Apparently it’s nostalgia week in the mobile tech world. Ars Technica decided to take a trip down memory lane by remembering the Apple Newton 30 years after Apple announced its first handheld. While the Newton was widely considered a flop, maybe it was just ahead of time. We certainly now live in a world where handheld computers (also known as smartphones) as virtually ubiquitous.

Meanwhile, a system dump from one of the first Android phones provides an early look at what Google was working on before its smartphone operating system was even optimized for touchscreen devices. And while Microsoft has shifted its focus for mobile devices in recent years to developing apps for Android and iOS, it turns out that an old Windows Mobile PDA can be surprisingly useful as a modern device… if you keep your expectations low.

Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.

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3 replies on “Lilbits: Remembering the Apple Newton, using a 2003 Windows Mobile PDA in 2022, and exploring one of the earliest builds of Android”

  1. If they want these thicker camera modules they should just make the whole phone thicker to accommodate and make the camera flush with the back of the phone.

  2. Oh man, that HP iPaq brings back so many bad memories of trying to make it work for something other than basic (very basic) note-taking and checking a calendar. In comparison, my now-deceased MessagePad 130 seemed years/decades ahead inspite of some of its shortcomings (battery life for one).

  3. It’s interesting that the majority of early hand-held devices worked SO HARD at installing a keyboard. The Blackberry and the early Amazon Kindles as well as the Pocket PC. The Newton was odd because it lacked keys.

    I think it was Palm that changed things.

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