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Newton Won't Die
Superman writes "Wired just published an article about the continuing popularity of the Apple Newton MessagePad, with props to Mad Max (a Newton MP3 Player), the new ATA driver, and Newton's 802.11 capabilities. Definitely an interesting read, and more proof that just because technology may be a little bit older, doesn't mean it's not useful." I still have my MP2000, and still think it has the best UI around. I keep meaning to convert it into a wireless MP3 player. I am currently hoping for Apple to make an iPod with AirPort and Rendezvous, though.
Apple users are cultist fanatics who buy anything Jobs blesses.
Yes, that explains the phenomenal success of the Power Mac G4 Cube.
latest Apple jackboot of non-apple DVD players and its software
I don't know the details on Apples legal stance here but I do know that the reason behind the move is to stop software piracy.
The only way to get a license of their iDVD burning software is to buy a Mac with a built-in SuperDrive. That's the only legitimate license there is. The software itself costs nothing - you buy it with the machine. Sooo... if someone develops a hack to allow iDVD to work with non-Apple distributed DVD-burners...ask yourself what is going on here. The only answer I can come up with is that people are wanting to rip off the software.
I have no problem with Apple trying to stop this. If it's true that the DMCA is being invoked then I can't support that particular method, however. I just don't think the "Apple = jackbooting thugs taking away your rights" knee-jerk reaction is as clear cut as some are thinking.
You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
I like to imagine that the Inkwell technology isn't going to be filled by a handheld portable, but by a smaller kind of laptop. Microsoft has its fantasy for the Tablet PC, but I think Apple's going for it first. Inkwell is smart, it recognizes handwriting instead of Graffiti, it can tell the difference between writing and mousing. Apple now has all it needs to take the keyboards off the iBook and sell it as a tablet-sized iPad.
Filling the Newton's void would be futile; Palm's got it filled neatly and PocketPC fills the rest of it. Apple makes money by filling voids that don't have any clear winner; think of the iPod, without a doubt the most usable MP3 player for the past year. They'd do well by selling an easy-to-use, student-targetted, MacOS-powered tablet computer before Microsoft can get the hardware out there.
rather, you sell higher quality, longer lasting, better value-retaining machines to people who have concerns about more than simply speed to those with intelligence to purchase quality goods, and not just a cheap acer laptop that'll fall apart in a year and a half and get 45 minutes of battery life.
The Newton is more than simply nostalgia. Even today, it is still very useful and still has more power than most PDAs people are using now a days with a 162 MHz StrongARM processor.
:(
I personally always *liked* the size of the Newton. Sure, it wouldn't hurt if it were lighter, but I am the kind of person that likes to get a lot of use out of a PDA device- not just use it to keep track of appointments. I took all of my college lecture notes on my Newton, read a lot of ebooks/websites, IRCd, read/wrote email, even wrote full-blown Newton OS applications on the device itself.
Then I switched to WinCE so I dedicate more time to developing and testing my PDA OS/environment, which aims to be Newton OS replacement for me. It's hard to get everything working as smooth as it did on the Newton. I'd much rather go back to my Newton, and I regret switching.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
The "problem", if we're to treat it as such, is less Wired than Leander Kahney the individual. If there's old Mac hardware and software being used by anyone, anywhere, and made vocal online, I wouldn't put it past Leander to report on it.
That isn't to say Newtons and Hypercard aren't worth note. However, there's a bit of disproportionate tracking of Mac "cult" interests over at Wired as a result.
Doesn't help that articles such as this made an appearance on Wired's front page with a description along the lines of "iPod users giving up their Palms". It's a little bit of pleasant hyperbole, but justified in that it no doubt pleases the iPod owners in the crowd.
In many ways, I think the current handheld market is the same. Palm passes off the fact that their handhelds are using 10 year old technologies as 'Elegance' while the Pocket PC features typical Microsoft bloat. In the end, I am personally not satasfied with either of these products because I don't think they are the epitome of what a handheld could be.
Let's all face it, what people want out of a handheld computer is relatively simple- it is an extension of the desktop computer. Palm has got this much right. The problem with a Palm however is that the desktop experience has changed from where it was in 1995- people listen to music with their desktop, they play videos, they talk in IMs, surf the web and get email. Palm simply hasn't got the horsepower to keep up.
Apple, on the other hand, does. Between OS X, Apple's core technologies and the iApps, they have the resources and technologies to truly extend the modern desktop computing experience to the mobile market. The two technology barriers that do exist for Apple (handheld hardware and wireless connectivity) can easily be acquired from other companies (with whom Apple currently has relationships- StrongARM, Motorola, Erricson and Nokia).
Imagine an elegantly designed handheld computer running a stripped down version of OS X. At home, it uses AirPort and Bluetooth to run as a LAN mobile extension of your desktop machine, letting you view video from your desktop or play MP3s away from your office.
On the road, an always on cellular modem talks to your desktop computer over a secured broadband connection. Mail that arrives in your Mail.app is now with you wherever you go. You can view and update your iCal calender or Address book from anywhere (and those iCal changes can be updated on the web at your .mac personal web site for all to see). Need to grab a file in your Home directory to give to someone? You just grab it of of your desktop and Bluetooth/IR/802.11B it to someone else.
Need to make a call? Your handheld could act as a wireless IP phone extention to your home telephone and answering machine (with your desktop Mac's modem plugged into the POTS line at home). No more having to hand out a mobile+home telephone number to someone or check two voice mail boxes. Need to reboot that home machine? No problem, open up Terminal.app and go for it.
I would buy such a device in a heartbeat and I think a lot of other people would too. I wouldn't think an Apple handheld like the one above would fill a void; it would show people what a mobile computer could really do.
John Sculley. It's no secret that a) Steve Jobs has a tremendous vindictive streak, and b) most of the changes SJ made at Apple immeditaely upon his return were to cut or scale back JS's initiatives.
Yes, Newton was ahead of its time. It was too big. It was too expensive. It was poorly marketing. It was too __________ (fill in the blank). And, the Newton division was always in the red. That is, it was in the red until right before SJ axed it. Yes, friends, Newton was making a profit for the first time when SJ lowered the boom (two consecutive quarters, I believe); that more than anything tells me that killing it was an act of vindictiveness.
Of course, it didn't take SJ long to realize the error of his ways. About a year later, it came out that Jobs was offering to buy out Palm, but considering that Palm was mostly comprised of ex-Newtonites who were forced out by Steve (successful ones at that), there was no way it was gonna happen.
What was really crazy was that Palm was wildly successful at the time, but they were only nailing the low-end of the emerging PDA market. Newton was perfectly positioned at the time to nail the mid- to high-end of the market, particularly in vertical applications. I remember a MacWeek article at the time about how the Newton was causing a stir in several vertical markets. Apple had the first mover advantage, and they virtually owned the higher-margin high-end of the market. Killing the Newton was an act of sheer stupidity and short-sightedness.
Now that Microsoft has entered the market, I would say that the odds of Apple owning a big chunk of the PDA market are virtually nil. Palm has saturated the low and mid-range of the market; Microsoft and their partners are going after the mid to high-end. Once again, Apple set the table and Microsoft is eating the meal.
Apple might have an opportunity to add PDA features to the iPod; however, that still only gives them a small slice of the low-end consumer market.
If Jobs had been wise, he would have spun out the Newton division, much as he did the Filemaker Pro division, to create its own brand identity apart from Apple and keep the focus on cross-platform compatibility. Perhaps he might have more shrewdly licensed out the Newton OS and allowed PC manufacturers to build the hardware and sell the systems, thus getting a significant jump on Microsoft.
Ah well.