The 12 Best Gadgets You Didn’t Buy
BeBox and BeOS
On Earth 2, the sheer brilliance and beauty of BeOS caused both the OS and its BeBox PCs to displace both Windows and Mac OS years ago. In the 1990s, this BeOS's multithreading ability was so good that I could copy files off of my floppy disk without slowing the system. However, the best feature of this alternative OS was its clean and attractive GUI, complete with space-efficient title bars.
In the mid-1990s, Be Inc. chairman Jean-Louis Gasse tried to sell his OS to Apple, but the two companies couldn't agree on a price. As a result, the Cupertino company bought Steve Jobs' NeXT and used NeXTSTEP rather than BeOS as the basis for Mac OS X. If only consumers had thought differently and bought more than 1,800 BeBoxes in total, this superior platform would have survived on its own.
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September 28th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
But this particular piece of tech ( Lapdock) has inspired the next gen of tablet + keyboard = netbook combo … the Asus transformer line up, the new upcoming windows 8 tabs with docks ..
September 29th, 2012 at 12:09 am
Oh UMPC, how I miss you. I still remember a few years back how everyone tried to take a good glance at my awesome Vilive S5 UMPC at Starbucks, while they were stuck with using their netbooks.
September 30th, 2012 at 11:12 am
Well, that inspires me to watch a marathon of “Back To The Future” films on my Pioneer Laserdisc Player.
September 30th, 2012 at 6:41 pm
Oh man, if my contract would not end in 2013, The Kyrocera Echo would be mine! Maybe im the reason it stopped selling. :O
October 2nd, 2012 at 11:32 am
lol i did buy most of those things. I have viliv n5 (and s5), beos 4 retail box, kyocera echo, atrix with lapdock, and a dreamcast with network adapter and keyboard. My dad has a palm pre he got from working at HP, and he used to have the jornada and omnibook.
October 4th, 2012 at 10:19 pm
I miss my palm pre! Two android phones and one iphone 4s have not been good enough to make me forget my web OS wonder…
October 10th, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Amigas were special. I miss that era of computing.
October 27th, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Like some others here I have a Viliv S5, N5, and also an S7. These are great UMPCs that I use every day. It’s too bad that Viliv went under because they were really on the right track. The N5 affords me a full Windows 7 device with a keyboard, SD slot, USB, hours of use on battery power, and slips easily into a pocket. My S5 has 3G, 128GB SSD, GPS and all day battery. Awesome stuff. Also have a couple of Raon Digital Everuns and an OQO. All are/were unique devices but price doomed UMPCs to the beta/laserdisk/DAT club. Even in the age of the iPad I get “wow that’s cool” responses.