On: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on you...

[ethbro]

Before laptops became physically possible due to LCDs there were portable computers [1] (yes, I played with one my high school lab had).

I suspect in the future we'll have curious historians trying to figure out how the phrase "personal computer" ended up being shortened to "phone".

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_computer

[sevensor → ethbro]

I like how minicomputer used to mean "computer that's only as big as a chest freezer." Every now and then I hear laypeople use the term "mini-computer" to mean a computer that's really small by their standards, like a raspberry Pi.

[dTal → sevensor]

And then we had "microcomputers" (desktop PC sized). Rather disappointed we didn't call laptops "nanocomputers" and phones "picocomputers" :)

[lokedhs → dTal]

In Swedish, the term "stordator", literally "big computer" refers to a mainframe.

I really like your idea of nano and picocomputers. It's consistent, and really reflects on the miniaturisation that we have seen since since the invention of the computer.

[ethbro → lokedhs]

Since "computer" pre-dates digital, it might be a good time to come up with a more apt base term too. It's not as if most people's usage of them (at least as far as they know!) is performing arithmetic.

[chr → lokedhs]

In Norwegian, it's "stormaskin" for mainframe.

[bradknowles → dTal]

So, would a smartwatch be an "attocomputer"?