Event Coverage

HardwareZone's 10th Anniversary: The Y2K Era

PMPs and Mobile Phones in Y2K

Portable Media Players in Y2K

  •  As the new millennium approached, there was more development (on the digital audio player (DAP) front. Notably, the manufacturing giant, Samsung, joins the race and introduces one of its many DAPs to come, the Samsung Yepp YP-E2 . But as with previous other DAPs, the data transfer standard was still reliant on using the parallel port to transfer your MP3s from the device to your PC and vice versa. The Samsung engine was already working around the clock as it went full steam to get a bigger piece of the pie by roping in DAPs as part of their consumer electronics division back in 2000.

 

  • Creative reigned supremacy for just a short period of time, and back in 2000, the introduction of its 6GB Creative NOMAD Jukebox gave consumers more choices with its EAX audio capabilities on top of its huge storage capacity (at that time). More importantly, the NOMAD Jukebox was one of the first few DAPs that adopted the popular USB data ports for MP3 transfers, which will be widely accepted in the years to come.

Mobile Phones in Y2K

  • With the start of a new millennium, a new approach was taken on with a stronger focus on the consumer electronics market. Mobile phones were a serious business even back then, and undoubtedly, miniaturization was till the core focus of almost any manufacturer during that era. In the year 2000, we saw the unveiling of the Nokia 8210, which builds on the internal antenna design as seen on its Nokia 3210 and effectively shrinks it down below the size of your palms. With the Nokia 8210 making its entrance (followed by the blue backlit Nokia 8250 with its trademark butterfly navigation pad), the path was laid out for a new generation of phones that does not reveal the unsightly bulge in your pants.

 A little nostalgia for all your mobile phone junkies out there who have been modifying your Nokia 8210 to fit your mood, be it from the official ones by Nokia or from unofficial third-party sources.

  • The turn of the millennium was also the beginning of a new trend that brings with it a new era of mobile entertainment and productivity. Utilizing its Windows CE 3.0 kernel and branding it as the Pocket PC operating system, major players such as Hewlett-Packard and Compaq were treading on a path where they envisioned a portable PC that could function as a cellular device in the coming years. This was hot on the heels of the Palm OS and its devices that had gained a fair amount of popularity amongst the tech enthusiasts of the time, and without a doubt, brought much changes and developments on the mobile device front over the years.
Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.