General Magic

General Magic was founded in 1990 by a team that had left Apple. What they wanted to build was simple: a device that fits in a pocket, with a touchscreen, that could send email and buy things. They shipped it in 1994. It did not sell. The company was gone within a few years. But the people who came out of that team built the technology of the next twenty years: the designer of the iPod, the maker of Android, the founder of eBay, and more. The documentary tells it through the footage of the time and interviews now. Sarah Kerruish directs; ninety-two minutes. Most of the footage comes from what the company filmed of itself back then. Tony Fadell, Andy Hertzfeld and Megan Smith are among the speakers. The question the film puts is this: if an idea arrives far too early, is that a failure.