General Magic

Extracted Attributes

• Status

  Liquidated in 2004

• Founded

  1990-05-01

• Founders

  Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, and Marc Porat

• Industry

  Software and Electronics

• Headquarters

  Mountain View, California, United States

• Key Products

  Magic Cap (Operating System), Telescript (Programming Language), Portico (Voice Assistant)

• IPO Valuation

  834,000,000 USD

• IPO Capital Raised

  90,000,000 USD

Timeline

• General Magic is founded as a spin-off from Apple to develop personal communication devices. (Source: Wikidata)

  1990-05-01

• The company hires its first interns and begins developing smartphone and digital media player concepts. (Source: Web Search Results)

  1992-01-01

• Launch of the Magic Cap operating system and compatible hardware, including the Sony Magic Link and Motorola Envoy. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1994-01-01

• General Magic goes public (IPO), raising 90 million USD and reaching a valuation of 834 million USD. (Source: Web Search Results)

  1995-01-01

• Steve Markman is hired as CEO and establishes a telephony group to develop the Portico voice recognition assistant. (Source: Web Search Results)

  1996-01-01

• The company announces it will cease all operations. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2002-01-01

• General Magic is liquidated, and its patents are purchased by Paul Allen. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2004-01-01

General Magic

General Magic was an American software and electronics company co-founded by Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, and Marc Porat. Based in Mountain View, California, the company developed precursors to USB, software modems, small touchscreens, touchscreen controller Integrated circuits, ASICs, multimedia email, networked games, streaming TV, and early e-commerce notions. The company's main product was Magic Cap, the operating system used in 1994 by Sony's Magic Link and the Motorola Envoy PDAs. It also introduced the programming language Telescript. After announcing it would cease operations in 2002, it was liquidated in 2004 with Paul Allen purchasing most of its patents.

Web Search Results

• General Magic - Wikipedia

  General Magic was an American software and electronics company co-founded by Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, and Marc Porat. Based in Mountain View, California, the company developed precursors to USB, software modems, small touchscreens, touchscreen controller Integrated circuits, ASICs, multimedia email, networked games, streaming TV, and early e-commerce notions. The company's main product was Magic Cap, the operating system used in 1994 by Sony's Magic Link and the Motorola Envoy PDAs. It also introduced the programming language Telescript "Telescript (programming language)"). After announcing it would cease operations in 2002, it was liquidated in 2004 with Paul Allen purchasing most of its patents. ## History [edit] ### Apple project and spinoff (1989) [edit")] [...] ### Magic Cap [edit] Main article: Magic Cap General Magic's main product was Magic Cap, an operating system (OS) which allowed users to "set their own rules for message alerts and acquiring information" on PDAs, according to CNET. The basic idea behind the system was to distribute the typical computing load across many machines in the network using Magic Cap, which was a fairly minimal operating system that was essentially a UI. The UI is based on a "rooms" metaphor; for example, e-mail and an address book can be found in the office, and games might be found in a living room. User applications were generally written in Magic Script, a utility language variant of the C programming language "C (programming language)") with object oriented extensions. [...] Steve Markman was hired to run General Magic in 1996, and he hired Kevin Surace to head a new telephony group. This new team of 60–70 people set out to create a voice recognition-based personal assistant service that would be as close to human interaction as possible. The first service delivered was Portico (code named Serengeti during development), and the interface was called Mary, named after Mary McDonald-Lewis, who voiced Portico, Serengeti and GM's later version, OnStar. Portico synchronized to devices such as the Palm Connected Organizer and Microsoft Outlook and handled voicemail, call forwarding, email, calendar etc., all through the user's own personal 800 number. General Magic was the first company to employ a large number of linguists to make their software seem real and

• General Magic the Movie

  ‍‍ General Magic, though relatively unknown, is considered by many to be one of the most influential innovation startups in the history of technology. This pioneering team—featuring visionaries like Tony Fadell (co-creator of the iPod and iPhone, founder of Nest, author of Build), Megan Smith (former White House CTO, founder of shift7), Marc Porat (original visionary of the smartphone), Andy Hertzfeld (software engineer, original Macintosh team), and Joanna Hoffman (marketing, original Macintosh team)—created the first smartphone and laid the foundation for many of the 21st century's most transformative communication and digital technologies. ‍ [...] 'A fascinating look at what it means to fail, and whether a failure that changed the world is really a failure at all.' # General Magic ## Stream general Magic now General Magic is available to watch on VOD platforms worldwide. Learn MoreLearn More ## Book a General Magic Event Host a private screening of General Magic for your organization paired with live panels and team-building workshops. Learn MoreGet a custom quote General Magic is the story of the original creators of the smartphone, who after a great failure, changed the lives of billions. [...] ## inspiring Lessons for teams The compelling story of General Magic shows the powerful value that lies in failure, perseverance and teamwork amongst other empowering themes. Teams and groups will find inspiration in this legendary piece of history. ## LEARN FROM SILICON VALLEY LEGENDS ### General Magic tells the tale of how a great vision and an epic failure changed the lives of billions. Produced and directed by the Emmy nominated Sarah Kerruish and Matt Maude, this award winning documentary features legendary members of the original Macintosh team alongside young, future creators, all who brought us the technologies we rely on today. #### Tony Fadell

• Innovation Heroes: The failed startup that shaped modern technology

  Twitter LinkedIn Email Reading Time: 4 minutes In the early 1990s, General Magic emerged as a Silicon Valley startup with a clear vision: invent a personal communication device that would revolutionize how people connect and share information. Their early prototypes included what would eventually become staples in modern technology, such as touchscreens, emojis, and even USB connections. This idea attracted heavy investment from tech giants like Sony, Motorola, and AT&T. But despite its groundbreaking innovations, General Magic failed to bring its device to market. The technology was simply too far ahead of its time. As Michael Stern recounts, “Everything we take for granted about social, mobile, and e-commerce was developed at Magic – we were just too soon.” [...] For Miles, the experience of working on the film and now leading General Magic Workshops has been transformative: “Storytelling is so powerful for letting go of the shame around failure. I think the act of making the film and sharing the story with the world has been incredibly healing for the Magicians. It has also taught me that failure is just another opportunity to learn.” The story of General Magic is one of vision, resilience, and the power of failure to spark future innovation. “Yes, we failed, but we also left something behind that was worthwhile,” says Stern. This sentiment, echoed by both Stern and Miles, is a reminder that failure is often just the beginning of something bigger. [...] While General Magic may have folded, its innovations lived on, paving the way for future technologies. Stern, who served as the company’s general counsel, points out that voice recognition technology developed at General Magic was adapted for use in OnStar, and several of the company’s alumni went on to play pivotal roles with tech giants like Apple, Google, and eBay. ## Challenging the traditional Silicon Valley narrative In 2018, a documentary about General Magic’s rise and fall, appropriately titled General Magic, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. One of the core themes of the film – which went on to win best documentary awards at seven festivals – is how the company’s story challenges traditional Silicon Valley success narratives.

• When Magic is Not Enough: Learn from the Failure of General Magic

  Well, a recent (award-winning) documentary–GENERAL MAGIC— tells the untold story of the shocking failure of Porat and Andy’s company and the wave of success it catalyzed. There were no actors. Everyone plays themselves. It is a must-watch for any entrepreneur who wants to understand the power of failure. What I learned from watching the film: [...] GO was a colossal failure. It burned through $75 Million in venture capital–a meaningful amount of money at that time–before going defunct in 1994. “GO didn’t go,” as its CEO, legendary silicon valley coach Bill Campbell was fond of saying. GO was not alone. Around the same time, Marc Porat–a former program director at the Aspen Institute and an Apple executive on the Macintosh team–penned a book detailing his vision of the future. It was inspired by his view that the world would become an information economy. Porat shared his Red Bookwith the CEO of Apple, John Sculley. In 1990, Porat co-founded a startup called General Magic with Andy Hertzfeld and Bill Atkinson from the original Macintosh team. The company was a secretive spin-out from Apple Computer. [...] What did they set out to do? They set out to create an early version of handheld communications devices called Magic Link–a precursor to the smartphone and personal digital assistant (or PDA). General Magic, a company you’ve never heard of, was a unicorn before there was such a thing. Porat took the company public in 1995 (with no shipped product or revenue) at a value of $834M–raising over $90M. (Its stock doubled on the first day.) General Magic failed too. It shut its doors in 1996, never realizing its vision. generalmagicthemovie.com What if you could be a fly on the wall to experience each detailed decision these leaders made? Rarely do you get to see the teams like this–executing their vision. And, you rarely live to see the future and learn whether they were right.

• General Magic – designing the iPhone in 1992

  Menu Menu Skyrize Xero Overview Xero Product Xero Marketing Xero Videos Beastie Boys General magic menu menu Skyrize Xero Overview Xero Product Xero Marketing Xero Videos Beastie Boys General magic # General Magic ### "The most important startup you've never heard of" Design Intern, 1992 I was hired by MeganSmith to be the first intern at the super top secret Silicon Valley startup called General Magic. The company was developing a smartphone – in 1992. The founding team were the gods of Silicon Valley – the original Macintosh team of Andy Hertzfeld, Susan Kare, Bill Atkinson and Joanna Hoffman. [...] I called my concept a Mediaphone because I was more interested in using it as a digital media player for music and video, rather than a personal assistant. General Magic formed a unique consortium of consumer electronics hardware makers like Apple, Sony, Panasonic, and Motorola. I worked closely with the Sony team, and I told them: you invented the walkman – what I want is a digital walkman, where I can listen to any song, any time, any where in the world. ## How I got the internship I studied industrial design at university. In 1990, one of our assignments was called "Futures" where we needed to design a product that would exist in 10 years. This photo is all I have left of that project – all the original source files were on floppy disks. [...] My concept was a digital tablet and phone. Keep in mind, at the time, computers and monitors were the size of washing machines and mobile phones were called "car phones" because they were the size of a briefcase – which you kept in your car. I designed something I wanted: a set of companion devices I could go traveling with, with maps to get around, the ability to record and share photos and video, listen to music and read books. And a way to make phone calls. Our final senior year project was to find a paid sponsorship with a company, then design a product for them. I got offers from both Sony and General Magic, which was thrilling. But there was no contest – moving to San Francisco, to work with the original Mac team, on the future of tech – it was a no brainer.

• Country

  United States

• Founder

  Bill Atkinson

• Instance Of

  Q4830453

• Headquarters

  Mountain View

• Inception Date

  5/1/1990