Palmcom 80286 palmtop, was it ever made?

Hello,

recently I stumbled upon an ad for a 286 palmtop from 1991 made by Palmcom Inc (Infoworld, Oct. 1991)

I remember having seen this ad in 1992 and me and a buddy tried to get hands on it. But all our faxes to HongKong stayed unanswered.

As I researched the company went out of business around 1997 and there is no hint that they ever produced that device.

Maybe one of the folks here has additional information on the company or the palmtop? It looks really cool and by technical standards from 1991 it would not be impossible to build it.

Thank you and have fun!

Stefan

Edited by dl1av 2023-02-05 1:01 PM






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Never heard of the exact machine, but we have this term called “nazo pa-“ which I think is an acronym in Japanese for mysterious palmtop. It includes DOS based machines. This guy called PocketGriffon has an interesting blog in Japanese. I linked a blog search for “nazo pa-“. It is Bitly link because the forum URL can’t handle Japanese characters. It works in preview though.

http://bit.ly/3Ynn6SW

Edited by stingraze 2023-02-05 1:06 PM

Thank you for the link and the translation There are some really unknown machines in that blogroll.

I understand that the palmtop formfactor and the different varieties were spread more over Japan than in any other country.
For Germany I can say that besides some company stuff noone used them in their edc. All mobile people have had their laptops from the beginning (because serious business requires big machines to show off ).

Back to the ad: if there really was a "Lap and Palmtop 91" fair in Chicago this would have been my happyplace

On our Cebit-fair the mobile sector always was a side business with only a few manufacturers for that (and some non-working prop models)

Stefan

Glad you liked it.
Will try to see if I can find more a bout "Lap and Palmtop 91" fair in Chicago. It might be in old magazines and in the Japanese internet.

I never went to CeBIT, but there is one called CEATEC here in Japan, which had Windows Mobile devices when I went back in 2005 / 2006.

Here are some old articles of CeBIT in Japanese I found:

CeBIT '98 (Windows CE machines)
https://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/article/980402/cebit_6.htm
CeBIT '01 (Linux devices)
https://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/0103/24/cebit_linux.html

Update: I found a small clue, it might be that "Lap and Plamptop 91" was held also in New York in April 16-17 1991?
https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=sc0wyeolS8cC&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq...

Edited by stingraze 2023-02-06 12:58 AM

The Lap&Palmtop seems to be a little sales event travelling through the states. But for professional users, the weekday was tu/we.

My impression around year2000 was that Linux is just a proof of concept and far from usable. I remember having all built by myself or having modified the code.

Today: Just run Ubuntu and you have the basics from start on.

The early 2000's had Linux Zaurus here in Japan, which had the rotating screen clamshell form factor. I did't really like it back then, but seeing how it can be modded and improved by putting in NetBSD and newer Linux, I am amazed how it was ahead of the times. I want to someday create like a WSL for Windows CE... haha

-stingraze

The big Zaurus is on my search list, too. Seems to be interesting.

I have the zaurus sl-c1000. Good little machine, running weeXpc OS. I keep trying to use it more but the tiny screen--though beautifully crisp--does wear you out.

https://hermocom.com/archive/20-weexpc

The only rub with weeXpc on the sl-c1000 is that OS needs the sd card to run, so it can't be hot-pulled to share files.

Jake

That's a cool setup - is it possible to copy files back and forth using a USB flash drive to the USB port, or does the CF slot work for that?

Agree, Jake, weeXpc was good on the Z.....

Used it on my ol' SL-3200....as was netBSD and other linux distros....

Only reason I parted with my Z was due to the tiny screen, just was too little for my ol' eyes (even though it's high quality)....otherwise, great shirt pocket computer!

Can't you use CF card to share files so that you leave SD in slot?

Mark

Yes to both, cf and usb can be set up for file swapping. The trouble is, you sometimes need those slots to get on-line. I only found one ethernet that would work for usb and could never get WPA2 set up on a DLink 660 (though it can be technically flashed to WPA, which I did successfully, but to no avail). For form factor/convenience, I prefer to work with docs on the sd card.

EDIT: this sd issue is not relevant to the SL-3200 whose hd has enough room for weeXpc

Jake

Wow, never heard of weeXpc, but I knew about the OpenPandora. Thank you for sharing the weeXpc.

Edited by stingraze 2023-02-11 2:13 AM

I had an upgraded OpenPandora, really liked it....

However, naively thinking the new replacement device, Pyra, would be released fairly soon (this was years ago now....) I sold my OP, thinking I would have Pyra soon.....boy, was I wrong.....

More than 5+ years later, EvilDragon is still trying to fulfill the pre-orders.....real shame....as I'd really like to have one.....

So it goes....

Ah... I saw this video below on YouTube after you mentioned about the Pyra taking more than 5 years. I hope the project completes and everyone gets the Pyra.

Thanks, stingraze. Daniel was actually selling weeXpc for a while, back in the Z heyday.

Re: the Pyra. Wow, their production problems tower over Planet Computer and fxtec's.

Jake