Wearable computing breakthrough

I would wear that. As long as it didn’t have an LCD screen.

Do MicroSD cards count?

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So does anyone have a scan of the actual magazine/article? The cover image is cute, but I want to know what they were saying.

Digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

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It’s amazing that they managed to fit a Qwerty keyboard in such a tiny space.

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Further proof that the Boingers don’t much look at the BBS - and missing the Time article that goes with it…

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clearly the vision of the future was REALLY BIG HANDS.

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Microsoft had a data watch…it would synch to your computer via a optical sensor…“lines” on the screen would flash like a barcode flash and the watch would suck up the data sent.

Casio also had a data bank watch…that had limited computer interface (in some versions) and full keyboard on the watch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_Databank

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Really big hands, and odd sausage-like fingers. There should be more creases in a finger bent like that.

yeah, oh well. :slight_smile: kinda funny because I’m the opposite, i spend more time on the BBS then the front page myself these days.

I’m just happy to see others admire the same awesome watch, i still really want one, but i’m a huge fan of retro-futurism. i love all things from future past.

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Byte Magazine! I remember being sooo proud of getting a client on the front cover (right hand corner) and it was a publication my parents back in the midwest could buy on the news stand.

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I had the early Casio Databank and in fact I’m wearing a version right now!

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Did you ever have an 8 inch floppy? I did. It was the “Boot disk” I accidently overwrote it trying to create a new one. A very scary painful night until a friend saved my bacon. Back in those days you couldn’t just get a new boot disk downloaded from some website!

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I loved my Casio Databank. from tonight’s post on BB I see there are still version available.

http://www.casio-usa.com/products/Watches/Databank/

Unfortunately…“Why?” cell phones have taken the place of a ‘data watch’ you have your phone book, notebook, reminders, GPS, along with web browsing and posting in one device—that also as a side effect seems to make and receive telephone calls.

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Robert Tinney used to do all the cool Byte covers. I was a cheap bastard and would always read it at the public library. BTW Tinney sells shirts with some of his art.
http://www.tinney.net/t-shirts/index.htm

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Note that this cover image is a snark.

BYTE was not a gushy Popular Mechanics type of zine catering to wide-eyed gadget freaks.

The artist is having fun with theme future computing, and BYTE’s audience would get the joke.

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Wasn’t this an April Fool’s joke cover?

What is this, a keyboard for ants?

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Did I ever have an 8 inch floppy? Of course! I still have a few, each from a different system and utterly incompatible with each other, much less anything modern. Cromemco CDOS, Radio Shack TRS-80 Model II, U of Arizona Forth, PDP-11 RT-11, etc.

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The Byte magazine in question is readable on archive.org, bless their hearts.

https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1981-04/1981_04_BYTE_06-04_Future_Computers#page/n0/mode/2up

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