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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Blast from the past: HP Omnibook Sojourn

Blast from the past: HP Omnibook Sojourn
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Atheist
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Back in the Good Ole US of A
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Aug 3, 2012, 05:17 AM
 
I was digging through a desk drawer and happened upon my old HP Omnibook Sojourn notebook computer. I hadn't thought about it in ages. It was quite the amazing device in it's day (released in 1998). I would say it was the first real ultra thin notebook computer. They called it a subnotebook and it was developed with Mitsubishi who marketed it as the Pedion. It was significantly thinner and lighter than anything else on the market at the time. Here's the specs:

Weight: 3.2 pounds
Dimensions: 11.69 x 8.58 x 0.71 inches (thinner than the original MacBook Air!!)
Screen: 12.1 TFT 1024x768
Memory: 64 MB soldered onto the motherboard (sound familiar?)
HD: 2.1 GB (I upgraded mine to 6 GB)
OS: Win NT
Price: $6000 (OMGWTFBBQ!!!)

I bought the thing used just months after it came out for about $1500. Commercially it was a total flop. The hefty price tag included executive class support. Which I took advantage of because it was definitely prone to mechanical problems. Specifically the display cable in the hinge would go wonky. They fully replaced the entire machine twice under warranty free of charge and provided next day shipping.

It had the first "chicklet" style keyboard I'd ever seen. There is almost zero travel on the keys. It took some getting used to. At the time I was doing all Unix-based application development so I was using an X-windows client (Exceed?) and running a bunch of xterm windows. I was a road warrior and loved the portability of the device although it was a little crippled by the limited memory. Believe it or not, I used the thing until 2001.

Here she is in all her glory (compared to my late 2010 MBA):
4773/width/350/height/700[/IMG]
4774/width/350/height/700[/IMG]4775/width/350/height/700[/IMG]4776/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

Prior to the Sojourn, I had an Omnibook 800CT. It had one of the coolest innovations I can remember, a pop-out mouse!
4777/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

I loved that machine. Super portable and I found the mouse to be very easy to use. That said, it seemed to elicit rather visceral reactions. Either you loved the mouse or you hated it.

Anyone else have any old favorites they can recall?
     
SSharon
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Join Date: Jan 2003
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Aug 3, 2012, 09:33 AM
 
Thanks for sharing!

I didn't know chicklet keyboards went that far back. I do remember the pop-out mouse though since a friend had one.

More than the lack of a widescreen, the tiny trackpad really jumps out at me as being old fashioned.
AT&T iPhone 5S and 6; 13" MBP; MDD G4.
     
Atheist  (op)
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Aug 3, 2012, 10:11 AM
 
The keyboard really was difficult to get used to. You had to be heavy-handed and really smack the keys. Ultimately it wasn't an issue for me. That trackpad was insanely small. Not sure what they were thinking with that.
     
finboy
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Join Date: Mar 2000
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Aug 7, 2012, 08:42 AM
 
Back in 1998 or so I had a little PC which was an NEC V10 (8086) and had MS Works built in. It didn't have a backlight, and saved to flash cards (that fit a standard card slot). I used to work on it during the day, in the library, because it would run for weeks on a 9V external pack I built using C Batteries. I can't remember the brand name, but it was an Asia-only product that I picked up for nothing from one of those mail order discount companies. It had 6 internal AA batteries and a lithium backup, and the smaller parallel and serial port standards. I could plug the flashRAM cards into my 5300, 1400 or even the Pismo to read them. Neat. With a nice keyboard, too.

My other favorite would have to be the Tandy 100 series. Mine still works, uses a serial cable to transfer text files. The keyboard is unreal.
     
   
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