Right place to post this?...Atari Porfolio

[The MilkMan]

I was just surfing the net, and without trying to find it, I came across the Atari Portfolio. Kind of like a PDA. Looks like it may have been the first of its kind (I think released in '89)?? Then I searched e-bay. I came up with memory cards and that was about it.

Anyone remeber this little jewel? Was it innovatve...ahead of it's time? Or did the competition run over it like a Mac truck?

I don't recall ever seeing one of these.

[+davidcalgary29]

The Portfolio was actually quite popular, and especially so in Canada and Europe (Germany). You can see the Portfolio most famously at work in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

 

I have two of them, and they're really quite handy (and incredibly light). You should definitely pick one up if you get the chance!

[t.skid]

I have one too, and it's a little jewel

[The MilkMan]

You can see the Portfolio most famously at work in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

 

Oh YEA!, I remember that little gadget! I thought it was a movie prop. Huh, pretty cool.

[krupkaj]

I have one too. And it still works nice.

 

Btw has anybody MIDI port for Portfolio? I have heard that there was one but I have never seen it.

[MrPastGlory]

I have one too. And it still works nice.

 

Btw has anybody MIDI port for Portfolio? I have heard that there was one but I have never seen it.

 

 

That´s what it looked like: http://www.pofowiki.de/doku.php?id=hardware:3rd:interface:midi_interfacek

 

I´m searching for this for years, too. Haven´t found one yet. The guy who sold and developed these interfaces moved somewhere to northern germany. I´ve talked to his former landlord but he couldn´t help me with an actual adress or phone number. Trace lost.

 

cya out there!

 

MrPastGlory

[Ze_ro]

I love the Atari Portfolio, it's a neat little computer that was ahead of it's time. It's only now that sub-notebooks are really becoming popular, while this thing has been around for close to 20 years! Naturally, the machine is a bit slow, and the screen is somewhat of a hinderance for "real" computing, but the built-in apps work quite well and the machine is quite useful. Of course any low-end PDA these days will blow it out of the water (all the stuff I use to use my Portfolio for has since migrated to my old Handspring Visor). Having to replace the batteries in the memory cards is kind of a nuisance too. Since you never know how long they're going to last, you have to remember to keep proper backups of your data (I have a card drive for my computer that can read Portfolio memory cards).

 

One thing I was always a little disappointed with was the memory expander. In order to use the thing, you had to reformat your internal storage. After you did that, you pretty much had to keep the thing connected at all times... this was easier said than done, as the connection wasn't overly strong, and the size of the expander made the overall system quite a bit less portable than it was otherwise. If you do choose to pick up a Portfolio, I advise you to skip the memory expander.

 

--Zero

[tcropper]

I love the Atari Portfolio, it's a neat little computer that was ahead of it's time. It's only now that sub-notebooks are really becoming popular, while this thing has been around for close to 20 years! Naturally, the machine is a bit slow, and the screen is somewhat of a hinderance for "real" computing, but the built-in apps work quite well and the machine is quite useful. Of course any low-end PDA these days will blow it out of the water (all the stuff I use to use my Portfolio for has since migrated to my old Handspring Visor). Having to replace the batteries in the memory cards is kind of a nuisance too. Since you never know how long they're going to last, you have to remember to keep proper backups of your data (I have a card drive for my computer that can read Portfolio memory cards).

 

One thing I was always a little disappointed with was the memory expander. In order to use the thing, you had to reformat your internal storage. After you did that, you pretty much had to keep the thing connected at all times... this was easier said than done, as the connection wasn't overly strong, and the size of the expander made the overall system quite a bit less portable than it was otherwise. If you do choose to pick up a Portfolio, I advise you to skip the memory expander.

 

--Zero

 

I am looking at the portfolio and I found some guys in the czech republic that were making 1MB memory cards for it. Anyone have these in the USA??

-Toby

[marvio]

I was just surfing the net, and without trying to find it, I came across the Atari Portfolio. Kind of like a PDA. Looks like it may have been the first of its kind (I think released in '89)?? Then I searched e-bay. I came up with memory cards and that was about it.

Anyone remeber this little jewel? Was it innovatve...ahead of it's time? Or did the competition run over it like a Mac truck?

I don't recall ever seeing one of these.

 

 

"Eeeeaaaassseeeyyy money!"

 

Bonus to whomever get that reference

 

They have them regurlarly at Ebay, just keep an eye out

 

Edit: not to self, read the thread first! Here I thought I was being all witty!!

Edited December 24, 2009 by marvio

[The_Laird]

My favourite film of all time Terminator 2 starred a Portfolio