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

Gravitas Documentaries · documentary · Watch on YouTube

Tech company stories & documentariesHistory of computingStartups & entrepreneurship

What it is

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.

Why Hacker News recommends it

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

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2023, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “For anyone else amazed by General Magic, the recently released documentary is available for free”

    Documentary on General Magic, free on YouTube

    tapoxi, 2023-09 · Recommendation · in “The Telescript Programming Language”

  2. “check out the documentary[0] on General Magic which Bill co-founded in 1990”

    Documentary on General Magic, which Bill Atkinson co-founded; early vision of mobile email

    gavmor, 2025-06 · Recommendation · in “Bill Atkinson has died”

  3. “perhaps the General Magic documentary is a fun watch too”

    General Magic documentary is a fun watch

    JKCalhoun, 2025-06 · Recommendation · in “Bill Atkinson has died”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: general magic, smartphone history, startups, tech history, bill atkinson

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