So, the precursor of the Pipboy?
There were pip boys in fallout 1, no? That was '97
Edit: I just engaged my imagination and realized you might mean the precursor in our timeline
Going to the comments is always a humbling experience. I literally had your exact train of thought before I opened the comments lol
For warehouse workers right?
I’ve seen devices just like this in picking warehouses, usually attached to a finger-worn scanner.
Yup, I had one while working at FedEx. It was pretty neat - I would pretend it was a raygun when I didn’t have any packages coming down the line.
I did that too!
You can at least describe your previous work experience as ‘corporate cyborg with finger laser’.
Pew pew!
You can see the cable going to the finger scanner in the picture, too
God, these things get uncomfortable after a bit. And they smell. We would pull them of the rack and they would still be wet with the previous shift’s sweat.
What are/were they used for?
I used them when I worked in warehousing in recieving and in picking. They also had a scanner module that was worn on a finger and connected to the device. They were neat at first but they never cleaned or replaced the straps and everybody sweats.
Well, not Bruce Lee
Porn
You guys were doing it wrong. ¯\(°_o)/¯ We had these devices in hip-holsters that would attach to a belt, which of course had a few of its own caveats, but it was free-swinging at all times. Plenty of airflow. No smelly, sweaty equipment except for possibly the handheld scanners that went with them.
“Looks a lot older.”
No, it doesn’t.
Colour screens on mobile started becoming a thing in the early years of the 00’s. I think my first colour phone was in 2002, a tiny resolution, and it was rather bougie tbh compared to the phones my classmates had.
And this in Finland, so we were a bit ahead when it came to getting mobiles.
That does seem a bit ahead. I remember being excited about different color backlights around 2004, maybe.
Yeah, it was right when it hit the market. We weren’t rich, so having one bougie item others were jealous of was kinda fun for a change.
It was the improved model of a Nokia 3510, 3510i. This is a rare thing, but you’ll have to translate the article as Wikipedia didn’t have an English article on that. Oh it was marketed as the Nokia 3595 in the States, announced in 2003.
So yeah, this post is one of those “ohgodimold” feels because the current generations views on how old things from my childhood look like are coming out.
Hell, one day someone guessed my age. They guessed “a bit shy of 40?” and at first I was offended but then I remembered they are technically correct and it was rather depressing of a feeling. “No, haha of course I’m not… wait… yeah, actually… that is correct (screaming internally).”
The first color phones were also small and didn’t have a screen that looked more like a black and green computer monitor from the 1970’s. This things design looks closer to a calculator watch from the 1980’s than it does from a phone today.
Genuinely no offense, but were you actually there in the early noughts? Like with enough age to have a cognition about what went around you?
Because I have a few things here which would disagree with you.
How does would this fit that description of yours?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9210_Communicator
Colour screen, not that small a device
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9500_Communicator
2004 model
I’m old enough that I had one of the wristwatch calculators back in the 80’s. We’d put stuff on layaway at Kmart and if you owned a cell phone it’s because you were like a lawyer or something and it had to be carried in a bag, so most of us had pagers, or nothing.
Yes. I remember the stuff in your links. Notice the colors are more than green and black. Also, those weren’t popular devices, either. It was all about the Motorola razr back in 2004. It stayed that way, or you had a blackberry until android and iphones started to come out around 2008, for the most part. It was fun watching phones get smaller and smaller and smaller, and then bigger and bigger and bigger.
The first color phones were also small and didn’t have a screen that looked more like a black and green computer monitor from the 1970’s.
Communicators aren’t small, and the “black and green screen” is the non-colour version.
These look remarkably similar to the wrist device, and definitely aren’t small.
Yeah, they were for pretentious businessmen. But also, I am from Finland, and they were much more popular here in Europe whereas they were a niche item in the US markets.
I kind clearly said I’m from Finland and we were a bit ahead in these things, what with Nokia and all.
HTC Dream came out in 2008 and looks like this
Also rather similar to the image in the original post.
Except the keyboard stayed hidden away until you flipped it out. That was the first android phone. My first smartphone came out the following year and flipped out the other direction. The Samsung Moment. Also, both were much smaller than the wrist monstrosity that warehouse workers used.
The Dream was also codeveloped by one of the people behind the Danger Hiptop (T-Mobile Sidekick in the US). Which is why the Dream resembles the Hiptop line.
Did some time in a warehouse that had wrist mounted scanners like these. Had a little laser that also velcro’d to your fingers for easy scanning. Granted it was just so you could move boxes like a mule without dropping your scanner anywhere, but it was amusing to use while fallout 4 had just released. The conveyer even sounded just like the vault doors every time it started… Was prime low-key larping time.
Looks like the thing Turunga Leela wears
“I’ll just look it up on my wristlojackimator”
Her first name’s Turanga??
Yes
Motorola made the wrist LoJack-a-mater?!
Diy cyberdecks are definitely a thing. Hell, just strap a smartphone to your arm and you’re 90% of the way there.
That’s literally what the Fallout 4 collectors edition Pip Boy was. Essentially a ‘case’ you put your phone in then wear. It also had an app that connected to the game as well and let you change gear and take meds, etc.
Not sold after 2013 is overstating it a bit. The current equivalent is the Zebra WT6300, but you could probably build your own for less than 10% of the price.
Yep, the only reason Motorola stopped producing them is because Motorola sold that business out to Zebra. Hell, zebra still supports the 4000, the 6300 is quite literally just a newer version.
Same deal with the MC33 scanner. My warehouse has an assortment of Zebra and Moto branded devices and Zebra handles servicing them all. Embedded industrial PCs don’t change much.
Orbital strike inbound!!
It’s Windows CE. Unless you like to be frustrated, don’t bother. I used Windows Mobile 5/6, which was fairly similar, and that was an exercise in patience at the best of times.
Not too long ago, I had to deal with CE/win mobile again for some symbol terminals and holy hell, nothing has changed.
If you want to have an idea of how bad it is, blend Windows 8’s metro start menu/settings interface with Windows 3.1 visual styles and you won’t be too far off, just add in pretty much everything you hated from every version of Windows…
It suuuuucccccccks
In the specs it says it’s upgradable to Android 16, so I think you can use your own OS.
Yep. I had a Vadem Clio, which was fucking awesome in terms of unique and usable form factor, but it ran CE, which sucked ass. I still used the hell out of it just for drawing and writing though.
I had a Dell axim x51v, which was a PDA that I personally bought for myself, prior to when smartphones were a thing.
At the time I was tinkering with my own exchange server and had it synced to my exchange server (over wireless b) to keep track of classes in college and stuff. I had a metal case for it and everything… I think it still works, but I have no idea where it is now. Since security has marched forwards at a steady pace, I’m sure that the unit would be less than useful to do the same today since it wouldn’t support the encryption used today.
It also had a contact list with all my friends and family’s email, phone numbers and stuff in it, so I could look someone up, then call them on my flip phone.
The calendar was by far the most useful. I had one small device (by the standards of that era), which told me when my classes were, what building and room they were in, etc.
I was the nerd carrying a flip phone, PDA, and laptop, around the campus. Took notes on my laptop, used my PDA for scheduling, and my phone for calling/texting. The only paper I carried were course books.
I vaguely remember the Dell PDAs. Didn’t they run their own custom OS?
I had a couple of early PDAs. I had a Newton MessagePad 120, which I really loved. I used it to take notes in college all the time. But the screen cracked one in my backpack one day, despite the plastic protector, and I couldn’t afford another one.
A while later, I had a PalmPilot. I want to say a III, but I can’t remember. I didn’t love it, especially the fact that any additional software I might have wanted cost a huge amount of money for a tiny selection, but I got so good at Palm Graffiti that I can still remember every character. I don’t think I had another PDA until the smartphone era.
I always liked PDAs, a friend of mine got a palm pilot before I picked up the axim, and I was envious.
I liked the exchange sync as I was able to charge my device while actively syncing to my experimental exchange server, and interacting with that account via Outlook on my PC.
One thing I can say about Microsoft is that they know how to centrally manage independent systems. Between active directory and exchange, you can manage about 60% of your digital life by policy. That’s exactly what I did. Made day to day interactions really simple. I also used reoccurring events for classes, and it was super easy to set the time and day-of-the-week for a class, then have it repeat once a week for 20-26 weeks. The events literally stopped when classes were over, and I always knew when and where to be on campus. I migrated the information when I moved everything to Google calendar, when that became a thing. I still have, in my calendar, all my college classes, dates, times, and what room each was in, in my calendar to this day.
I could look up emails, as long as I received them before coming to school, and reference them for classmates, whether about classes and changes to class schedules or if it was a notice from the faculty or something. The axim got me to classes on time consistently and kept me moving. It was particularly helpful when trying to decide what to do after class with friends as I could quickly look up what came next, when, and where we had to be.
Now smartphones do all that.
Even still, it was interesting and kind of nice to have a dedicated device to organize with, independent of distractions like social media.
Not quite the same, but many years pre the current tablet era, Fujitsu had its Stylistic line of pen-based tablets running Windows OSes and I wanted one so badly, but I couldn’t afford one. I think their current line of tablets is still called Stylistic, but they’re not special anymore.
There are also smartphone arm- and wristband holders. Usually marketed towards sport activities, but if you just want that pip-boy-esque experience…
Buzz Lightyear to Space Command. Come in Space Command
