Somewhat related, here's a facinating look back at the portable computers used by field reporters in the 70s and 80s: http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/2

Somewhat related, here's a facinating look back at the portable computers used by field reporters in the 70s and 80s: http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/291145401.html http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/291145401.html From the mid-70s to mid-80s the only option available to reporters out in the field was the Teleram P-1800, about which surprisingly little information is available. http://mccworkshop.com/computers/comphistory10.htm http://mccworkshop.com/computers/comphistory10.htm It was essentially a CPU-less serial terminal with modem, CRT screen, and 2 kB of RAM. It included a rudimentary word processor (with text search-and-replace) implemented entirely in TTL logic. 2 kB pages of text were saved to cassette before being transferred to the home office via 300 baud acoustic coupler modem. These rare and very expensive machines were eventually replaced by the small, simple, and inexpensive TRS-80 Model 100 portable. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100 http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100 Instant power up, no disk or fans, MS-DOS and word processor in ROM, 32K of non-volatile RAM, 40x8 character LCD screen, serial I/O, and a full-sized, full stroke keyboard. It's interesting that it took us 25+ years to get back to that ideal portable form factor.