Nokia's 3310 revival – what's NEXT? Vote now Nokia didn’t once just dominate the world’s handset market, it defined it. In an era where hardware mattered and software came second, Nokia produced not just beautiful but solid handsets, its phones owning roughly half the market. Nokia’s pinnacle: the 8110 – a sleek, high-end banana phone in 1996 employed by the rebels of …
"I'm sure there are many on here who remember those ancient storage mediums and capacities."
Not so ancient. They were still being used on mainframes when I retired a few years ago.
When I started as a computer operator in the 1960s the first thing you learned was how to prepare a new tape for use. That involved a very large bottle of acetone in order to remove a small section of the tape coating - to leave a clear window for the optical sensor's start-of-tape positioning. The tape was attached to the take-up spool's leader by splicing it every time with sticky tape.
To keep the two reels rotating at the changing different speeds - a loop of tape was weighed on each side of the read/write head.
The data density was so low that you could read the bits with the window on a little 3M device - shaped like a large thick coin. You held it against the tape surface and tapped it until the contents aligned themselves to show the bits - like iron filings do in the presence of a magnetic field.
not been into a 'urban outfitters' recently? That shop is almost the mecca of hipster twattery and they already sell portable cassette players (walkmans in all but name, and quality)..
The Psion series 5 is the only valid choice. I'd murder Farage for an updated one... heck I'd probably do that for a good condition original.
We had the 6310 as company phones back in the day. We only needed to charge them about once a month!
I think I was still using my 7110 at the time as a personal device, although by then (2001/2002?) you had to manually slide down the bottom plate, as using the spring-loaded release would propel the plate, which held the mic, at great speed onto the floor.
This then mean having someone on the line (as it answered the phone at the same time), going "Hello? Are you there?", whilst you tried to refit the front plate, (with the mic in it), before the person hung up!
Possibly shouldn't reveal this, but when working on-site at a certain major chip maker our company phones are Nokia's of the 3310 ilk (not actual 3310's unfortunately) but ones of similar size and spec and almost similar battery life.
Basically they're about the only phones available these days which do not have cameras built-in, and aforesaid customer has a blanket ban on cameras being taken on-site (ditto our laptops have special screen bezels which completely cover the camera, as temporary things like stickers and tape are not enough for them).
That said I had a 3310 for many years back in the day, and it was a sterling little trooper.
Take the bits that were great (the keyboard, obvs), fix the bits that weren't (that &@#! screen cable that kept failing after a while of, er, opening and closing the lid)...
...and give it the benefits of two decades of tech advances (WiFi, Bluetooth, SD or MicroSD card slot(s?), capacitive colour touchscreen). Not sure what OS to put on it, though - a customised Linux, or would Android be the inevitable victor?
If it "hit the right buttons": I'd be interested...
(And while the air is getting soggy with nostalgia ((C) Tom Lehrer), and someone mentioned printing from a Psion: around the turn of the Noughties, my workplace had a particular HP laser printer with a built-in IrDA (infrared) port on the front. I could line it up with the IR window on my S5, hit "Print" in Psion Word, and run off a document with no faffing around with cloud or networks. Nearly twenty years later, I miss that simplicity...)
> Not sure what OS to put on it, though - a customised Linux, or would Android be the inevitable victor?
I like to think of the Psions as devices that valued function over form. So in this someone-makes-a-new-S5 fantasy realm, I'd like to see a proper Linux on there. Perhaps MeeGo or one of its successors. I may be a bit biased because I think the Series 5 form factor would be brilliant for a little carry-it-around SSH client.
I'd like to see a proper Linux on there. Perhaps MeeGo or one of its successors.
I am quite partial to EPOC, not least because it undoubtedly contributed to the frugal power consumption of the device. If the OS had to be anything else then perhaps MeeGo or something similar would work fairly well too.
If the Psion 5 wins by a landslide (and it should), then the Nokia 8210 needs to come back at the same time.
I've still got my Psion and used to use it as an e-mail device back in the day. It connected via infrared to my Nokia, which was the modem. Good times. Saved taking a laptop anywhere - and far smaller.
"What more does a man want?"
The TI Programmer. IIRC the first with binary, octal, hex - and logical functions like shift, and, or, xor. Rechargeable - or in an emergency you could buy a standard PP3 9volt battery from most shops.
They did have to do a recall and replace for a jittery keyboard problem that developed quite quickly. Cost an affordable £50 in 1978. Still have mine on a shelf somewhere. Worked on mains power last time it was tested.
Psion 5 definately - wonderful bit of kit. Well designed and an efficient and elegant OS. My first personal computer - 1979 Tandy model 1 4K RAM and 4K ROM - with cassette storage. Then we bought the massive 5.25" floppy drive - full height!! with 84K of storage. <sigh> those were the days. The Tandy still works and my kids love playing Sea Dragon and typing in the programs from the manuals.
"Laughable by today’s touchscreen, full-colour, apps-driven, high-density standards"
Right, but today's smartphones are laughable by yesterday's battery life and toughness standard. I wouldn't mind a smartphone that won't die in less than a day (even after I've had it for a year or so), and won't break if it falls from pocket height.
Psion 5 every time for me. In fact if there were to an up to date one I'd be very tempted to go for it and just use a choclolate/flip type phone with bluetooth and 3G/4G for a data source for teh PDA. FOr years I've been complaing the newer and more powerful the smartphones become, the more dumbed down they seem to be.
Listen to yourselves! Yer all hankering after "the good old days" when they were in fact no better and usually much worse than today. Jeez, next thing you'll be spouting racist crap and voting for the fuddyduddy party. <LOL>
I did love my Sony Walkman but cassettes got tangled and mangled and the damned thing ATE batteries. Apple Mac's were hugely overpriced, the games on the Atari were mostly crap (Frogger, need I say more?), the 3½" floppy whilst good just doesn't have the capacity these days, and I never owned a Psion5 or any other "organiser" until I bought my first "smartphone" (a Nokia N95).
My current MotoG plays music (Walkman), organises me (Psion) has more computing power than the Mac (and a higher res screen), plays better games than the Atari, and can store more than 20000 floppies. Nuff said?
So true. What I remember from the 80's is that everything was enormously expensive, compared to the money I made then. Today everything is much cheaper, and hundred times better.
Personal computers became kind of affordable for private persons in the early 90's, after IBM started making Cyrix CPU's, that was 10 years (!) after the first PC was introduced by IBM.
Same for mobile phones, it was not until after 2000 mobile phones became affordable for a wider audience, before the phones and the subscription required quite generous income levels.
"Personal computers became kind of affordable for private persons in the early 90's,"
The home microcomputer industry was flourishing by the late 1970s. Either in kit form like the Tangerine - or ready-to-go like PET or Apple ][. The latter were relatively expensive - but affordable. The general public were not yet aware of the possibilities until the BBC micro came along with the TV series in 1982.
"Yer all hankering after "the good old days" when they were in fact no better and usually much worse than today."
Yes indeed they were bad times. A mortgage was limited to 3 times your annual salary - and you had to put down a 5% deposit. If you didn't like your employer - in any industry - you could quit on Friday and start with a new one on the following Monday.
Going to university involved getting a grant from your local authority. That only paid for your tuition fees and your living expenses. Beer money had to be found by economising on the baked beans.
Flying on a long haul 747 - everyone could have a window seat. Airline check in times were minimal.
Most electonic kit and home appliances could be repaired. Cars could be home maintained safely.
The internet was a jungle with religious zealots posting pr0n to usenet to try to get liberal groups banned - usually the ISPs ignored them. Spam was reported to the sender's ISP - and they took action to stop it.
Censorship of the internet otherwise was unknown - and no one had any apparent reason to worry about their email or web site's security. If you didn't like what someone was posting - you didn't go there again. Video tapes weren't under the censors' certification control - and there was always a hire shop just round the corner.
In IT the priority was to get the technical job done and make the customer happy - not to appease layers of middle management looking to enhance their career CVs. Management were often ex-techies who could do your job as well as you - if not better.
Many politicians were honourable people who resigned if there was the slightest possibility of a taint from a scandal. Home Secretaries introduced liberal reforms.
Sex was finally in the open with books like "The Joy of Sex". HIV hadn't arrived - STIs could be easily treated.
In general health antibiotics were still largely effective for many illnesses - resistant strains did not yet have any traction.
Yes indeed - who would wish for those things today?
You forgot to add
The music was better, live and recorded.
Hopping on a Train or long distance Bus for a weekend away didn't involve a second mortgage.
Policemen would bollock you for being pissed and unruly not tazer\CS you by default.
and once you grew up and settled down money paid into a pension actually stayed there and increased in value..
Truly Terrible times...
I have boxes, and boxes, of old cassettes and nothing to play them on. Ok I do have an old car stereo that can play tapes and old car battery to power it*. I also have some speakers lying around that aren't doing a lot, but I can't go jogging with this lot. Not cool.
(*Hours of fun to be had with an old car battery and some wire coat hangers. Just don't hold the coat hangers in your hand while using it to short-out the battery terminals)
"I have boxes, and boxes, of old cassettes and nothing to play them on"
There are lots of second-hand mini hifi systems with AM/FM, CD, and tape cassette facilities. I even have one with DAB as well. The non-DAB ones appear in charity shops and ebay for under £20.
I made the mistake of giving all my cassettes to the charity shop - and then discovered some albums had not been re-released on CD. Still have my reasonable quality cassette player unit - although the capacitors may be suspect from having no use for years.
Just this week we were talking about how poorly smartphones seem to handle the basics - calendar and contacts. They're just too clever by far for what should be simple functions.
I was reminded how my old Palm used to do these things very well, without a cel connection, and without constantly beeping, vibrating, and flashing at me.
Oh, those are easy. I'm now trying to kill off the "Your battery is charged" notification, the "You took seven pictures today, would you like to review them?" pop-up, and the bizarre "You're at location X, {something something} pictures?" request. (I've never actually bothered to explore the last one, so I'm kind of guessing what it said.)
But the best media to come along at the wrong time...the MINI-DISC.
This was a rugged high quality media, more rugged than a CD and you could record in analog.
Unfortunately, some dope came along with MP3 and killed it off before it even stood a chance. This was the media that CD's should have been.
Now we're all burdened with old scratched cds.
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