IBM Palm Top PC110 [video] | Hacker News Reader

IBM Palm Top PC110 [video]

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56 pointstosh18 comments

I think the video is too dismissive of the HP200LX. I still have one of these and it was a truly amazing thing to use.

It was powered by a clockless 80C86 processor and lasted for 40 hours on just 2 AA batteries.

Most of the in-built applications (e.g. Quicken and Lotus 1-2-3) ran directly from ROM rather than being copied into RAM and then executed. That meant when you pressed the button to switch to that program it was available instantly.

Quite frankly, compared to the HP 200LX our replacement handheld device (mobile phone) is actually a backward step.

I agree. I had the earlier HP 95LX and loved it. The 100LX and 200LX were definite improvements and I sometimes regret not having upgraded.

Agreed. I work on the site where it was developed and there are still many treasured hp handhelds in peoples drawers, still running today.

there is a currently available machine for which the pc110 was likely a direct inspiration: https://gpd.hk/gdpwin2

(their next model revisits sony vaio ux instead: https://gpd.hk/gpdwin3)

i got gpd pocket 2 (same hardware as win 2, but in a more traditional 7" laptop shell) as a collectible and ended up using it as my daily driver -- it is very much a typical intel 'ultrabook' in all aspects but size.

Looks like the GPD WIN3 is on its way, but it looks more like a Nintendo Switch with a slide-out keyboard.

https://www.gpd.hk/gpdwin3

For those of you subscribed to LTT on Floatplane:

https://www.floatplane.com/post/fcT3T5PuVr

A similarly sized early 90s miniature laptop was:

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/20342/Olivetti-Quader...

It was £400, monochrome / DOS only, but perfect for fixing software in the field - I loved it but sadly it went U/S in the loft.

This made me miss the Sharp Zaurus that I got a lot of use out of in the mid 90s.

It's interesting now to look back at that transitional time in computing where you had mini-laptop devices as well as handheld organizers like Palm, both to supplement a full-size PC. Now the smartphone is all of those things for many users.

/r/cyberdeck is calling. I remember coveting a Toshiba Libretto. Would love to have something similar right now, though I'm not sure what I'd use it for.

> Would love to have something similar right now, though I'm not sure what I'd use it for.

I am trying to work on a project at the moment, with a VHS case sized device, that is only used as a terminal to another (be that phone, computer, gibson, whatever...). Similar working princple to the Motorola Atrix Lapdock.

The idea is that, almost everyone is carrying around a suitable computing device - we just need a decent interface.

I think there is a market out there for such a device.

I haven't fully fleshed out what makes my device different from the others in this comment, I will say that it boots into an Open Firmware style Forth prompt.

The Dragonbox Pyra[0] I've mentioned on hacker news before is a piece of hardware that is just starting to ship it's preorders.

It's an interesting device that's of this form factor. It has an older OMAP5, but it's placed on a replaceable daughter board potentially giving it an upgrade path.

[0]https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/

It's not mentioned anywhere in the nearly 20 minute video (yes I watched the entire thing) - the battery life on these things was 1.5 to 3 hours depending on use.

That's the cutest laptop i have seen, after watching it yesterday it made me think about how much work would be needed to get some old netbook like the HP Mini or Asus Eeepc and turn it into a dock for Samsung Dex (desktop mode through usbc->hdmi for Samsung's phones) or a Raspberry pi 4.

Actually you can already use the eeepc through USB and Dex Desktop (Pc, mac and unofficially chromeos and Linux).

https://liliputing.com/2020/07/use-samsung-dex-with-a-chrome...

The Pinephone comes with a USB gadget driver that presents the phone as a NIC. Plug it into a laptop, and the laptop can then be used as a terminal for the phone simply by sshing into it. X forwarding works, so you can practically run desktop programs that would be cumbersome to run with a touchscreen.

You could probably do the same with a Raspberry Pi, but it might be trickier to do with an Android phone. A phone that supports Termux or UserLAnd would work well if you used adb port forwarding.

There are still a lot of 10.1" laptops out there that are much newer than the old Eeepc's. Here's an eBay query that works for me: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=10.1%22+laptop&_sop=12

Why not get something like a HP Pro Tablet 608 G1? It is a slim 8" and it has 5g wifi. That is about the size of the libretto 50ct that I used to have, but the user isn't stuck with Win98se2.

There are some old netbooks in the ebay link I posted, but there are also plenty of new-ish ones that are pre-loaded with Win 10, 4GB ram, etc.

I really like how they used camera batteries. It makes for a really nice replacement strategy. I had a Newton which I wished had used that instead of normal batteries in a holder.

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