"The team used Oak code to power the prototype - a wireless handheld computer with a large screen and no buttons. You turned the device on by touching the screen and controlled it by dragging your finger across the screen surface. Team member Mike Sheridan created a rule that the graphical user interface had to explain itself to the user, so anybody could use it immediately. The device's on-screen opening starred a molar tooth-shaped animated figure named Duke who explained everything you need to know."
This was in 1992.
Consider this quotation from a few pages earlier:
It was January 1991. The World Wide Web had yet to be born, a "browser" was someone who looks but doesn't buy, and the Internet was an arcane network used only by the military, government agencies, and uber-geeks. Standalone PCs ruled the earth and MS-DOS was the dominant operating system. Cell phones resembled a brick with an antenna - and could only make phone calls.
And before deep autumn of 1992 this team under Sun had a thing that worked like a friggin' IPhone? (I know I'm exaggerating, but isn't that where it sounds like it's heading?)
And now the stock is at what...$5?
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