5 Jul
2012
5 Jul
'12
10:50 a.m.
On 07/05/2012 04:11 AM, John Many Jars wrote:
Interesting. I found the handwriting recognition to be excellent.
Generations of Palm Pilots with their "graffiti" version of the alphabet
(basically compensation for poor engineering), going forward for about a
decade, still couldn't even come close to the accuracy of the Newton's
handwriting recognition.
That said, though, I am one to know the limits of new technologies,
and work within them...I don't expect something to be magical just
because it's new. (not accusing you of that mindset...just pointing out
that it's common) A lot of people criticized the Newton because it was
bigger than a pocket sized...clearly not understanding the fact that,
for the technology of the day, making it as small as it was was nothing
short of a miracle.
How,
exactly? It worked very well, especially considering the era,
and lots of them were sold. I've read enough of your posts to know that
you wouldn't make a stupid assumption like "it didn't sell as well as
the iPad, so..." type of thing, so you must know something about Newtons
and their success as products that I don't.
Well, because I had to work on them at the shop. Their big deal was
supposed to be handwriting recognition, and that just didn't work very
well. The whole thing seemed a bit clunky and slow and not
very useful to
me. I think they did coin the acronym PDA... and it did lead on to
bigger and better things. (like the Ipad).
Well yeah, after two decades of additional technological development! ;)
All that said, though, while I did have a new first-run Newton, I very
often wished it was faster. Most of my Newton opinions are based on the
MP2000/MP2100 machines, which were just plain amazing in nearly every
way...once again, given the limitations of the technology of the day.
They were night and day compared to the *first* newtons (the MP100
family) which is probably the ones that people complain about.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA