Dust off your old Palm, someone just made a Twitter client for it

[Shawn Knight]

In context: PDAs like those from Handspring were the precursors to modern smartphones. This particular variant appears to be the Deluxe model which featured a 3.0-inch, four-bit grayscale display, a 20MHz Motorola processor and 8MB of RAM. Ahh, much simpler times.

There’s something oddly endearing about running modern apps on legacy hardware, and that’s again evident in this creation from Twitter user @JorgeWritesCode.

The engineer recently managed to develop a Twitter client for his Handspring Visor personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile computing relic that’s over 20 years old at this point. Jorge said the software is still kind of buggy, adding that tasks like tweeting and liking are still a work in progress, but that he’s “pretty happy with it.”

I... I... I think I built a Twitter client for Palm OS 😅 pic.twitter.com/UAdiWQOXPS

— Jorge (@JorgeWritesCode) March 10, 2021

Jorge is the first to admit that “no one asked for it” and “no one really needs it.” That’s true, but it’s neat nevertheless, and we’re glad it exists.

Handspring put out roughly half a dozen Visor models between 1999 and 2001 before shifting gears to the Treo line. In 2003, Handspring merged with Palm and the rest, as they say, is history.

Found is a TechSpot feature where we share clever, funny or otherwise interesting stuff from around the web.
Masthead courtesy mariajuarez

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/88908-dust-off-old-pda-because-someone-made-twitter.html

 

[Chemicalfaerie]

I swear. Doing **** just for the sake of doing it is the heart of creation. I was on a MC server the other day and the guy literally found a way to allow his mods to be upgraded through different versions because everyone told him it couldn't be done and his response was, "Is it impossible because it really is or because no one wanted to put in the work and do it."

 

[Chemicalfaerie]

I swear. Doing **** just for the sake of doing it is the heart of creation. I was on a MC server the other day and the guy literally found a way to allow his mods to be upgraded through different versions because everyone told him it couldn't be done and his response was, "Is it impossible because it really is or because no one wanted to put in the work and do it."

Really? You censor stuff? I didn't know this was a Christian site.

 

[punctualturn]

Really? You censor stuff? I didn't know this was a Christian site.

Dont know about the religion part, but I supposed is done to keep it clean.

 

[punctualturn]

I am still surprised how some companies simply die after having a massive lead in a market.

Then again, they are run by humans, but the mistakes are simply insane.

Examples, see Palm, Atari, Commodore, 3DFX, SGI and the list goes on and on.

 

[stewi0001]

I am still surprised how some companies simply die after having a massive lead in a market.

Then again, they are run by humans, but the mistakes are simply insane.

Examples, see Palm, Atari, Commodore, 3DFX, SGI and the list goes on and on.

There are obviously different factors that led to the demise of all the brands/companies you have listed.

My theory for todays age in America (at least), is that it seems like a lot of small businesses seem to build up enough until the owner can sell out to a larger entity instead of trying to grow their business.

 

[psycros]

My Treo had every messenger imaginable. Same for my Blackberry phones. And they ran much better on those devices than they do on Android.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Really? You censor stuff? I didn't know this was a Christian site.

Just use the word "crap". Basically no one censors that word and it has the equivalent meaning.

 

[Kosmoz]

No sane person cares about twatter.

 

[veLa]

Really? You censor stuff? I didn't know this was a Christian site.

Yeah, it's pretty weak, right?

 

[toooooot]

With twitter on it I have only one purpose for it, throw it away.

 

[scavengerspc]

Dust off your old Palm

I don't know. There is just something, strange about that.

 

[PlantPanda]

I swear. Doing **** just for the sake of doing it is the heart of creation. I was on a MC server the other day and the guy literally found a way to allow his mods to be upgraded through different versions because everyone told him it couldn't be done and his response was, "Is it impossible because it really is or because no one wanted to put in the work and do it."

"The only difference between science and screwing around is writing it down."
-Alex Jason

This is science.

 

[GeforcerFX]

None of my Palm OS devices are that old, I think all of mine except one of my Sony Clies is running Palm OS 5.

 

[Irata]

I am still surprised how some companies simply die after having a massive lead in a market.

Then again, they are run by humans, but the mistakes are simply insane.

Examples, see Palm, Atari, Commodore, 3DFX, SGI and the list goes on and on.

Could be because someone made a - in retrospect - really bad decision while someone else simultaneously made a really good decision. Luck - good and bad - also plays a part.

Another factor is that success can be dangerous if it leads to complacency. If what you are doing works fine and brings in lots of revenue, why try something different...until suddenly your cash cow runs dry and the market has passed you. Creative destruction is a thing it appears.

 

[amghwk]

I used to have Palm One or something like that. Can't remember the actual model or name. I remember playing Bejeweled on it.