Exhibit A: Palm IIIxe circa 2000. Still functional.
At work today, my co-workers and I got into one of my favorite discussions: what the hell is the difference between the Generations and why I am on a quest to elucidate the Oregon Trail Generation. This of course, brought up the whole analog/digital age gap that is one of the primary defining features that distinguishes Gen X from Millennials (and therefore, the OTG).
The OTG very clearly remembers using both the card catalog AND the internet to do research papers for school. We can recall the days BEFORE everyone had a cell phone (when my dad has a CAR PHONE holy cow were we living in THE FUTURE, man). We lived in an era when we straddled the paper/pencil and touchscreen interface... a time that included THE STYLUS. Something tells me many twenty-somethings weren't old enough to appreciate devices that require the chopsticks of digital input.
Exhibit B: Pilot Pentopia with pen, pencil and stylus all-in-one, circa 2001.
Yes, I had the obligatory Game Boy that required the add-on light source for those dark nights on car road trips and the strap-on fanny pack full of little Mario and Donkey Kong cartridges and extra friggen batteries (sometimes rechargeable ones OMG). But I, as the gadget queen I was (and still am), once begged my dad to buy me a Palm Pilot. Because THAT was the "grown up" Game Boy. It was a Personal Digital Assistant for pete's sake. It used this esoteric "Graffiti" method of handwriting recognition so you could scribble into it and it converted your scratchings to typed letters. You could "beam" shit between devices with the infrared port. And it had a *gasp* built-in LCD backlight. So fancypants. I argued that I could use it to keep track of homework and take notes in class... but my friends and I just ended up fighting over who got to play Minesweeper.
I did eventually buy a better PDA for college and a folding keyboard to go with it. Once, when I busted out that baby to take notes in my History of Journalism class at UF, the professor came over and nodded at it, saying something along the lines of "Whoa, snazzy high-tech dingus you got there" and he didn't mean it ironically. Awe yeah, I was killing this whole modern student thing.... not having to lug my Powerbook to class. HaHA!
So, remembering all this, I came home and ferreted through my closeted boxes of treasures and found a handful of old devices I never could throw away. It's like a mini museum of shit most millennials won't remember using. Some actually still work.
CHECK IT:
Exhibit C: The Game Boy Pocket, circa 1996. Still functional.
Exhibit D: Samsung BlackJack 2, circa 2007.
Still has THREE BATTERY BARS after years of being stowed away.
Unbelievable.
Exhibit E: Handspring Visor Edge and Palm Tungsten E, circa 2001. Totally dead.
Great for taking notes in college.
Exhibit F: Apple iPod Touch Gen 1, circa 2007. Functional.
Exhibit G: THE original Apple iPod Gen 1, circa 2001. Apple iPod Mini, circa 2004. Dead to the world.
Pièce de résistance.
Dude, I can remember the day I got that damn iPod. It was the first year of college, right around Thanksgiving--an early X-mas gift to myself. It was so beautiful. The shiny metal backing was the perfect mirror and people loved taking pictures of things reflected in it and posting it on this one super dorky website, iPodLounge.com (it's now iLounge.com). I listened to my first podcasts on that thing while it was clipped to my belt. I could put all my ripped CDs on it. I still use an iPod Classic because I love the thumb-friendly interface for scrolling through zillions of playlists. Because they don't make the Classics anymore, I will DIE the day it finally goes kaput. Oy.
There you have it, chilluns. The olden days of digital mobile devices. You're welcome.