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Comment by razemio | Hacker News Reader

I bought a m105 from my own pocket money. I used it for years. It was neardy but I loved this thing. Later switched to Windows CE / Mobile. My God these things where powerful. First smartphone was a Web OS device for me. Never had a better Hardware keyboard device. I was SO fast on that thing. Sadly there is no up to date smartphone with a horizontal keyboard. I need it so bad for termux. Sad days... Blackberry will introduce a new phone in 2022. The priv and the keyONE do not meet my expectations regarding power.

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Ha, I started with Windows CE "Pocket PC". An HP iPaq H1930 iirc and then a Dell Axim x50v.

These devices were really niche, to say the least. I’ve never seen another than the mines. Still, there was an astonishingly high number of available applications. Some developers from this era, especially game devs, are now great mobile devs.

Talking about games, there were some real gems on those devices. Hell, there was even an Age of Empires port. It’s sad that they are mostly lost.

Windows CE was really interesting, but irritating to use.

The Start Menu on such a small screen was a very weird thing. It was clear that Microsoft was uncomfortable with anything that pointed away from their mainline desktop experience, they were always trying to reassure you that this computer in your pocket was a Real Windows™ Device.

But the cleaned-up API, and the Execute In Place, and exFAT were all to the good side, slimming down to fit mobile hardware. And their communications stack was far superior to PalmOS at the time.

I loved my Palm Pilot IIIx, though. Loved the Macintosh-like API. Dead simple to make the switch to that platform if you'd written a couple of Classic Mac apps.

I remember getting looks on the train on my commute to work playing Tomb Raider on my Pocket PC. You'd hold the device in landscape and use a combination of onscreen buttons and hardware controls. It behaved very much like the Nintendo Switch but a few years prior to the Nintendo DS (and with a larger screen too).

I loved that device.

My mum had a blue Handspring Visor, which was great for playing Bejeweled on long car journeys in 1999! At the time I used a personal organiser from Time Magazine to note down homework assignments.

In 2006, a friend at my parent's Bible study group donated an regionalised HTC Himalaya (Orange SPV M1000) running Windows Mobile 5. It was so powerful! My favourite was pPod, an iPod emulator. It could also run MSN messenger, and even though it needed a separate SDIO WiFi card to connect, it was possible continue chatting to a certain girl in California even after my bedtime XD

Is there a place like MacintoshGarden/MacintoshRepository/WinWorldPC for old Pocket PC or Palm apps? I've got a small collection (Pocket PC below):

Accessories: bkpmgr, btaudio.cab, cryptainer_le.arm.CAB, FinchSync.CAB, G7B0Keybd.ARM, GMobileSyncSetup.CAB, iPAQFoldableKeybd.ARM, Keyboard Driver.PPC300_2577.cab, NETCFv2.wm.armv4i.cab, OggSync.CAB, PocketTV.POCKETPC_ARM_POCKETGEAR_2000.CAB, SpbBackup.arm, SPB Keyboard Serial, SpbFullScreenKeyboard3.arm.cab, Stowaway Keyboard Driver.PPC300_2577.cab, Sunnysoft_BackupManager_3766_EN_build_08091.CAB, Webby200.cab, WiFiTunes.CAB, wlan11b-etsi.cab, FreqTune15setupARMSR1.EXE, PPCV16, Sunnysoft_BackupManager_3766_EN.exe Communications: AgileMessengerWMPPC.CAB, gizmo.jar, MinimoCE_0.016.cab, msn_2002.CAB, msn_2003.CAB, SJphone-PPC2003SE-303c.cab, SkypeForPocketPC_Beta.CAB Emulators, Control: AppleCE, Clicker_PocketPC_5.CAB, Mini vMac Plus, Mini vMac SE, Palm, PGPwireless for WinCE Desktop Integration, PocketIIe.PPC_ARM.CAB, PocketPuTTY.exe, pocketVNC.exe, ppcconnector.exe, RACtrlCE.cab, Remote Keyboard, rkb.PPC_ARM.CAB, Salling Clicker for Pocket PC.CAB, StyleTapDevice.cab, StyleTapDevice11003.CAB, ti83 Plus v1.03.rom, TIPocketEmulator.CAB, VNCVIEW.EXE, BibleReader_365_108, pPod, rkbsetup.exe, StyleTapSetup09150.exe, vti Factual Recall: BPeST_PPC.ARMV4.CAB, BPeST.cab, ConverterCE.ppc30_arm.CAB, lexipedia.cab, MxConv.PPC_ARM.CAB, OED, Pocket E-Sword, PocketXpdf_0.4.0.CAB, TomeRaider, Translator, BeSt, Bibles to Pocket PC, esword ppc2003setup252.exe, GNB.EXE, Pocket Oxford English Dictionary and MSDict Viewer PPC_5.10.43PG.exe, PocketOxfordEnglishDictionaryandMSDictViewerPPC_5.10.43.exe Games: AirHockeyinstall.Arm.CAB, AOE, Bejeweled-arm.exe, bejeweled-ppc-v2-51.cab, Chess_PPC.ARM.CAB, FreaK.arm.cab, GemSwap_PPC.CAB, Kevtris.CAB, pacman.PPC_ARM.CAB, PPcReversi.ARM.CAB, reversi_ppc, AOE, GemSwapPPC.exe, PacMan.exe Maps: BSGPSPDA.CAB, california.osm.bz2, CartoExploreur3CE.CAB, gmapsupp.img, GoogleMaps.CAB, GPS Speedo.exe, gpsed.ppc.cab, GPSGate, GpsPortPPC.exe, GPSTuner_v5.CAB, GPSViewer, gpsVPppc, MapAlive, mgmaps_wm, mgmaps-signed.jad, mgmaps.jad, MMPocketNav.PPC2K_ARM.CAB, MuskokaTech PathAway GPS 4.CAB, PathAway GPS 4 for Windows Mobile, PathAwayInstall.cab, Pocket Atlas-arm.arm.CAB, TomTom Taiwan, ptgmap_1 Multimedia: flash player 7_ppc_en.cab, JB_Piano.ARM.CAB, mobiolawebcam_3_1_8_wl_wm, pPod, SoftMaker Office 2006, tcpmp.pocketpc.0.72RC1.cab, vlc-0.8.5-svn-20060214-0130, VTSoundEditor, ofpw08beta.exe, PMPW04EV.EXE, pmpw06beta.exe, smcw06dict.exe, Softmaker Office 2008, Softmaker Trial Installer ofpw06ev.exe System: ActiveXPack1.PPC_ARM.CAB, CapSure.CAB, Cloudyfa_EsmertecJbed.cab, ExportContacts setup.CAB, Jbed-WM2003 Folder, mbutton.PPC_ARM.CAB, regedit.Mrln_ARM.CAB, SMS Export.cab, Ultimate Theft Alert v35 FULL with GPS and MONITOR Plugin, EZ150PPE.EXE, NETCFSetupv2.msi, Pocket PC WiFi Themes: Crossbow.tsk, iPhone Theme, Slide2UnLock1.19-WM5.cab Other: gps_tuner_5.1_code.exe, Missing_Sync_for_Windows_Mobile.app.zip, missing_sync_winmobile4.0.2.dmg, Softmaker Office, SPB Full Screen Keyboard, Taipei MGMaps, TomeRaider, TomTom, TT6 Navigator and Go, Unlocking, WM Memory Card, WM5 English

Nice collection ! You can upload all of this to archive.org

Sorry, I tried but it got taken down pretty much immediately. Feel free to reach out to me personally though! I think it's a pity that the excellent workmanship that went into that software is now no longer being recognised, because the legacy devices aren't for sale. They were good tools!

OldHandhelds.com has a whole lot of stuff.

That Palm Pre keyboard was truly something else. Sad we'll never see anything else like it.

I had the Pre2 and Pre3, those were the best phones I ever had. I can't believe they failed. At the time I also had both an iPhone and a Nexus (I was developing mobile apps) and the Pre's were my daily drivers. I even got the HP TouchPad and used that as a daily driver as well. I worked some of my web development from that tablet. It was damn great. It is a tragedy that webOS for mobile devices is gone.

I too had an m105. I used it in school growing up. I was really proficient with graffiti, I could write just as fast on the graffiti system as I could write in print. It also meant I had very well formatted notes for all my classes backed up on my computer. I would also write up a lot of rough drafts on my pilot to be cleaned up and finally edited on a desktop for all the papers I had to write for classes.

I later upgraded to a used CLIÉ PEG-SJ22. It was an awesome upgrade. with the high-res (320x320) color scree Just having an actual USB port on it made it so much more useful as then I could easily transfer things from school computers to home.

I've heard good things about these mini chorded keyboards you can use with your phone to avoid on-screen keyboards. Obviously nowhere near as convinient as built in, but it seems its the best we've got.

Oh other than that pinephone keyboard case, but that requires you to change phone as well

I miss my Nokia with full keyboard best experince hands down no spellcheck BS

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