21–30 of 34 posts
“Can I use my Newton as a web server?” Really? That’s a frequently asked question?
In working on my Book III (basically, the early 90s), I've done a ton of research on handheld devices and the money pit they were. Newton is not going to be any more than a footnote. Jerry Kaplan's book Startup tells the story about how Sculley stabbed GO in the back with Newton -- actually, both GO and General Magic. They got a lot of press and flopped miserably. And of course, let's not forget Momenta (as easy as t…
1. Newton was designed with “natural” pen-based interactions as a core design goal. That had huge effects on the entire product from the OS to the UX, including the need to recognize normal writing. The Palm Pilot was designed as a fairly standard PDA OS with the keyboard replaced by an oddly modified set of character shapes that had to be learned by users before they could enter text. We thought that would be a deal-breaker for potential Palm users — we were wrong!
2. Newton was designed as a standalone system, the next generation of computing after desktops. The assumption was that it could be your only computer. Syncing to a PC/Mac was an afterthought. Palm was designed as an adjunct device for a PC, so its capabilities were far less and the sync functionality was core to the system.
There are lots of other differences but many can be traced back to those two. For example, the huge difference in the tech specs and therefore the cost of the devices is directly related to both of those assumptions.
In working on my Book III (basically, the early 90s), I've done a ton of research on handheld devices and the money pit they were. Newton is not going to be any more than a footnote. Jerry Kaplan's book Startup tells the story about how Sculley stabbed GO in the back with Newton -- actually, both GO and General Magic. They got a lot of press and flopped miserably. And of course, let's not forget Momenta (as easy as t…
Two of the most important differences in design assumptions between Newton and Palm, from my POV on the Newton team: 1. Newton was designed with “natural” pen-based interactions as a core design goal. That had huge effects on the entire product from the OS to the UX, including the need to recognize normal writing. The Palm Pilot was designed as a fairly standard PDA OS with the keyboard replaced by an oddly modified…
Unfortunately, it wasn't generally accepted that those two goals were not achievable. That's engineering for you: figuring out what's actually possible.
There was a little sticker you could put on the back of your Palm Pilot that reminded you of the Graffiti language. As you said, it was not a deal-breaker.
“Can I use my Newton as a web server?” Really? That’s a frequently asked question?
In working on my Book III (basically, the early 90s), I've done a ton of research on handheld devices and the money pit they were. Newton is not going to be any more than a footnote. Jerry Kaplan's book Startup tells the story about how Sculley stabbed GO in the back with Newton -- actually, both GO and General Magic. They got a lot of press and flopped miserably. And of course, let's not forget Momenta (as easy as t…
Is it really a good FAQ if it doesn't explain _what_ it is as top level info? What is this? There are no links to the original product (or whatever it is - hardware? Software? OS?) either in the first few minutes of navigation.
Has the Apple Newton really fallen so far out of the public consciousness that this wouldn't be obvious? What about the Palm Pilot? Yes, I know the idea of PDAs has basically disappeared since the advent of smartphones (which are really just PDAs that also work as phones), but even so.
They ceased production of the Apple Newton in 1998 according to Wikipedia. and the most recent Palm product I've heard of came out in 2010.
PDAs are basically floppy disks as far as the wider public knows.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has the Apple Newton really fallen so far out of the public consciousness that this wouldn't be obvious? What about the Palm Pilot? Yes, I know the idea of PDAs has basically disappeared since the advent of smartphones (which are really just PDAs that also work as phones), but even so.
> Has the Apple Newton really fallen so far out of the public consciousness that this wouldn't be obvious? They ceased production of the Apple Newton in 1998 according to Wikipedia. and the most recent Palm product I've heard of came out in 2010. PDAs are basically floppy disks as far as the wider public knows.
In working on my Book III (basically, the early 90s), I've done a ton of research on handheld devices and the money pit they were. Newton is not going to be any more than a footnote. Jerry Kaplan's book Startup tells the story about how Sculley stabbed GO in the back with Newton -- actually, both GO and General Magic. They got a lot of press and flopped miserably. And of course, let's not forget Momenta (as easy as t…
Two of the most important differences in design assumptions between Newton and Palm, from my POV on the Newton team: 1. Newton was designed with “natural” pen-based interactions as a core design goal. That had huge effects on the entire product from the OS to the UX, including the need to recognize normal writing. The Palm Pilot was designed as a fairly standard PDA OS with the keyboard replaced by an oddly modified…
Is it really a good FAQ if it doesn't explain _what_ it is as top level info? What is this? There are no links to the original product (or whatever it is - hardware? Software? OS?) either in the first few minutes of navigation.
my thought exactly. I spent a few minutes on the FAQ and I don't know what a Newton is. Some kind of Palm Pilot like device I assume?
Although if you just spent 20 minutes training it, it was frighteningly good at recognizing handwriting. It could read my writing better than I could back in the day.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Has the Apple Newton really fallen so far out of the public consciousness that this wouldn't be obvious? What about the Palm Pilot? Yes, I know the idea of PDAs has basically disappeared since the advent of smartphones (which are really just PDAs that also work as phones), but even so.
I know what an Apple Newton is. But this is not the Apple Newton FAQ. It's the Newton FAQ. If you don't specify the context and namespace, don't be surprised when people don't know wtf you're talking about. You might as well make a "String Class FAQ"