I sometimes see retro computing posts on here. I have no interest in old Commodore 64s or game consoles, but a while ago I bought a second hand Palm m105 and reminded myself how much I loved mine.
When they were current, I badly wanted a Psion series 3 or 5. I recently managed to get a series 3 and 3a for reasonable prices. They're impressive machines.
I would like to find a real-world use case for at least some of these PDAs. I'm not sure yet what that might be.
@jwo There have been *many* attempts and all appear to fall short because they keep targeting vibes rather than engineering. A modern “digital typewriter” like the Zerowriter (https://zerowriter.ink) is infinitely outclassed by a 90s #Alphasmart DANA (https://mateuszurbanowicz.com/2022/06/29/retro-writing-10-alphasmart-dana) in every measure. Like all things, _we are going backwards_. The #PocketMage (https://pocketmage.org) is interesting as a homebrew device but it’s still light years away from even a #Psion 3
#alphasmart #pocketmage #writingcommunity #retrocomputing #psion
@atomicpoet Slides into the seat next to you and opens my Psion 5mx with its award-winning smooth hinge mechanism. Its 48MHz ARM chip is both powerful and power efficient, the whole device can run for 20 hours on just two AA batteries. The keyboard is full-travel and despite its size, it provides the best typing experience for a palmtop computer, bar none. The screen is a stunningly high density 640x240 pixels with 16 shades of grey and an electroluminescent backlight sandwiched along with the touchscreen. I press the side of the device and the stylus cooly springs out from its integrated spring-lock storage. This is a portable writing and calendaring battlestation and it has never been beaten in 25 years.
One of my hobbies (one of many) is working with #psion #pda devices, the community that exists around them is a wonderful combination of conservation, #techno-archaeology and experimental development. It also involves quite a bit of glue/epoxy.
For example in the last 24hrs someone unearthed a Japanese website on modding the Psion Revo and someone else found a source forge site with a Linux based app to convert the calendar and contacts to a more usable format, from 2001. This will then feed into @jbmorley ReConnect which is a modern sync app for MacOS.
Also there has been loads of work on getting different psion ROMs working on MAME which is absolutely amazing. Lots of recovery old devices and dumping the roms.
There was a very vibrant Psion community back in the day which has been scattered and we are slowly re-exploring the digital wasteland that is the internet, it's crazy as some websites still are hosted from 25yrs ago.
Anyway I'm having fun
My 1993 Psion Series 3a Palmtop Computer Makes a Comeback: https://cliff538.com/2026/02/23/my-psion-series-a-palmtop.html
Updated post with links to purchase refurbished models, software to access Psion from your computer, and cables needed.
I'm actually compiling these Psion apps without DOSBox.
I'm using #emu2 as a wrapper for the TopSpeed Compiler. Its project system calls the various tools in the #Psion SIBO C SDK.
If anyone already has the SDK and wants to try compiling EPOC16 apps from the Linux terminal (or your OS of choice - *BSD, macOS and Haiku should all work), this is the script I'm using. Modify it to suit your needs:
Russell Phillips
Kroc Camen
Cyningstan
smallsolar
cliff538
squelch41
The Last Psion | Alex#! /bin/sh
EMU2_DEFAULT_DRIVE=P EMU2_DRIVE_C=~/dosbox/sibo-c/ EMU2_DRIVE_P=~/psion/ exec emu2 ~/dosbox/sibo-c/TS/SYS/TSC.EXE $@ -- 'PATH=C:\BIN;C:\SIBOSDK\INCLUDE\;C:\SIBOSDK\SYS;C:\SIBOSDK\LIB;C:\TS\SYS'
My Psion projects are mapped to P: in DOSBox, so I've mirrored that here.
Annoyingly, this won't work with my new SDK tools, such as the new #CTRAN. emu2 can only handle 16-bit DOS apps, and CTRAN-ng will only compile for 32-bit DOS. If you have an app that needs CTRAN, you'd either need to run it directly from Linux , or use the original ctran.exe from the old SDK. It would be great if I could make emu2 check a list before calling a new executable and select whether to run the DOS or native version of an app.
emu2 isn't perfect, but it does save me from starting DOSBox.
