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by macdice
724 days ago
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I had various Psion models in the 90s. Several of the people involved in the design of those things went to do modern-ish devices with Psion series 5-style keyboards, including the Cosmo Communicator. I was curious enough to back the Astro Slide 5G project, which attempted to "reverse the clamshell" to make a device with Psion series 5-style keyboard that closes to resemble a modern standard all-screen rectangular slab. It appears to have gone horribly wrong during final manufacturing at a Chinese factory that closed down during COVID, with thousands of IndieGoGo backers not having received their Astro Slide devices after several years (I am one). A shame. Anyway this article shows the Psion 5 and the Communicator side-by-side. That's a way out of date device now running ancient Android on a slow CPU, and sadly the refresh project seems to have died on the vine :-( https://www.zdnet.com/product/cosmo-communicator/ [Edited for typos] |
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I used the original Planet Computers device with psion-like keyboard, the Gemini, as my daily driver for a few years. The keyboard was no gimmick - it really felt like a quasi mini-laptop. A brilliant device, even considering the weak cpu (as compared to similarly priced phones)
Such a shame ...
(btw, had a psion 2, psion 3, psion 5 & sharp zaurus back in the day, so you can say I'm a sucker for these things)