Motorola PageWriter Ensconced in Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., is the final resting place for American icons that range from the lunar module from the first manned trip to the moon to Archie Bunker's chair. It's a place that attempts to preserve artifacts that tell the story of U.S. history and, at least to those of us in the U.S., having an item that we were involved in creating rest amongst the 140 million artifacts and specimens placed in the museum is considered an honor. Motorola just received that honor when it found out that its PageWriter 2000 two-way text messaging device was selected to be a part of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The PageWriter 2000 was the first two-way text messaging device in the world and the first wireless messaging device to be added to the Smithsonian collections. The little gadget was introduced on September 10, 1996, and was the first handheld wireless device to offer two-way text messaging, wireless e-mail and Personal Information Management (PIM) functionality. The PageWriter 2000 was only slightly larger than a deck of cards and weighed just 6.3 ounces, yet contained a backlit display screen, address book, calendar, and the ability to sync with the user's desktop PC. Many would say it was the first PDA, and the scary thing is that it sounds like it had more features (and a smaller footprint) than today's PDAs. It's one in 140 million.