THE VIDEO SHELF · general magic history
General Magic (1080p) FULL DOCUMENTARY - History, Technology, Business
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 HN readers recommended it
Recommended as a fun and illuminating watch on early mobile computing, especially in threads about Bill Atkinson and Telescript.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Gravitas Documentaries
- Topic
- general magic history
- Format
- documentary
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 3
- HN mentions in dataset
- 6
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2023–2026
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
For anyone else amazed by General Magic, the recently released documentary is available for free (legally) on YouTube: [VIDEO]
tapoxi on Hacker News · 2023-09
In The Telescript Programming LanguageIf 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." …
gavmor on Hacker News · 2025-06
In Bill Atkinson has diedPlenty of interviews will Bill on YouTube. Example: [LINK] Also, perhaps the General Magic documentary is a fun watch too: [VIDEO]
JKCalhoun on Hacker News · 2025-06
In Bill Atkinson has died
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.
