TopPocket.

In 2001, I developed and launched a website called TopPocket.com. TopPocket served mainly as a blog for me to muse about all things mobile - an area that I found super-exciting at the time.

I also used the site to collate and report on the popular handheld devices of the day, and devices that were recently retired, like Apple’s Newton. TopPocket also carried rumours of devices yet to be introduced. Some of the devices I wrote about (and which you might remember) included:

• Psion Series 3 / 3a / 5 - Psion PLC

• Apple Newton MessagePad – Apple

• IBM Simon Personal Communicator – IBM

• Palm Pilot 1000/5000 – Palm Inc.

• Nokia 9000 Communicator – Nokia

• Palm III – Palm Inc.

• Handspring Visor – Handspring

• Compaq Aero 2100 – Compaq

• Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 – Sharp

• Pocket PC Devices (e.g., Compaq iPAQ, HP Jornada) – Various manufacturers

• BlackBerry 850 – Research In Motion (RIM)

• Palm Tungsten T – Palm Inc.

• Sony CLIÉ PEG-NR70V – Sony

I was a full-on mobile gadget geek back then! And I bought a number of these devices - some which I still have now, and some that I sold long ago.

TopPocket.com was an interesting experiment, and useful learning exercise. The site never gained the traction that I had hoped, though. And so I decided to shut it down in 2003. While it wasn’t commercially successful, I learned a lot from setting it up and running it for two years.

See TopPocket.com in the Wayback Machine - the Internet Archive.