As I get more and more used to having the Nokia N810 with me all the time, and get used to the things I do with it, it’s interesting to me to look back at the handhelds/PDAs I’ve used over the last 10 years or so.

1. Newton MessagePad 130. 1996-1997
   The 130 was the first handheld I had. It was a great device, really changing how I recorded and used information at the time. I was the Computer Lab Coordinator at ACC at the time, constantly running around from lab to lab to check on machines, install software, etc. The MP130 allowed me to keep class and employee schedules, lists of software, one-off drawings of whiteboard-type ideas, etc.

   I bought the MP130 used off of the Internet around 1996. (I forget where, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t eBay). It came with a 2MB (yes, megaB) card and “The Glove” — a very nice leather case. Where is it now? Sitting at home. It no longer works, but I still have the parts, and the original box.

2. Newton MessagePad 2000. 1997-2000-ish
   I pre-ordered the 2000. I was incredibly excited to get it. A bigger, faster version of the 130, the MP2K was, at the time, the fastest computer I had. That is to say, its 162MHz processor was faster than the 120MHz Pentium processor that sat on my desk at the time. I bought the works with it: a nice case, a 4MB card, and the detached keyboard. The MP2K has a great (well, for a handheld, anyway) word processor and spreadsheet package that allowed me to have even more information with me. I wrote many a document on the MP2K. One incident I remember very clearly was using it to take notes in a meeting, then pointing the Newton at the HP printer in the room and printing out the meeting notes via infrared as we finished up. Fantastic. The MP2K followed me from my days at ACC, up to FSU, and to my current job at UMCES.

   The killer app for me on the Newton was Silverware’s MoreInfo. The replacement for the “Dates” app allowed linking everything to everything else. Meetings could be linked to todos, which could be linked to notes, which could be linked to contacts, which could be linked to a word processing document, and the like. It remains the standard on which I judge all other information management apps, on handhelds as well as desktop machines and web-based. Every other product since then has failed to live up to the beauty, power, and ease-of-use of MoreInfo. I really miss it. Where is it now? Sitting in my office. It still works, though I don’t keep batteries in it.

3. Vadem Clio. 2000
   The Clio was my first entry into the madness that is Windows Mobile. Called Windows CE at the time, the software was a scaled-back version of Windows for the handheld use. The Clio was the largest machine I’ve ever tried to carry around with me, which was one of the reasons I did not keep it long. It was unique in that it had a full keyboard, and the screen could fold down on top of it in a tablet-style (not swivel and fold like current “tablet PCs” do today). It could manage this because the hinges for the display were on the middle of the sides of the display, rather than being hinged at the bottom. I liked the Clio for its full keyboard and big screen (something I always wanted from the Newton), but hated it for its clunkiness and serious lack of horsepower. It was the first device I used as a mobile web device — I had a PC card Ethernet adapter for it (no wireless, yet). Where is it now? Sold on eBay.

4. Handspring Visor Deluxe. 2000-2002-ish
   My first PalmOS device was the Visor Deluxe. I really liked this device, as it was plenty speedy, small enough to fit in my shirt pocket (a first for me), and had lots of nice software. I also appreciated how well it would sync, even with the Linux desktop machine I was using at the time. The Visors became pretty popular at the Lab, as there were at least four of us that carried one model or another. I was enamored with the “springboard” slot for future expansion, though I never did buy anything for it. Clayton had some add-ons, like the camera, a memory expansion card, and eventually some sort of cell phone card (which lead to the Treo once Handspring was enveloped by Palm). A nice device. The Palm PIM software was pretty nice, though I found the Datebook rather anemic (Keep in mind, though, that everything’s anemic to me compared to MoreInfo for the Newton), but DateBk (at the time, DateBk3) was a very workable solution. Where is it now? I have no idea. I think we cannabalized it for parts to repair another one when I moved on to the Compaq.

5. Compaq iPAQ 3850. 2002-2003-ish
   The Visor gave up the ghost, so I moved on to a Windows CE (then known as PocketPC) device. The Compaq was a good size, had a nice color screen, and pretty good software. I was going back and forth between Linux and Mac OS X on the desktop by this time, and used The MissingSync to sync with the Mac. Eventually I put Qtopia on the device and was much happier with it on the Compaq and Linux on the desktop, though eventually I would settle on the Mac and Missing Sync. It was a pretty nice device, all things considered. I had the extra battery and dual PC card “sleeve” for it, which made it quite a beast, but I could use PC card Ethernet on it to get on the web. Without the sleeve, it fit nicely in my pocket. I didn’t like it nearly as well as the Visor and PalmOS, though. Where is it now? I think it’s still around here somewhere, though it may have been put in an e-recycling box at some point.

6. Newton Messagepad 2100. 2003-2005
   The 2100 was an exceptional gift from the always-exceptional Charlie Teets, my old boss and office-mate. He had bought it some time ago, and was cleaning out and thought I’d like it. But of course. The 2100 was an upgraded model from the 2000 and was the last Newton Messagepad made. It ran all my old software from the MP2K, including MoreInfo, and with the upgraded capabilities I was able to get it on the ‘net with both a PC card Ethernet and an Orinoco Silver WLAN card. Wireless networking! Slick. I had a browser for it, did email, etc. Where is it now? Sitting on my desk, with batteries. Still works like a charm. I still hook it up to the keyboard for some wordprocessing now and then, and fire up MoreInfo for the sheer perfection of it all. A good game of DeepGreen is nice now and then, too.

7. Palm Tungsten T3. 2003-2008
   Eventually, no matter how perfect the technology is, obsolete is obsolete. So it is with my beloved Newtons, so something more modern is needed. I moved back to the Palm OS when Palm released the T3. It was a color device (only the Compaq and Clio were color for me previously) and ran the very zippy PalmOS. The T3 had a slider to cover the graffiti area, and when slid up the device was quite small, fitting very easily into my shirt pocket. I had a 256MB SD card for it, and even a WiFi SD card, though as it would only do WEP encryption it was of use for only a short period of time. The T3 was my gaming machine, media player, notebook, PDF reader, and date book for a long time. DateBk had gone through some revisions, and was a very nice date book. I was Mac OS X full time by this stage, and Missing Sync came right along and served very well to sync the device. Where is it now? Still in use at the Lab; JB’s got it as a hand-me-down.

8. Nokia N810. 2008-present
   As the T3 got long-in-the-tooth for me, I was looking for a replacement. When Apple failed to impress me with the iPod Touch 2.0, I decided on the N810. The N810 has a slide-out keyboard, GPS, a truly exceptional 800x480 screen, and runs a full version of Linux. With its wifi capabilities, it’s a full computer in my pocket. It’s pretty heavy (about 8oz or so), so there are some shirt pockets that I’m not real comfortable putting it into, but it’s a marvelous device. I really can’t impress upon you the quality of the screen; I simply cannot distinguish individual pixels on it. Combined with Linux’s font and antialias support, reading web pages and e-books on the screen is extremely comfortable. The browser has the ability to announce itself as an iPhone, so I can get mobile versions of web pages easily, but there really isn’t any need for that, as the browser and device are quite capable. The browser supports Flash 9, I do GoogleTalk and Twitter on it, ssh into remote boxes, get my email, check my Google Calendar, and so forth. I’ve even used the GPS once to get me back on the right road when travelling. The device is hackable, as Nokia has very wisely not locked the machine down at all. There are kernel patches, which I use, to support screen rotation (mobile websites at 480x800 is a real treat), and I’ve even booted the device into Android. But the device has one glaring flaw.

   It’s not a PDA, it’s an Internet Tablet, and it seems to be quite aware that it’s not a PDA. There isn’t a real good datebook for it (GPE is available, and I use it, but if you’ve ever used GPE, you know that doesn’t count). There are some projects that are attempting to make a good set of PIM applications for it, but none are stable enough and complete enough that I would want to trust. I do use Google Calendar on it, and I sync the GPE calendar with my Google Calendar. But my PIM needs now are being handled by my MacBook Pro and paper. Where is it now? Sitting right here on its kickstand, charging, playing a podcast, and running Mauku, keeping up with the twitterverse.