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General Magic (1080p) FULL DOCUMENTARY - History, Technology, Business

Gravitas Documentaries3 HN recommenders · 2023–2026
73K views · documentary · evergreen · Uploaded 2022-10-06

A feature-length documentary on General Magic, the 1989 startup that envisioned the smartphone and handheld connected devices, featuring Tony Fadell, Andy Hertzfeld and Marc Porat. It covers the company's vision and eventual failure.

Recommended as a fun and illuminating watch on early mobile computing, especially in threads about Bill Atkinson and Telescript.

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6 comments from Hacker News

@AlbertCory2023 · in “50 Years Later, We’re Still Living in the Xerox Alto’s World”

Well, the Macintosh team certainly thought they were. There's a YT video about General Magic that tries to paint them that way, and they thought of themselves that way at the time. [VIDEO] Take it all with a grain of salt.

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@tapoxi2023 · in “The Telescript Programming Language”

For anyone else amazed by General Magic, the recently released documentary is available for free (legally) on YouTube: [VIDEO]

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@gavmor2025 · in “Bill Atkinson has died”

If you haven't, check out the documentary[0] on General Magic which Bill co-founded in 1990. Among the more remarkable scenes in there is when a member of the public seems perplexed by the thought that they would even want to "check email from Times Square." An unthinkable future, but they thought it. And yet, most folks have never heard of General Magic. 0. [VIDEO]

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@JKCalhoun2025 · in “Bill Atkinson has died”

Plenty of interviews will Bill on YouTube. Example: [LINK] Also, perhaps the General Magic documentary is a fun watch too: [VIDEO]

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@JKCalhoun2025 · in “Bill Atkinson has died”

Atkinson at this timestamp: [VIDEO] Also, it's here in the documentary that someone expresses the excitement anticipating the smart phone. It's hard to watch for me now and not shake my head, "Oh, it's not quite as wonderful as you imagined."

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@wmf2026 · in “We almost had a smartphone in the 90s. Why did it fail?”

This headline isn't great. It's an interview with Tony Fadell who invented the iPod, iPhone, and Nest thermostat. Before the iPod, Fadell worked at failed PDA maker General Magic. The interview doesn't get into other 90s attempts like the IBM Simon, Palm Pilot, or Apple Newton. There's also a documentary about General Magic: [VIDEO]

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