from Hacker News

27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)

by bishopsmother on 6/2/23, 7:41 AM with 282 comments

• by oliwarner on 6/2/23, 10:18 AM

  Lots of focus on the hardware here but its form factor still exists in niches.

  What has vanished, is our ability to do general-purpose computing at ~8MHz. Consider the computers you had in the 90s. Windows 3.11 and Office ran on a 286 but I sit here with 12 cores at ~4Ghz just to post this crumby comment.

  We are spoilt. It really makes me yearn to do more with less.

• by jw1224 on 6/2/23, 9:31 AM

  Psion 3c was what got me into programming!

  My grandfather gave me his old one when I was a kid. To an 11-year-old, a spreadsheet, world clock, and address book gets old pretty fast :)

  But the in-built OPL [1] language provided unlimited possibilities. You can see the icon for it in one of the screenshots.

  I remember printing off a copy of the 300-page language manual I found online (breaking dad’s printer in the process). Now 20 years later and I have Psion/OPL to thank for my career.

  [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Programming_Language

• by tobiasbischoff on 6/2/23, 8:27 AM

  I will never understand why we do not have this kind of device anymore. A small computer, running linux, proper keyboard, integrated LTE - it would be a messaging and writing dream.

  Back in the days i developed custom software for the Revo, the SDK was a dream to work with as well.

• by triggercut on 6/2/23, 12:02 PM

  This brings back happy memories. I was lucky enough to have the precursor, an Acorn Pocket Book, as part of my school curriculum. I lost it a few years ago in a move but I can still remember the the distinctive "device" smell (probably the case material). I yearned for the additional memory of the Psion 2. I would write lengthy stories that would fill up the memory. No off-device storage. I'd have to delete entries of birds i'd spotted and researched from cards app, tough decisions needed to be made.

  Long before pokemon swept the west, our teacher would take us bird watching. We'd create entries in the cards app for each one we spotted, then research the birds in the library to fill out the entry. Then, as a class we'd trade (share) our research with each other.

• by jxf on 6/2/23, 8:22 AM

  I've never had a Psion, but as I've become a dad, I've wished for devices for digital literacy that weren't tablets or phones. Something dumb with a dictionary, encyclopedia, calendar, an editor, and a few games, and physical keyboard is a great, safe introduction to the digital world.

• by unwind on 6/2/23, 8:49 AM

  I realized I had no idea what actual platform these were (I'm old enough to remember longing for one of these but never had one back in the day).

  It's powered by the NEV V20 [1] processor, which is a 16-bit chip that is code and pin compatible with the more famous Intel 8088. The NEC chip was launched in March of 1984 which is interesting given that the Psion 3a came in 1991.

  It feels like today launching a product based on a 7-year old CPU is more rare.

  It would be cool (but perhaps sacrilegious) to upgrade the existing motherboard to some Arm SoC/microcontroller, if possible. I thought of it now while writing this, so clearly someone has already done so.

  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEC_V20

• by ubermonkey on 6/2/23, 1:54 PM

  I dabbled in handhelds in that era, and always wanted a Psion but never got around to it.

  The main issues in that era for me were that they devices were dead ends for data. At the time, the main competitor for something like this was a paper planner, of course, which are ALSO dead ends, so it was a reasonable approach.

  Newton happened, though, and initially -- and people forget this -- it came with the Newton Desktop, which gave you access to your data on Windows. It synced! This was huge!

  And then, for reasons I've never understood, Apple dropped the Newton Desktop with the rev to NewtOS 2.0, which was really really great otherwise. Unfortunately easy desktop sync turned out to be a killer app in this space, because Palm came to market with that as their foundation and ruled the whole market for quite a while.

  I loved the Newton -- and if you've never touched one, you don't actually know how useful they were; it was really pretty amazing -- but the sync was what pushed me to Palm, where I stayed until the 2000s.

• by dang on 6/2/23, 5:59 PM

  Related, more or less:

  Getting a Psion 5 palmtop from 1997 online via PPP (and a Raspberry Pi) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33946824 - Dec 2022 (26 comments)

  “16 Shades of Grey” – Building a Psion/EPOC32 Emulator (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30835970 - March 2022 (1 comment)

  Psion PDA – How does it look today? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29871609 - Jan 2022 (2 comments)

  Raspberry Pi Helps Vintage Psion Find Its Voice - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20609493 - Aug 2019 (1 comment)

  Former Psion designers return with a fresh take on the PDA - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16619449 - March 2018 (2 comments)

  Gemini PDA: 20 years on, meet the all-new Psion Series 5 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15818324 - Nov 2017 (69 comments)

  Motorola Buys Psion For $200m - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4126441 - June 2012 (1 comment)

  Psion: the last computer (2007) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=226305 - June 2008 (1 comment)

• by kqr on 6/2/23, 9:29 AM

  The Psion 3C was the device I learned programming on. My father upgraded to a Psion 5 and I got his 3C. It was small enough that it could be hidden under the pillow/blanket when my parents came in to make sure I was sleeping, and then I could spend long nights writing text-based adventure games or calculators or whatever.

• by pabscon on 6/2/23, 9:21 AM

  It is a pity that with all the interesting devices that have been left without updates, manufacturers do not release firmwares in a more organised way so that they can be used again, even if only in a limited way. I'm talking about devices such as the Vadem Clio, Nokia 770, blackberry playbook, several minipcs with windowsce, etc...

  I imagine it's such a small niche that it's not worth spending time developing and adapting.

• by westcort on 6/2/23, 1:26 PM

  Certain classic computers powered by “AA” batteries are amazing to use today. I have an Alphasmart Dana set up for my children to play chess, do word procession, and learn to program in C. It is much better than dealing with the potential hazards of a modern device.

• by lelag on 6/2/23, 8:23 AM

  I used to be a heavy user of my Psion Revo back in the 2000s. It had a highly usable full-featured office suite, and I truly used it as a laptop replacement at the time. I was able to touch-type my university course on it, and it could even fit a shirt front pocket. Honestly, the only thing that quickly made it obsolete was the lack of network connectivity (limited to infrared). It's still one of the computing devices for which I have the fondest memories.

• by atdrummond on 6/2/23, 8:22 AM

  I loved my Psions.

  I truly miss having a smaller form factor computer. If I could possibly an iPhone with an attached physical keyboard, I’m certain that I could do a huge amount of work that I presently do with my laptop. (I know I can get an external keyboard but there’s something far more useful and satisfying about a properly integrated device.)

• by geophile on 6/2/23, 1:07 PM

  I had a Psion 5, an amazing device. It had the same apps as the 3, if I remember correctly. The keyboard was astoundingly good. The keys, if larger, would make an excellent normal keyboard.

  What I really loved about the 5 was that it could run Java. I think it never got past JDK 1.0.2, or maybe 1.1. But it was clunky to use. I wrote a little shell for it, which provided basic functionality, including much simpler compiling and execution of java code. (http://geophile.com/jshell. It should still run, except that it relies on an obsolete parser.)

• by eternityforest on 6/5/23, 2:58 AM

  I still think there's room for a device like this in real practical use.

  Not for it's original application, no way would I want to give up modern software, but in embedded controls, something that gives you the full power of being able to do "Apps", while being cheap and small enough to have real dedicated devices.

  Devices like this could be made insanely cheaply now, seeing as how $3 ESP32 type chips have more power. And the battery life would likely be measured in years today, since we wouldn't be using them to replace phones, we'd be using them to control our sprinklers and smart home devices, as calculators, etc.

  We reached the good enough point for these so incredibly long ago, and the applications are so simple, plus there's no need for them to ever be directly exposed to the internet except on private WiFi.... they probably wouldn't need updates, at least not of the type an app would notice (They might need Bluetooth protocol updates).

  It could also pair with a real phone and serve as a single-function interface device, a physical "app" for making phone calls, checking the weather, playing GB emulator games, etc.

  At this point, anything that has a display and microcontroller could jump to PDA level capability for a few bucks more, and all these "Smart devices" would never go obsolete due to cloud crap again, you'd just install a new app.

  Right now I think M5Stack is the closest thing, but it's not that popular outside of DIY, and there's no ecosystem around it.

• by dredmorbius on 6/2/23, 10:44 PM

  I would be interested in a product or kit based on e-ink and a small keyboard.

  It need not necessarily run EPOC16, though a battery-optimised OS would be quite useful.

  I'm using a 13" e-ink tablet for most of my mobile use (reading, no social media, absolute minimal number of account-based tools), and it's quite good. A bit large for a pocketable / PDA device, and the fact that there's no keyboard which could integrate into a folding-but-usable case as I'd had for an earlier Android tablet[1] is disappointing. Apple likewise.[2]

  I'm not looking for a phone (though with a headphone jack, the device might serve for vox comms), but a device on which I can read and create text and some images.

  E-ink is battery-friendly, highly readable, works well for greyscale graphics (I often, though not always, forget that I'm looking at content which presumes colour), is highly readable under direct sunlight, and can be read in low-light conditions with a modest frontlight.

  Purism and Pine may deliver here, though I'm not holding my breath.

  Keyboard is essential to writing. Touch input sucks.

  ________________________________

  Notes:

  1. The keyboard itself was ultimately a disappointment, as was the tablet. The form-factor and ease of flipping from touch-based to keyboard-based use was quite appealing. More: <https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/lqgtwy_rhsfbdh5cdxb1rq>

  2. The two problems are iOS's lack of a Linux-like userland, and yes, I'm aware of ish, and the fact that despite some otherwise delicious keyboards, keys critical to Linux/Unix tools and conventions are missing, most notably <esc>. Android/Termux remains superior, despite my many reservations against Android.

• by cjdell on 6/2/23, 11:07 AM

  My dad had one of these and he continued to use it until the day he died in 2013. I remember thinking how crazy high resolution the screen was at the time. Amazing device.

  I got his old Series 3 (predecessor to the 3a) when I was still a kid and was one of the first devices I learned to code on thanks to the built-in OPL programming language!

• by nickdothutton on 6/2/23, 9:26 AM

  I had a 3a and found it more convenient to use than the heavy/bulky laptops of the day. My use cases were diary management, expenses, task tracking/todo, and short emails (via the add-on modem/mobile phone cable). The message app also allowed you to send SMS. The batteries seemed to last forever and being a standard size were available everywhere.

  I dont know if a "new psion" would sell in sufficient numbers. It's a device I find myself wondering about (along with a chocolate-bar sized version of the iphone (Nokia 6300 size)). I'd buy one of those for sure, for when I'm not working and need a phone, but dont want the full "slab" to carry around with me.

• by wkat4242 on 6/3/23, 1:12 PM

  I always thought the Psion 3's keyboard was much better to type on than the Psion 5. Even though the 5's looked cooler, the keys had less feel and were heavier to press, and often would get stuck when pushing them not in the center.

  I could type much faster on the 3's keyboard. The software was just way better on the 5 and the touchscreen was very useful.

  The 3 had a much much better screen contrast though. I missed the backlight on my 3c but I think the 3mx did have this.

  I still have a 5MX, modded it somehere around 2009 with bluetooth.

• by anonzzzies on 6/2/23, 10:01 AM

  I still dream of an rLCD + Apollo 3+ chip + BLE (it has that) + WIFI + optional 4/5g + Psion like casing. I would write a graphical OS for it for fun. I really want to see week+ long battery life.

• by pea on 6/2/23, 9:42 AM

  This reminds me of when I was in primary school in 1996 or so, and the "thing" to have as a kid was a personal organiser; irrespective of the fact none of us had anything to organize.

• by causality0 on 6/2/23, 2:46 PM

  "Bought, shouted at, and sold" is a great descriptor for Windows Mobile. Never has a combination of such high quality hardware and absolutely dogshit software ever existed.

• by wkjagt on 6/3/23, 1:29 AM

  I still have my 3a sitting on a shelf in my work space. Still works fine too. I only had to fix the hinge at some point. I have the one with a full 1MB of RAM! I vaguely remember writing a program for it in OPL that would tell the time using beeps during the night when pressing a button so I didn't have to turn a light on to know what time it was. I kind of want to see if I can use it for anything now. I still have the serial cable for it too (somewhere, I think).

• by cainxinth on 6/2/23, 2:09 PM

  I kept all my old PDAs (and some that belonged to friends and family that were tossing them out). I have a box filled with my Casio BOSS, Palm Pilot, and several others. They aren't worth much (I just checked ebay and an original, working U.S. Robotics Palm Pilot 5000 is selling for $50), but they are such an interesting memento in the history of digital tools.

• by Jun8 on 6/2/23, 3:08 PM

  So, motivated by this article, I checked eBay, expecting to burn $20-30 to get one and found that these sell for around $100 (thank god, didn’t buy another device to add to my pile).

  My question is: who buys these at that price and for what purpose? Collecting old devices? Using them? I don’t think buying these have the allure of retro computing, eg buying a Sinclair Spectrum.

• by jwmoz on 6/2/23, 11:04 AM

  When I was younger I was desperate for one of these-it looked like some sort of hacking machine. No idea what I would have used it for.

• by appstorelottery on 6/2/23, 8:31 AM

  I loved my 3a - which followed my Nokia communicator, which replaced my cassiopeia, none of which I actually really used lol... The 3a held the most promise with it's built in basic language... looking back I wish I had just enjoyed it more rather than being tied up in the illusion of the dot com boom. Thanks for the nostalgia!

• by sriku on 6/2/23, 3:28 PM

  I used to own a psion way back and also had a brush with the OS which morphed into Symbian on Nokia iirc. I loved the software architecture (which borrowed aspects from the B5000), APIs and "services" and overall the focus on robustness. Some aspects like threads having their own heaps contributed to the robustness.

• by predictsoft on 6/2/23, 9:52 AM

  I have gone through several Psion 5's over the last few years. They all broke eventually - mainly the screen (ribbon cable).

  Because I couldn't justify spending yet another £60 for a Psion 5 which soon breaks down, I run Epoc Agenda now on my Windows PC on an EPOC emulator, and it's great for keeping track of events.

• by nologic01 on 6/2/23, 6:49 PM

  27 years from now it will be 2050. Will todays smartphones still feel "wonderful"? I highly doubt it.

• by siddiqi123 on 6/2/23, 11:47 AM

  That’s true, and I would have liked the BlackBerry more if the pointer worked better and the software was better. That was the kicker for me. I do miss Graffiti – especially with all the trouble I have with the iPhone keyboard. It is a constant frustration, and it always has been

• by pomatic on 6/3/23, 12:22 PM

  I worked at Psion during the Psion 3 era (and then later at Symbian). Hands down the best company I have ever worked for, and such an exciting time. Seeing the software one wrote in the hands of strangers in the street and on the shelves in Dixons was thrilling.

• by detourdog on 6/2/23, 2:28 PM

  Gideon Gartner of Gartner research loved is Psion and as far as know never stopped using it.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Gartner

• by nytesky on 6/3/23, 6:39 PM

  I wrote our entire heldesk documentation in college in a Psion 3A while on a bus tour.

  Top notch. Miss physical keyboards, I feel like my parents and a VCR whenever I use my phone…

• by classified on 6/2/23, 12:20 PM

  And on top of that, it's not contaminated with the usual dark patterns for monetizing, lock-in, control and surveillance that afflict today's devices.

• by 0x445442 on 6/3/23, 3:18 PM

  But you’re not going to play this on your 286…

  https://youtu.be/yCUppUOarpg

• by kvetching on 6/2/23, 11:54 AM

  How long until there's a commercial product that has a built in LLM? Some device that is like a personal encyclopedia that you can ask about anything?

• by fattybob on 6/4/23, 2:46 PM

  I considered my hp100 and then hp200lx far superior devices!!

• by hestefisk on 6/2/23, 10:24 AM

  Does it run NetBSD?