I've had this one sitting around on my Todo list for quite a while. Time to give it a proper look.

Magic Cap is a user interface from General Magic, Inc. designed for early tablet PDA and cell phone devices that uses a virtual room-based metaphor. Magic Cap is designed to integrate closely with third party messaging services and service providers. Later versions apparently even included a built in web browser.

In many ways it resembles Microsoft BOB. Unlike BOB there are no "assistant" characters, and the Windows version does not cover the entire screen.

Magic Cap starts off at your "Desk", where graphical items spread across the desk represent the your more commonly used applications.

It's interesting to note that kids these days might have a problem recognizing some of these items.

As you click on things, Magic Cap plays crazy little sound effects.

The "desk" contains two drawers. The first one contains a list of templates that you can use to create new messages or documents.

The second drawer contains desk accessories. In the Windows version, these are a built-in calculator followed by links to certain Windows programs.

You can add your own program items here, and you can drag the icons on to the desk.

As you create messages or documents, they appear on your desk.

You can file them in the "file cabinet" or drag them to garbage truck button. The "garbage" acts as a container for the files until you specifically tell it to empty the garbage.

The filing cabinet represents itself as a set of manilla folders in physical drawers.

Note that Magic Cap uses a self-contained file system that is intended to remain entirely in memory on mobile devices. On Windows, the entire content of your Magic Cap session is stored inside a single User File.

Although there is no "door" visible at the desk, you can use the navigation bar at the top to leave the desk room. A long hallway connects other rooms that are part of the Magic Cap "house".

In Magic Cap, the rooms are sometimes also referred to "scenes".

The specific rooms available and the interface in a Magic Cap implementation may have been customized by the vendor.

You can directly return to the Desk at any time by clicking the Desk button. This button is always visible at the lower left of the screen. (Windows 8 needs something like that!)

One of the other rooms in the house is the Library. It contains a few brief guides about using Magic Cap.

Selecting a book opens it using a built in reader application.

The "Game room" is strangely empty. More than likely this is meant for use with various add on packages.

Leaving the Magic Cap house takes you to the "Downtown":.

The buildings in this screen represent the different services you have available to you and that you have subscribed to. As such, an individual's Magic Cap device may have different or additional buildings.

In this Windows version, the only building available is the AT&T PersonalLink Center.