Incredibly, at the publication of this video, Christie's are auctioning one of Paul Allen's actual FlipStarts! nnerd.es/FlipStart If you're quick, you'll be able to grab mine in my eBay shop at nnerd.es/NerdShop in the next few days. Follow the shop for updates!
How would you like to add some Alpha Smart type machines to your collection? I’d just ask you pay the shipping I’m dealing with late stage cancer and figured a tech RUclipsr might like them you are the first one that came up in my recommended videos…
a friend of mine had one of these when I was a teenager, his dad stole it from his job, and back when you are rocking a 486 with 4 MEGABYTES of ram (not gigabytes) and you see something like that that fits in your backpack (or at the time, fanny pack) - such an amazing machine for the time.
As a 17 year old, I worked for a computer reseller in 1996 when these first came out. A customer ordered one AND a RAM upgrade for it. I tried to take the keyboard off to add the extra RAM and broke the keyboard connector cable...EXPENSIVE mistake 😂😂
And these days you have companies like GPD still making these kinds of computers but smaller and more powerful. I love my little GPDWin, it's super useful when I need a computer on the go.
I've been daily driving a GPD Win 4 for the last year, both handheld and docked, and it's been a pretty fine experience. Back in 2007 the tech just wasn't there yet and all they could make is a weak laptop with little appeal.
GPD is perhaps the only company that makes handheld gaming PCs that actually fit in your pocket without any compromise for power. The GPD Win 4 8840u is an absolute powerhouse. I would like see Nostalgia Nerd do a retrospective on the GPD Win 1, which more or less started the handheld gaming PC market back in 2016.
@@NateRD90 wont call the current win 3/4 pocketable with the stick sticking out getting caught by everything without a hardcase pouch, but the old win 2 and current win mini defiantly pocketable, do hopoe the next GPD pocket or micro would reuse the mini's chassis just less "gaming" with a regular right touch pad, left arrow keys plus a wheel and mouse buttons on the shoulders
That's the one I am thinking about when I commented above. For it's size and having a hardware serial port I could put up with a celeron running on 8gb of ram. Good to know it's a decent one.
The biggest problem with the ultra-micro computers, is that they still have to be carried around in something with all its accessories. In the 90's I did all of my work on a laptop and tried my hand in the smaller computer world. I found that if I am going to carry a backpack then I would rather size my laptop to fit in the bag I like to use. After all you are going to have to carry some sort of bag even with the little mini pc's. So, I started finding really comfortable backpacks and buying my PC to fit into that bag. It is hard to argue against a 15" screen and full keyboard to work on.
I think that is the reason for example that even if they all came with the adapters any Tidalwave or any of its OEMs, i have the Highscreen Handy Organizer sold by Vobis in Germany, are lost to time. I have a little PCB that fits into the connectors at the back so that i have serial and parallel, but yeah, i don't think i will see the original cables ever again. 😅
I've been carrying 13" high end laptops since 2007, first Lenovo and now a Dell xps. It has always done all the work I've ever needed and has been mobile enough to allow me to work on 6 continents.
The problem with this device seems to be that it's too large for thumb typing but too small for normal typing. I agree with all the above comments. If you gotta carry a bag with all the accessories, you might as well carry a 13-15" laptop and be able to work comfortably. These days a 12" Lenovo chromebook does 99% of what i need, weighs a couple pounds, and has 10 hr battery life.
I've got a GPD Pocket 2 I bought a few years ago and it still gets gasps of admiration wherever you take it. I think this category will always be a niche, but it's certainly a cool niche.
I'm a writer, travel a lot and decided to try the Vulcan Flipstart out. It didn't work out well. The keyboard was my main peeve. It's hardly designed for typing large amounts of text. Sure, I could have connected a USB keyboard, but then I might as well take a proper laptop with me. I sold the thing to a collector of eccentric tech in the end.
It does, however, defeat the purpose of CTRL ALT DEL being those specific keys. Originally, the idea was that it should be impossible to ever accidentally hit that combination
GPD Win Mini is pretty much the current evolution of this idea. Runs Windows, plays current games, has a keyboard and a hinged monitor... Basic idea is the same, but more refined and more powerful, and with built-in game controller.
I definitely hear you on that! Lol. I mainly use my computer for music and music editing. These are things that REALLY require a full PC. I do love this old tech nastalgia@@johnr4836
In 2003, this could have been interesting. But in 2007 you had both Netbooks (smaller and cheaper, but less capable) and thin-and-light laptops (larger area, but thinner, not much heavier, and more useable than this) emerging.
Finally you covered it. I had mine for many years, took me a while to find one on eBay and definitely been keeping it in my computer collection. Really interesting concept.
The UMPC didn't really take off but it didn't completely die, just split into different niches. Chromebooks are the modern day netbooks, and handheld gaming PCs have gotten more widespread in the last 6 years or so with companies like Aya Neo and GPD. There are also hobbyist machines that run old games on Raspberry Pis with small screens.
i had the MSI Wind with Intwl gma 945 or 950.. which was pretty much the same thing.. Loved using it and was easy to bring along to lan parties when playing low end games
@@MegaManNeo before eee pc I had thinkpad T-23, but went for flagship linux eee pc 1000 for £300! 8GB fast ssd plus massive 32GB slow ssd (music collection). Now have perhaps 3 dozen eee pc because reasons
late 90s early 2kscomputer tech was some of the most interesting devices people tried weird things to see if they could pull it off lots of failures most were but they were still damn neat
Let's be honest, outside of very VERY tech-savvy people who want it for ONE specific use case (Hey, there's serial!), most of us want it for the sake of having it. It's not exactly the most healthy side of consumerism, but as much as we don't need it, we need it to keep existing.
I’ve got the GPD MicroPC and its design is actually quite similar to this, with the trackpad and mouse button positioning. Definitely not as refined of a design but I love using full desktop Ubuntu on it. Really cool to see its ancestor of sorts. That external screen is super cool!
This Vulcan computer looks lovely, I've been a huge fan of UMPCs back then, but I don’t remember much coverage. I think what also cut away the market for it by 2007 are eeePCs.
When this was new, I would've loved one of these. Instead of carrying a laptop to work and back home every day, I would carried only this. The laptop was working as a desktop anyways, with external screen and full sized keyboard and mouse. I rarely used it outside anyways. I think the only times I did, was during vacation, so we could see a movie while camping. This would have been lovely instead of the work laptop of the time.
OMG the memories! My first laptop ever was a Toshiba Libretto 100CT. Later I bought a Flipstart from the first batch to market (it had a very low serial number) and a Sony Vaio UMPC which looked very much like a GPD Win 4 but less-wide and without the game controls of course. I really missed the Flipstart after I'd sold it too! I actually made regular use of its tiny secondary LCD screen - for reading emails and I also created a customer database in WAB format because it could be synced to that external screen and it gave me on-the-fly driving directions to any customer's home without needing to power-on the rest of the PC. Such a niche feature I know, but I found it SO useful! One last cool thing, I remember contacting Flipstart to report some bug I found (no I cannot remember what) and I actually got to email with Paul Allen directly - and he sent me some unreleased prototype add-ons for the Flipstart!! I remember a high-resolution camera that snapped onto the exterior of the device after sliding the silver Flipstart logo away to one side. Does anyone know if that was ever officially released as an accessory?
The flipstart was a great proof of concept which I'm sure led to the creation of the iPad with keyboard and the surface with its similar setup. Great video.
my dad had mini pc like this made by Motorola because he worked for a company that sold them. a lot of school administrators/ government officials owned them because smartphones weren't a thing yet and being able to receive/send emails on the go and fit in a purse or pocket was very important for those higher level executives. The palm pilot/pdas eventually replaced all these and then smarphones and the rest is history.
I've been a fan of mini-tech pretty much from day one. I had the first generation OQO and the Sony Viao UX and enjoyed both of them, but I agree. It was a niche market for those who wanted to carry a computer in their pocket. Now my phone serves many of those desires, but I do wax nostalgic for those pocket computers.
given the position of the mouse buttons, dpad and trackpad is obvious that is intended to use handheld, like some sort of nintendo 3ds, I bet that the keyboard feels infinitely better that way too
I miss early 2000s tech. Tech was so unique back then. And it was, at the time, revolutionary. I owned a Handspring Visor and I loved that little PDA. I miss him so much.
I loved the idea of those tiny computers ... I wanted an OQO when I first saw it. So glad I never got it as they were prohibitively expensive and didn't have quite the power they promised.
I wish pocket computers would come back. I feel like PDAs and then mobile phones inadvertently killed the market, as during that time such pocket devices were marketed to businessmen who only needed a small number of features; email, calendar, data organisation etc.
That was a weird thing about small computers at the time was not doing like the libretto and have a decent mini keyboard but having some weird crap chicklet keyboard. Probably because it looked more modern or something.
I've owned a few UMPCs in my time. A Libretto 110CT, couple of different netbooks. But my favorite was my Viliv N5. It was about the size of a large cell phone. And the only reason I gave mine up was that the internal SSD was slow enough in use to drive me absolutely nuts. Windows 7 didn't run on it so much as it walked. An incredibly cool little machine, but the storage desperately needed to be faster.
With modern tech you could surely make one that you even could use as your daily driver, heck, stuff like that exists. As an example, i use a Steamdeck as my desktop. Swapped the original 512 gigabyte for a two terabyte NVMe, installed Ubuntu and now it happily lives in its dock being my 15 watts TDP desktop. The size of the Deck itself lends to being useable, that seven inch screen needs to fit somewhere, the mainboard in there is tiny in comparison to the rest of the case and with some moving around of the components you could build a Mini-PC the size of a RPi that could be your next budget gaming PC that won't make your energy meter lift off.
I've still got my Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000, the first PDA with a hard drive, USB and VGA screen. Runs ARM Linux with a whopping 64 MB RAM, which was quite impressive in 2003.
This this is beyond ahead of it's time and I would want to carry something much like this but with more modern CPU GPU ECT and I swear I would carry this everywhere along with a phone even places I won't bring a phone. I 1000% NEED ONE RIGHT NOWWW
Highly interesting video. When it comes to thumb-typing keyboards, my all-time favourite was the Psion 3. By the time the rather larger (but much speedier) Psion 5 was out, it was an ultra-compact normal typing keyboard, but I found I could type more comfortably on the 3. After the initial love for palmtop computers, I gradually gravitated to mostly using my Psion 5 as an alarm clock, for which it was brilliant, by the way, but possibly a little overspecced. My first truly usable bring-along computer was an early 2000's Fujitsu ultra-portable 10.7" laptop. Those things were pricey at the time, but it was a brilliant computer, and with proper Windows installed, far more useful to me than the Psions had been a few years earlier.
There was so many choices in the UMPC market back then. I went with the Fujitsu U820, then a year later I got my first smartphone. The Fujitsu was not used anymore.
The OQO was a fantastic machine. I worked for Verizon Wireless when it was out and coupled with a 3G radio it was a fantastic field service device that could be docked at end of day.
My first smartphones were Windows Mobile. I longed for the day when we could get a fully fledged PC/Windows UI in our pockets, and with some mods, Windows Mobile could get pretty close, but not close enough. Windows Phone was a step in the wrong direction. Also, I missed full physical keyboards with smartphones.
This really looks like the kind of product that could have succeeded if it came out quickly after being announced but took to long in the oven and was effectively dead on arrival because the market moved on. It's basically a 00's version of the GPD Win, an admittedly less refined one in terms of usability by the looks of it, but it came out at the worst time possible since smartphones and cheap Netbooks were starting to gain momentum by that point. Imagine if it had released in 2005, it would have been one of those highly desirable premium devices that tech nerds really want to buy.
It would have been successful, if it were released during or right after having been announced. I cannot fathom what took Vulcan the company do long to develop the device, because by the time it arrived, it was obsolete enough to have warranted a hardware spec refresh.
I'm still bitter than the UMPC market all but disappeared, though the GPD stuff looks pretty decent. I had a number of these things 20 years ago, and they were awesome for my purposes. My favorites were the NEC MobilePro 900c running Windows CE, and Fujitsu Lifebook P series of which I had several different versions from the P1110 running Windows XP up through the P1630 running Windows Vista. I didn't need to carry a bulky backpack or computer bag for them, as they would easily slip in to cargo pants pockets or larger pockets on trousers. Batteries would legitimately run all day. Windows CE was near instant on/off like modern smartphones that didn't exist back then. The Fujitsu was a legit 2-in-1 rotatable, and was especially handy for doing field testing of equipment in tablet mode, while still having a very useful keyboard when needed. Today I use a Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 for many of these tasks, but I do wish I could something similar in an 8 inch screen form.
0:58 You mean the 7250? 😛 The 72xx series were basically fashion-oriented reskins of the 6610; they were only available as GSM models unlike the 6610 phone which had CDMA and AMPS variants for the US market.
Sony however had quite a good time in Asia with similar form factor machines during this time and for a few years to come. The Vaio UX being the most famous example and one of the few that made it to Western markets.
Back in the day I loved mini laptops, I think it was the Sony PCJ series being sold in BestBuy with windows 98 that got me into them. At the time I didn't have the money, At first I had bought a HP Palmtop which ran Windows CE which was cool at its time, I actually used it as a gps for a while but it was nowhere close to a PC. I did end up getting the Libretto 100 & 110 models, Casio Cassiopea and the Fujitsu P series laptops and I loved them for being a full PC and the portability. Now I just use a tablet. But back then it was the coolest tech.
I still love and buy tiny lightweight machines (Lenovo Carbon X1 Nano currently). These odd shaped machines were rough. Ergonomics were poor. The Toshiba Portege’ series was the true way forward for the small and light crowd.
These kind of tiny machines were great. Around the same time as netbooks started to appear on the market. The first netbook was released in 2007 and they took the market by storm. With a more reasonable price. That's probably why not many have heard of this tiny PC that was considered a failure after only being on the market for around 1 year.
I had the Asus R2h at about the same time, I used it because it had a GPS, found a car mount for it, and created dashcam videos in 2007 with topo maps to see where the road would take me.
I've got one of these hanging around, I really wanted an OQO which really was cute but couldn't afford it, the battery was pretty poor and didn't last long, it didn't take long before it needed replacing. the bigger battery was essential, which then made it too big. the outside screen was a bit of a gimmick, I never thought of using for gaming.
I have a 10th gen i7 OneMix Platinum Pro and although the screen and keyboard are a bit too small, it’s pretty useful and powerful. At a push I can use it standalone but it’s much better when hooked up to a big monitor, keyboard and mouse.
That is the best condition 50CT i've seen in a long time! The plastics on them have become so brittle that they break the second you try and service them
Very cool device. I never owned anything like this, because I had a company-provided laptop, and a mobile phone. The Vulcan would have been superfluous (and way out of my price range).
I still use my HP DV8 because the 18.4" screen is great and excluding it being only SATA 2, it's good enough to do the work/jobs I need. But I use my Minisforum UM790 primarily.
I always wanted the IBM PC110, another very nice device it about the same form factor. it was launched quite a bit earlier (1995) but was pretty much unobtainium here in the U.S. and was _quite_ expensive.
Reminds me of the Sharp Zaurus. However, the Zaurus predates this machine and used an ARM processor which is far more sensible than an inefficient Intel x86 one.
I used one kind of like these that my grandma had, that ran windows 7 basic and was red, and I used it for recording and editing foley/sfx for a game, Demon Peak. Very handy to have it right there with my headphones in the room I was doing foley in. Audacity ran great on it but it was pretty slow little thing, especially when I first got it it had a lot of bloatware lmao! Of course.
My kids had a very nice little HP Netbook that ran Windows XP. They got a lot of use out of it. It was small enough to not get damaged and went everywhere
I didn't know about this device. It was definitely trying to fulfil a need that phones eventually filled. I still use an EeePC. It is honourably relegated to giving Digital Psychological Therapy via CANbus to my car, every time the ECU panics over a sensor being momentarily slightly out of spec ...And my neighbours car ...And their friends cars ...And the village cars ...
I want one of the FlipStart computers! Fascinating video. I wonder what the most current version of Windows it would support, not that it has enough disk space.
My aunt had one of those little Toshiba's, lovely little thing it was. Don't know what happened to it, I expect she sold it. Shame as I'd have loved it! In comparison that FlipStart looks like a Tonka toy! Style over substance, methinks.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Incredibly, at the publication of this video, Christie's are auctioning one of Paul Allen's actual FlipStarts! nnerd.es/FlipStart
If you're quick, you'll be able to grab mine in my eBay shop at nnerd.es/NerdShop in the next few days. Follow the shop for updates!
How would you like to add some Alpha Smart type machines to your collection? I’d just ask you pay the shipping I’m dealing with late stage cancer and figured a tech RUclipsr might like them you are the first one that came up in my recommended videos…
DAMMIT! I was going to bid on those Paul Allen ones, now with this video from you, there will certainly be a bidding war...
@@AnonymousFreakYT if he doesn’t want them you are number one in line all I ask is someone pay the shipping I really don’t care
a friend of mine had one of these when I was a teenager, his dad stole it from his job, and back when you are rocking a 486 with 4 MEGABYTES of ram (not gigabytes) and you see something like that that fits in your backpack (or at the time, fanny pack) - such an amazing machine for the time.
@@seveneyedlamb I had a stroke when I was a kid and childhood cancer (brain tumor, spine tumors) my fine motor functioning sucks lol
It depresses me that 2007 has become retro.
we already had hd in 2007
Calling 2007 "retro" is basically calling 1999 "ancient".
2017 is retro already.
@@Lashovadjs i am a dinosaur .i am from the past of 1975 imao
People born in 2000 are 24 now XD.
Nerd looking at the Toshiba Libreto:
"Impressive, very nice. Lets see Paul Allen's mini-PC"
Look at that subtle matte-black coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God... It even has a second screen.
Is something wrong... @@jasonblalock4429? You're sweating.
I came to the comments, hoping someone would have dropped this comment. I was not disappointed.
Outstanding comment
I just woke up the whole house cackling
Let's see Paul Allen's card... Look at that subtle off white coloring... The tasteful thickness of it... Oh my god... It even has a watermark.
GPD have been making excellent mini computers like this for years. Theyre excellent mini PC and nowadays much less compromised in terms of power.
As a 17 year old, I worked for a computer reseller in 1996 when these first came out. A customer ordered one AND a RAM upgrade for it. I tried to take the keyboard off to add the extra RAM and broke the keyboard connector cable...EXPENSIVE mistake 😂😂
And these days you have companies like GPD still making these kinds of computers but smaller and more powerful. I love my little GPDWin, it's super useful when I need a computer on the go.
I've been daily driving a GPD Win 4 for the last year, both handheld and docked, and it's been a pretty fine experience. Back in 2007 the tech just wasn't there yet and all they could make is a weak laptop with little appeal.
GPD is perhaps the only company that makes handheld gaming PCs that actually fit in your pocket without any compromise for power. The GPD Win 4 8840u is an absolute powerhouse.
I would like see Nostalgia Nerd do a retrospective on the GPD Win 1, which more or less started the handheld gaming PC market back in 2016.
@@NateRD90 wont call the current win 3/4 pocketable with the stick sticking out getting caught by everything without a hardcase pouch, but the old win 2 and current win mini defiantly pocketable, do hopoe the next GPD pocket or micro would reuse the mini's chassis just less "gaming" with a regular right touch pad, left arrow keys plus a wheel and mouse buttons on the shoulders
That's the one I am thinking about when I commented above. For it's size and having a hardware serial port I could put up with a celeron running on 8gb of ram. Good to know it's a decent one.
I have the gpd micropc. I use it everyday, even drawing on it with external drawing tablet.
The biggest problem with the ultra-micro computers, is that they still have to be carried around in something with all its accessories. In the 90's I did all of my work on a laptop and tried my hand in the smaller computer world. I found that if I am going to carry a backpack then I would rather size my laptop to fit in the bag I like to use. After all you are going to have to carry some sort of bag even with the little mini pc's. So, I started finding really comfortable backpacks and buying my PC to fit into that bag. It is hard to argue against a 15" screen and full keyboard to work on.
I think that is the reason for example that even if they all came with the adapters any Tidalwave or any of its OEMs, i have the Highscreen Handy Organizer sold by Vobis in Germany, are lost to time.
I have a little PCB that fits into the connectors at the back so that i have serial and parallel, but yeah, i don't think i will see the original cables ever again. 😅
17 inches, then everyone can see how cool you are too
I've been carrying 13" high end laptops since 2007, first Lenovo and now a Dell xps. It has always done all the work I've ever needed and has been mobile enough to allow me to work on 6 continents.
The problem with this device seems to be that it's too large for thumb typing but too small for normal typing. I agree with all the above comments. If you gotta carry a bag with all the accessories, you might as well carry a 13-15" laptop and be able to work comfortably. These days a 12" Lenovo chromebook does 99% of what i need, weighs a couple pounds, and has 10 hr battery life.
This is why I like to wear cargo pants that has multiple pockets you can access for each of the accessories
I've got a GPD Pocket 2 I bought a few years ago and it still gets gasps of admiration wherever you take it. I think this category will always be a niche, but it's certainly a cool niche.
Those dedicated zoom, CTRL+ALT+DEL and ALT-Tab keys would be nice on today’s Handheld Gaming PCs.
I'm a writer, travel a lot and decided to try the Vulcan Flipstart out. It didn't work out well. The keyboard was my main peeve. It's hardly designed for typing large amounts of text. Sure, I could have connected a USB keyboard, but then I might as well take a proper laptop with me. I sold the thing to a collector of eccentric tech in the end.
I love the CTRL ALT DEL button being standalone! never seen that on anything!
It does, however, defeat the purpose of CTRL ALT DEL being those specific keys.
Originally, the idea was that it should be impossible to ever accidentally hit that combination
@@mattm7220 why would i care that this great button can be pressed by accident? well i dont, i love this button!
@@mattm7220 Windows in that era crashed more often than it does today
That little computer was pretty advanced for something produced in 2003. Today, smartphones rule the mobile computing market.
GPD Win Mini is pretty much the current evolution of this idea. Runs Windows, plays current games, has a keyboard and a hinged monitor... Basic idea is the same, but more refined and more powerful, and with built-in game controller.
Smartphones just don't do some tasks competently yet.
I'm buying a GPD Pocket 4 with as much ram as they will sell it with for a reason.
@@magfalif smartphones ran the same os as computers I wouldn't need computer
I definitely hear you on that! Lol. I mainly use my computer for music and music editing. These are things that REALLY require a full PC. I do love this old tech nastalgia@@johnr4836
In 2003, this could have been interesting.
But in 2007 you had both Netbooks (smaller and cheaper, but less capable) and thin-and-light laptops (larger area, but thinner, not much heavier, and more useable than this) emerging.
Finally you covered it. I had mine for many years, took me a while to find one on eBay and definitely been keeping it in my computer collection. Really interesting concept.
The UMPC didn't really take off but it didn't completely die, just split into different niches. Chromebooks are the modern day netbooks, and handheld gaming PCs have gotten more widespread in the last 6 years or so with companies like Aya Neo and GPD. There are also hobbyist machines that run old games on Raspberry Pis with small screens.
And the Steam Deck.
I agree, these mini PCs are amazing and that's also why I liked netbooks so much.
the eee pc
i had the MSI Wind with Intwl gma 945 or 950.. which was pretty much the same thing.. Loved using it and was easy to bring along to lan parties when playing low end games
@@fanlessfurmark I actually had a Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 rather than an eeePC but yes, those were cool for its time.
@@MegaManNeo before eee pc I had thinkpad T-23, but went for flagship linux eee pc 1000 for £300! 8GB fast ssd plus massive 32GB slow ssd (music collection). Now have perhaps 3 dozen eee pc because reasons
You are so lucky to get to mess around with this machine. Oh that thickness looks great.
I believe the technical term is girth
The tasteful thickness of it.
Love how it feels in my hand
Ya'll are messed up 😅
If you want a modern thick handheld PC you should definitely check out the MNT Pocket Reform
late 90s early 2kscomputer tech was some of the most interesting devices people tried weird things to see if they could pull it off lots of failures most were but they were still damn neat
Let's be honest, outside of very VERY tech-savvy people who want it for ONE specific use case (Hey, there's serial!), most of us want it for the sake of having it. It's not exactly the most healthy side of consumerism, but as much as we don't need it, we need it to keep existing.
I’ve got the GPD MicroPC and its design is actually quite similar to this, with the trackpad and mouse button positioning. Definitely not as refined of a design but I love using full desktop Ubuntu on it. Really cool to see its ancestor of sorts. That external screen is super cool!
Pre-2007 cellphones: the only time in history men would brag about having a smaller one.
The Nokia showed in the beginning was actually 7250i, not 7210. Camera was the difference.
This Vulcan computer looks lovely, I've been a huge fan of UMPCs back then, but I don’t remember much coverage. I think what also cut away the market for it by 2007 are eeePCs.
When this was new, I would've loved one of these. Instead of carrying a laptop to work and back home every day, I would carried only this. The laptop was working as a desktop anyways, with external screen and full sized keyboard and mouse. I rarely used it outside anyways. I think the only times I did, was during vacation, so we could see a movie while camping. This would have been lovely instead of the work laptop of the time.
Weirdly enough, it feels like we're in another "micro"-PC craze, what with the Steam Deck taking off and everyone else following suit.
OMG the memories! My first laptop ever was a Toshiba Libretto 100CT. Later I bought a Flipstart from the first batch to market (it had a very low serial number) and a Sony Vaio UMPC which looked very much like a GPD Win 4 but less-wide and without the game controls of course. I really missed the Flipstart after I'd sold it too! I actually made regular use of its tiny secondary LCD screen - for reading emails and I also created a customer database in WAB format because it could be synced to that external screen and it gave me on-the-fly driving directions to any customer's home without needing to power-on the rest of the PC. Such a niche feature I know, but I found it SO useful! One last cool thing, I remember contacting Flipstart to report some bug I found (no I cannot remember what) and I actually got to email with Paul Allen directly - and he sent me some unreleased prototype add-ons for the Flipstart!! I remember a high-resolution camera that snapped onto the exterior of the device after sliding the silver Flipstart logo away to one side. Does anyone know if that was ever officially released as an accessory?
damn that is such an awesome way to utilise that screen on the outside. i doubt many people took it as far as that.
The Cinerama in Seattle is amazing. It's one of those super widescreen cinemas from the 50s with a large auditorium. Films look amazing.
The flipstart was a great proof of concept which I'm sure led to the creation of the iPad with keyboard and the surface with its similar setup. Great video.
Nowadays, we just have the GPD Win, which I think is a fantastic device! Love these wacky form factors and extra features.
If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were.
My favorite tiny handheld was the Gateway Handbook
my dad had mini pc like this made by Motorola because he worked for a company that sold them. a lot of school administrators/ government officials owned them because smartphones weren't a thing yet and being able to receive/send emails on the go and fit in a purse or pocket was very important for those higher level executives. The palm pilot/pdas eventually replaced all these and then smarphones and the rest is history.
Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.
Dude is more visionary then Steve Jobs. This thing is neat af. I wasn't wowed by the iPhone. I am wowed by this though.
I've been a fan of mini-tech pretty much from day one. I had the first generation OQO and the Sony Viao UX and enjoyed both of them, but I agree. It was a niche market for those who wanted to carry a computer in their pocket. Now my phone serves many of those desires, but I do wax nostalgic for those pocket computers.
given the position of the mouse buttons, dpad and trackpad is obvious that is intended to use handheld, like some sort of nintendo 3ds, I bet that the keyboard feels infinitely better that way too
the OQO is just... 20 years ahead of time
Please review more UMPCs!
What an incredible toy! I had never heard of this, thank you for sharing!
10:30 That's so cool - like a Samsung Flip but back then.
I guess some flip phones had top displays but not that size.
I miss early 2000s tech. Tech was so unique back then. And it was, at the time, revolutionary. I owned a Handspring Visor and I loved that little PDA. I miss him so much.
omg this video makes me want even more a GPD Pocket 4
The Pears soap reference takes me back to my grandparents house in 1996. A green bathroom suite with Brut, Pears, and Vosene smells lingering.
I loved the idea of those tiny computers ... I wanted an OQO when I first saw it. So glad I never got it as they were prohibitively expensive and didn't have quite the power they promised.
I wish pocket computers would come back. I feel like PDAs and then mobile phones inadvertently killed the market, as during that time such pocket devices were marketed to businessmen who only needed a small number of features; email, calendar, data organisation etc.
I was obsessed with this thing when I was a kid.. too expensive for me at the time, but I REALLY wanted one.. why? I have no idea
🤩 OMG it's like a proto- windows sideshow!!! My life is now more complete for having seen this!
That was a weird thing about small computers at the time was not doing like the libretto and have a decent mini keyboard but having some weird crap chicklet keyboard. Probably because it looked more modern or something.
Always nice to see my city Norwich! 😊
I've owned a few UMPCs in my time. A Libretto 110CT, couple of different netbooks. But my favorite was my Viliv N5. It was about the size of a large cell phone. And the only reason I gave mine up was that the internal SSD was slow enough in use to drive me absolutely nuts. Windows 7 didn't run on it so much as it walked. An incredibly cool little machine, but the storage desperately needed to be faster.
With modern tech you could surely make one that you even could use as your daily driver, heck, stuff like that exists.
As an example, i use a Steamdeck as my desktop. Swapped the original 512 gigabyte for a two terabyte NVMe, installed Ubuntu and now it happily lives in its dock being my 15 watts TDP desktop.
The size of the Deck itself lends to being useable, that seven inch screen needs to fit somewhere, the mainboard in there is tiny in comparison to the rest of the case and with some moving around of the components you could build a Mini-PC the size of a RPi that could be your next budget gaming PC that won't make your energy meter lift off.
The undertaking of a new action brings new strength.
I've still got my Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000, the first PDA with a hard drive, USB and VGA screen. Runs ARM Linux with a whopping 64 MB RAM, which was quite impressive in 2003.
This this is beyond ahead of it's time and I would want to carry something much like this but with more modern CPU GPU ECT and I swear I would carry this everywhere along with a phone even places I won't bring a phone.
I 1000% NEED ONE RIGHT NOWWW
Holy crap that thing is bad ass! Never heard of it until now. That little email preview screen is neat.
I honestly did *not* know about it before today! Thank you. 🤯
Highly interesting video. When it comes to thumb-typing keyboards, my all-time favourite was the Psion 3. By the time the rather larger (but much speedier) Psion 5 was out, it was an ultra-compact normal typing keyboard, but I found I could type more comfortably on the 3. After the initial love for palmtop computers, I gradually gravitated to mostly using my Psion 5 as an alarm clock, for which it was brilliant, by the way, but possibly a little overspecced.
My first truly usable bring-along computer was an early 2000's Fujitsu ultra-portable 10.7" laptop. Those things were pricey at the time, but it was a brilliant computer, and with proper Windows installed, far more useful to me than the Psions had been a few years earlier.
There was so many choices in the UMPC market back then. I went with the Fujitsu U820, then a year later I got my first smartphone. The Fujitsu was not used anymore.
I loved the Libretto back in the day, was so useful
The OQO was a fantastic machine. I worked for Verizon Wireless when it was out and coupled with a 3G radio it was a fantastic field service device that could be docked at end of day.
My first smartphones were Windows Mobile. I longed for the day when we could get a fully fledged PC/Windows UI in our pockets, and with some mods, Windows Mobile could get pretty close, but not close enough. Windows Phone was a step in the wrong direction.
Also, I missed full physical keyboards with smartphones.
This really looks like the kind of product that could have succeeded if it came out quickly after being announced but took to long in the oven and was effectively dead on arrival because the market moved on. It's basically a 00's version of the GPD Win, an admittedly less refined one in terms of usability by the looks of it, but it came out at the worst time possible since smartphones and cheap Netbooks were starting to gain momentum by that point. Imagine if it had released in 2005, it would have been one of those highly desirable premium devices that tech nerds really want to buy.
It would have been successful, if it were released during or right after having been announced. I cannot fathom what took Vulcan the company do long to develop the device, because by the time it arrived, it was obsolete enough to have warranted a hardware spec refresh.
I'm still bitter than the UMPC market all but disappeared, though the GPD stuff looks pretty decent. I had a number of these things 20 years ago, and they were awesome for my purposes.
My favorites were the NEC MobilePro 900c running Windows CE, and Fujitsu Lifebook P series of which I had several different versions from the P1110 running Windows XP up through the P1630 running Windows Vista. I didn't need to carry a bulky backpack or computer bag for them, as they would easily slip in to cargo pants pockets or larger pockets on trousers. Batteries would legitimately run all day.
Windows CE was near instant on/off like modern smartphones that didn't exist back then. The Fujitsu was a legit 2-in-1 rotatable, and was especially handy for doing field testing of equipment in tablet mode, while still having a very useful keyboard when needed.
Today I use a Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 for many of these tasks, but I do wish I could something similar in an 8 inch screen form.
0:58 You mean the 7250? 😛
The 72xx series were basically fashion-oriented reskins of the 6610; they were only available as GSM models unlike the 6610 phone which had CDMA and AMPS variants for the US market.
Sony however had quite a good time in Asia with similar form factor machines during this time and for a few years to come. The Vaio UX being the most famous example and one of the few that made it to Western markets.
Back in the day I loved mini laptops, I think it was the Sony PCJ series being sold in BestBuy with windows 98 that got me into them. At the time I didn't have the money, At first I had bought a HP Palmtop which ran Windows CE which was cool at its time, I actually used it as a gps for a while but it was nowhere close to a PC. I did end up getting the Libretto 100 & 110 models, Casio Cassiopea and the Fujitsu P series laptops and I loved them for being a full PC and the portability. Now I just use a tablet. But back then it was the coolest tech.
I still love and buy tiny lightweight machines (Lenovo Carbon X1 Nano currently). These odd shaped machines were rough. Ergonomics were poor.
The Toshiba Portege’ series was the true way forward for the small and light crowd.
I saw Dredd (the new one) in that Seattle theater. It was GLORIUS
These kind of tiny machines were great. Around the same time as netbooks started to appear on the market. The first netbook was released in 2007 and they took the market by storm. With a more reasonable price. That's probably why not many have heard of this tiny PC that was considered a failure after only being on the market for around 1 year.
I had the Asus R2h at about the same time, I used it because it had a GPS, found a car mount for it, and created dashcam videos in 2007 with topo maps to see where the road would take me.
It just shows how powerful and influential Tom Cruise is that they would make micro computers for him.
I really enjoy your videos mate, thanks for being on my internet 😁
I've got one of these hanging around, I really wanted an OQO which really was cute but couldn't afford it, the battery was pretty poor and didn't last long, it didn't take long before it needed replacing. the bigger battery was essential, which then made it too big. the outside screen was a bit of a gimmick, I never thought of using for gaming.
I have a 10th gen i7 OneMix Platinum Pro and although the screen and keyboard are a bit too small, it’s pretty useful and powerful. At a push I can use it standalone but it’s much better when hooked up to a big monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Thanks for another fun and well made video! 💜
That is the best condition 50CT i've seen in a long time!
The plastics on them have become so brittle that they break the second you try and service them
Reminds me of the original GPD Win, (which I own) and the current GPD Win Mini (2024) [which I want to buy].
Very cool device. I never owned anything like this, because I had a company-provided laptop, and a mobile phone. The Vulcan would have been superfluous (and way out of my price range).
For all the Karp netbooks get nowadays, I had a lot of fun learning Linux on my Dell Mini 9.
Some 10-20 years ago there were these really cool UMPC's that could run a propper version Windows and Linux 😎
I am a native of Seattle and didn't know Vulcan ever made a product. Very cool!
I own two Libretto 50ct using an 8 GB CompactFlash card and a real MS-DOS 6.22.
No Windows on it.
This is amazing!
I still use my HP DV8 because the 18.4" screen is great and excluding it being only SATA 2, it's good enough to do the work/jobs I need. But I use my Minisforum UM790 primarily.
I always wanted the IBM PC110, another very nice device it about the same form factor. it was launched quite a bit earlier (1995) but was pretty much unobtainium here in the U.S. and was _quite_ expensive.
Reminds me of the Sharp Zaurus. However, the Zaurus predates this machine and used an ARM processor which is far more sensible than an inefficient Intel x86 one.
I used one kind of like these that my grandma had, that ran windows 7 basic and was red, and I used it for recording and editing foley/sfx for a game, Demon Peak. Very handy to have it right there with my headphones in the room I was doing foley in. Audacity ran great on it but it was pretty slow little thing, especially when I first got it it had a lot of bloatware lmao! Of course.
You might also wanna take a gander to GPD... their line of tiny pc's are renowned.
My kids had a very nice little HP Netbook that ran Windows XP. They got a lot of use out of it. It was small enough to not get damaged and went everywhere
The height of your accomplishments will equal the depth of your convictions.
Ooh, I’ve got two of those Librettos in the cupboard!
I didn't know about this device. It was definitely trying to fulfil a need that phones eventually filled. I still use an EeePC. It is honourably relegated to giving Digital Psychological Therapy via CANbus to my car, every time the ECU panics over a sensor being momentarily slightly out of spec ...And my neighbours car ...And their friends cars ...And the village cars ...
When confronted with a rotary dial phone the teenager was perplexed.
I wanted the OQO so badly! Still looks good today
I want one of the FlipStart computers! Fascinating video. I wonder what the most current version of Windows it would support, not that it has enough disk space.
My aunt had one of those little Toshiba's, lovely little thing it was. Don't know what happened to it, I expect she sold it. Shame as I'd have loved it! In comparison that FlipStart looks like a Tonka toy! Style over substance, methinks.
they need to make more of these
Man, the 00s were so different from what we're going through now.
Let's hope we'll be able to say they same about the 20s' in the 40s...
Wait what, Kotka Maritime Festival has more participants than CES in its record year back in good od days ;)
Big difference is that with the exception of a single year back in the 90s, CES isn't open to the public.
Guinness Book of World Records is a marketing company, you pay them (dearly), they make up a category in which you can be #1 and that's it.
@@ericnoney3770 yeah that is a big difference. Our festival is 4 days and everyone is allowed 🤪
Meaning is not what you start with but what you end up with.