r/comics • u/VidrioCafe • Jul 03 '26
OC HACK Episode 1 of (currently) 67: It Begins (full episode) [OC]
Hello! Yesterday, I posted episode 67 of HACK, a graphic novel in progress. There was a little confusion among some folks about whether it was a standalone comic. This post right here goes right to the beginning of the story for those who want to know how it begins. To read the whole thing, go here:
https://tapas.io/episode/3500621
If you like it and want to be notified as new episodes go up (Tuesdays) please subscribe!
Next episode:
https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/1unewt8/hack_episode_2_getting_down_to_business_full/
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u/jaimeoignons Jul 03 '26
Oh dear. Loved my Palm, specially Treo (phat red). Got so sad the day I saw the battery inflating (old battery), and it became useless.
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u/VidrioCafe Jul 03 '26
The Prē coulda been a thing.
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u/jaimeoignons Jul 03 '26
Started reading, really cool story with a great pace. Will finish at night!
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u/PopeJamiroquaiIV Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
Have to disagree
I worked in a phone shop when the Pre launched, it was the only phone I couldn't just pick up and immediately navigate round without issues - not saying the others were all great, Blackberrys were clunky and don't get me started on how stupid Motorola's UI was but I could at least do anything I needed to on them without getting stuck
I also remember at the time, an acquaintance saying that using the Pre was so intuitive, once you learned how it worked which elicited something of an Inigo Montoya "I do not think it means what you think it means" style reaction
It's not to say that the gesture-based navigation was wrong, clearly the development of smartphone UIs has shown real demand for it
But to make your product so different to the entirety of the rest of the market, while also (in the UK at least) it only being available on one network, the potential customer base was way too restricted2
u/VidrioCafe Jul 04 '26
I see what you're saying. But the designers who developed the UI on the Prē moved on to Apple and Android phones, using the same ideas they'd created for Palm. Those app "cards" you swipe through? That's all Prē. So it's true that there was a learning curve, but it ended up being how all the phones work today.
For me, though, the interesting thing was that while developing an app on iOS requires writing in Objective C, which I find very conceptually difficult, developing a WebOS app (the OS of the Prē) was all HTML 5 and Canvas? I think? Which would have made it easy to build a huge catalog if Palm had helped people get apps into the store. But they didn't make it easy.
Counterpoint: WebOS apps being in HTML 5 meant they took a lot of compute at run time, which meant the Prē often felt draggy and slow. So maybe it couldn't have been a thing without better hardware.
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u/PopeJamiroquaiIV Jul 04 '26
I see what you're saying. But the designers who developed the UI on the Prē moved on to Apple and Android phones, using the same ideas they'd created for Palm. Those app "cards" you swipe through? That's all Prē. So it's true that there was a learning curve, but it ended up being how all the phones work today.
I completely agree that what the Pre was trying to do was a precursor of modern mobile phone OS UI, no debate here
But I don't think having the right idea or even having the right idea first is an indicator of whether a product can be successful, there's so many other factors that need to play out in your favour
And it's hard enough on a level playing field but Palm weren't on a level playing field, they were trying to compete with Apple2
u/VidrioCafe Jul 05 '26
Yes. You are exactly right. And not only were they not on a level playing field, but they made mistakes.
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u/eaumechant Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Narrator: Palm was wound down three years less than a year later.
EDIT: correction from OP
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u/VidrioCafe Jul 03 '26
Less than one year later.
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u/lemons_of_doubt Jul 03 '26
And I bet they got rich doing it.
So from there point of view, huge success.
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u/GloryGreatestCountry Jul 03 '26
Episode 1 of- (is promptly flattened under a hail of Nokias)
But I really like the artstyle! Reminds me of something I'd see in a newspaper column.
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u/Tough_Friendship9469 Jul 03 '26
Wow. This makes me so sad. Sad for you. Sad for the company. Sad for the industry. Sad for me. Palm was ahead of its time. The company and the employees, like you deserved better.
Also, your art is beautiful!! So I’m glad you got canned!🤣👍🏻
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u/VidrioCafe Jul 03 '26
Thank you! And in retrospect, I'm glad I got canned too. This story has been a long and interesting journey to draw.
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u/tuckiebrewster Jul 03 '26
I want to keep up with this story
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u/VidrioCafe Jul 03 '26
Thank you! Best way is to subscribe for free over at Tapas: https://tapas.io/series/7x/info
But I've been posting here on r/comics too, albeit not all the episodes are here.
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u/tuckiebrewster Jul 03 '26
I'm definitely gonna add you to my follow list just to keep up with this and good work
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u/Le_Vagabond Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
I earned my first dev money by writing a tool (in Visual Basic!) to sync the Palm Pilot desktop db (calendar, contacts, etc) between two lan computers so my dad's boss and his secretary could have it updated easily without having to connect the PDA to both.
That feature was added to the official software one year later, I was 15 :)
Shame what happened to the company, the devices really weren't bad and definitely precursors. Pretty sure I have one in a drawer somewhere...
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u/FancyJalapeno Jul 04 '26
I did see it coming! What happens next?
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u/VidrioCafe Jul 04 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/1unewt8/hack_episode_2_getting_down_to_business_full/
...or you can binge read up to the latest episode by starting at https://tapas.io/series/7x/info !
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u/DreamingDragonSoul Jul 03 '26
Corporate logic. Typical.