I am humbled (yes, it is possible!) .... got a very nice email from
Homebrew Computer Club moderator / SOL-20 co-developer / Osborne 1 chief
engineer (and many more):
"This book presents the history of personal, portable computing from the
abacus to the present day in a remarkably thorough, accessible fashion.
Not only the winners are described but the also-rans and
almost-made-its. Koblentz has done an admirable job of research and
description in covering the field.
I've always been careful to claim that my Osborne-1 design was only the
"first commercially-successful portable computer" because I knew that a
book like this would be forthcoming to show the time lines, descriptions
and designers of earlier efforts. By nature a survey of the field, it is
thoroughly researched and can provide pointers to more in-depth
investigations."
Evan again: still just eight bucks in PDF edition.
http://www.abacustosmartphone.com.
Also: This is version "1.0"; all first-batch readers will also get the
PDF of version 1.x for free when it's ready.
