Gravitas Documentaries
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2023–2026
1:32:48 · 73K views · Oct 6, 2022
A feature-length documentary on General Magic, the 1989 startup that envisioned the smartphone and handheld connected devices, featuring Tony Fadell, Andy Hertzfeld and Marc Porat. It covers the company's vision and eventual failure.
Recommended as a fun and illuminating watch on early mobile computing, especially in threads about Bill Atkinson and Telescript.
6 comments from Hacker News
If you haven't, check out the documentary[0] on General Magic which Bill co-founded in 1990. Among the more remarkable scenes in there is when a member of the public seems perplexed by the thought that they would even want to "check email from Times Square." An unthinkable future, but they thought it. And yet, most folks have never heard of General Magic. 0. this video
Plenty of interviews will Bill on YouTube. Example: [LINK] Also, perhaps the General Magic documentary is a fun watch too: this video
For anyone else amazed by General Magic, the recently released documentary is available for free (legally) on YouTube: this video
This headline isn't great. It's an interview with Tony Fadell who invented the iPod, iPhone, and Nest thermostat. Before the iPod, Fadell worked at failed PDA maker General Magic. The interview doesn't get into other 90s attempts like the IBM Simon, Palm Pilot, or Apple Newton. There's also a documentary about General Magic: this video
Atkinson at this timestamp: this video Also, it's here in the documentary that someone expresses the excitement anticipating the smart phone. It's hard to watch for me now and not shake my head, "Oh, it's not quite as wonderful as you imagined."