THE COLLECTION

Welcome to MoboDojo’s Collection of rare and legacy mobile systems. In reality, this is my personal collection and I will give as much detail as I can regarding them. Unlike most collections, however, I use mine. I love using my old gear, and wouldn’t collect it if I didn’t. So, browse away and enjoy. I will add more systems as we acquire them.

NOTE: I have now activated commenting, so reminisce away!

IBM ThinkPad 701c “Butterfly”

This is a super cool lappy as it is unique. This system features a scissor-folding keyboard which allows the overall case to be smaller than the typing area. When you open the lid it actuates a gear which causes the two halves of the keyboard to scissor out and come together. The keyboard is wider and taller than the laptop itself. Its really cool to see, and if I can find a good video, I’ll embed it. The collection piece currently does not have an operating system installed on it as I do not have the optional floppy drive or a PCMCIA CD-ROM drive from which to install an OS.

One unique “feature” of the 701c is its hard drive. My guess is that, in an effort to make it more compact, the designers eschewed the typical ATA drive interface and used an embedded PCMCIA interface. The drive comes with special PCMCIA Type-I interface head which, while very similar to the mini-ATA interfaces on todays drives, is not compatible. As such, I’ve been tempted to try connecting a 5GB PCMCIA drive I have.

• Cyrus’s ThinkPad 701 Page
• IBM ThinkPad Butterfly keyboard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Apple PowerBook 3400c

At one time, the 3400c was the fastest laptop in the world for approximately six months. That may no longer be the case, but its still a killer machine. The back of the display bezel is so large because it houses an actual subwoofer! Yeah! Subwoofer!! This didn’t improve audio quality all that much, but it does sound a lot better than other laptops of the day. This particular one is the 180MHz PowerPC 603ev variant with 144MBs of RAM, the physical maximum. I’ve comfortably run it on MacOS 9.1. While sitting in coffee bars, I’ve received numerous nods of appreciation for the design as people just walk by.

Apple PowerBook 5300cs NEW!

I just added this to the Collection. The 5300 series was supposed to be a turning point in PowerBook design for Apple, but its greatest claim to fame is that it burst into flames due to a faulty battery and bad power management board design. This unit is the top-end 117MHz PowerPC 603e model with 32MBs of RAM installed and a 1.1GB hard drive. Its currently running MacOS 8.6, but I will likely wipe it and install MacOS 7.6.1 instead, which will better utilize the system’s resources

Apple iBook Original

This is the first ever iBook, which comes in that funky Bondi “blue” (its more like a green). The one I have is the Orange model. This is not a very functional system, and Apple even recognized that because they unveiled an updated version less than three months later. The one I have right now doesn’t work correctly, but when I get the time I’ll hammer out the issues. The model in the collection is the first model which sports a 300MHz PowerPC 750 CPU, 32MBs of on-board RAM, and a 3.2GB hard drive. This unit is currently not functional.

Toshiba Tecra T2200SX

This is an 80386sx-based lappy running at 20MHz and sporting a whopping 10MBs of RAM and a 200GB hard drive. Despite its seemingly ridiculously minute capabilities, it runs OS/2 2.1 quite well. The collection model was upgraded from the base 2MBs of RAM with an PCMCIA-like 8MB expansion card which slides into a slot on the top right, under the display and above the keyboard. The original units came with 20, 40, and 80MB hard drives. Likely one of the most amazing aspects of this little guy is that you can pick up replacement NiMH batteries for it from about 30+ vendors online. Wow! Talk about staying power!

Apple Mac Classic

This system is a 68000-based all-in-one device modeled after the very first Macintosh from 1984 and shipped from 1990 to 1992. Mine is in near-mint condition and even comes in the original box with the foam inserts and plastic bag! It running System 7.0.1 right now, but I will be restoring it to its original System 6.0.7 for historical and Collection purposes. The system came with 1MB of RAM, a 20MB hard drive, and sports a 512×342 1-bit 9″ display. This particular model is, according to Apple History, “…was more or less a reissue of the Mac Plus.”

The MoboDojo Apple Newton MessagePad Collection

This is a special part of the collection which consists of most of the models ever produced in the Newton PDA line. Sadly, the Newton was mostly maligned and, by the time it reached its real potential, people no longer cared to make fun of it and iCEO Steve Jobs decided to axe the recently spun-off Newton division. The MessagePad line may have died a horrible death, but it still lives through nerds like myself and Apple’s own iPhone and iPod Touch devices. In the Collection we have the following models and accessories:

• MessagePad 110
• MessagePad 120 (x2)
• MessagePad 130
• MessagePad 2000
• eMate 300
• Apple Newton 33.6k Modem (x2)
• Apple MP130 Leather Case
• Apple MP2000/2100 Leather Case
• Apple MessagePad Keyboard
• Assorted PCMCIA Flash RAM cards
• All Apple software

NEC MobilePro 770 & 800

Sporting Microsoft’s mostly anemic Windows CE operating system, these NEC devices represented some of the best of the “clamshell” type Handheld PC (also known as HPC) systems. In fact, I acquired my MP800 new in its box about a year ago and still use it today.

The primary difference between these two models is that the MP770 sports a 640×280, 16-bit color display, where the MP800 features a more laptop-like 800×600, 16-bit color display. I can even plug in a USB mouse to the MP800.

One of the cool things about these devices is that they are able to run versions of NetBSD which are specifically compiled for their CPUs. Sadly, they don’t last too long on the battery when running NetBSD. Windows CE is really, really good about conserving power.

The PDAs In My Life

I have a rather large number of PDAs which I have collected over the years. This list is incomplete, though I will be updating it as I find them and verify their status. Here’s what I can remember off the top of my head:

• Palm T|X
• Palm M505
• Palm Zire 22
• Tapwave Zodiac 1
• Sharp Zaurus SL-5600
• RIM Blackberry 7209
• RIM Blackberry 7100t
• Casio EG-800
• Nokia 770 Internet Tablet (not really a PDA)
• Dell Axim X5
• Samsung i500 Palm Phone
• Palm Treo 700wx

In my opinion, PDAs are likely one of the best expressions of programming skill. They are small, and portable, yet they must give the user a wide range of capabilities and they must be stable. Good PDAs are upgradeable and expandable, both in hardware and software. Its not easy to do this. Consider both Micosoft’s and Palm’s difficulties in creating PDAs which don’t need to be rebooted all the time. Palm has done better, but not by much (and it depends on who you speak to).

My Wish List

Like all, there have been systems which I have dearly coveted, some for a very long time, others only within the last 10 years. Here’s my wish list of coveted objects:

• An Amiga, whichever the last model of real Amigas were which incorporated the keyboard into the CPU case, the A1200. I’ve always wanted to goof off in the Amiga OS.
• A Tandy Zoomer or its Casio counterpart. This was out a year or so before Apple’s Newton MessagePad 100 and its not really a PDA, but more a touchscreen handheld computer. Very cool but also very maligned and not considered a hit.
• A Poqet PC (preferably the Plus model). Kick ass little DOS machines in a sleek little lappy-like clamshell form factor.

There are others, which I will add over time.