Quote:
Originally Posted by barryem
I had the Tandy version of the Zoomer but I don't recall reading anything on it. I don't think I knew that was even an option. It was a nice device, though. I wrote a hex editor for it when it first became available and there weren't any programming tools at all. I coded some of it in assembly on some other computer, I forget which, and parts of it directly in machine code. I don't even remember what CPU it had now. Probably an 8080 but I'm not sure.
I also had a Model 100. That might have been what I wrote parts of the editor on.
I don't think I ever did anything involving ebooks on these things.
Barry
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My memory of the Zoomer's GEOS OS is a bit hazy, as I only used it for a few months before switching to the HP 95/100/200LX devices (my wife worked for HP at the time). I did have the developer SDK for the Zoomer, but don't recall doing anything substantial with it. Same story applies to a short-lived flirt with the Sony Magic Link.
I do remember that the Zoomer had a built in dictionary and language translator, and its handwriting recognition (Graffiti) and PC synchronization features were what later became the Palm Pilot. I believe it had an NEC V25 processor, which is an 80186 with a Z80 emulation mode. I used that processor in a product we designed around the same time frame. The Palm Pilot had a Motorola Dragonball processor, which was roughly equivalent, though based on the 68000 architecture rather than Intel.
While I have been reading ebooks since 1977, it was little more than a novelty on these early devices. It wasn't until the Palm Pilot came along that it became a daily activity for me. The PP was the perfect storm, feature wise - pocket sized, backlit screen, batteries that lasted a week or two, and easy file transfer to/from a PC.