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Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone (Full Documentary)

The Verge

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Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

1.7M views4 years ago3 recommendations

History and cultureMobile developmentHistory of computingiOS and SwiftUIAndroid and Jetpack Compose

A documentary about Handspring and the creation of the Treo, exploring how they pioneered the modern smartphone before the iPhone.

A decade before Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, a tiny team of renegades imagined and tried to build the modern smartphone. Nearly forgotten by history, a little startup called Handspring tried to make the future before it was ready. This is the story of the Treo. Read more: theverge.com/e/22584612 Subscribe: goo.gl/G5RXGs Like The Verge on Facebook: goo.gl/2P1aGc Follow on Twitter: goo.gl/XTWX61 Follow on Instagram: goo.gl/7ZeLvX The Vergecast Podcast: pod.link/430333725 Decoder with Nilay Patel: apple.co/3v29nDc  More about our podcasts: theverge.com/podcasts Read More: theverge.com Community guidelines: bit.ly/2D0hlAv Wallpapers from The Verge: bit.ly/2xQXYJr Subscribe to Verge Science on YouTube, a new home base for our explorations into the future of science: bit.ly/2FqJZMl

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended for its insightful look into the history of Palm, Handspring, and how carrier resistance shaped the early smartphone market.

roywigginson Hacker News • Recommends

On “IBM Simon”

Calling it a Palm clone isn't really fair, it was developed by the team that founded Palm, Inc in the first place. link I thought this documentary about Handspring was interesting, and it also comes to the conclusion that the problem was at least mostly the telcos. link to this video
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pushedxon Hacker News • Recommends

On “PumpkinOS, a Re-Implementation of PalmOS”

Right, it was ex-Palm employees at Handspring that created the Treo. Nice documentary about this with interviews: link to this video
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throwaway74354on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Palm OS and the devices that ran it”

Handspring documentary by the Verge had an interesting perspective on the matter: link to this video (I'm bad at cropping YouTube videos. The part in question is 12:53 - 14:30)
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BoorishBearson Hacker News • Mentions

On “Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse”

Apple is indeed the driving force that improved "targeted advertising, media consumption and unnecessary services subscription" compared to the old "Open the Web Browser and Owe 10 dollars" days by leveraging their iTunes userbase. Android would not even have launched without the iPhone breaking down those doors, you can hear it first hand from the Handspring/PalmOS/WebOS folks: link to this video
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bonyton Hacker News • Mentions

On “PumpkinOS, a Re-Implementation of PalmOS”

I've heard blame partially put on carriers - they initially resisted even carrying the Treo line without putting limits on what Handspring could do with it. Apple had the iPod - and, crucially, customers - could bring these customers to the carriers, and so they could dictate more. link to this video (the part I'm referencing is about 20 minutes in).
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WorldPeason Hacker News • Mentions

On “But what if I want a faster horse?”

Worse yet it's the only effective way to sync music to the iphone over a wired cable. I can tell they've abandoned their USB sync software because of how annoying the dialogs are when you plug your phone in and don't authenticate to start it, additionally that thay've (likely intentionally to push I-cloud) never added automatic usb photo sync from phone to computer. This probably all originated from when Apple shifted their convergence model from all around the desktop to all around the phone¹ 1 link to this video
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