PenPad was my iPad 1.0

Date February 23, 2010

In the mid-Nineties, when the Filofax was battling with Lotus Organizer for the title of King of the PIMs; as the PC industry was blooming and before the days of Apple Stores, a device so cool it was like something from science fiction began to get some buzz. The Apple Newton.

Of course, there was no way I could afford one of these mythical things, so I opted for the next best thing: the Amstrad PenPad. In January 1995, when an Apple Newton was weighing in at around £700 (a lot of money for an underpaid IT Manager!) the Amstrad PenPad could be had for less than £100. You get what you pay for, and for reasons that will become clear, it was consigned to the bottom of my work bag within a month of purchase.

The spec on this thing was amazing. For a handheld device. Of the time. Boasting 40 hours battery life, handwriting recognition for calendar, contacts, tasks, meeting notes and Other Things, the PenPad had a capacity of 330 full pages of addresses (“Full” pages, mind you!) or 6000 diary entries.

You could expand the storage (to a whopping 2mb) via a PCMCIA slot on the underside; but you were only able to write to the internal storage or the PCMCIA card; there was no dual usage. There was no wifi, so sharing was done manually – in other words: you printed stuff via the serial cable interface on the top.

The first time I turned up to a meeting packing my PenPad, my colleagues were green with envy… until, that is,  I actually tried to take notes. The handwriting recognition system still didn’t recognise my handwriting, despite hours of supposed training to get it to do just that. I’d input all of my contacts and thought the crappy recognition was all part of the device’s learning process!

After retraining the thing twice more, and even going as far as to adapt my handwriting in an effort to suit, it just wasn’t working and my Penpad’s days were numbered.

Despite it’s failings, I’ve kept it, boxed with manual and handy multi-language help stickers since then! (What can I tell you? I’m a pack rat – which is why I’ve still got a boxed copy of Windows v1.03, too!)

OK, I’ve shared my “dodgy gadget purchase” story; it’s time for you to ‘fess up and share yours – even if you bought the Sega 32x.

(thanks to China Guccio for the Newton photo, used under Creative Commons)

Category Posted in Apple, gadgets, tech

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