As I was digging through some backup CDs I stumbled onto this little gem from my General Magic days. MagicHTTP was a web server I built in early 1996 that ran on Magic Cap personal communicators. Not a web browser, but a web server. You could easily create pages on your communicator that others could view with any web browser. Additionally, the server would translate Magic Cap text styles into HTML tags.
Operating System: Magic Cap 3.x (Rosemary), small screen version
Pros: Half the size of other units, fantastic keyboard.
Cons: Small screen, no PC Card slots, no backlight, no rechargeable battery.
History Zodiac is the most dramatic Magic Cap prototype by far. It was built as a proof of concept, showing off Magic Cap in a clamshell form factor, and also the potential for reduced screen sizes. The case and keyboard are from a Sharp Zaurus, but the guts inside are all custom.
Operating System: Magic Cap 3.x (Rosemary)
Pros: Simply enchanting paint job, second-generation guts, backlit screen.
Cons: Fragile prototype plastics.
History As mentioned in the DataRover 840 history, the Apollo prototypes came in some fascinating colors. Oki, their creator, wasn’t shy. The Apollo pictured here features a lavender case, pink option buttons, and a pea green screen cover. It’s the only device I considered photographing with the screen cover closed.
Thanks to Alasdair Dunlap-Smith for writing this FAQ entry.
Many people (myself included) have reported problems installing packages on the Datarover 840F. It seems lately many people have gotten Datarover 840F’s cheap and brand-new on eBay – problem is, they all seem to have pre-release ROMs, which are incompatible with connectivity software such as WinPCLink and Josh Carter’s package mailer. As Josh has said, the only hardware different between the Datarover 840 and 840F is the 840F’s use of flash ROMs, which can be upgraded. The solution to this would be to try and re-flash the Datarover’s ROM with a newer release version. The problem is “How?” Well, that’s what I’m going to try to lay out in detail.
Operating System: Magic Cap 3.x (Rosemary)
Pros: Clamshell design, hardware keyboard, screen folds completely back for tablet-like use.
Cons: Lame keyboard, no PC Card slot, somewhat lame NiMH battery.
History Gemini was born to be the commercial version of the Zodiac clamshell prototype. Unfortunately, it suffered in the shadow of Zodiac, taking its flaws but not its advantages. The thought in management was, “we’re going to make Zodiac a real product.
Operating System: Magic Cap 3 (Rosemary)
Pros: Good screen with cover, great battery, second-generation guts.
Cons: Not many.
History The saga of getting a second-gen production device seemed to never end. Licensees of Magic Cap 1.x (Sony, Motorola, Matsushita) gave up waiting for 3.0 to appear and went home. One licensee who wanted Magic Cap 2.0 was told 3.0 was “just around the corner–hold on!” but of course it wasn’t, so they gave up, too.
Operating System: Magic Cap 3 (Rosemary)
Pros: Manly paint job. Same fit and finish as PIC1000, but custom second-gen guts inside.
Cons: Same awful screen as as PIC1000.
History Sputnik is distinctive, you must give it that. There were two color schemes: pink and purple. The custom was that pink ones ran the US English build of Magic Cap, whereas purple ran the Japan build. I don’t know if the colors were meant to challenge the masculinity of certain Magic Cap engineers, or just to dissuade people from stealing them.
I wrote the New Programmer's Survival Manual to help programmers succeed in the industry. Available direct from Pragmatic Bookshelf and Amazon.com, or read more about it here.
