Episode 1 – The NEW History of Personal Computing – Grundy NewBrain

Grundy NewBrain AD

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:

Listener Submitted Pictures

Photo courtesy of Georgios Giannakidis
Photo courtesy of Georgios Giannakidis
Photo courtesy of Georgios Giannakidis
Photo courtesy of Georgios Giannakidis

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)

Episode 59 – Android

AndroidOn 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:

Auctions:

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

Episode 58 – Apple iPhone

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.

iPhone

Links mentioned in this episode:

Auctions:

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

Episode 57 – Early Smartphones

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:

Auctions:

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

Episode 56 – First Computers, Part 2

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.imac_thinkpad

Links mentioned in this episode:

Jeff’s fifth computer:

David’s fifth computer:

Jeff’s sixth computer:

David’s sixth computer:

Jeff’s seventh computer:

David’s seventh computer:

Jeff’s eighth computer:

David’s eighth computer: