|
PocketMail
PocketMail was a very small and inexpensive mobile computer, with a built-in acoustic coupler, developed by PocketScience. History PocketMail was developed by the company PocketScience and used technology developed by NASA. This was the first ever mass-market mobile email. The hardware cost around US$100 and the service was initially US$9.95 per month for unlimited use. Later the monthly fee increased. After the company made a reference hardware design, leading consumer electronics manufacturers Audioxo, Sharp, JVC, and others made their own PocketMail devices. Later a PocketMail dongle was created for the PalmPilot. PocketMail users were given a custom email address or able to synch up PocketMail with their existing email account (including AOL accounts). Although actually a computer, its main function was email. Its main advantages were that it was simple, and that it worked with any phone, even outside the United States. It was a low-cost personal digital assistant (PD ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Personal Digital Assistant
A personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a handheld PC, is a variety mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. PDAs have been mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of highly capable smartphones, in particular those based on iOS and Android. A PDA has an electronic visual display. Most models also have audio capabilities, allowing usage as a portable media player, and also enabling many of them to be used as telephones. Nearly all modern PDAs can access the Internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi or Wireless WANs, letting them include a web browser. Sometimes, instead of buttons, PDAs employ touchscreen technology. The first PDA, the Organiser, was released in 1984 by Psion, followed by Psion's Series 3, in 1991. The latter began to resemble the more familiar PDA style, including a full keyboard. The term ''PDA'' was first used on January 7, 1992 by Apple Inc. CEO John Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mobile Computer
Mobile computing is human–computer interaction in which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage, which allows for the transmission of data, voice, and video. Mobile computing involves mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software. Communication issues include ad hoc networks and infrastructure networks as well as communication properties, protocols, data formats, and concrete technologies. Hardware includes mobile devices or device components. Mobile software deals with the characteristics and requirements of mobile applications. Main principles * Portability: Devices/nodes connected within the mobile computing system should facilitate mobility. These devices may have limited device capabilities and limited power supply but should have a sufficient processing capability and physical portability to operate in a movable environment. * Connectivity: This defines the quality of service (QoS) of the network connectivity. In a mobile computing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acoustic Coupler
In telecommunications, an acoustic coupler is an interface device for coupling electrical signals by acoustical means—usually into and out of a telephone. The link is achieved through converting electric signals from the phone line to sound and reconvert sound to electric signals needed for the end terminal, such as a teletypewriter, and back, rather than through direct electrical connection. History and applications Prior to its breakup in 1984, Bell System's legal monopoly over telephony in the United States allowed the company to impose strict rules on how consumers could access their network. Customers were prohibited from connecting equipment not made or sold by Bell to the network. The same set-up was operative in nearly all countries, where the telephone companies were nationally owned. In many households, telephones were hard-wired to wall terminals before connectors like RJ11 and BS 6312 became standardized. The situation was similar in other countries. In Australi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sharp Corporation
is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products, headquartered in Sakai-ku, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Since 2016 it has been majority owned by the Taiwan-based Foxconn Group. Sharp employs more than 50,000 people worldwide. The company was founded in September 1912 in Tokyo and takes its name from one of its founder's first Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil, which was invented by Tokuji Hayakawa in 1915. History Early years 1912–1945 In 1912, Tokuji Hayakawa founded a metal workshop in Tokyo. The first of his many inventions was a snap buckle named 'Tokubijo'. Another of his inventions was the Ever-Ready Sharp mechanical pencil in 1915. The product became one of the first internationally available mechanical pencils (while concurrent US design replaced it soon and became a modern type), and due to this big success the Sharp Corporation derived its name from it. After the pencil business was destroyed by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PalmPilot
The PalmPilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional are the second generation of Palm PDA devices produced by Palm Inc (then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics, later 3Com). These devices were launched on March 10, 1997. Accessories and pricing Palm also sold the 10201U modem at 14.4 kbit/s, introduced at a price of $129 (this modem is also compatible with the Palm III and Palm IIIx devices). An upgrade kit was also available, which allowed users of the earlier Pilot 1000/5000 devices to upgrade the OS, ROM, and RAM to match the PalmPilot Professional. Initially suggested retail prices upon launch were $399 for the PalmPilot Professional (1MB), $299 for the PalmPilot Personal (512KB), and $199 for the Upgrade Kit. Upgrade kits were also available to existing registered Pilot users for $99 for a limited time after the launch. These kits included IR capability, a new plastic memory door to accommodate the IR diodes, a memory card with 1 MB, the new ROM for Palm OS 2.0, and a CD-RO ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
E-mail
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant only physical mail (hence '' e- + mail''). Email later became a ubiquitous (very widely used) communication medium, to the point that in current use, an email address is often treated as a basic and necessary part of many processes in business, commerce, government, education, entertainment, and other spheres of daily life in most countries. ''Email'' is the medium, and each message sent therewith is also called an ''email.'' The term is a mass noun. Email operates across computer networks, primarily the Internet, and also local area networks. Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mobile Computers
Mobile computing is human–computer interaction in which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage, which allows for the transmission of data, voice, and video. Mobile computing involves mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software. Communication issues include ad hoc networks and infrastructure networks as well as communication properties, protocols, data formats, and concrete technologies. Hardware includes mobile devices or device components. Mobile software deals with the characteristics and requirements of mobile applications. Main principles * Portability: Devices/nodes connected within the mobile computing system should facilitate mobility. These devices may have limited device capabilities and limited power supply but should have a sufficient processing capability and physical portability to operate in a movable environment. * Connectivity: This defines the quality of service (QoS) of the network connectivity. In a mobile computing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modems
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulation methods, modulating one or more carrier wave signals to encode digital information, while the receiver Demodulation, demodulates the signal to recreate the original digital information. The goal is to produce a Signal (electronics), signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded reliably. Modems can be used with almost any means of transmitting analog signals, from light-emitting diodes to radio. Early modems were devices that used audible sounds suitable for transmission over traditional telephone systems and leased lines. These generally operated at 110 or 300 bits per second (bit/s), and the connection between devices was normally manual, using an attached telephone handset. By the 1970s, higher speeds of 1,200 and 2,400 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_-_Computer_History_Museum.jpg "Click for more on -> Personal Digital Assistant")
