Over the last couple of weeks I’ve got a few emails with “Sent from my Blackberry Wireless device.”

I’m not putting anyone down, but my first impression was “ooh wow – did you even know that little message was attached to your email?”  I’m guessing not, because most things nowadays just work out of the box.  There’s no need to do anything, which leads to my rambling for today.

First of all, I was amused by the word “device.”

When I think of device, it’s something that can be used for something and I really don’t know what it is but it should work here if I can find or make one.  For example, I could say, “I need some sort of a device to hang this rock from the ceiling.”

I got thinking about what a Blackberry is, and it’s really a portable computer and cell phone combined into one handy little go-with-you-everywhere convenience. That’s nothing new people.  I present to you, from way back in 1981, the world’s first portable computer.

The Osborne 1

It weighed over 10 kg (about 23 lbs) and came in a sturdy metal case.  Not the flimsy plastic used now.  It had 64 kb of memory, and two (count ‘em – two) floppy drives.  And a real keyboard.  Never mind that the picture I’ve posted here is about 40 kb, and would have used up all of the available memory. That is, if it actually had the capability to display something other than text, which it couldn’t.  But, my point is, the idea isn’t new. Portable computing has been around for a long time.

On to the cell phone part.

X-Files Cell phone Mulder (from X Files) had one forever.  Before they were even invented.  I couldn’t find a picture of the suitcase one from the first seasons but here’s his second one.

That was way back in 1993.

Again my point is, the technology is not new.  Just smaller.

So, am I impressed you sent me an email from your Blackberry?  Maybe a little.  I guess it is cool you can do that.

On the other hand, I’m not bothered by email messages all day long.  I’ll get to them when I get to them.

Now, to truly have a wireless “device” I need to combine the two.  Only then will it actually be a true device in my mind.

I think I’ll build one in the basement this winter.