Word: keyboard
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...standard home computer is sold only to somebody who wants one, but the same machine can seem menacing when it appears in an office. Secretaries are often suspicious of new equipment, particularly if it appears to threaten their jobs, and so are executives. Some senior officials resist using a keyboard on the ground that such work is demeaning. Two executives in a large firm reportedly refuse to read any computer printout until their secretaries have retyped it into the form of a standard memo. "The biggest problem in introducing computers into an office is management itself," says Ted Stout...
Scoffers said that the box-shaped beast resembled a World War II field radio. But it had all the features of a higher-priced computer: a detachable keyboard, a screen (albeit only 5 in. diagonal), 64K of memory and two built-in disc drives to run and store programs. It also filled a need. Says Osborne: "I saw a truck-sized hole in the industry, and I plugged it." Even Jobs, often a target of Osborne's stings, professed admiration for his entrepreneurial talent...
Timex Sinclair 1000 ($99). This tiny toy is good for dipping one's toes into the micro revolution and not much more. It will play video games with boxy, black-and-white graphics and speaks only one language: BASIC. A buttonless "membrane" keyboard is well designed for learning the fundamentals of computer programming, but for written work it is a step down from the old typewriter. With 600,000 sold in 1982 alone, there is sure to be more software on the shelves soon. A more powerful model that speaks child-oriented Logo is expected out this spring...
Commodore VIC-20 ($299). Skillful packaging and aggressive marketing helped make this machine the surprise bestseller of 1982: between 600,000 and 1 million sold. The VIC has the only cut-rate keyboard suitable for touch typing, and when hooked up to a $110 telephone modem, it becomes an inexpensive electronic mail terminal. There have been software shortages, but more programs are being written to meet the new demand. The Commodore 64, a $595 version that packs the memory capacity of some machines three times its price, arrived late in 1982 and could be a big seller...
Atari 400 and 800 ($299 and $899). With 256 colors, four separate sound generators and built-in "missile graphics," the Ataris are the machines of choice for game players and game writers. The 800 has a keyboard suitable for touch typing, but writers would do well to look elsewhere for a first-rate word processor. Nearly 200,000 Atari 800s were shipped in 1982 and some 400,000 model 400s...