John Jerney.
Publisher and editor of Pen-Based Computing: The Journal of Stylus Systems (1991–1998) and mobilis: the mobile computing lifestyle magazine (1995–1998), and founder and curator of this museum.
Pen-Based
Computing.
The newsletter
John Jerney started as a Contributing Editor in 1992, and published and edited Pen-Based Computing: The Journal of Stylus Systems from 1993 through to its final issue in 1998.
The newsletter chronicled the full commercial arc of pen-based computing — its people, products, and breakthroughs. Coverage spanned GRiD Systems' GRiDPAD, GO Corporation's PenPoint, the Apple Newton, the EO Personal Communicator, the PalmPilot, Microsoft's Windows for Pen Computing, and the handwriting recognition engines that made these devices possible.
The complete run will soon be fully digitized and freely accessible in the museum's journal archive.
The newsletter is part of the permanent collection of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
At a glance
Title:
Pen-Based Computing: The Journal of Stylus Systems
Run:
1991–1998
Roles:
Contributing Editor
Publisher and Editor
Profile:
John Jerney
mobilis:
the mobile computing lifestyle magazine
The magazine
John Jerney launched mobilis magazine in early 1995 — a web-exclusive, ad-supported consumer monthly covering the then-emerging mobile wireless lifestyle.
mobilis was an early pioneer of interactive advertising. Working simulations of the original PalmPilot and Sharp's early handheld PCs, among others, ran inside the magazine itself, letting readers explore each device's features and feel before purchasing.
At a glance
Title:
mobilis: the mobile computing lifestyle magazine
Run:
1995–1998
Role:
Publisher and Editor
This
museum.
The archive
John Jerney founded the Pen-Based Computing History Museum to preserve the era he covered as an industry analyst — the foundational decade whose ideas, gestures, and ambitions now live in every smartphone.
The museum is an independent online archive of hardware, software, manuals, press materials, and oral histories from the stylus era. Its holdings are not aggregated from the web — they are a working physical collection, built device by device and document by document across the years. Much of it arrived directly: review units, press kits, and developer materials sent to Pen-Based Computing and mobilis as the industry unfolded.
See the About page for the museum's scope and method.
Get in touch
Reach the curator directly at [email protected], or via the contact page.
Professional profile: LinkedIn.