on many Nokia devices.
  - lproven 3y ago
    I checked after posting and I was partly wrong! Sorry! The Psion Series 3 range -- 3, 3A, 3C and 3MX -- ran SIBO, later renamed EPOC, later renamed EPOC16, a multitasking GUI OS written for 8086. SIBO = SIxteen Bit Organizer. Not OS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Organiser#Subsequent_hand-held_devices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Organiser#Subsequent_han... The Psion 5 range ran the later and largely unrelated EPOC32, a native ARM OS written in C++ which later became Symbian. But SIBO did not become Symbian. EPOC 5, later EPOS32, did. There was even more renaming than I realised.
pabscon 3y ago
It is a pity that with all the interesting devices that have been left without updates, manufacturers do not release firmwares in a more organised way so that they can be used again, even if only in a limited way. I'm talking about devices such as the Vadem Clio, Nokia 770, blackberry playbook, several minipcs with windowsce, etc... I imagine it's such a small niche that it's not worth spending time developing and adapting.
nickdothutton 3y ago
I had a 3a and found it more convenient to use than the heavy/bulky laptops of the day. My use cases were diary management, expenses, task tracking/todo, and short emails (via the add-on modem/mobile phone cable). The message app also allowed you to send SMS. The batteries seemed to last forever and being a standard size were available everywhere. I dont know if a "new psion" would sell in sufficient numbers. It's a device I find myself wondering about (along with a chocolate-bar sized version of the iphone (Nokia 6300 size)). I'd buy one of those for sure, for when I'm not working and need a phone, but dont want the full "slab" to carry around with me.
- iso1631 3y ago
  I had a series V, I much preferred the keyboard. 2x AA batteries to power it. I remember connecting to the internet via IRDA to my nokia 6210 around 2000, it was an amazing glimpse of the future
kqr 3y ago
The Psion 3C was the device I learned programming on. My father upgraded to a Psion 5 and I got his 3C. It was small enough that it could be hidden under the pillow/blanket when my parents came in to make sure I was sleeping, and then I could spend long nights writing text-based adventure games or calculators or whatever.
jw1224 3y ago
Psion 3c was what got me into programming! My grandfather gave me his old one when I was a kid. To an 11-year-old, a spreadsheet, world clock, and address book gets old pretty fast :) But the in-built OPL [1] language provided unlimited possibilities. You can see the icon for it in one of the screenshots. I remember printing off a copy of the 300-page language manual I found online (breaking dad’s printer in the process). Now 20 years later and I have Psion/OPL to thank for my career. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Programming_Language https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Programming_Language
- qubex 3y ago
  I started with OPL on a Pison Series 3 (“no bloody A, B, C, or D!”) with 128 kbytes of storage — unlimited potential but limited resources… my first project was to code up something that looked like John Connor’s ATM-cracking program from Terminator 2.
  - mysterydip 3y ago
    For those that don't get the reference: https://youtu.be/qTOP1BezOB8 https://youtu.be/qTOP1BezOB8
    - Endy 3y ago
      It is green.
- 4fips 3y ago
  No so long ago, around 2012 :), I was still using my Psion 3c + a short OPL program, to trigger my hacked time lapse camera over serial line. It worked quite reliably for years. https://forums.4fips.com/viewtopic.php?t=717 https://forums.4fips.com/viewtopic.php?t=717
  - jw1224 3y ago
    That’s neat! Funnily enough, my next foray into coding (after OPL) would be scripting timelapses on my Canon PowerShot with CHDK [1] — wish I’d thought of doing it with a Psion though. [1] https://chdk.fandom.com/wiki/CHDK https://chdk.fandom.com/wiki/CHDK
pea 3y ago
This reminds me of when I was in primary school in 1996 or so, and the "thing" to have as a kid was a personal organiser; irrespective of the fact none of us had anything to organize.
predictsoft 3y ago
I have gone through several Psion 5's over the last few years. They all broke eventually - mainly the screen (ribbon cable). Because I couldn't justify spending yet another £60 for a Psion 5 which soon breaks down, I run Epoc Agenda now on my Windows PC on an EPOC emulator, and it's great for keeping track of events.
- semiprime 3y ago
  I'm currently writing an agenda app inspired by the Psion 3a/5 Agendas - because they were the best calendar apps I ever used. Github: https://github.com/semiprime/pygenda https://github.com/semiprime/pygenda Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvQqFmlZ6nM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvQqFmlZ6nM If you liked the S5 agenda, I'd appreciate any feedback you could give. (Video shows it on a Gemini, but I also run it on my Linux Laptop. Running on Windows is probably possible, but I haven't tried it, so you'd need to do some fiddling - in particular installing GTK3).
  - rcarmo 3y ago
    this is pretty amazing - well done!
  - predictsoft 3y ago
    Hi, if you could get it working on Android, I'd be willing to pay $5.
    - semiprime 3y ago
      Planet Computers already did an Android Agenda app for their range of handhelds: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pripla.gemagenda https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pripla.gem... (I've not used it. I've seen people complaining that it's not very good, but people always complain on the Web, so that's not much of an indicator of anything.)
- wvenable 3y ago
  I recently bought an Psion 5 off of ebay -- I've never had one before. The one thing I can't really get over is how awful the screen is -- the reviews online seem to indicate that mine isn't unique in this regard. Hard to see in anything but perfect lighting. The keyboard is pretty good although not as good as I would have expected given the ravings about it. I should probably open it up and re-enforce the cable but I'm a bit afraid of messing it up in the attempt.
anonzzzies 3y ago
I still dream of an rLCD + Apollo 3+ chip + BLE (it has that) + WIFI + optional 4/5g + Psion like casing. I would write a graphical OS for it for fun. I really want to see week+ long battery life.
- compstrtpthrwy 3y ago
  A humble plug: the stealth mode startup where I work at is cranking away at something similar. If you are intrigued, drop me a note at the email on my profile. Very happy to sign up folks on our email list!
oliwarner 3y ago
Lots of focus on the hardware here but its form factor still exists in niches. What has vanished, is our ability to do general-purpose computing at ~8MHz. Consider the computers you had in the 90s. Windows 3.11 and Office ran on a 286 but I sit here with 12 cores at ~4Ghz just to post this crumby comment. We are spoilt. It really makes me yearn to do more with less.
- stavros 3y ago
  I think that looking at it from a MHz standpoint is a red herring. How many things can you do per watt now, than you could per watt then?
  - oliwarner 3y ago
    And power consumption is a —among other things— a function of transistor size and process. A lot has changed in 30 years, but our methods of programming these things has veered towards incredible wastefulness.
    - mysterydip 3y ago
      To put it another way, how much longer battery life would that same psion get if the CPU/board was made with modern transistor sizes.
    - cptaj 3y ago
      But demand for software has also grown a lot in that period. If we trained software engineers and demanded quality to the same standards, we would not be able to meet demand. Those standards were also set by the limitations of hardware, not because people had the will to do better back then.
  - coldtea 3y ago
    Better ask, how many things you could do per watt now, if software had that era's leanness?
    - 3y ago
hestefisk 3y ago
Does it run NetBSD?
- hestefisk 3y ago
  Downvote? Seriously? It was a serious question. NetBSD runs everywhere, even 40 years old vaxen, so why wouldn’t it run on Psion?
  - lproven 3y ago
    It's an 8086. Well, an NEC V20. No MMU = no Unix.
- fulafel 3y ago
  There doesn't seem to be a port for 16-bit CPUs. But maybe Linux in the form of ELKS if the memory allows.
jwmoz 3y ago
When I was younger I was desperate for one of these-it looked like some sort of hacking machine. No idea what I would have used it for.
cjdell 3y ago
My dad had one of these and he continued to use it until the day he died in 2013. I remember thinking how crazy high resolution the screen was at the time. Amazing device. I got his old Series 3 (predecessor to the 3a) when I was still a kid and was one of the first devices I learned to code on thanks to the built-in OPL programming language!
siddiqi123 3y ago
That’s true, and I would have liked the BlackBerry more if the pointer worked better and the software was better. That was the kicker for me. I do miss Graffiti – especially with all the trouble I have with the iPhone keyboard. It is a constant frustration, and it always has been
kvetching 3y ago
How long until there's a commercial product that has a built in LLM? Some device that is like a personal encyclopedia that you can ask about anything?
- quickthrower2 3y ago
  You could download wikipedia to even the cheapest of today’s devices. Forget the LLM and just add search.
- TMWNN 3y ago
  https://github.com/mlc-ai/mlc-llm https://github.com/mlc-ai/mlc-llm
triggercut 3y ago
This brings back happy memories. I was lucky enough to have the precursor, an Acorn Pocket Book, as part of my school curriculum. I lost it a few years ago in a move but I can still remember the the distinctive "device" smell (probably the case material). I yearned for the additional memory of the Psion 2. I would write lengthy stories that would fill up the memory. No off-device storage. I'd have to delete entries of birds i'd spotted and researched from cards app, tough decisions needed to be made. Long before pokemon swept the west, our teacher would take us bird watching. We'd create entries in the cards app for each one we spotted, then research the birds in the library to fill out the entry. Then, as a class we'd trade (share) our research with each other.
- bwestergard 3y ago
  Thank you for sharing this lovely memory. I've recently gotten into birding as an adult, and have heard that in some parts of the world basic bird identification is part of the curriculum (e.g. the Netherlands). If you don't mind me asking, what country/region did you go to school in? Was this the initiative of one teacher, or something more standardized?
  - triggercut 3y ago
    The UK. Not standardized, just a lucky combination of a fancy school trying to justify fees and good teachers who made the most of the situation for their students.
- garethsprice 3y ago
  The Acorn was a rebadged Psion 3 rather than a precursor. I remember as I lusted after the Psions on display in Boots as a (dorky) child, and was ecstatic when our school piloted the Acorns. (Psion and Acorn, two more examples of how the UK is capable of developing world-leading tech but not at successfully marketing it...)
  - triggercut 3y ago
    Wow! I stand corrected. I was led to believe that Acorn went bust and sold to Psion. I thought it went Acorn Pocket Book 1, Acorn Pocket Book II, Psion 3. Live and learn. Thanks! :-)
classified 3y ago
And on top of that, it's not contaminated with the usual dark patterns for monetizing, lock-in, control and surveillance that afflict today's devices.
geophile 3y ago
I had a Psion 5, an amazing device. It had the same apps as the 3, if I remember correctly. The keyboard was astoundingly good. The keys, if larger, would make an excellent normal keyboard. What I really loved about the 5 was that it could run Java. I think it never got past JDK 1.0.2, or maybe 1.1. But it was clunky to use. I wrote a little shell for it, which provided basic functionality, including much simpler compiling and execution of java code. (http://geophile.com/jshell http://geophile.com/jshell. It should still run, except that it relies on an obsolete parser.)
- lproven 3y ago
  You do not remember correctly, I'm afraid. The 5 ran a whole new OS with all new apps. No backwards compatibility whatsoever.
  - geophile 3y ago
    Sure, but it was the same categories, Calendar, for example.
    - lproven 3y ago
      Um. Well, yes, broadly, true, but then they are largely similar across most PDA type devices. Address book or more general database, calendar/agenda/scheduler, notepad or jotter, maybe a file manager, then often some kind of minimal office-productivity tools or viewers...
westcort 3y ago
Certain classic computers powered by “AA” batteries are amazing to use today. I have an Alphasmart Dana set up for my children to play chess, do word procession, and learn to program in C. It is much better than dealing with the potential hazards of a modern device.
- sauruk 3y ago
  Theres a c compiler?? Can you share a link?
  - classichasclass 3y ago
    The Dana runs PalmOS 4 (the closest thing that ever existed to a Palm laptop), so any Palm-compatible C compiler will do.
  - westcort 3y ago
    Yes, the compiler is available here: https://palmdb.net/app/PocketC-Compiler https://palmdb.net/app/PocketC-Compiler And an editor is available here: https://palmdb.net/app/editc https://palmdb.net/app/editc
- ofrzeta 3y ago
  What did you do to make your children happy with a LCD screen, chess, word processing and programming in C? :-)
  - westcort 3y ago
    Basically, getting rid of dopamine-driven entertainment has been the key. Going back to the 90s with pocket versions of games like Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego has been helpful. Board games, card games, lots of books, antenna TV, and DVDs for entertainment has made a big difference!
ubermonkey 3y ago
I dabbled in handhelds in that era, and always wanted a Psion but never got around to it. The main issues in that era for me were that they devices were dead ends for data. At the time, the main competitor for something like this was a paper planner, of course, which are ALSO dead ends, so it was a reasonable approach. Newton happened, though, and initially -- and people forget this -- it came with the Newton Desktop, which gave you access to your data on Windows. It synced! This was huge! And then, for reasons I've never understood, Apple dropped the Newton Desktop with the rev to NewtOS 2.0, which was really really great otherwise. Unfortunately easy desktop sync turned out to be a killer app in this space, because Palm came to market with that as their foundation and ruled the whole market for quite a while. I loved the Newton -- and if you've never touched one, you don't actually know how useful they were; it was really pretty amazing -- but the sync was what pushed me to Palm, where I stayed until the 2000s.
- andix 3y ago
  I played with some of those PDAs as a kid, and honestly I never really got what they were used for. There was no Wi-Fi and internet connection via infrared was not really awesome. Using it while traveling abroad was extremely expensive. You were able to sync the email from your desktop PC, answer them offline and send them on the next sync. And you could do spreadsheets. But honestly, who really uses spreadsheets on their smartphone? (Which is a comparable user experience) So the only thing left is calendar, contacts and notes. A paper planner was probably more useful back then.
  - ubermonkey 3y ago
    That's the rub. They're from a world that was, in very meaningful ways, "pre-connectivity." Doing meaningful work on a portable presupposes the ability to continue that work when you're at a better device. We have that NOW, but 20-25 years ago we really didn't. People today talk about how bad handwriting rec was the death of the Newton, but it really wasn't. The HWR was pretty stellar under 2.0, even with my objectively terrible penmanship. What killed it was (a) its price and (b) its lack of connectivity to the desktop. Palm entered the market with a $299 device that was dead cheap, fit in your pocket, and synced with either the Palm Desktop or Outlook. That's what killed the Newton.
cainxinth 3y ago
I kept all my old PDAs (and some that belonged to friends and family that were tossing them out). I have a box filled with my Casio BOSS, Palm Pilot, and several others. They aren't worth much (I just checked ebay and an original, working U.S. Robotics Palm Pilot 5000 is selling for $50), but they are such an interesting memento in the history of digital tools.
detourdog 3y ago
Gideon Gartner of Gartner research loved is Psion and as far as know never stopped using it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Gartner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Gartner
causality0 3y ago
"Bought, shouted at, and sold" is a great descriptor for Windows Mobile. Never has a combination of such high quality hardware and absolutely dogshit software ever existed.
Jun8 3y ago
So, motivated by this article, I checked eBay, expecting to burn $20-30 to get one and found that these sell for around $100 (thank god, didn’t buy another device to add to my pile). My question is: who buys these at that price and for what purpose? Collecting old devices? Using them? I don’t think buying these have the allure of retro computing, eg buying a Sinclair Spectrum.
- akaitea 3y ago
  I have a few PDAs of this type, bought ultra cheap at flea markets and such, Casio Cassiopeia 4MB A-11, Psion Series 5, Ericsson MC12... bought for under $5 each so those eBay prices are nuts... they all work and they all serve absolutely no purpose, but when you're a ~hoarder~ collector you can't help yourself.
- LeoPanthera 3y ago
  I bet some people still use them. I used my Psion 5mx as my primary organizer until only a few years ago, and I still kind of miss it. It still works, but lacking any kind of connectivity except for infrared, it's increasingly difficult to justify in today's world.
  - lproven 3y ago
    For amusement value only -- a modern user: https://srslyriskybiz.substack.com/p/putins-chef-cooks-up-infosec-disaster https://srslyriskybiz.substack.com/p/putins-chef-cooks-up-in...
sriku 3y ago
I used to own a psion way back and also had a brush with the OS which morphed into Symbian on Nokia iirc. I loved the software architecture (which borrowed aspects from the B5000), APIs and "services" and overall the focus on robustness. Some aspects like threads having their own heaps contributed to the robustness.
dang 3y ago
Related, more or less: Getting a Psion 5 palmtop from 1997 online via PPP (and a Raspberry Pi) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33946824 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33946824 - Dec 2022 (26 comments) “16 Shades of Grey” – Building a Psion/EPOC32 Emulator (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30835970 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30835970 - March 2022 (1 comment) Psion PDA – How does it look today? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29871609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29871609 - Jan 2022 (2 comments) Raspberry Pi Helps Vintage Psion Find Its Voice - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20609493 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20609493 - Aug 2019 (1 comment) Former Psion designers return with a fresh take on the PDA - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16619449 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16619449 - March 2018 (2 comments) Gemini PDA: 20 years on, meet the all-new Psion Series 5 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15818324 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15818324 - Nov 2017 (69 comments) Motorola Buys Psion For $200m - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4126441 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4126441 - June 2012 (1 comment) Psion: the last computer (2007) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=226305 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=226305 - June 2008 (1 comment)
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
nologic01 3y ago
27 years from now it will be 2050. Will todays smartphones still feel "wonderful"? I highly doubt it.
dredmorbius 3y ago
I would be interested in a product or kit based on e-ink and a small keyboard. It need not necessarily run EPOC16, though a battery-optimised OS would be quite useful. I'm using a 13" e-ink tablet for most of my mobile use (reading, no social media, absolute minimal number of account-based tools), and it's quite good. A bit large for a pocketable / PDA device, and the fact that there's no keyboard which could integrate into a folding-but-usable case as I'd had for an earlier Android tablet[1] is disappointing. Apple likewise.[2] I'm not looking for a phone (though with a headphone jack, the device might serve for vox comms), but a device on which I can read and create text and some images. E-ink is battery-friendly, highly readable, works well for greyscale graphics (I often, though not always, forget that I'm looking at content which presumes colour), is highly readable under direct sunlight, and can be read in low-light conditions with a modest frontlight. Purism and Pine may deliver here, though I'm not holding my breath. Keyboard is essential to writing. Touch input sucks. ________________________________ Notes: 1. The keyboard itself was ultimately a disappointment, as was the tablet. The form-factor and ease of flipping from touch-based to keyboard-based use was quite appealing. More: <https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/lqgtwy_rhsfbdh5cdxb1rq https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/lqgtwy_rhsfbdh5cdxb1rq> 2. The two problems are iOS's lack of a Linux-like userland, and yes, I'm aware of ish, and the fact that despite some otherwise delicious keyboards, keys critical to Linux/Unix tools and conventions are missing, most notably <esc>. Android/Termux remains superior, despite my many reservations against Android.
- theodric 3y ago
  Beepberry https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/ https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/
  - dredmorbius 3y ago
    Thanks! (I was pretty sure there was a RaPi option somewhere.)
wkjagt 3y ago
I still have my 3a sitting on a shelf in my work space. Still works fine too. I only had to fix the hinge at some point. I have the one with a full 1MB of RAM! I vaguely remember writing a program for it in OPL that would tell the time using beeps during the night when pressing a button so I didn't have to turn a light on to know what time it was. I kind of want to see if I can use it for anything now. I still have the serial cable for it too (somewhere, I think).
pomatic 3y ago
I worked at Psion during the Psion 3 era (and then later at Symbian). Hands down the best company I have ever worked for, and such an exciting time. Seeing the software one wrote in the hands of strangers in the street and on the shelves in Dixons was thrilling.
wkat4242 3y ago
I always thought the Psion 3's keyboard was much better to type on than the Psion 5. Even though the 5's looked cooler, the keys had less feel and were heavier to press, and often would get stuck when pushing them not in the center. I could type much faster on the 3's keyboard. The software was just way better on the 5 and the touchscreen was very useful. The 3 had a much much better screen contrast though. I missed the backlight on my 3c but I think the 3mx did have this. I still have a 5MX, modded it somehere around 2009 with bluetooth.
0x445442 3y ago
But you’re not going to play this on your 286… https://youtu.be/yCUppUOarpg https://youtu.be/yCUppUOarpg
nytesky 3y ago
I wrote our entire heldesk documentation in college in a Psion 3A while on a bus tour. Top notch. Miss physical keyboards, I feel like my parents and a VCR whenever I use my phone…
fattybob 3y ago
I considered my hp100 and then hp200lx far superior devices!!
eternityforest 3y ago
I still think there's room for a device like this in real practical use. Not for it's original application, no way would I want to give up modern software, but in embedded controls, something that gives you the full power of being able to do "Apps", while being cheap and small enough to have real dedicated devices. Devices like this could be made insanely cheaply now, seeing as how $3 ESP32 type chips have more power. And the battery life would likely be measured in years today, since we wouldn't be using them to replace phones, we'd be using them to control our sprinklers and smart home devices, as calculators, etc. We reached the good enough point for these so incredibly long ago, and the applications are so simple, plus there's no need for them to ever be directly exposed to the internet except on private WiFi.... they probably wouldn't need updates, at least not of the type an app would notice (They might need Bluetooth protocol updates). It could also pair with a real phone and serve as a single-function interface device, a physical "app" for making phone calls, checking the weather, playing GB emulator games, etc. At this point, anything that has a display and microcontroller could jump to PDA level capability for a few bucks more, and all these "Smart devices" would never go obsolete due to cloud crap again, you'd just install a new app. Right now I think M5Stack is the closest thing, but it's not that popular outside of DIY, and there's no ecosystem around it.

341 points by bishopsmother 3y ago

I loved my Psions. I truly miss having a smaller form factor computer. If I could possibly an iPhone with an attached physical keyboard, I’m certain that I could do a huge amount of work that I presently do with my laptop. (I know I can get an external keyboard but there’s something far more useful and satisfying about a properly integrated device.)

bayindirh 3y ago
The Era of the PDA was completely different and IMHO superior era to today's hyperconnected smartphones. Yes, today's iPhones and Android devices do much much more, but the devices of older days were much more polished, to the point and streamlined. iPhone is a great evolution of Palm hardware and design philosophy, but the gamification kills most applications, and oh, the notifications too. Glad that most of the useless notifications are turned off, so I can get some battery life and my attention back.
- atdrummond 3y ago
  I completely agree. I’ve done quite a bit to get my phone experience to a useful level but it’s required a level of customization and careful use to create an experience that simply existed properly, out of the box, with the purposeful PDA operating systems of the 90s.
regularfry 3y ago
There do exist things like the Gemini and the Astro Slide, which I've always looked at as a potential replacement, but they always seem to just miss the mark. The closest I've come to the same sort of experience was the Nokia N900, which was remarkable in a lot of ways.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
  I'm still waiting for delivery on the Astro Slide after ordering it over a year ago. As it was on IndieGogo, I can't even get my money back. Probably best to avoid Planet Computers - they lie about availability and delivery dates.
  - syockit 3y ago
    My contribution for Astro Slide is dated Oct. 2020. They've locked my contribution, so I consider it money burnt. While I was still naively waiting for it to come, I held on to my Gemini PDA for so long, even after its battery had bulged to the point that the back panel covering it had dislodged. After all the troubles it had caused me, I decided to give it up and get a normal smartphone instead. Life has been much better since then.
    - k_ 3y ago
      Same date here, but I don't even think they locked mine. I did give up too, but not on physical keyboard phones. I bought a unihertz titan pocket and I love it. Keyboard is great despite the top row that is really weird coming from blackberry (but I guess it's because of B patents..). Form factor is weird but I actually like having a small phone, and it's ok for most of my use cases.
    - theodric 3y ago
      I see the Astro Slide 5G is 'NEW - JUST LAUNCHED! PRE-ORDER NOW TO SECURE YOUR PLACE IN THE ORDER LIST!' '£982.80 inc VAT' 'STOCK EXP. JULY 2023' IANAL, but one might be interested in talking to the class of people who didn't get their purchased product from a company that is apparently mere weeks away from shipping the next revision of it.
- oever 3y ago
  The Nokia N950, which only made to a development edition, was much better. Unfortunately, mine met with a watery end.
- theodric 3y ago

jxf 3y ago

I've never had a Psion, but as I've become a dad, I've wished for devices for digital literacy that weren't tablets or phones. Something dumb with a dictionary, encyclopedia, calendar, an editor, and a few games, and physical keyboard is a great, safe introduction to the digital world.

monkeydust 3y ago
100% this as father of 6 and 4 year old. I still remember fairly vividly when my dad, an engineer, can from work one day and showed me the 3a, blew his and my mind especially. Not many tech devices have done that since.
gawrex 3y ago
You should check out uConsole [1] from ClockworkPI. It still has WiFi, but you can probably disable it. [1] https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/uconsole-kit-rpi-cm4-lite https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/uconsole-kit-rpi-cm...
- jagged-chisel 3y ago
  It’s a Linux system. You can definitely disable anything you want. (The current question is whether the uConsole ever ship)
- teruakohatu 3y ago
  This device seems too good to be true. Have they shipped any?
  - gawrex 3y ago
    There is a whole forum thread about that [1] with updates from the devs, but I don't think anybody received theirs yet. [1]: https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/update-uconsole-shipping-related/9774/1 https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/update-uconsole-shipping-rel...
rchaud 3y ago
Try an Android e-ink tablet like a Boox Note. They have wifi, but it's mostly for file sync and stuff because web browsing on e-ink is bad enough to not be worthwhile.

lelag 3y ago

I used to be a heavy user of my Psion Revo back in the 2000s. It had a highly usable full-featured office suite, and I truly used it as a laptop replacement at the time. I was able to touch-type my university course on it, and it could even fit a shirt front pocket. Honestly, the only thing that quickly made it obsolete was the lack of network connectivity (limited to infrared). It's still one of the computing devices for which I have the fondest memories.

regularfry 3y ago
If I'd had better connectivity for my 5mx at the time, I don't think I'd ever have put it down. Phenomenal piece of kit. I don't even remember it being that expensive.

appstorelottery 3y ago

I loved my 3a - which followed my Nokia communicator, which replaced my cassiopeia, none of which I actually really used lol... The 3a held the most promise with it's built in basic language... looking back I wish I had just enjoyed it more rather than being tied up in the illusion of the dot com boom. Thanks for the nostalgia!

edizms 3y ago
It was far from an illusion.

tobiasbischoff 3y ago

I will never understand why we do not have this kind of device anymore. A small computer, running linux, proper keyboard, integrated LTE - it would be a messaging and writing dream. Back in the days i developed custom software for the Revo, the SDK was a dream to work with as well.

bayindirh 3y ago
A high quality screen is much cheaper to design and build than a high quality keyboard, that's why. Also half of the people buying these devices are buying for the show. This is why MacBooks are still called $2000 Facebook Machine sometimes.
- ChuckNorris89 3y ago
  You're wrong about Macbooks. They're $2000 Reddit machines now.
  - bayindirh 3y ago
    Thanks! Oh, looks like I'm old now. :c
    - coldtea 3y ago
      Reddit is for old geezers, so I doubt any of the above answers is in any way in touch with 2023. And I'm not sure who calls Macbooks "$2000 Facebook machines". That sounds like the ancient DOS era bs that "Macs are toys" (funny, the PC ended getting all the gamers and meat-and-potatoes OS needs, i.e. email+web, older people). In the west, where they can afford it, a huge chunk of programmers, graphic designers, data analysts, video editors, musicians, writers, etc use Macbooks, disproportionally more so than the general public's share of macOS, or the share of those professions on Linux).
      - ChuckNorris89 3y ago
        >Reddit is for old geezers Please let all the Gen-Z-ers know they should vacate Reddit.

unwind 3y ago

I realized I had no idea what actual platform these were (I'm old enough to remember longing for one of these but never had one back in the day). It's powered by the NEV V20 [1] processor, which is a 16-bit chip that is code and pin compatible with the more famous Intel 8088. The NEC chip was launched in March of 1984 which is interesting given that the Psion 3a came in 1991. It feels like today launching a product based on a 7-year old CPU is more rare. It would be cool (but perhaps sacrilegious) to upgrade the existing motherboard to some Arm SoC/microcontroller, if possible. I thought of it now while writing this, so clearly someone has already done so. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEC_V20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEC_V20

regularfry 3y ago
> It feels like today launching a product based on a 7-year old CPU is more rare. Well. The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 has an ARM Cortex-A53 SoC. The Zero 2 was released in October 2021, and the A53 line in October 2012. I don't think you'd struggle to find other A53 devices being released after 2019. It almost feels like the A53 line is a bit of a special case, but then again, so was the 8088...
- unwind 3y ago
  Good point, thanks! I guess the RPi's special relationship with Broadcom is shining through a bit there, or something.
LeoPanthera 3y ago
The operating system was called SIBO, which rather unimaginatively stood for SIixteen Bit Operating system. It is a direct ancestor of EPOC, which in turn was later renamed to "Symbian", as made popular on many Nokia devices.
- lproven 3y ago
  I checked after posting and I was partly wrong! Sorry! The Psion Series 3 range -- 3, 3A, 3C and 3MX -- ran SIBO, later renamed EPOC, later renamed EPOC16, a multitasking GUI OS written for 8086. SIBO = SIxteen Bit Organizer. Not OS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Organiser#Subsequent_hand-held_devices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Organiser#Subsequent_han... The Psion 5 range ran the later and largely unrelated EPOC32, a native ARM OS written in C++ which later became Symbian. But SIBO did not become Symbian. EPOC 5, later EPOS32, did. There was even more renaming than I realised.

pabscon 3y ago

It is a pity that with all the interesting devices that have been left without updates, manufacturers do not release firmwares in a more organised way so that they can be used again, even if only in a limited way. I'm talking about devices such as the Vadem Clio, Nokia 770, blackberry playbook, several minipcs with windowsce, etc... I imagine it's such a small niche that it's not worth spending time developing and adapting.

nickdothutton 3y ago

I had a 3a and found it more convenient to use than the heavy/bulky laptops of the day. My use cases were diary management, expenses, task tracking/todo, and short emails (via the add-on modem/mobile phone cable). The message app also allowed you to send SMS. The batteries seemed to last forever and being a standard size were available everywhere. I dont know if a "new psion" would sell in sufficient numbers. It's a device I find myself wondering about (along with a chocolate-bar sized version of the iphone (Nokia 6300 size)). I'd buy one of those for sure, for when I'm not working and need a phone, but dont want the full "slab" to carry around with me.

iso1631 3y ago
I had a series V, I much preferred the keyboard. 2x AA batteries to power it. I remember connecting to the internet via IRDA to my nokia 6210 around 2000, it was an amazing glimpse of the future

kqr 3y ago

The Psion 3C was the device I learned programming on. My father upgraded to a Psion 5 and I got his 3C. It was small enough that it could be hidden under the pillow/blanket when my parents came in to make sure I was sleeping, and then I could spend long nights writing text-based adventure games or calculators or whatever.

jw1224 3y ago

Psion 3c was what got me into programming! My grandfather gave me his old one when I was a kid. To an 11-year-old, a spreadsheet, world clock, and address book gets old pretty fast :) But the in-built OPL [1] language provided unlimited possibilities. You can see the icon for it in one of the screenshots. I remember printing off a copy of the 300-page language manual I found online (breaking dad’s printer in the process). Now 20 years later and I have Psion/OPL to thank for my career. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Programming_Language https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Programming_Language

qubex 3y ago
I started with OPL on a Pison Series 3 (“no bloody A, B, C, or D!”) with 128 kbytes of storage — unlimited potential but limited resources… my first project was to code up something that looked like John Connor’s ATM-cracking program from Terminator 2.
- mysterydip 3y ago
  For those that don't get the reference: https://youtu.be/qTOP1BezOB8 https://youtu.be/qTOP1BezOB8
  - Endy 3y ago
    It is green.
4fips 3y ago
No so long ago, around 2012 :), I was still using my Psion 3c + a short OPL program, to trigger my hacked time lapse camera over serial line. It worked quite reliably for years. https://forums.4fips.com/viewtopic.php?t=717 https://forums.4fips.com/viewtopic.php?t=717
- jw1224 3y ago
  That’s neat! Funnily enough, my next foray into coding (after OPL) would be scripting timelapses on my Canon PowerShot with CHDK [1] — wish I’d thought of doing it with a Psion though. [1] https://chdk.fandom.com/wiki/CHDK https://chdk.fandom.com/wiki/CHDK

pea 3y ago

This reminds me of when I was in primary school in 1996 or so, and the "thing" to have as a kid was a personal organiser; irrespective of the fact none of us had anything to organize.

predictsoft 3y ago

I have gone through several Psion 5's over the last few years. They all broke eventually - mainly the screen (ribbon cable). Because I couldn't justify spending yet another £60 for a Psion 5 which soon breaks down, I run Epoc Agenda now on my Windows PC on an EPOC emulator, and it's great for keeping track of events.

semiprime 3y ago
I'm currently writing an agenda app inspired by the Psion 3a/5 Agendas - because they were the best calendar apps I ever used. Github: https://github.com/semiprime/pygenda https://github.com/semiprime/pygenda Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvQqFmlZ6nM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvQqFmlZ6nM If you liked the S5 agenda, I'd appreciate any feedback you could give. (Video shows it on a Gemini, but I also run it on my Linux Laptop. Running on Windows is probably possible, but I haven't tried it, so you'd need to do some fiddling - in particular installing GTK3).
- rcarmo 3y ago
  this is pretty amazing - well done!
- predictsoft 3y ago
  Hi, if you could get it working on Android, I'd be willing to pay $5.
  - semiprime 3y ago
    Planet Computers already did an Android Agenda app for their range of handhelds: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pripla.gemagenda https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pripla.gem... (I've not used it. I've seen people complaining that it's not very good, but people always complain on the Web, so that's not much of an indicator of anything.)
wvenable 3y ago
I recently bought an Psion 5 off of ebay -- I've never had one before. The one thing I can't really get over is how awful the screen is -- the reviews online seem to indicate that mine isn't unique in this regard. Hard to see in anything but perfect lighting. The keyboard is pretty good although not as good as I would have expected given the ravings about it. I should probably open it up and re-enforce the cable but I'm a bit afraid of messing it up in the attempt.

anonzzzies 3y ago

I still dream of an rLCD + Apollo 3+ chip + BLE (it has that) + WIFI + optional 4/5g + Psion like casing. I would write a graphical OS for it for fun. I really want to see week+ long battery life.

compstrtpthrwy 3y ago
A humble plug: the stealth mode startup where I work at is cranking away at something similar. If you are intrigued, drop me a note at the email on my profile. Very happy to sign up folks on our email list!

oliwarner 3y ago

Lots of focus on the hardware here but its form factor still exists in niches. What has vanished, is our ability to do general-purpose computing at ~8MHz. Consider the computers you had in the 90s. Windows 3.11 and Office ran on a 286 but I sit here with 12 cores at ~4Ghz just to post this crumby comment. We are spoilt. It really makes me yearn to do more with less.

stavros 3y ago
I think that looking at it from a MHz standpoint is a red herring. How many things can you do per watt now, than you could per watt then?
- oliwarner 3y ago
  And power consumption is a —among other things— a function of transistor size and process. A lot has changed in 30 years, but our methods of programming these things has veered towards incredible wastefulness.
  - mysterydip 3y ago
    To put it another way, how much longer battery life would that same psion get if the CPU/board was made with modern transistor sizes.
  - cptaj 3y ago
    But demand for software has also grown a lot in that period. If we trained software engineers and demanded quality to the same standards, we would not be able to meet demand. Those standards were also set by the limitations of hardware, not because people had the will to do better back then.
- coldtea 3y ago
  Better ask, how many things you could do per watt now, if software had that era's leanness?
  - 3y ago

hestefisk 3y ago

Does it run NetBSD?

hestefisk 3y ago
Downvote? Seriously? It was a serious question. NetBSD runs everywhere, even 40 years old vaxen, so why wouldn’t it run on Psion?
- lproven 3y ago
  It's an 8086. Well, an NEC V20. No MMU = no Unix.
fulafel 3y ago
There doesn't seem to be a port for 16-bit CPUs. But maybe Linux in the form of ELKS if the memory allows.

jwmoz 3y ago

When I was younger I was desperate for one of these-it looked like some sort of hacking machine. No idea what I would have used it for.

cjdell 3y ago

My dad had one of these and he continued to use it until the day he died in 2013. I remember thinking how crazy high resolution the screen was at the time. Amazing device. I got his old Series 3 (predecessor to the 3a) when I was still a kid and was one of the first devices I learned to code on thanks to the built-in OPL programming language!

siddiqi123 3y ago

That’s true, and I would have liked the BlackBerry more if the pointer worked better and the software was better. That was the kicker for me. I do miss Graffiti – especially with all the trouble I have with the iPhone keyboard. It is a constant frustration, and it always has been

kvetching 3y ago

How long until there's a commercial product that has a built in LLM? Some device that is like a personal encyclopedia that you can ask about anything?

quickthrower2 3y ago
You could download wikipedia to even the cheapest of today’s devices. Forget the LLM and just add search.
TMWNN 3y ago
https://github.com/mlc-ai/mlc-llm https://github.com/mlc-ai/mlc-llm

triggercut 3y ago

This brings back happy memories. I was lucky enough to have the precursor, an Acorn Pocket Book, as part of my school curriculum. I lost it a few years ago in a move but I can still remember the the distinctive "device" smell (probably the case material). I yearned for the additional memory of the Psion 2. I would write lengthy stories that would fill up the memory. No off-device storage. I'd have to delete entries of birds i'd spotted and researched from cards app, tough decisions needed to be made. Long before pokemon swept the west, our teacher would take us bird watching. We'd create entries in the cards app for each one we spotted, then research the birds in the library to fill out the entry. Then, as a class we'd trade (share) our research with each other.

bwestergard 3y ago
Thank you for sharing this lovely memory. I've recently gotten into birding as an adult, and have heard that in some parts of the world basic bird identification is part of the curriculum (e.g. the Netherlands). If you don't mind me asking, what country/region did you go to school in? Was this the initiative of one teacher, or something more standardized?
- triggercut 3y ago
  The UK. Not standardized, just a lucky combination of a fancy school trying to justify fees and good teachers who made the most of the situation for their students.
garethsprice 3y ago
The Acorn was a rebadged Psion 3 rather than a precursor. I remember as I lusted after the Psions on display in Boots as a (dorky) child, and was ecstatic when our school piloted the Acorns. (Psion and Acorn, two more examples of how the UK is capable of developing world-leading tech but not at successfully marketing it...)
- triggercut 3y ago
  Wow! I stand corrected. I was led to believe that Acorn went bust and sold to Psion. I thought it went Acorn Pocket Book 1, Acorn Pocket Book II, Psion 3. Live and learn. Thanks! :-)

classified 3y ago

And on top of that, it's not contaminated with the usual dark patterns for monetizing, lock-in, control and surveillance that afflict today's devices.

geophile 3y ago

I had a Psion 5, an amazing device. It had the same apps as the 3, if I remember correctly. The keyboard was astoundingly good. The keys, if larger, would make an excellent normal keyboard. What I really loved about the 5 was that it could run Java. I think it never got past JDK 1.0.2, or maybe 1.1. But it was clunky to use. I wrote a little shell for it, which provided basic functionality, including much simpler compiling and execution of java code. (http://geophile.com/jshell http://geophile.com/jshell. It should still run, except that it relies on an obsolete parser.)

lproven 3y ago
You do not remember correctly, I'm afraid. The 5 ran a whole new OS with all new apps. No backwards compatibility whatsoever.
- geophile 3y ago
  Sure, but it was the same categories, Calendar, for example.
  - lproven 3y ago
    Um. Well, yes, broadly, true, but then they are largely similar across most PDA type devices. Address book or more general database, calendar/agenda/scheduler, notepad or jotter, maybe a file manager, then often some kind of minimal office-productivity tools or viewers...

westcort 3y ago

Certain classic computers powered by “AA” batteries are amazing to use today. I have an Alphasmart Dana set up for my children to play chess, do word procession, and learn to program in C. It is much better than dealing with the potential hazards of a modern device.

sauruk 3y ago
Theres a c compiler?? Can you share a link?
- classichasclass 3y ago
  The Dana runs PalmOS 4 (the closest thing that ever existed to a Palm laptop), so any Palm-compatible C compiler will do.
- westcort 3y ago
  Yes, the compiler is available here: https://palmdb.net/app/PocketC-Compiler https://palmdb.net/app/PocketC-Compiler And an editor is available here: https://palmdb.net/app/editc https://palmdb.net/app/editc
ofrzeta 3y ago
What did you do to make your children happy with a LCD screen, chess, word processing and programming in C? :-)
- westcort 3y ago
  Basically, getting rid of dopamine-driven entertainment has been the key. Going back to the 90s with pocket versions of games like Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego has been helpful. Board games, card games, lots of books, antenna TV, and DVDs for entertainment has made a big difference!

ubermonkey 3y ago

I dabbled in handhelds in that era, and always wanted a Psion but never got around to it. The main issues in that era for me were that they devices were dead ends for data. At the time, the main competitor for something like this was a paper planner, of course, which are ALSO dead ends, so it was a reasonable approach. Newton happened, though, and initially -- and people forget this -- it came with the Newton Desktop, which gave you access to your data on Windows. It synced! This was huge! And then, for reasons I've never understood, Apple dropped the Newton Desktop with the rev to NewtOS 2.0, which was really really great otherwise. Unfortunately easy desktop sync turned out to be a killer app in this space, because Palm came to market with that as their foundation and ruled the whole market for quite a while. I loved the Newton -- and if you've never touched one, you don't actually know how useful they were; it was really pretty amazing -- but the sync was what pushed me to Palm, where I stayed until the 2000s.

andix 3y ago
I played with some of those PDAs as a kid, and honestly I never really got what they were used for. There was no Wi-Fi and internet connection via infrared was not really awesome. Using it while traveling abroad was extremely expensive. You were able to sync the email from your desktop PC, answer them offline and send them on the next sync. And you could do spreadsheets. But honestly, who really uses spreadsheets on their smartphone? (Which is a comparable user experience) So the only thing left is calendar, contacts and notes. A paper planner was probably more useful back then.
- ubermonkey 3y ago
  That's the rub. They're from a world that was, in very meaningful ways, "pre-connectivity." Doing meaningful work on a portable presupposes the ability to continue that work when you're at a better device. We have that NOW, but 20-25 years ago we really didn't. People today talk about how bad handwriting rec was the death of the Newton, but it really wasn't. The HWR was pretty stellar under 2.0, even with my objectively terrible penmanship. What killed it was (a) its price and (b) its lack of connectivity to the desktop. Palm entered the market with a $299 device that was dead cheap, fit in your pocket, and synced with either the Palm Desktop or Outlook. That's what killed the Newton.

cainxinth 3y ago

I kept all my old PDAs (and some that belonged to friends and family that were tossing them out). I have a box filled with my Casio BOSS, Palm Pilot, and several others. They aren't worth much (I just checked ebay and an original, working U.S. Robotics Palm Pilot 5000 is selling for $50), but they are such an interesting memento in the history of digital tools.

detourdog 3y ago

Gideon Gartner of Gartner research loved is Psion and as far as know never stopped using it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Gartner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Gartner

causality0 3y ago

"Bought, shouted at, and sold" is a great descriptor for Windows Mobile. Never has a combination of such high quality hardware and absolutely dogshit software ever existed.

Jun8 3y ago

So, motivated by this article, I checked eBay, expecting to burn $20-30 to get one and found that these sell for around $100 (thank god, didn’t buy another device to add to my pile). My question is: who buys these at that price and for what purpose? Collecting old devices? Using them? I don’t think buying these have the allure of retro computing, eg buying a Sinclair Spectrum.

akaitea 3y ago
I have a few PDAs of this type, bought ultra cheap at flea markets and such, Casio Cassiopeia 4MB A-11, Psion Series 5, Ericsson MC12... bought for under $5 each so those eBay prices are nuts... they all work and they all serve absolutely no purpose, but when you're a ~hoarder~ collector you can't help yourself.
LeoPanthera 3y ago
I bet some people still use them. I used my Psion 5mx as my primary organizer until only a few years ago, and I still kind of miss it. It still works, but lacking any kind of connectivity except for infrared, it's increasingly difficult to justify in today's world.
- lproven 3y ago
  For amusement value only -- a modern user: https://srslyriskybiz.substack.com/p/putins-chef-cooks-up-infosec-disaster https://srslyriskybiz.substack.com/p/putins-chef-cooks-up-in...

sriku 3y ago

I used to own a psion way back and also had a brush with the OS which morphed into Symbian on Nokia iirc. I loved the software architecture (which borrowed aspects from the B5000), APIs and "services" and overall the focus on robustness. Some aspects like threads having their own heaps contributed to the robustness.

dang 3y ago

Related, more or less: Getting a Psion 5 palmtop from 1997 online via PPP (and a Raspberry Pi) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33946824 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33946824 - Dec 2022 (26 comments) “16 Shades of Grey” – Building a Psion/EPOC32 Emulator (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30835970 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30835970 - March 2022 (1 comment) Psion PDA – How does it look today? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29871609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29871609 - Jan 2022 (2 comments) Raspberry Pi Helps Vintage Psion Find Its Voice - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20609493 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20609493 - Aug 2019 (1 comment) Former Psion designers return with a fresh take on the PDA - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16619449 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16619449 - March 2018 (2 comments) Gemini PDA: 20 years on, meet the all-new Psion Series 5 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15818324 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15818324 - Nov 2017 (69 comments) Motorola Buys Psion For $200m - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4126441 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4126441 - June 2012 (1 comment) Psion: the last computer (2007) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=226305 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=226305 - June 2008 (1 comment)

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

nologic01 3y ago

27 years from now it will be 2050. Will todays smartphones still feel "wonderful"? I highly doubt it.

dredmorbius 3y ago

I would be interested in a product or kit based on e-ink and a small keyboard. It need not necessarily run EPOC16, though a battery-optimised OS would be quite useful. I'm using a 13" e-ink tablet for most of my mobile use (reading, no social media, absolute minimal number of account-based tools), and it's quite good. A bit large for a pocketable / PDA device, and the fact that there's no keyboard which could integrate into a folding-but-usable case as I'd had for an earlier Android tablet[1] is disappointing. Apple likewise.[2] I'm not looking for a phone (though with a headphone jack, the device might serve for vox comms), but a device on which I can read and create text and some images. E-ink is battery-friendly, highly readable, works well for greyscale graphics (I often, though not always, forget that I'm looking at content which presumes colour), is highly readable under direct sunlight, and can be read in low-light conditions with a modest frontlight. Purism and Pine may deliver here, though I'm not holding my breath. Keyboard is essential to writing. Touch input sucks. ________________________________ Notes: 1. The keyboard itself was ultimately a disappointment, as was the tablet. The form-factor and ease of flipping from touch-based to keyboard-based use was quite appealing. More: <https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/lqgtwy_rhsfbdh5cdxb1rq https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/lqgtwy_rhsfbdh5cdxb1rq> 2. The two problems are iOS's lack of a Linux-like userland, and yes, I'm aware of ish, and the fact that despite some otherwise delicious keyboards, keys critical to Linux/Unix tools and conventions are missing, most notably <esc>. Android/Termux remains superior, despite my many reservations against Android.

theodric 3y ago
Beepberry https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/ https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/
- dredmorbius 3y ago
  Thanks! (I was pretty sure there was a RaPi option somewhere.)

wkjagt 3y ago

I still have my 3a sitting on a shelf in my work space. Still works fine too. I only had to fix the hinge at some point. I have the one with a full 1MB of RAM! I vaguely remember writing a program for it in OPL that would tell the time using beeps during the night when pressing a button so I didn't have to turn a light on to know what time it was. I kind of want to see if I can use it for anything now. I still have the serial cable for it too (somewhere, I think).

pomatic 3y ago

I worked at Psion during the Psion 3 era (and then later at Symbian). Hands down the best company I have ever worked for, and such an exciting time. Seeing the software one wrote in the hands of strangers in the street and on the shelves in Dixons was thrilling.

wkat4242 3y ago

I always thought the Psion 3's keyboard was much better to type on than the Psion 5. Even though the 5's looked cooler, the keys had less feel and were heavier to press, and often would get stuck when pushing them not in the center. I could type much faster on the 3's keyboard. The software was just way better on the 5 and the touchscreen was very useful. The 3 had a much much better screen contrast though. I missed the backlight on my 3c but I think the 3mx did have this. I still have a 5MX, modded it somehere around 2009 with bluetooth.

0x445442 3y ago

But you’re not going to play this on your 286… https://youtu.be/yCUppUOarpg https://youtu.be/yCUppUOarpg

nytesky 3y ago

I wrote our entire heldesk documentation in college in a Psion 3A while on a bus tour. Top notch. Miss physical keyboards, I feel like my parents and a VCR whenever I use my phone…

fattybob 3y ago

I considered my hp100 and then hp200lx far superior devices!!

eternityforest 3y ago

I still think there's room for a device like this in real practical use. Not for it's original application, no way would I want to give up modern software, but in embedded controls, something that gives you the full power of being able to do "Apps", while being cheap and small enough to have real dedicated devices. Devices like this could be made insanely cheaply now, seeing as how $3 ESP32 type chips have more power. And the battery life would likely be measured in years today, since we wouldn't be using them to replace phones, we'd be using them to control our sprinklers and smart home devices, as calculators, etc. We reached the good enough point for these so incredibly long ago, and the applications are so simple, plus there's no need for them to ever be directly exposed to the internet except on private WiFi.... they probably wouldn't need updates, at least not of the type an app would notice (They might need Bluetooth protocol updates). It could also pair with a real phone and serve as a single-function interface device, a physical "app" for making phone calls, checking the weather, playing GB emulator games, etc. At this point, anything that has a display and microcontroller could jump to PDA level capability for a few bucks more, and all these "Smart devices" would never go obsolete due to cloud crap again, you'd just install a new app. Right now I think M5Stack is the closest thing, but it's not that popular outside of DIY, and there's no ecosystem around it.