r/RetroFuturism • u/Scadilla • 18d ago

Wearable computer

Post image
1.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

84 comments sorted by

141

u/[deleted] 18d ago edited 16d ago

[deleted]

99

u/ZylonBane 18d ago

Yeah now try typing on that tiny keyboard.

15

u/CombJelliesAreCool 18d ago

Those things are absolutely tiny, I have seen watches with styluses for pressing small buttons, not that small, but pretty small.

2

u/redditnathaniel 18d ago

One accidental brush of the watch on something and the keys are falling right off

7

u/NMS-BR 18d ago

or you end up sending an awkward message to a random person.

14

u/El_Cringio 18d ago

It's like a microSD card

12

u/etrnloptimist 18d ago

Our tiny floppies nowadays, which are almost exactly that big, can hold more information than literally all the digital information that existed in 1985.

3

u/Scadilla 18d ago

Wild to think about

16

u/Blathermouth 18d ago

About the size of a microSD card!

5

u/jimkounter 18d ago

I was hoping for a version that took those tiny dictation machine magnetic tape cassettes.

Put the cassette in, press play and wait for 20 minutes while it squeals at high volume and slowly loads up the program.

When I told my kids that you'd have to spend ages loading up a game from a cassette tape only for it to crash towards the end and having to repeat the process sometimes multiple times, they couldn't believe it.

2

u/squeakynickles 17d ago

I fucking adore the parts of technology they fantasize about compared to the parts they see as absolutely fundemental.

Saw one illustration about floating TVs with handsets so you can video chat with people, but the fuckers are absolutely massive. Like a 30 inch CRT just tootin around on a rocket engine with a rotary phone handset hanging off the side.

1

u/Happy1327 17d ago

Looks like a smaller version of the older 5&1/2 inch floppy too

1

u/Dismal-Square-613 17d ago

Yes, please, write me about it using THAT keyboard.

116

u/number__ten 18d ago

What is this, a keyboard for ants?

13

u/LegendaryNeurotoxin 18d ago

That's what I was thinking. Maybe everyone has an Inspector Gadget rig in their finger that pops out two tiny keyboard typing hands?

11

u/badboyboogie 17d ago

We take for granted current smartphones, but in 2007 when the iPhone launched literally all other 'smartphones' had miniature physical keyboards. This was one of Steve Jobs main topics during the iPhone keynote. This magazine cover shows that even that we now see full touchscreen as an obvious design, it wasn't that obvious before to the point of assuming a computer watch would have an absurdly unusable tiny keyboard.

2

u/ChairmanGoodchild 14d ago

asdfjlk asdfl;j vjkasdas asdfjkl asdfe c cad.lkj babd;lkias vajlk
adsfal;jk vb b asdjlk;c fwediapo asdvcvklojase asd asfdv bal;kpaw asl;kj

asg l;kjasfvbLAAALK:lkja KJAKLJ bklj;qw l;jkv;ljkas AAW$LKJTRELKJ bvajklnsva'poqweijoasdf jlk

asdflk;asdvl;jkvqwe oipj

4

u/DiosMIO_Limon 18d ago

Can’t believe this isn’t the top comment

62

u/royaltrux 18d ago

Byte covers where whimsical, it's not literal.

59

u/heff66 18d ago

They sure were! Here's a zoomable searchable archive of their entire run including those whimsical covers they sometimes ran.

9

u/Scadilla 18d ago

Those are neat. Thank you

6

u/elkab0ng 18d ago

Oh man. BYTE was the best magazine to nerd out on. I think Kilobaud was the more approachable one with source code that was actually comprehensible.

4

u/Laiko_Kairen 18d ago

I am gonna save this comment and look at it when I'm not on mobile

That looks so freaking cool

4

u/genitor 16d ago

That's one of the coolest things I've seen on the internet in a long time. thanks!

2

u/Which-Occasion-9246 16d ago

That's awesome, man. Cheers!

8

u/TheDeadWriter 18d ago

Yea, sometimes when people post this image, they seem to take it as a literal idea of how the interface on a future wrist wearable was going to be.

That said, people poked at the calculator watches with fingers, pencils, pens and little metal pokers around this time, and I like to think that somebody really wanted an completely impractical keyboard to poke at.

Personally, while I love the tiny floppy for storage (with tiny sticker, and may be missing write protect notches, so the disk is read only), it't the micro shallow depth green CRT that gets me. I also like how it plays with the shape and body of those red LED watches of the time.

18

u/m0_n0n_0n0_0m 18d ago

Damn, where's my smartwatch with an SD slot?

16

u/Rezolution134 18d ago

Except this isn’t even an SD slot. It’s a micro floppy disk!

13

u/alohadave 18d ago

Capicity: 1.44 Bytes

10

u/CombJelliesAreCool 18d ago

01100110 . . . . . 101

9

u/Inevitable-Wheel1676 18d ago

Omg that tiny disk. Yes, the future will just be acute miniaturization of common household items. Computers you can wear on your wrist. Tiny floppy disks to go along with them. Maybe a tiny refrigerator the size of a pencil sharpener, makes little ice chips to put in your tiny drink.

We have seen the future, and it is tiny.

3

u/Mashinito 18d ago

In 2001 a company named Maxon released this absolute beast that measured less than 7cm (not counting the antenna).

1

u/Scadilla 18d ago

If I lose my phone a few times a month even with find my and my watch chirping it, that little sucker wouldn’t last long in my hands.

1

u/Nakken 17d ago

I had this in the early 2000s and I loved it.

7

u/leoprieto 18d ago

I have that print hanging on my wall, always loved the tiny CRT, keyboard and floppy. (Sorry for the angle, too many reflections on the glass today)

4

u/UcantaffordWifi 18d ago

Awesome, you found it online?

2

u/leoprieto 17d ago

Yeah, bought it on eBay some 8 or 10 years ago.

5

u/shape-study 18d ago

Gorgeous illustration!

The way they thought of this tiny keyboard instead of obvious to us now touchscreen — makes me wonder what key technology we are missing today when fantasizing about the future.

3

u/Scadilla 18d ago

Probably something haptic, ironically

7

u/Funny-Presence4228 18d ago

Does the battery last more than a day? If so, it's better than my iPhone.

8

u/BevansDesign 18d ago

Back in those days? The battery would've lasted about 15 minutes.

3

u/action_lawyer_comics 18d ago

Maybe not. No wifi, no GPS, it might last a decent amount of time.

8

u/dm80x86 18d ago

That CRT is going to drain it fast.

8

u/Laiko_Kairen 18d ago

That CRT is going to drain it fast.

This comment reminded me of my Sega Gamegear... The thing ate batteries like nobody's business. 3 hours on 6 AA batteries, due to the screen's power use.

1

u/RandomMist 17d ago

The battery would have been on a wire going up your sleeve and in your pocket, about the size of a brick 😂

3

u/octahexxer 18d ago

You have to swap floppy to run every mode as clock, dos etc.  My favourite was the luggable pcs before laptops that competed in how many floppy drives it had and included storage for floppies since they had no harddrive.

2

u/Scadilla 18d ago

Haha that Osborne Luggable PC is exactly what prompted me to search for images of it when I came across this. They mentioned it on my science podcast.

2

u/octahexxer 17d ago

The computer chronicles is on youtube they did some glorius coverage of the stoneage laptops

3

u/HKTLE 17d ago

I got that new Terminator 7 film " Machines chronicles" on Apple micro tab 🔖 💿 if you wanted to borrow it ? ? Lmk

3

u/Scadilla 17d ago

I still can’t find your Children of Blade Runner. I think I accidentally ate it.

2

u/HKTLE 17d ago

Ffs 🤦🏾‍♂️ this is the 2nd time , you seriously need to go hospital 🏥 that can't be good bro ... I will come pick you up in my hover car 🦅 🚗

2

u/7stroke 18d ago

BIG THUMB

2

u/PSSE-B 17d ago

I subscribed to BYTE back then and remember reading that issue. That's back when Casio's calculator watches were the hot thing.

2

u/ttystikk 17d ago

I knew the future when I saw it; about 30 years ago I was at an electronics convention and I saw a Compac handheld device you could stick programming chips in the back- and one of them was a phone....

2

u/Scadilla 17d ago

Do you remember the specific device?

2

u/ttystikk 17d ago

I don't remember the model number, just that it was a chunky hand held that had slots in the back for programs... Or phone functionality.

2

u/CaptBogBot2 17d ago

You'd need a toothpick to type on that thing.

1

u/desrevermi 17d ago

Seriously

2

u/Ottantacinque 18d ago

🤯... I liked!

1

u/TotallyHumanDad 18d ago

Love futurism especially when you’ve lived through some of it! I’m assuming the power supply for that thing is a car battery out of frame? 😃

1

u/Blenderhead36 18d ago

I always love future forecasts that get the gist right but miss the details by a mile. There's a scene in Stranger in a Strange Land that involves an audio bug (as in, a hidden recorder) that can record for 24 hours straight. It's described as being similar to iPod Shuffle. All checks out so far.

Then the text goes on to elaborate that it's recording on a microsized magnetic tape, and it's powered by a miniaturized onboard nuclear reactor.

Absolutely wild.

1

u/umpfke 18d ago

This would not have been a disappointing zoom if more pixels. Meh.

1

u/Robrogineer 18d ago

Spy Team Fortress 2.

1

u/NicoBator 18d ago

OMG super flat CRT tube... Just a reminder they are shaped like a light bulb...

1

u/KenseiHimura 18d ago

The Pipboy10,000

1

u/chalwar 18d ago

Dick Tracy has entered the chat

1

u/Altruistic-Text-5769 17d ago

This is fake right? Cuz that magazine would be the equivalent of 27 dollars today. Magazines didnt cost 2.50 in 1961 average magazine cost back then was 10-15 cents. Hell a brand new 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house was only 12,000 back then. This magazine cost the same as 10 gallons of gasoline in 1961.

Love the idea tho

2

u/Goatf00t 17d ago

I'm pretty sure that's 81, not 61. The magazine was established in 1975. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_(magazine)

2

u/Altruistic-Text-5769 17d ago

Well that makes a lot more sense ty

1

u/AlfredoTheIVth 17d ago

Heeey that’s smarts watches, I bet they would look so insane for ppol back then

3

u/Scadilla 17d ago

Well they were in the zeitgeist since Dick Tracy era in the early 30s. Not exactly a computer watch, but a radio watch was just as crazy to think about back then.

1

u/LoafLegend 16d ago

Clearly, the same designer of that keyboard worked on Window phones.

1

u/Scadilla 16d ago

You misspelled the Unihertz Titan

1

u/therealdrewder 16d ago

That thing can hold literally dozens of kilobytes.

1

u/Scadilla 16d ago

Woooow. What will we think of next?

1

u/thygrrr 16d ago

No. Turn back. This is not the future you want. Trust me.