this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2024
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I had this shower thought earlier and I actually wanted to post it in that community. The name I came up with was SmartWalkman, but later I realized that Walkman is Sony specific, so I doubt other companies would’ve gone for that name, but I didn’t want to let this shower thought slip so here I am now asking you guys.

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[–] LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world 56 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Definitely PDA. Before we had modern smartphones folks would carry a cell phone and separate PDA which had computer functionalities. I've always said they were smartphones with half the smart and none of the phone.

Common apps included calculators, calendars, to do lists, notepads, clocks with alarms, task lists with reminders, PDF readers, word processors, later ones could even double as mp3 players and portable video players. There were even games made for them, both official and homebrew. My Windows PDAs have a bootleg port of XCOM: UFO Defense on them, which works brilliantly! There's also ports of Space Trader, if you want to take Elite with ya in your pocket.

PDAs evolved into smartphones as companies started including cellular tech inside PalmOS and Windows Mobile PDAs with devices like the Palm Treo and HTC Apache running PDA OSes with cellular connectivity. Once the iPhone came out though basically everything changed. They weren't the first, but they released a slick, buttery smooth device using a much better type of touch screen, with heaps of built in flash memory, a vibrant high res screen, and of course, iTunes. I own a PDA from the same year, not lower end but kinda middle of the road. 128 mb of usable flash memory, 64 mbs of RAM, a 240x320 resolution 16 bit color resistive touch screen (pressure sensitive, like the DS), a full sized SD card slot which can take up to 2 gigs of additional storage, wifi, Bluetooth, and IRDa. Required a stylus for usage. Versus the iPhone, which had anywhere from 4 gigs to 16 gigs of built in storage, 128 mb of RAM, a 480x320 resolution 18 bit color capacitive touch screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and multi-touch functionality on the screen. No stylus needed, either.

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_PC

My aunt had one of these when I was a kid. I remember thinking that it was going to be the future.

[–] MeetInPotatoes@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago

If you say it really fast, it sounds like fleshlight.

[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 36 points 11 months ago (2 children)

PDA was probably the most common during the 90s and I think until iPhones and android, black berry phones were considered PDAs.

A lot of stuff in the 80s/90s used the suffix "dex" (after rolodex) so I could also picture something like "mobidex" or "pocket dex". Or there was netbooks so we might just call them netdex...

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"pocket dex"

Nintendo would sue so quickly

[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Depends on the timing but Pokedex is clearly itself derivative of rolodex so im not sure that would actually work in Nintendo's favor

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago

Pocket monster index

[–] jarredpickles87@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Duuuude, mobidex has such a cool sound to it. Real star trek vibes. I wish.

[–] mipadaitu@lemmy.world 35 points 11 months ago

PDA - Personal Digital Assistant.

That's what they were called in the before times (Palm Pilot) before they got merged with the cell phone. Lots of old timers called a smartphone a PDA until they got really popular.

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 31 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I feel like palmtop, as derived from desktop and laptop, has a shot here

[–] howrar@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago

We did have palm pilot for a brief period in time.

[–] Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

TinyTellies ©®™

Fuck you that's mine

[–] Mojo@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

This is the correct answer

[–] jlow@beehaw.org 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Handy (as we do in Germany).

[–] neidu2@feddit.nl 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Every time I've gotten a handy, it has been by some dude in a store. That's why I keep coming back once every year or two; he knows how to provide a good handy.

[–] squirrel@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 11 months ago

PPC: Personal Pocket Computer

[–] oxjox@lemmy.ml 14 points 11 months ago

For a brief period of time, they (mostly journalists) tried calling them App Phones to differentiate from other phones with touch screens. There was also the rumor leading up to the iPhone that it would be called the iWalk.

[–] weeeeum@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

PITA from the article "Is that a PITA in your pocket?". It was written in 1999 and was a literally perfect prediction of what smartphones would be. Even down to PITA being an acronym for both "Personal Information Telecommunication Agent" and "Pain in the Ass" since the overwhelming connectivity would destroy our privacy.

You could legitimately make a conspiracy theory from how accurate his prediction and article was.

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's my Microsoft® Windows® PocketPC™ 2024 for Home™ PremiumPlus™ for Palm Computing™ Touch Edition (non-commercial) with Bing™ -powered device.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 11 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Microsoft redesigns the iPod.

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And here I was wondering why podcasts are still called podcasts when they barely had anything to do with iPods in the first place.

[–] Ross_audio@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

iPods had an 82% share of the US market at the time the term was first used.

https://www.theregister.com/2004/10/12/ipod_us_share/

At the time a "broadcast" to you iPod made the name podcast pretty understandable.

And there's not much else I could think of to call it given technology at the time.

MP3 player was the generic term. But MP3 cast feels clunky.

I did hear audioblog used. But they weren't all blogs.

It really comes down to the fact that at the time everyone knew "pod" meant "iPod" and that's it.

Sinclair ZX Hand-Computer.

[–] RIPandTERROR@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

Here to point out Personal Electronic Terminal was very much on the table at one point

[–] VonReposti 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Computer phone. I mean, it is a combination of a computer and a mobile phone so why not?

[–] LopensLeftArm@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

🎶 ba-ba ba ba ba-ba ba, computer phone! 🎵

[–] Nemo@midwest.social 6 points 11 months ago

pokécon - pocket computer

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago
[–] Kissaki@feddit.de 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)
  • Touchphone
  • Voicetransmitter
  • Walky-Talky
  • Mini-PC

The alternatives are endless

Fun fact: In Germany, mobile phones are called "Handy" instead of "mobile phone"

[–] PlexSheep@feddit.de 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And phone plans are flats. Iirc that is also unique to German. It's always interesting when languages steal from other languages and butcher the words.

[–] Kissaki@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

And phone plans are flats.

You must mean Flatrate? A term for a flat/fixed price with unrestricted volume (the default for home internet; mobile phone plans have variance).

I'm not aware of anything being called "flats" in German. Could be an abbreviation in circles though.

[–] PlexSheep@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah, flat is colloquial speech for Phone Flatrate. Flats being the plural.

[–] whatsgoingdom@rollenspiel.forum 1 points 11 months ago

And if I remember correctly that only was the name of one company's model of mobile phones but it stuck like e.g. Tempo for tissues in general.

[–] zeusbottom@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

Pocket Ad Machine

Sellfone

Social Distorter

Dynamic Uniform Radio Receiver (DURR)

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 11 months ago
[–] DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone 3 points 11 months ago

Screenphones, because they only have a screen and no buttons like a normal phone.

[–] Zanshi@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Even if they wouldn't go for the name, Walkman was a generic name for this category of devices, at least here in Poland. You wouldn't go buy a cassette player, you'd go buy a Walkman, not necessarily a Sony made one. So I could definitely see people calling their devices Smart Walkman

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Yeah, it was genericized very quickly.

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

I think the main issue is too many syllables

Maybe smartman but that sounds kinda weird

[–] aluminium@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago
[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 2 points 11 months ago

Honestly, probably "palmtop"

There WERE palmtop computers, and the first few smartphone-like devices trace their lineage TO palmtops integrating cell phone functionality.

And it pairs nicely with laptop.

[–] pelletbucket@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

they were called Pocket PCs right up until they started putting cell network chips in them.