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The best in 1997 tech
Apr. 10th, 2007 10:00 amAfter a thought chain and a series of actions too banal to recount, I now own a Newton MP2000U. (i.e., effectively identical to the last model Apple released before leaving the PDA market.) I can't help but wonder what the PDA market would be like now if the Newton had been even remotely popular and Apple had stayed in the market.
The thing is the size of a VHS tape. Also, the software architecture is different enough from everything else on the planet that getting data on and off the thing is not the easiest thing to do. To be fair, one could make the same argument about the Palm. But Palm became popular enough that companies wrote conduits to move data on and off the thing. The Newton, in part because of its size, and in part because the handwriting recognition didn't work well enough right off the bat, really didn't have a chance.
In a way, that's a shame. In its final incarnation, at least, the handwriting recognition is quite good. Out of the box (i.e., I gave it a full reset), my first impression is that its handwriting recognition is better than that of my Tablet PC. It gets words more accurately. (e.g. I don't have to worry about making the letter 'o' just exactly right, so that the recognizer doesn't think it's the letter 's'.) When it doesn't, the recovery mechanism is far more fluent and faster than that of Windows XP Tablet. The Tablet is given to inexplicable pauses whenever I start up the recognizer, or ask it for alternatives. Now, the Tablet PC I have is not state of the art. However, it has to be at least a magnitude or two more power than the Newton. So that the Newton seems to do a better job of handwriting recognition, I don't know if I should be happy or sad.
(Unlike XP Tablet, the Newton's recognizer is both highly configurable and adaptable. I haven't tailored the recognizer to my handwriting yet, nor have I turned on the "adapt to my handwriting" feature. So, presumably, the recognition gets better from here.)
If Apple had continued to develop it over the past 10 years, presumably it would have gotten smaller. The handwriting recognition might have gotten even better. (I don't know how well Inkwell works on the Mac.) Apple actually had, what I've been told, is a great Chinese handwriting recognizer for MacOS 9. That might have found its way to the Newton. The end result though might have been something that's not quite the iPhone.
(I"m not surprised that Jobs didn't like the Newton. The physical design, by Jobs's standards, is a little clunky. The GUI, complete with sound effects, is a bit cute. It's hard to believe they were targeting it at business people. I mean, when you delete something, you see the piece of paper crumple and it disappears into the trash can with a puff of smoke.
I have to say though, for me, the phone part of the iPhone is its least compelling feature. I'd be happier with something that I could install my own programs on, and perhaps used Inkwell. i.e., more Newton-like, but with the better industrial design.)
Interestingly, there is still a small, but active Newton community. There are also a few companies still selling software for it. They're not doing active development. I think it just doesn't cost them anything to keep 10 year old binaries around. No warehousing costs.
I looked into getting one because I wanted something vaguely pocket sized with decent handwriting recognition. And I think that's exactly what I got. So now I get to see how well it works as a notebook. (I have to say though that it's really cool that the Newton is self-hosting. I think, just on general principle, I have to see whether it's actually practical to develop Newton software on the Newton.)
The thing is the size of a VHS tape. Also, the software architecture is different enough from everything else on the planet that getting data on and off the thing is not the easiest thing to do. To be fair, one could make the same argument about the Palm. But Palm became popular enough that companies wrote conduits to move data on and off the thing. The Newton, in part because of its size, and in part because the handwriting recognition didn't work well enough right off the bat, really didn't have a chance.
In a way, that's a shame. In its final incarnation, at least, the handwriting recognition is quite good. Out of the box (i.e., I gave it a full reset), my first impression is that its handwriting recognition is better than that of my Tablet PC. It gets words more accurately. (e.g. I don't have to worry about making the letter 'o' just exactly right, so that the recognizer doesn't think it's the letter 's'.) When it doesn't, the recovery mechanism is far more fluent and faster than that of Windows XP Tablet. The Tablet is given to inexplicable pauses whenever I start up the recognizer, or ask it for alternatives. Now, the Tablet PC I have is not state of the art. However, it has to be at least a magnitude or two more power than the Newton. So that the Newton seems to do a better job of handwriting recognition, I don't know if I should be happy or sad.
(Unlike XP Tablet, the Newton's recognizer is both highly configurable and adaptable. I haven't tailored the recognizer to my handwriting yet, nor have I turned on the "adapt to my handwriting" feature. So, presumably, the recognition gets better from here.)
If Apple had continued to develop it over the past 10 years, presumably it would have gotten smaller. The handwriting recognition might have gotten even better. (I don't know how well Inkwell works on the Mac.) Apple actually had, what I've been told, is a great Chinese handwriting recognizer for MacOS 9. That might have found its way to the Newton. The end result though might have been something that's not quite the iPhone.
(I"m not surprised that Jobs didn't like the Newton. The physical design, by Jobs's standards, is a little clunky. The GUI, complete with sound effects, is a bit cute. It's hard to believe they were targeting it at business people. I mean, when you delete something, you see the piece of paper crumple and it disappears into the trash can with a puff of smoke.
I have to say though, for me, the phone part of the iPhone is its least compelling feature. I'd be happier with something that I could install my own programs on, and perhaps used Inkwell. i.e., more Newton-like, but with the better industrial design.)
Interestingly, there is still a small, but active Newton community. There are also a few companies still selling software for it. They're not doing active development. I think it just doesn't cost them anything to keep 10 year old binaries around. No warehousing costs.
I looked into getting one because I wanted something vaguely pocket sized with decent handwriting recognition. And I think that's exactly what I got. So now I get to see how well it works as a notebook. (I have to say though that it's really cool that the Newton is self-hosting. I think, just on general principle, I have to see whether it's actually practical to develop Newton software on the Newton.)
