The Cybiko Experience: a Handheld Computer for Year 2000 Teens
video description
Date: 2022-04-14
Related videos
Comments and reviews: 10
TBUK
Honestly, the software developers need way more credit than they got lol. They created something that's not only great for productivity, but also for fun, and it could automatically communicate and network with other devices, and then use that small network to increase range and keep networking more and more devices together, basically making some devices act as proxies for other devices to communicate, all on a standard 900mhz band. Really impressive, and a cool system for a kids toy from the early 2000s.
It would be cool making an Android app that remade this system, maybe using Bluetooth or something, to communicate with other phones and make a local area network of every nearby phone, allowing data transfers, messaging, etc. (something fun would be the ability to play an audio file in sync across every single device.
Edit: 12: 55 -Enter your gender (Male/Female)-. Well, shit. Guess I can't use a Cybiko.
Edit 2: 20: 25 Woah! That adds to what I said in the original comment. That's such a cool feature! You know the developers were just trying to figure out cool ways they could play with the whole networking idea. But setting up one Cybiko as a router to connect the Cybiko network to the internet? That's freaking awesome! Now I wanna know if you could theoretically have 1 Cybiko connected to a -modem Cybiko-, and to a local Cybiko network simultaneously, and basically grant internet access to the whole Cybiko network via the proxying method they clearly had.
Edit 3: Okay, well the range is pretty bad, but who knows, maybe with less interference back when it was released it would've worked better.
reply
Honestly, the software developers need way more credit than they got lol. They created something that's not only great for productivity, but also for fun, and it could automatically communicate and network with other devices, and then use that small network to increase range and keep networking more and more devices together, basically making some devices act as proxies for other devices to communicate, all on a standard 900mhz band. Really impressive, and a cool system for a kids toy from the early 2000s.
It would be cool making an Android app that remade this system, maybe using Bluetooth or something, to communicate with other phones and make a local area network of every nearby phone, allowing data transfers, messaging, etc. (something fun would be the ability to play an audio file in sync across every single device.
Edit: 12: 55 -Enter your gender (Male/Female)-. Well, shit. Guess I can't use a Cybiko.
Edit 2: 20: 25 Woah! That adds to what I said in the original comment. That's such a cool feature! You know the developers were just trying to figure out cool ways they could play with the whole networking idea. But setting up one Cybiko as a router to connect the Cybiko network to the internet? That's freaking awesome! Now I wanna know if you could theoretically have 1 Cybiko connected to a -modem Cybiko-, and to a local Cybiko network simultaneously, and basically grant internet access to the whole Cybiko network via the proxying method they clearly had.
Edit 3: Okay, well the range is pretty bad, but who knows, maybe with less interference back when it was released it would've worked better.
reply
Kenji
I wonder if something decayed or went out of whack with age. I still have my original, (AAF8FVB) but no access to my sisters(AAFEZMA) or cousins (AAGALPA) Cybikos to test if the wireless still works well or not. Yes I still remember the tags of each after 22 years. My cybiko still powers on and charges to this day, but that's because I modded it to have a lithium ion battery back then. Surprisingly the old NEXTEL cell I used still has not puffed up and died. Sort of insane actually.
Back when they were new they extremely easily exceeded 300 feet in open air. On two hill we got almost a mile back then. Impressive for 10mw of radio power.
Something is certainly strange here, wonder if helium miners and other extreme density ISM 900mhz gear are acting as jammers to these? That would explain the insanely poor range in a city area. This was not an issue back in the day, even with the comparatively massive use of 900mhx cordless phones back then.
I used to use an extreme as a cywig and browse WAP pages and use AIM with these.
Oh by the way, there was a dedicated cywig gateway as well, it was off white, rounded and had a single antenna. I'm not sure if the radio was more powerful than 10mw, but it may have been.
These have a piezo element rather than a speaker. The Xtreme model has a real speaker and hardware audio. It also had a microphone and supported real time digital walkie talkie voice between units.
reply
I wonder if something decayed or went out of whack with age. I still have my original, (AAF8FVB) but no access to my sisters(AAFEZMA) or cousins (AAGALPA) Cybikos to test if the wireless still works well or not. Yes I still remember the tags of each after 22 years. My cybiko still powers on and charges to this day, but that's because I modded it to have a lithium ion battery back then. Surprisingly the old NEXTEL cell I used still has not puffed up and died. Sort of insane actually.
Back when they were new they extremely easily exceeded 300 feet in open air. On two hill we got almost a mile back then. Impressive for 10mw of radio power.
Something is certainly strange here, wonder if helium miners and other extreme density ISM 900mhz gear are acting as jammers to these? That would explain the insanely poor range in a city area. This was not an issue back in the day, even with the comparatively massive use of 900mhx cordless phones back then.
I used to use an extreme as a cywig and browse WAP pages and use AIM with these.
Oh by the way, there was a dedicated cywig gateway as well, it was off white, rounded and had a single antenna. I'm not sure if the radio was more powerful than 10mw, but it may have been.
These have a piezo element rather than a speaker. The Xtreme model has a real speaker and hardware audio. It also had a microphone and supported real time digital walkie talkie voice between units.
reply
Matthew
Nintendo must have drew inspiration from this device or devices like it, particularly with all its proximity features.
The original DS- Pictochat and the later 3DS- StreetPass comes to mind.
Pretty ingenious looking back at it. Kids were still glued to these devices, but because of the short range on them, they still had to get out and meet their friends or hang around other kids to have the most fun with their devices.
I guess nowadays you can chat, game, exchange files, collab on projects and video call in crystal clear audio and video with anybody around the world without ever leaving your room. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your habits I guess haha.
We live in truly amazing and equally bizarre times.
reply
Nintendo must have drew inspiration from this device or devices like it, particularly with all its proximity features.
The original DS- Pictochat and the later 3DS- StreetPass comes to mind.
Pretty ingenious looking back at it. Kids were still glued to these devices, but because of the short range on them, they still had to get out and meet their friends or hang around other kids to have the most fun with their devices.
I guess nowadays you can chat, game, exchange files, collab on projects and video call in crystal clear audio and video with anybody around the world without ever leaving your room. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your habits I guess haha.
We live in truly amazing and equally bizarre times.
reply
April
I have the black one + pink one + mp3 cartridge + two memory cards for the mp3 player which hold about 12 songs each, and hang out of the cartridge comically! I genuinely found these online when I was 16 in 2001 and genuinely begged my dad for them for $100 a pop. Wish I could sell the full set incl chargers and data transfer cables and all for a full recovery of what we spent, and give the money back to my dad. LOL Mine both still power up, but the black one shuts off randomly. Wondering if I should take out the batteries and clean before further corrosion. Thanks for the video!
reply
I have the black one + pink one + mp3 cartridge + two memory cards for the mp3 player which hold about 12 songs each, and hang out of the cartridge comically! I genuinely found these online when I was 16 in 2001 and genuinely begged my dad for them for $100 a pop. Wish I could sell the full set incl chargers and data transfer cables and all for a full recovery of what we spent, and give the money back to my dad. LOL Mine both still power up, but the black one shuts off randomly. Wondering if I should take out the batteries and clean before further corrosion. Thanks for the video!
reply
greenaum
You know who would've liked this? Paedophiles. Anonymous communication with bored kids in YOUR area!
Of course that would make parents HATE it, and how do you make kids like something? Right! Although of course it requires paying for, so perhaps you'd put in some easily-circumvented half-arsed parental control thingy that they'd never bother setting up. So kids want it, parents are temporarily reassured into buying it, then forget all about it.
I'm surprised they didn't go more for the paedophile angle. It would have been bold, but I think would have paid off.
reply
You know who would've liked this? Paedophiles. Anonymous communication with bored kids in YOUR area!
Of course that would make parents HATE it, and how do you make kids like something? Right! Although of course it requires paying for, so perhaps you'd put in some easily-circumvented half-arsed parental control thingy that they'd never bother setting up. So kids want it, parents are temporarily reassured into buying it, then forget all about it.
I'm surprised they didn't go more for the paedophile angle. It would have been bold, but I think would have paid off.
reply
Ian
I wish I still had mine. Me and a group of friends all got them in middle school and we did indeed use them to play games and chat from separate class rooms before teachers or schools could imagine what -texting- was. The experience was only fun cuz like 8 of us had them so it did make a decent network around the school and at whoever-s house we sat around playing in. I believe we all got that memory add on too so we could actually install a decent number of games. Thanks for the 30 minutes of reminiscing.
reply
I wish I still had mine. Me and a group of friends all got them in middle school and we did indeed use them to play games and chat from separate class rooms before teachers or schools could imagine what -texting- was. The experience was only fun cuz like 8 of us had them so it did make a decent network around the school and at whoever-s house we sat around playing in. I believe we all got that memory add on too so we could actually install a decent number of games. Thanks for the 30 minutes of reminiscing.
reply
Nathan
This is my favorite review you have done i actually had Cybiko Extreme right when it came out unfortunately i did not know a single other person in the world that even owned one or even knew what the thing was for that matter however it actually was my into into programing as there was a Cybiko app programmer available for download to PC that was ehhh somewhat interesting anyways thanks for the great blast from the past keep up the great work.
reply
This is my favorite review you have done i actually had Cybiko Extreme right when it came out unfortunately i did not know a single other person in the world that even owned one or even knew what the thing was for that matter however it actually was my into into programing as there was a Cybiko app programmer available for download to PC that was ehhh somewhat interesting anyways thanks for the great blast from the past keep up the great work.
reply
Khris
The concept for this thing is amazing, a part of me hopes that the connectivity issues you faced were only due to the age of the device. Imagine a kickass reality where these things were relevant! Obviously now that pretty much all kids have cellphones at a young age, and it's no longer a -coming of age- gift (well, like it was for me and a few people, anyway, something like this wouldn't sell today but, it's cool!
reply
The concept for this thing is amazing, a part of me hopes that the connectivity issues you faced were only due to the age of the device. Imagine a kickass reality where these things were relevant! Obviously now that pretty much all kids have cellphones at a young age, and it's no longer a -coming of age- gift (well, like it was for me and a few people, anyway, something like this wouldn't sell today but, it's cool!
reply
fanjoy
Omg I had a Rio Riot, shown in that old article at about 6: 50. The thing was about the size of an Xbox controller, but the capacity was alot for the time. I killed at least 2 of the hdd's in a short time, which eventually led me to just buying a bunch of other shit from circuit city, instead of trying a third time. The cool thing was burning cd-rw's for the car anyways.
reply
Omg I had a Rio Riot, shown in that old article at about 6: 50. The thing was about the size of an Xbox controller, but the capacity was alot for the time. I killed at least 2 of the hdd's in a short time, which eventually led me to just buying a bunch of other shit from circuit city, instead of trying a third time. The cool thing was burning cd-rw's for the car anyways.
reply
CHRISMENENDEZ
It was really a US thing because I never heard a thing about it, and I read a lot of geeky magazines back then.
About the range thing, I suppose that the wireless devices taking valuable airwaves in 2021 (now 2022) exceed ten-fold what we had 20 years ago, and thus, the range has been greatly decreased, but I'm no wireless expert.
reply
It was really a US thing because I never heard a thing about it, and I read a lot of geeky magazines back then.
About the range thing, I suppose that the wireless devices taking valuable airwaves in 2021 (now 2022) exceed ten-fold what we had 20 years ago, and thus, the range has been greatly decreased, but I'm no wireless expert.
reply
Add a review, comment
Other channel videos
