Yes, I read the entire thread...
I was a relatively early adopter of the Newton... I got a Newton 110 when I was a grad student... It was so cool and elegant, and the gee-whiz geekfactor was ridiculously high... I used it for taking notes in classes and seminars, and the handwriting recognition, while picky, was highly useable for me... Nothing like being able to come home after a day of classes, attach your Newton to a lazer printer, and print out your notes!... I also used it for mundane things like the to-do lists, and even grocery shopping lists... And, of course, the address book... People used to stop me so often in the supermarket or wherever to ask me about it that it distracting, but in a "yeah, this is sooooo cooool!" kind of way... There was pocket Quicken, which allowed one to manage finances, and quite a few other apps that were neat... I was in a music comp program, and there was even a simple music notation entry program that would let me jot down thematic ideas I'd come up with during the day!... Then I got the 120, and the handwriting recognition was vastly improved... But that was a big part of the problem: The Newt was ahead of it's time, tech was advancing at a phenominal rate, and to get the new software, you had to buy an entirely new device... The 130 with the backlit screen was the last one that I was interested in... When they SuperSized it, I lost interest... The 9000 series was just too big...
I think today things could be much different... With the touch screen, you could put into "iPod Mode" and have the touchwheel etc. appear on the screen... Of course, there were no 4.5GB micro-drives in those days!... You could put in "iPhone" mode and have the telephone pad appear on the screen too [Nice if it was a wireless web phone that could tap into an AirPort net as well as a cellular]... Point is, in a device no bigger than the Newton 110/120/130 was, today you could have all of your iApps, cell/web phone, e-mail, instant messaging, and web access!... And the OS could be updatable just like on any iBook or other Mac... A single port each for FW and USB would also fit... Not to mention the AirPort Extreme card...
I use my iBook for most things now, but for us dinosaurs who never learned to type worth a rip, it still stinks not to be able to write into the thing... Not to mention the fact that the iBook won't clip to my belt [Talk about geeky]...
The Newt might have been a failure by some measures, but it blazed a trail that nobody has followed as well, and it changed me from a Win-Tel Droid into a Mac afficianado [For which I will be forever grateful!]...
I'd buy an "iLife device" [Or whatever they would call it] in a heartbeat...
I was a relatively early adopter of the Newton... I got a Newton 110 when I was a grad student... It was so cool and elegant, and the gee-whiz geekfactor was ridiculously high... I used it for taking notes in classes and seminars, and the handwriting recognition, while picky, was highly useable for me... Nothing like being able to come home after a day of classes, attach your Newton to a lazer printer, and print out your notes!... I also used it for mundane things like the to-do lists, and even grocery shopping lists... And, of course, the address book... People used to stop me so often in the supermarket or wherever to ask me about it that it distracting, but in a "yeah, this is sooooo cooool!" kind of way... There was pocket Quicken, which allowed one to manage finances, and quite a few other apps that were neat... I was in a music comp program, and there was even a simple music notation entry program that would let me jot down thematic ideas I'd come up with during the day!... Then I got the 120, and the handwriting recognition was vastly improved... But that was a big part of the problem: The Newt was ahead of it's time, tech was advancing at a phenominal rate, and to get the new software, you had to buy an entirely new device... The 130 with the backlit screen was the last one that I was interested in... When they SuperSized it, I lost interest... The 9000 series was just too big...
I think today things could be much different... With the touch screen, you could put into "iPod Mode" and have the touchwheel etc. appear on the screen... Of course, there were no 4.5GB micro-drives in those days!... You could put in "iPhone" mode and have the telephone pad appear on the screen too [Nice if it was a wireless web phone that could tap into an AirPort net as well as a cellular]... Point is, in a device no bigger than the Newton 110/120/130 was, today you could have all of your iApps, cell/web phone, e-mail, instant messaging, and web access!... And the OS could be updatable just like on any iBook or other Mac... A single port each for FW and USB would also fit... Not to mention the AirPort Extreme card...
I use my iBook for most things now, but for us dinosaurs who never learned to type worth a rip, it still stinks not to be able to write into the thing... Not to mention the fact that the iBook won't clip to my belt [Talk about geeky]...
The Newt might have been a failure by some measures, but it blazed a trail that nobody has followed as well, and it changed me from a Win-Tel Droid into a Mac afficianado [For which I will be forever grateful!]...
I'd buy an "iLife device" [Or whatever they would call it] in a heartbeat...
