The History of Personal Computing

Welcome back everybody! The History of Personal Computing podcast has been rebooted to continue educating everyone (including your hosts) about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of personal computing.

In this new iteration, the ROM chip called David Greelish has been swapped with an FPGA configured replacement called Todd George. The other ROM chip in this computing platform, Jeff Salzman, is still here, but he’s old and made of ceramic, so he’s a bit more fragile.

Since recording this episode, we finally settled on a catchy new series title…

The NEW History of Personal Computing

Nifty, eh? And it only cost $5000 for our contracted ad agency, Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe, to come up with that name!

In this series, Jeff and Todd are focusing on more obscure systems that were used for personal computing. Very little will be discussed in future episodes about more popular computing systems, except in passing, for reference, or unless we uncover interesting information about those systems.

Starting off the new series is the UK creation called the Grundy Newbrain, which not only happens to be a full computing platform comparable to others of the day, but is also portable.

So sit back, or drive along, or sit back and drive along while listening to the new host, along with the old medicine infused re-tread who just happened to be going through a bout of the flu at recording time.

Links, citations, eBay auctions mentioned or used in the show:

• The Dutch HCC Retro User Group, Formerly the Dutch NewBrain User Group (HCC stands for Hobby Computer Club)
• NewBrain Emulator, Software, and Forum
• Expansion Modules  (eBay)
• NewBrain Model A (no internal display) (eBay)
• Old-Computers.com
• YouTube Channel of Kris Garrein
• YouTube Channel of Shantanu Sanyal
• YouTube Channel of Premier Computer Systems
• “Return of the Prodigal Son”, Popular Computing Weekly, 9/30/1982 (pp. 12)
• Rhode Island Computer Museum
• NightFall Crew Repair, Gorgeous Pictures
• Adrian Graham’s Binary Dinosaurs Website

Listener Submitted Pictures

Theme music for The NEW History of Personal Computing is called, “Start Up”, by Decktonic, used with permission under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)

On today’s show, we’re looking at the smartphone after the iPhone, that changed everything… the Android phone. It, as well as the iPhone, define all smartphones to this day, as well as the third tier. This is the podcast where we take an informal look at personal computing history through the lens of eBay auctions. It’s sort of like Antiques Roadshow, but all about antique personal computers.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Vintage Computer Festival East, Friday, March 31 – Sunday, April 2
• Vintage Computer Festival Southeast, Saturday, April 29 – Sunday, April 30
• KansasFest, Tuesday, July 18 – Sunday, July 23
• Vintage Computer Festival West, Saturday, August 5 – Sunday, August 6
• Vintage Computer Festival Midwest, Saturday, September 9 – Sunday, September 10
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Dream
• A LOOK BACK AT SOONER, GOOGLE’S FIRST ANDROID PHONE
• YouTube: TMOBILE My Touch 3G w/Google 09/09 TVC

Auctions:

• Jeff’s auction: T-Mobile G1 – White (T-Mobile) Smartphone HTC Dream DREA100 Clean ESN Working
• David’s auction: HTC Google G1 DREAM (Rogers) Black
  
• Jeff’s auction: Nexus 7 (1st Generation) 8GB, Wi-Fi, 7in – Black
• David’s auction: T-Mobile HTC myTouch 3G SAPP300 White Cellphone With Bag,books,ear buds BUNDLE
• Jeff’s auction: Sony BRAVIA 32″ LCD TV – 720p – KDL-32BX330
• David’s auction: Nexus One – Black (Unlocked) Smartphone
• Jeff’s random auction: GPS Navi Android 6.0 4G WIFI 6.2″Double 2 DIN Car Radio Stereo DVD Player+Camera
• David’s random auction: Samsung Galaxy S (1st Generation) SGH-1897 AT&T

Visit Jeff’s page at vintagevolts.com

Visit David’s page at classiccomputing.com

Send feedback to feedback@HistoryOfPersonalComputing.com because we really would love to receive your email or audio comment.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HistoryofPersonalComputing/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HistoryofPC

Vintage Computer Forum: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum.php

On today’s show, we’re looking at the smartphone that changed everything, the iPhone. Its influence went on to define all smartphones, as well as the third tier. This is the podcast where we take an informal look at personal computing history through the lens of eBay auctions. It’s sort of like Antiques Roadshow, but all about antique personal computers.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Not Another Apple Podcast
• iPhone Introduction
• Song A Day #561: The iPhone Antenna Song
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone

Auctions:

• Jeff’s auction:  Apple iPhone 1st Generation – 8GB – Black Smartphone
• David’s auction: Apple iPhone 3G Black 8GB Factory Unlocked w / accessories & box A1241
• Jeff’s auction: Apple iPhone 1st Generation – 8GB – Black BOX ONLY
• David’s auction: Apple iPhone 3GS 8GB Factory Unlocked Smartphone AT&T,T mobile (GOOD CONDITION)
• Jeff’s auction: Apple iPhone 1st Generation – 8GB – Black #41( Collectible) Unlocked
• David’s auction: “nib iphone 2g” on eBay
• Jeff’s random auction: 2 Apple iPhones – 1st Generation – 8GB – Black (AT&T) Smartphone 2G iPhone
• David’s random auction: iPhone 1st Generation Prototype Software iOS 1.0 8GB

Send feedback to feedback@HistoryOfPersonalComputing.com because we really would love to receive your email or audio comment.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HistoryofPersonalComputing/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HistoryofPC

Vintage Computer Forum: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum.php

On today’s show, we begin our look at the final evolution of the third tier of personal computing, the smartphone. Were there really smartphones before the iPhone and Android phones? Well… yes. This is the podcast where we take an informal look at personal computing history through the lens of eBay auctions. It’s sort of like Antiques Roadshow, but all about antique personal computers.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Every OS Sucks

Auctions:

• Jeff’s auction: Samsung Sidekick SGH-T839 – 1GB – Matte Black (T-Mobile) Smartphone
• David’s auction: VINTAGE NOKIA 9000 COMMUNICATOR RAK-1N / EXCELLENT CONDITION in BOX
• Jeff’s auction: T-Mobile Sidekick LX PV250 Tony Hawk Edition
• David’s auction: VINTAGE KYOCERA QCP-6035 PALM SMARTPHONE WITH CRADLE
• Jeff’s auction: BlackBerry 7100R – BLUE (ROGERS) Smartphone~NEW
• David’s auction: “IBM Simon” on eBay
• Jeff’s random auction: BlackBerry 6230 – Blue (Unlocked) Smartphone collectors item
• David’s random auction: Handspring Treo 180 – GSM Unlocked, Read description

Send feedback to feedback@HistoryOfPersonalComputing.com because we really would love to receive your email or audio comment.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HistoryofPersonalComputing/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HistoryofPC

Vintage Computer Forum: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum.php

David and Jeff continue to look back on the earlier times of computer retail by relating their experiences with their own history of ownership of personal computers.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• VIVA AMIGA – THE REVIEW
• The Amiga Years

Jeff’s fifth computer:

• Toshiba T1000 (SE???)
  • This old tech: The Toshiba T1000 was my first step into the world of MS-DOS

David’s fifth computer:

• Macintosh Performa 6200
  • http://lowendmac.com/1995/power-mac-6200-performa-6200/

Jeff’s sixth computer:

• 386 in a “boring beige box”
  • Boring Beige Box podcast

David’s sixth computer:

• Macintosh Performa 6400
  • http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_performa/specs/mac_performa_6400_200.html

Jeff’s seventh computer:

• IBM 486slc2 66MHz motherboard
  • http://www.redhill.net.au/c/c-4.html

David’s seventh computer:

• 1999 350MHz Blueberry iMac
  • Which iMac Is It? Low End Mac’s Guide to Differentiating G3 iMacs

Jeff’s eighth computer:

• IBM Thinkpad (750?) with Docking Station II
  • Google Magazine excerpt depicting Thinkpad 750
  • IBM Docking Station II

David’s eighth computer:

• Zenith MiniSport Sub-Notebook Computer
  • http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/zenith-minisport/