At 20.5 inches wide, 14.5 inches deep, 8.5 inches tall (all with the case closed) and weighing just over 26 pounds, the Osborne 1 was the first “portable” computer. Portability was obviously a different concept in 1981, when the Osborne 1 was release, than it is today. But the attractive design, self-contained nature of the machine and its relative affordability made the Osborne 1 the first commercially successful computer in the new portable class. Because of its weight and girth, this class would later become known as “luggable” computers.

With its keyboard becoming the lid, the Osborne 1 folded up into a suitcase that held virtually everything an executive could want or need in a computer: two disk drives (one for the application disk and one on which to save data), a keyboard and a monitor. The Osborne 1 came with a built-in CRT monitor that was all of 5 inches, apparently a design concession so the unit could also include two 5 ¼ inch disk drives. The computer ran off the CP/M operating system, which had to run off one of the diskettes. The Osborne 1 also came standard with bundled software, akin to buying a laptop today with an office suite. Most units came standard with Wordstar (the leading word processor from MicroPro), Supercalc (the leading spreadsheet software from Sorcim) and CBasic/MBasic (a programming language from Microsoft). The retail price for this software would come to roughly $1500 if sold separately, making the $1795 computer plus software bundle a very good deal.

Back in its day, the Osborne 1 became practically an overnight success, with the Osborne Computer Company shipping as many as 10,000 a month. However, competition from computers like the Kaypro II, which worked exactly like the Osborne using the same CP/M operating system and associated software, but came standard with double density disk drives and a much larger built-in monitor, began eating into the Osborne 1’s market share. Soon enough, the business world started to “standardize” on IBM-based computers and a new operating system called DOS from an emerging software company called Microsoft. By 1983 the Osborne Computer Company had filed for bankruptcy. But its legacy is the era of portable computing led by its innovative Osborne 1.

The MuMoH physical collection includes an Osborne 1 “B” computer, serial number 118781.

Specifications:

SIZE measured with case closed

• 20.5 inches wide
• 14.5 inches deep
• 8.5 inches high

WEIGHT

• 26.2 lbs (shipping weight 34 lbs)

MAIN PC BOARD

• Processor – Z80A, 4 MHz CPU click
• Memory size – 64K bytes programmable (RAM)
• 4K read-only memory bank-switched
• 60K of programmable memory available for software

DISPLAY

• Video monitor size – 3.55” horizontal, 2.63” vertical
• 24 lines of 52 characters visible
• 32 lines of 128 characters video memory over which window may be moved

DISKS

• 5.25 inch diskettes, single sided, soft sectored (92K per diskette)

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_1
http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/osborne/
http://oldcomputers.net/osborne.html
http://www.mobilitypr.com/blog/2006/06/29/mopr-mobility-minute-portable-computers/

A month ago Digibarn co-founders Allan Lundell and Bruce Damer presented items from their portable computing collection on CNET Live. Watch this fascinating tour in the history of mobility:

We’re very proud to say that MuMoH has these same items in our own physical collection, and we look forward to sharing more details about them with you in the coming days. Please visit the Digibarn Blog when you have a chance, too.

The Palm portable keyboard is a solution designed for Palm Pilot. Simply unfold the keyboard, much like an accordion, and plug it into your Palm for smooth typing on a full-sized keyboard only missing the numerical pad on the right (which is found on most PCs). Closed, it’s 3.6x 5.1x 0.79 inches and opened up it’s 13.8x 5.1x 0.3 inches. It weighs only 7.9 ounces and its US list price is $99.

The Palm portable keyboard (manufactured by Think Outside) arrives with a fully padded zippered case and comes with a built in docking station that requires no batteries or power supply since it draws minimal power from your Palm. A recessed connector for the Palm folds neatly underneath the keyboard.
A key setback for the keyboard is that it absolutely requires a flat surface to use. It is virtually impossible to use in your lap. Also, the keys are a bit more cramped in the portable keyboard as opposed to the average PC.
The keyboard comes with an application that acts as a driver and makes the keyboard work exactly the way the user wants. When the Palm is plugged in, the user can immediately begin typing. When the user removes it and plugs something else in, the keyboard driver doesn’t interfere.

The Palm portable keyboard is designed for people who use their Palm like they use a laptop. Paired with the fact that users are pretty much assured that it will continue to be useful for several future generations of Palm handhelds, stands to make the Palm portable keyboard a great purchase.

The MuMoH physical collection includes a functioning keyboard, serial no. P10713U.

References:
http://www.pdacortex.com/palm_portable_keyboard_review.htm
http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/2009/review-palm-portable-keyboard-for-m500-series/
http://www.dansdata.com/portkey.htm

The Pilot 5000 was the second model of the first generation of PDA’s manufactured by Palm Computing (then known as US Robotics). Debuting in March 1996, the Pilot emerged in a market with only one major competitor: the Apple Newton, another organizer you’ll find in the Museum of Mobility.

The Pilot’s small size (shirt-pocket ready), was definitely an advantage over Apple Newton, which operated very similarly and had almost the exact same screen as the 5000 model.

The Pilot functioned with similar computing power to a Macintosh SE, boasing 512KB of RAM, nearly five times as much data capability as the original Pilot 1000 model. Later Palm Computing sold a 1 MB upgrade card to increase the memory capacity even further.

This was also the first PDA handheld to distinguish itself with the ability to synchronize with Windows 95, 3.1 or Macintosh desktop PCs.

Its Palm OS 1 operating system enabled low-cost, low-power integration with desktops through. While this device had no infrared port, backlight or flash memory, the Pilot’s software could synchronize its information with most standard PCs, allowing users to work with and share information from other application programs on their computer through their handheld.

Synchronizing a Pilot 5000 PDA with a PC allowed users to enter text from their full-sized keyboards and view the Pilot applications in wide screen on their monitors. The syncing software could also support several users on one PC, so one person could handle scheduling and updating for others, making the Pilot a great small business tool.

To input information, consumers used a stylus or popular Graffiti Text Entry Software created by Palm, which allowed the entry of 30 words per minute at 100 percent accuracy. Most information could be accessed with a single touch, as applications had near-instant response times.

The Pilot came in a plastic case of various colors, had an LCD tactile panel and 160 x 160 mm graphic display and operated with two AAA batteries, running simple-to-use applications in black and white. Pre-loaded with telephone directory, to-do list, memo, calculator and multi-app search functions, the Pilot was also compatible with many other popular applications, such as Ascend, DataSync, Lotus Organizer and Microsoft Schedule +.

The MuMoH physical collection includes the Palm Pilot and original leather case.

References:
http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/usrpilot5000/
http://cdecas.free.fr/computers/pocket/pilot.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_(PDA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_1000
http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8493/pilot-1000-retrospective

The Palm is a personal digital assistant (PDA) which runs on the Palm Operating System (OS) as well as Windows Mobile platform. The Pilot is the first generation of PDAs manufactured by Palm. The original Palm Pilot was announced in January and released in late March, 1996. The first Palms, the Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000, had no infrared port, backlight, or flash memory, but did have a serial communications port. Their RAM size was 128kB and 512kB and they used version 1 of the Palm OS.

The inventors of the Pilot were Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan, who also founded Palm Computing. The original idea behind Palm Computing was to create handwriting recognition programs, but after further research, the trio landed the idea to create better hardware that would eventually lead to the Palm. Rumor has it that Hawkins carried a block the wood, the size of the future pilot, in his pocket for a week in order to test and gauge the feel of the device

Numerous applications were developed for the later Palm Pilots. AstroPilot, for example, was a commercial package that contains a large electronic reference book containing detailed information about the 1,000 brightest stars, 12 pre-made star charts and 175 web links to astronomy related web pages.

The Palm is noted for doing significantly better than its competitor predecessors and was hailed for its ability to store personal information like addresses and phone numbers, take notes, and track appointments. The Palm devices are now smartphones which run the Palm OS as well as the Windows Mobile platform. Popular models today include the Treo and Centro.

The MuMoH physical collection includes an early version of the Palm Pilot.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_(PDA)
http://www.portents.com/marek/pilot/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11945300/

The Sinclair ZX8I is a part of the UK-based Sinclair ZX Spectrum family and was the successor to the ZX80. Sinclair Research Ltd is a consumer electronics company founded by Sir Clive Sinclair in Cambridge, England.

Launched in March 1981, the ZX81 was based on the Zilog Z80 CPU and came with a one new chip, replacing the 18 chips in the ZX80. The machine cost £69.95 or, if you wanted to assemble it yourself, £49.95 in kit form. Sinclair also offered an add-on ROM to convert the ZX80 to the ZX81.

The ZX81 came in a sturdy black case and with various features, including a TV jack that let users plug it in to their color TVs, producing black characters on a green background.

Sinclair also offered a small printer to work with the ZX81 later in the 1981. The ZX Printer very compact, using a special metalized paper, and would print 32 characters to a line and nine lines to the inch. Users would plug it into the back of the computer using a stackable socket. The print was clear and readable.

The model in MuMoH has a memory pack with a whopping 16K RAM that can be plugged in the back to give users more memory.

The computer sold well in the UK as well as in the U.S. – mostly by mail order. Eventually Timex was granted a license to sell it in 1982, opening the door for even more users.

The ZX81 had originally been produced as learning machines for the person wanting to find out about computer programming, such as BASIC.

It can be noted, though, that the Sinclair might have been responsible for the industry we know today. Sinclair produced a whole new industry that included vendors offering software, user’s clubs, peripherals and even its own publication.

During the mid-1980s, the company Micronet800 launched a service allowing users to connect their ZX Spectrums via a Prism Micro Products modem to a bulletin board system known as Micronet hosted by Prestel. Though very similar to the Internet, the service was proprietary and fee-based.

References:
http://www.sincuser.f9.co.uk/046/sstory.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Research

Metricom’s Ricochet modem was slated as the first device to offer a high-speed mobile internet connection. This modem worked with laptops and desktops to offer connection speeds of up to 128 KBs per second [!!], producing a connection that was 10 times faster than normal wireless speeds and twice as fast as a normal wired modem at the time it was manufactured. Released in 2000, the Ricochet used radio frequency technology, operating in the 902-928 MHZ range (allowing it to function like a small radio), hopping frequencies with spread-spectrum technology.

The Ricochet modem would transmit data to larger radios that parent-company Metricom had placed in strategic locations in certain cities around the U.S (think lampposts). At least one of the shoe-box sized radios in a 10-mile radius was associated with a T1 or T3 landline, which allowed for the high-speed connection through the device. The Ricochet searched for the nearest available radio, which would transmit the appropriate data to the nearest radio that was connected to a landline.

Why was it better than other wireless modems?

1. This technology would ensure that a user stayed connected no matter what if they were working from a covered service area.
2. The high speed of this technology was a great improvement. Comparable to dual channel ISDN speed in many of the covered cities, this modem provided fast downloading speed to most users.
3. The ‘hopping’ technology also allowed for increased security–it’s a little hard to hack into a system that is changing from frequency to frequency, radio to radio.
4. The cost of this unit (around $100) and the monthly service charge (about $75) was a great deal. The monthly charge covered unlimited usage, which saved users major dough.

Prior to the development of this technology, wireless data could cost up to $25 per MB for downloads at around 10 kbps. Metricom, however, was offering unlimited wireless access at $29.95 (for 28.8 kbps) monthly prior to their new service.

The modem’s power source was a 7.6 VDC, lithium-ion replaceable and rechargeable battery that had up to six hours of juice to keep it going, and it connected to a users PC or laptop through a USB or serial port.

The Ricochet was compatible with Windows 98/2000, Pentium II, MAC 9.0 and PowerPC G3 and G4 and was available in over 35 cities nationwide. Higher speeds were available in hubs like Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia and San Francisco, while slower speeds were available in Seattle and Manhattan.

About the size of a small notebook, the Ricochet has a small antenna to pick up the radio signals, weighing in at about 10 ounces.

After going out of business in 2001, the media weighed in on the demise of Ricochet. Some reporters argued that $80 a month for service was outlandish, while others explained that the customer service was poor and that the business model just didn’t work.

References:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/upgrade/1278231.html
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000025.html
http://www.linux.com/feature/15122

Also known as “the brick,” Motorola’s Lazer was first introduced on the market in 1984. Weighing a whopping two pounds, priced at almost $4,000 with a half-hour talk limit before needing charging, it was an instant hit.

The Motorola phone has roots tracing back to the early 1970s. At the same time, the Federal Communications Commission was giving AT&T the green light to build a network to provide wireless service in local markets. AT&T was also considering its own wireless phone.

More than a decade and millions of dollars later, the analog phone was released in 1983 and stayed in the market until the mid 1990s, shrinking in size until it was recast as the Motorola Razr in the early 2000s.

An interesting 80s retro sidenote: Shops in China are hacking old versions and selling them with new color LCD screen and component. The LCD is only 4096 colors. All the menu works but the shortcut buttons is at the bottom part of the keypad, instead of under the LCD screen.

The MuMoH physical collection includes a later 1980s model, no serial number.

References:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7432915/
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/retro-brick-cellphone-modern-gsm-guts-inside-237967.php

Football was released in 1977 and it was labeled either Football or Football I depending on the date the game was released. This was the second game released by Mattel (Auto Race was the first) and sold through Sears. After less than 100,000 were made, Sears (using a computer model based on initial sales figures) determined that the games would not be big sellers, and most of the production for Football and Auto Race was stopped. Sears was definitely proven wrong. Within six months, it became obvious to that their prediction was false, and production was started up again and reached record levels.

The game was played by using direction keys to run a blinking red dot through a maze of defensive dots. A kickoff would result in a chirping version of the “Charge!” melody. A simple game and quite prehistoric when compared to the handheld games of today, the Football game was for football and football only. As for sound, it was dominated by bleeps and blips and it ran on a single 9V battery.

The game had two levels of play: Pro 1 and Pro 2. The graphics were all red lit dots and the player was the brightest of the six. The object was to get across the screen without getting tackled by the five remaining dots – a simple concept, but not easily accomplished.

Though its lack of true passing and inability to let the player run backwards limited the games overall realistic feel, it offered a compelling challenge to a generation quickly becoming fascinated with electronic entertainment. In fact, the game was re-issued by Mattel in 2000 thanks to its overwhelming popularity in the ‘70s.

The MuMoH physical collection includes an actual working model from 1977.

References:
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Mattel/FB.htm
http://www.bigredtoybox.com/articles/fbindex.shtml
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9913124-1.html
http://www.thocp.net/software/games/golden_age.htm

The Game Boy was the first cartridge-based gaming system to allow up to four players to be linked through serial ports on their own systems for multi-player fun. The compact video game system manufactured by Nintendo was released in 1989 in the U.S. and Japan. The Game Boy was the brainchild of Gunpei Yokoi, former creator of the UltraHand, an expanding arm toy made and sold in 1970.

The Game Boy ran on a CPU with integrated sound generation and allowed users to pop in different cartridges, known as Game Paks, to play a variety of different games. Yokoi designed the Game Boy to be a small, inexpensive entertainment device in which the cartridge would provide the data, logic and rules of the game to the processor.

Originally sold with the puzzle game Tetris, Game Boy soon developed many games for their system, including sports, action and fantasy games, available for around $15 a pop. The most popular Game Boy games include: Tetris, Zelda, Mario Brothers and, more recently, Pokemon. The system itself cost around $90 in 1989 and ran in four shades of “gray” which appeared as green to dark green.

Eventually, Game Boy developed the Game Boy Color, making games viewable in additional colors, and in 1995, the company produced a rainbow of colored cases for their systems. Since then, Game Boy has released several versions of their original system, including the Game Boy Advanced and Game Boy Evolution.

Other Game Boy-related products include the Game Boy Camera which was released in 1998 with the Game Boy printer, which allowed users to print black and white, low resolution photographs.

The MuMoH physical collection includes an early 1990s version of the Game Boy.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy
http://www.vidgame.net/NINTENDO/GB.html