04-05-2004, 12:00 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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The Gadgeteer Reviews Radio Shack's TRS-80 Portable Computer
Yes, you read that right -- The Gadgeteer has reviewed a 20-year-old PDA-like device, and it shows that handhelds aren't exactly a new concept.
"Imagine a portable device that runs on 4 AA batteries & runs for 20 hours+, has an address book, a date book, a notepad-like app, a built-in modem, a full-travel keyboard, a terminal application, even the ability to connect to a modern Windows or Linux based PC & transfer files. Sounds great doesn't it? But in 1983? No way I hear you say! What are you smoking son?"
Admittedly, I won't be turning in my Pocket PC any time soon for one of these... but it's cool to see that people have been taking handheld computing seriously for a long time.
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04-05-2004, 12:44 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 6
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My college "laptop"
Wow flashback! I wrote all my papers in college on one of those. Too bad I had to sell it to pay the rent!
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04-05-2004, 12:58 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 32
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I still have a working one of these. I play Scott Adam's adventures on it once in awhile.. There are still a few support groups for these devices too..
Yes that IS a modem. 
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04-05-2004, 01:12 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 137
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AWESOME! I used to have one of these and wrote most of my stuff in university on it (until I picked up a Zenith 8088 notebook/anchor). It was a great little unit. Unfortunately, parts of the keyboard quit responding and it was no longer usable.
Like the previous post I had the modem and floppy disk drive. What a cool flashback!
__________________
Love those Flames!
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04-05-2004, 01:21 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,055
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Pretty cool... I love reading about old computers. It brings back memories when people used to appreciate their computers!
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04-05-2004, 02:14 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 54
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I had one in 1984, used the terminal function to hook up to the RS-232 interface of a grocery store computer to run diagnostics and backups from an 8" floppy drive hooked up to the store computer. The alternative was a fan-fold paper printer that printed out responses to a "Push button once for yes, twice for no" prompts. The Model 100 was slick stuff!
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04-05-2004, 03:12 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 706
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Love it! :rock on dude!:
What it also goes to show is that just because there's something newer avaialble that your old gear does not cease to be useful (try to remember that when a new OS or device is released).
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Get your Pocket Mojo. Anthony Caruana is the Mojo master. |
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04-05-2004, 03:17 AM
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,878
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Somewhere buried in my basement, I still have an accoustic coupler. I'll have to find it and see if it still works! Then again, handsets on phones are no longer the "correct" shape. :wink: They just had to go and break up Ma' Bell...
Steve
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"My eyes are rolling back in my head so far I can see my grey matter bubbling and frothing from reading this thread....bleh." JD
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04-05-2004, 03:27 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 22
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I first learned BASIC programming on this machine. It was my father's, and I was about 11. I was in the middle of programming my first game when I ran out of internal memory (256K?)!! I could never get the external floppy drive to work, so I gave up the project. I always wanted to finish that game, too... 
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04-05-2004, 04:34 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
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Could these things be hooked directly to a printer. I remember somthing like those in my school when I was younger. They looked about the same but I don't recall the name. Could it be that my school had about 20 of these things?
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Linear Mode
