pushedxApr 2024Recommends
Right, it was ex-Palm employees at Handspring that created the Treo. Nice documentary about this with interviews: ▶ this video
in “PumpkinOS, a Re-Implementation of PalmOS” · View on HN
Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone (Full Documentary)
Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone (Full Documentary) on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 2 separate months, 2022–2025.
The Verge
Open on YouTubedocumentary · evergreen
The Verge's documentary on Handspring and its Treo, a smartphone that came a decade before the iPhone. It tells how a small team tried to build the modern smartphone and was held back by carriers and timing.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as an interview-rich history of Handspring, Palm OS and why telcos hurt early smartphones.
- people recommended it
- 3
- separate months
- 2
- strong recommendations
- 0
- discussed on HN
- 2022–2025
“Nice documentary about this with interviews”
What HN commenters said
6 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
throwaway74354Apr 2024Recommends
Handspring documentary by the Verge had an interesting perspective on the matter: ▶ this video (I'm bad at cropping YouTube videos. The part in question is [12:53 - 14:30])
in “Palm OS and the devices that ran it” · View on HN
roywigginsFeb 2022Recommends
Calling it a Palm clone isn't really fair, it was developed by the team that founded Palm, Inc in the first place. [link] I thought this documentary about Handspring was interesting, and it also comes to the conclusion that the problem was at least mostly the telcos. ▶ this video
in “IBM Simon” · View on HN
WorldPeasApr 2025Cites it
Worse yet it's the only effective way to sync music to the iphone over a wired cable. I can tell they've abandoned their USB sync software because of how annoying the dialogs are when you plug your phone in and don't authenticate to start it, additionally that thay've (likely intentionally to push I-cloud) never added automatic usb photo sync from phone to computer. This probably all originated from when Apple shifted their convergence model from all around the desktop to all around the phone¹ [1] ▶ this video
in “But what if I want a faster horse?” · View on HN
bonytApr 2024Cites it
I've heard blame partially put on carriers - they initially resisted even carrying the Treo line without putting limits on what Handspring could do with it. Apple had the iPod - and, crucially, customers - could bring these customers to the carriers, and so they could dictate more. ▶ this video (the part I'm referencing is about 20 minutes in).
in “PumpkinOS, a Re-Implementation of PalmOS” · View on HN
BoorishBearsOct 2022Cites it
Apple is indeed the driving force that improved "targeted advertising, media consumption and unnecessary services subscription" compared to the old "Open the Web Browser and Owe 10 dollars" days by leveraging their iTunes userbase. Android would not even have launched without the iPhone breaking down those doors, you can hear it first hand from the Handspring/PalmOS/WebOS folks: ▶ this video
in “Google is forcing us to make our open source VoIP app worse” · View on HN
Topics & tags
Tech company stories & documentariesConsumer devices & gadgetsHistory of computinghandspringtreopalm ossmartphone historythe verge