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The
Apricot Portable was contained inside a hard charcoal gray carrying case and consisted of two main parts: the central unit (with built-in monitor) and the keyboard. An optional mouse-like track board was also available. It was used by either pointing the track board at the computer and moving the
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The
Apricot Portable was the first portable computer to utilize a voice speech recognition system. A microphone was clipped to the front of the unit that was used specifically for this system. It could be used while clipped to the unit or it could be unclipped and used in-hand. The voice recognition
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The speech recognition system could operate in a dictation mode where spoken words were transcribed as text, or it could associate a spoken term with a command to be run. The system was then trained by the user repeating the words into a microphone to allow for normal variations in speech. The more
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The optional colour monitor could display up to 8 colors at a time out of a possible 16 colors, and could run at either 640x200@60Hz or 640x256@50Hz. The
Portable could continue to use its LCD display while also driving the colour display, allowing separate information to be shown on each screen.
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signal. If an object blocked the space in between the two components, their communication would be disrupted. ACT chose to use an infrared signal communication system because it was cheaper than using a cable connection.
189:, and was released to the public in November 1984. It was ACT's first attempt at manufacturing a portable computer, which were gaining popularity at the time. Compared to other portable computers of its time like the
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2460). The additional colour display with 128 KB RAM and a mouse added £300 ($ 435) to its price. The price of the original model was lowered in 1985 when a new version was released with 512 KB of RAM.
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In addition, a GUI program called "Activity" was provided as a more convenient way to manipulate the file system with the keyboard or the optional mouse. It presented an icon-based interface reminiscent of the
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The
Apricot Portable was designed to be easily carried in its case, but was powered by mains electricity only. It consisted of a central unit containing the motherboard, monochrome display and a
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port on the back of the computer. The mouse and the keyboard were both battery-powered, but the computer itself did not run on batteries and needed to be plugged into a wall outlet.
354:, allowing the user to manage files, format disks, create new icons, keyboard layouts and characters. Help pages and a tutorial mode were also available.
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The
Apricot Portable contained a variety of features including a built-in disk drive, a speech recognition system, and a software bundle.
272:, prompting the company to design its own faster controller. This screen could also display graphics at a resolution of 640x200 pixels.
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A single double-sided 720 KB 3.5" floppy disk drive was built into the right-hand side of the enclosure. An external 10 MB
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The
Portable's overall design was unusual in that the computer and keyboard were not connected physically, but rather by
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The
Portable could run most software for MS-DOS. Like other Apricot computers, it could be started up from a CP/M-86 or
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around with one's thumb or rolling the trackball on a flat surface. A standard serial mouse could also be used via the
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system had the ability to store a vocabulary up to 4096 words, of which only 64 could be held in memory at a time.
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197:, the Apricot Portable was the first system to have an 80-column and 25-line LCD screen and the first with a
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The system was 450 mm long, 172 mm wide and 200 mm high, weighing a total of 13 pounds.
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A basic model of the
Apricot Portable with 256 KB of RAM (expandable to 768 KB) was sold for
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Microcomputer User's
Handbook: The Complete and Up to Date Guide to Buying a Business Computer
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boot disc, and would then run CP/M-86 software in single- or multi-user mode.
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264:(LCD) screen on a portable computer. The LCD screen was originally made by
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spreadsheet and ACT Sketch. An interactive tutorial disk was provided.
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and true clones, allowing the
Portable to make use of 768 KB.
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not constrained to the maximum 640 KB of RAM supported by the
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operating systems, software including a word processor called
208:. It also came with a wireless keyboard and bundled software.
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The Apricot Portable was bundled with both the MS-DOS and
615:. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 214.
321:, SuperPlanner, a personal diary called ACT Diary, the
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410:"ACT/Apricot - Apricot (and related) advertisements"
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The Portable was known for having the first 25-line
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305:times a word was repeated, the better the result.
583:Apricot Portable - Technical Reference Manual
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609:Dennis Longley; Michael Shain (1985-11-11).
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159:wireless keyboard, optional wireless mouse
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185:was a personal computer manufactured by
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328:Apricot computers used versions of the
476:"Apricot Portable - Computing History"
167:45 cm × 20 cm × 17.2 cm
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148:, optional external 16-colour display
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80: (equivalent to £7,978 in 2023)
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586:. Vol. Section 3: Software.
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448:"Checkout: ACT Apricot Portable"
555:"ACT/Apricot - Apricot history"
507:"OLD-COMPUTERS.COM: The Museum"
446:Bright, Peter (November 1984).
381:Timeline of portable computers
1:
588:ACT (International) Limited
541:InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
480:www.computinghistory.org.uk
125:, expandable to 768 KB
61:; 40 years ago
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26:
296:Voice recognition system
452:Personal Computer World
454:. U.K.: Incisive Media
262:liquid-crystal display
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647:at Wikimedia Commons
511:www.old-computers.com
220:Apricot Portable 1984
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366:1695 (approximately
144:Built-in monochrome
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665:Portable computers
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199:speech recognition
74:Introductory price
660:Apricot Computers
643:Media related to
622:978-1-349-07237-8
292:was available.
206:floppy disk drive
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50:portable computer
16:Personal computer
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645:Apricot Portable
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183:Apricot Portable
113:CPU @ 5 MHz
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191:Compaq Portable
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153:Connectivity
135:floppy drive
121:256 KB
56:Release date
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599:(228 pages)
543:1985-06-10.
531:"InfoWorld"
319:SuperWriter
175:5.8 kg
91:MS-DOS 2.11
654:Categories
594:2020-01-13
564:2016-02-02
516:2016-01-29
485:2016-01-29
458:2022-09-10
419:2016-02-09
387:References
290:hard drive
280:Disk drive
164:Dimensions
111:Intel 8086
536:InfoWorld
323:SuperCalc
227:trackball
201:system.
36:Developer
375:See also
309:Software
248:Features
241:infrared
193:and the
187:ACT Ltd.
157:Infrared
40:ACT Ltd.
315:CP/M-86
266:Hitachi
256:Display
141:Display
130:Storage
99:CP/M-86
64: (
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590:. 1984
337:IBM PC
330:MS-DOS
286:Rodime
231:RS-232
212:Design
118:Memory
78:£1,965
358:Price
288:3.5"
133:3.5"
617:ISBN
368:US$
181:The
172:Mass
66:1984
59:1984
46:Type
146:LCD
123:RAM
106:CPU
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573:^
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494:^
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395:^
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364:£
68:)
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
