Cell/Smart phones & Tablets in Twilight? Don't laugh...

[rcaf_777]

A few thoughts

The Interactive Pager, introduced in 1996 by Research In Motion (RIM), allowed users to receive and send messages over the internet via a wireless data network known The Interactive Pager was also known as the RIM-900.

The first commercial camera phone was the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, released in Japan in May 1999

If you talking PDA’s there are a few out on market in 90’s, they would be

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator (simply known as IBM Simon) is a handheld, touchscreen PDA designed by International Business Machines (IBM), It was distributed as the Simon Personal Communicator in the United States between August 1994 and February 1995, selling 50,000 units. The Simon Personal Communicator was the first personal digital assistant or PDA to include telephony features.

The Psion Organiser was the brand name of a range of pocket computers developed by the British company Psion in the 1980s.The Organiser I launched in 1984 and the Organiser II launched in 1986. Both had a hard plastic sliding cover protecting a 6×6 keyboard with letters arranged alphabetically. The Organiser II competed with personal organiser wallets and can be considered the first usable Electronic organizer, or Personal digital assistant (PDA) in that it combined an electronic diary and searchable address database in a small, portable device.

The Psion MC 400 was a laptop made by Psion PLC and was released in 1989. The main power is provided by eight AA batteries. Alternatively, the device may be powered by an external 12V power source.

The MC 400 was of the same generation as the Psion 3 series but it has a larger size screen. The MC 400 could be programmed using OPL much like the Series 3. Unlike the Series 3, the MC 400 has 4 bays for removable solid-state disk drives compared to 2 on Series 3 devices. The serial port also provides PC connectivity if used with the separately available PsiWin software using the lead designed for the Series 3 or 3A.

The Newton is a series of personal digital assistants (PDA) developed and marketed by Apple Computer, Inc. An early device in the PDA category – the Newton originated the term "personal digital assistant" – it was the first to feature handwriting recognition. Apple started developing the platform in 1987 and shipped the first devices in 1993. Production officially ended on February 27, 1998.

The MessagePad is the first series of personal digital assistant devices developed by Apple Computer for the Newton platform in 1993. Some electronic engineering and the manufacture of Apple's MessagePad devices was undertaken in Japan by the Sharp Corporation. The devices were based on the ARM 610 RISC processor and all featured handwriting recognition software and were developed and marketed by Apple.

The eMate 300 is a personal digital assistant designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer to the education market as a low-cost laptop running the Newton operating system. It was the only Newton Device with a built-in keyboard. The eMate was introduced March 7, 1997 and was discontinued along with the Apple Newton product line and its operating system on February 27, 1998

The Nokia 9000 Communicator was the first product in Nokia's Communicator series, announced at CeBIT 1996 and introduced into the market on 15 August 1996. The phone was large and heavy at 397 grams (14.0 oz) but powerful at the time. It is powered by an Intel 24 MHz i386 CPU and has 8 MB of memory, which is divided between applications (4 MB), program memory (2 MB) and user data (2 MB). The operating system is PEN/GEOS 3.0. The Communicator is one of the earliest smartphones on the market, after the IBM Simon in 1994 and the HP OmniGo 700LX, a DOS-based palmtop PC with integrated cradle for the Nokia 2110 cellular phone, announced in late 1995 and shipped in March 1996

The Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 were the first generations of PDAs produced by Palm Computing (then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics). It was introduced in March 1996. The Pilot uses a Motorola 68328 processor at 16 MHz, and had 128 kB (Pilot 1000) or 512 kB (Pilot 5000) built in Random-access memory. Underneath the screen sits a green on/off button, four applications buttons (Date Book, Address Book, To Do List, and Memo Pad) and two scroll buttons. At left, contrast control. At right top, stylus slot. On the back of the device there is a Memory Slot door, Reset button, battery compartment (held two AAA batteries) and Serial Port (for use with the PalmPilot Cradle).

[swaghauler]

I like the idea of YouTube videos, manuals, and "Expert Systems" which walk you through doing something having a "Mechanical Bonus" during play.

I allow a Manual, Video, or Diagram to give a +1 on a task roll involving a PHYSICAL SKILL (like shooting, flying, or driving) where doing the skill requires practice or repetitive training.

On skills that are "Informational" by nature (understanding basic language phrases, diagnosing symptoms, or how to operate a radio), I allow a LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY SHIFT, provided the task isn't TOO complex.

This assumes the manual user has the time to thoroughly read or watch the video and can reference the material as they are doing the task in question (my player's medic loves his Physician's Desk Reference of Diseases manual).

How do you handle so-called "tutorials" during play?

[rcaf_777]

An interesting option using pagers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POCSAG