The Computer Chronicles - Handheld Computers (1990)

Special thanks to archive.org for hosting these episodes. Downloads of all these episodes and more can be found at: archive.org/details/computerch...

[@ninjasiren]

Old but incredible video. Watching from an Android smartphone. Miniaturization went well.

[@raven4k998]

the new and improve hand held computer muhahahahahahahahaha

[@8BitNaptime]

Tim Bajarin being an oracle as always. Each of these computers would be an awesome vintage find today!

[@stevef6392]

7:18 That poor Franklin was already in need of Retrobright...in 1990!

[@jareknowak8712]

XD

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

4:06 In the 1970s and early 1980s, you had programmable calculators. All that went away with the coming of the PC. But now you have the odd situation where somebody has a powerful computer in front of them, and yet will still resort to a separate calculator device to work out some numbers.

[@oldtwinsna8347]

Went away in the early 80s? Graphing calculators were wildly popular in the 90s and probably peaked in the late 90s and lasted through the early 2000s as being very commonly programmed before the advent of portable devices such as smartphones and tablets.

[@warrenlewis4349]

0.35 Hertz Agent: "Sir, who are you talking to?"

[@oksyar]

I know one thing for sure, no matter how inferior that technology was, it was definitely much much much more interesting than today's technology. Those swapping cards and all those different type of handhelds were fun to use. Now it's just simple bar phones with everything unlimited and yet zero fun

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

23:43 Remember, these were the days before PDF became wildly popular. It seems Farallon’s DiskPaper never made it out of beta. Soon after, Apple introduced its own proprietary DocViewer format, which I remember being used heavily for developer docs for some years. And then, of course, PDF took over everything.

[@sheriffofhuddersfield]

are comb overs mandatory to host the show?

[@greg6500]

We have come so far, Those primitive handhelds couldn't even support having 3/4 of the screen space randomly fill with ads when you are just trying to read a dictionary definition.

[@TurboRonin83]

That Bible palmtop looks cool. I want that in 2021!

[@raven4k998]

good luck doubt any survived and if they did good luck getting someone to part with theirs

[@mastshak]

People can only interact with Stu when he wants them to. Otherwise they just stand or sit motionless.

[@GouShin1]

Chefet was their god!

[@ens8502]

Stu was like a teenager from BomfunkMcs clip - freestyler ! He turned them on and off using a remote hidden in his pocket

[@NintendoDude888]

​@@ens8502He had to fit within the time frame

[@KoopaMedia64]

Fun to think the next 15 years after this episode, pocket computing stayed the course, just small increments. The smartphone marked a true paradigm shift, one device replaced the wrist watch, pager, PDA, cell phone, game system, web device, calculator, alarm clock and many others.

[@StarlightLumi]

Its wild to think that since this video Scion has become better known as a car

[@raven4k998]

can I help teach you spelling?🤣🤣🤣

[@ComputerChroniclesYT]

Good catch.

[@rogehmarbi]

Ayy, the uploader hisself, long time no see

[@bubbajones6907]

You were really living in the future if you owned those gadgets back then.

[@raven4k998]

imagine showing that guy your smart phone of today back then you'd be like oh yeah think your phone powerful watch this🤣🤣🤣

[@AlyxxTheRat]

For high end gaming and power computing, the desktop computer will always be the king. But I can see the appeal of handheld devices.

[@raven4k998]

yeah you need a ryzen thread ripper with 128 cores so you have the power to run windows in the future🤣🤣🤣

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

14:48 Ah, the Poseion Adventure ...

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

Did stewart regenerate!!!!!.

[@Ace1000ks19751982]

How we have evolved from 27 years ago, we use smartphones which has more power than the most powerful computer in 1990.

[@someguy2135]

This episode showed the trend back then for specialized gadgets for specific purposes. Smartphones are at the opposite end of that spectrum. Portability is now being sacrificed for bigger screen sizes as a trend. I still prefer a smaller, more pocket sized smartphone.

[@salvadoriilegaspi7649]

Its 2023 now on my tablet i can do everything

[@user-dq2fi2vc5j]

I love USA !

[@Lapcenoks]

wats this show, where Cheifeit gone, it's no chronoclicles withouth him.

[@livesimplyandhumbly]

Still waiting for HAL like A.I. Our computers are so pathetically slow now.

[@NachosElectric]

Hahahaha! Mike Weiner! His parents must have hated him! Does he have a sister named Anita?

[@jeans1515]

But can it run crysis?

[@user-dq2fi2vc5j]

I love 🇺🇸 USA!

[@Maskddingo]

I don't think this is from 1987. The lead-in says 1990. The top 10 software also contains 'After Dark' at number one. After Dark was not first released until 1989.

[@ens8502]

Ok Sherlock, Good job

[@maskddingo1779]

@@ens8502 Thanks! It seems they fixed the title based on my comment!

[@jetfrog4574]

Also the title says it is from 1990.

[@naturelover2238]

​@@maskddingo1779cool!

[@youngThrashbarg]

Yes, I'm sure kids really wanted to know who was the president of Philippines.

[@infinitecanadian]

They would now.

[@jordancobb509]

I wish people still acted this way. Very polite, not talking over each other. Basically behaving in a civilized manner.

[@CaptchaNeon]

WOW I'm so amazed by that technology, it's slightly more fun than watching paint dry.

[@someguy2135]

If you weren't around then, I you didn't have the nostalgia to enjoy. I think it's fun to see how far we have come.

[@TheXGamer969]

This is why we never learn from history.

[@CaptchaNeon]

Some Guy I was 6 years old then

[@ens8502]

Chiefet looks odd in this episode

[@lazyfreedom98]

they never work

[@someguy2135]

I never had a Wizard or Boss electronic organizer, but I owned several others and they all worked fine. They were very limited for features and specs, but they worked as advertized.

[@thedivinityman]

Portable Computers (Smartphones, Tablets, EReaders Etc..) are taking over but the Personal Computer is not going anywhere because Portable Computers (Smartphones, Tablets, EReaders, Etc.) do not have the processing power that true computer users need, although Portable Computers (Smartphones, Tablets, EReaders, Etc.) are good enough for many consumers that just check their E-Mail and do basic web surfing like social networks, but I need a real computers processing power, as do many people

[@ens8502]

Wat

[@thedivinityman]

@@ens8502 it's 9 years later and the personal computer is still here

[@yannickwilson9481]

@Akin Turhan But smartphones and tablets have gotten substantially more powerful and will continue to do so

[@thedivinityman]

@@yannickwilson9481 yes and so will personal computers, sometimes you just need the bigger screen. Plus for video editing, gaming, and other things sometimes you just need the PC.

[@yannickwilson9481]

@Akin Turhan I agree, but realistically, personal computers will eventually become like laptops as things get smaller and smaller, unless quantom computing takes off, then a new era of home computing will arise.

[@12me91]

Ah, I remember when RISC was a big thing... I'll stick with my x86 CISC.

[@shankao]

I don't get your argument on RISC *was* a big thing.... Intel is being using a RISC arch since the days of the Pentium Pro (stackoverflow.com/questions/5806589/why-does-intel-hide-internal-risc-core-in-their-processors). Also, the 99% of the phones use an ARM RISC CPU

[@wmerritt72]

Your Phone is RISC

[@michaelschneider603]

The _A_corn _R_isc _M_achine was a somewhat big thing 30+ years back, such as ARM is a hugely big thing today. and, btw., RISC V may well become a big thing in the not too far future as well.