June 20, 2026
Tiny screens, huge nostalgia
Web Browsers on PDAS
Before smartphones took over, people were already web-browsing on tiny PDA screens
TLDR: The article shows how PDAs were early mobile internet machines, using awkward connections and primitive browsers years before smartphones won. In the comments, readers turned it into a nostalgia party, praising the site design and lamenting how today’s web has become too heavy for simple devices.
Long before the iPhone made doomscrolling a lifestyle, people were apparently wrestling the internet onto PDAs — those chunky little personal digital assistants that ruled the late ’90s and early 2000s. The article dives into the weird, scrappy era when getting online meant syncing to a computer, using an external modem, or literally lining up an infrared port with a phone and praying. Early devices from Psion and Apple Newton slowly graduated from bare-bones internet tools to actual web browsers, with names like PocketWeb, HitchHiker, and Opera showing up like forgotten contestants in the pre-smartphone battle royale.
But the comment section? Absolutely stole the show. Instead of instantly arguing about browser standards, multiple readers got distracted by the site itself, openly thirsting over the design. One called the layout “beautifully designed,” while another praised the glowing screenshots and clever left-hand progress bar like they were judging a digital beauty pageant. Then came the nostalgia flood: one commenter dropped a memory about using Dillo on a Linux-powered Compaq iPaq, basically saying, “Hey, this rabbit hole goes even deeper.” Another had a mini identity crisis after learning PalmOS later became GarnetOS — a classic today-I-learned plot twist.
The hottest take, though, came from the crowd mourning a simpler internet. One commenter grumbled that the web used to be light enough for old browsers and text-only tools, while today’s web is so bloated that even relatively recent devices get left behind. Translation: people aren’t just nostalgic for PDAs — they’re nostalgic for an internet that still fit on them.
Key Points
- •The article surveys early full web browsers on PDAs and distinguishes them from i-mode, WAP, and WML-only browsers.
- •PDA internet access evolved from syncing, external modems, and dial-up in the 1990s to infrared phone links, expansion cards, and later built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
- •Psion's EPOC platform had a limited browser ecosystem that included PsiMail Internet's Web browser, STNC HitchHiker, and later Opera 3.62 as the default browser.
- •Microsoft acquired STNC in 1999, and subsequent EPOC releases of HitchHiker stopped as Microsoft launched Windows Mobile for PDAs.
- •The Apple Newton gained internet capability through the 1996 Newton Internet Enabler, with browsers such as PocketWeb and NetHopper adding web access and image support.