Many people were afraid of the Intel switch because of the potential of adding far-reaching DRM. And indeed, the first Intel Macs had TPM (Trusted Computing) chips built into the motherboards. However, while there is a TPM driver in OS X, it is not actually being used by anything (not even iTunes DRM). And, in fact, starting with the MacPro, it appears that Apple is no longer including the TPM chip in their systems.
For the curious, you can actually use the TPM chip from user space. A great article about TPM and how Apple uses it (and how you can use it yourself) can be found at:
Umm, hello? McFly? Perhaps you missed the part where The Steve explained that they are still keeping the best stuff under wraps, ostensibly to thwart Microsoft's effort to copy yet another Mac-first feature (but probably more likely because they aren't ready for prime time yet). Remember, Tiger is still in development, with a release date still way in the future (I believe spring '07 was mentioned in the keynote.
Besides, I for one found what they did show pretty damn compelling, especially Time Machine and Core Animation. Time Machine alone is worth the price of admission - I have long been wanting a system-wide sort of "undo" (they call it backup, but in many ways, it s really more like a system-wide "undo") for many years, and if the Time Machine demo is any indication, it looks like my wait is over. Apple implemented it in the usual elegant, beautiful way that we've come to expect from them.
And, I don't know about you, but personally I think it's refreshing that Steve decided to invite others to the party. It makes more sense for the hardware and software heads to present the new MacPro's and OS X, respectively. Besides, we finally get to see Phil, Bertrand, and co. live and in person, rather than by iChat AV:)
Great, just what we need. Underpaid, incompetent people defending the world. Game over man. Guess I better go find a copy of the Book of Origin and start studying.
Of course, maybe that has already happened, only with the Ori taking the forms of the current US government and Religious Right leaders as disguises...
Okay, so who thinks that this is a VERY BAD IDEA? I mean, wireless networks have gotten a lot better, but mine still falls down and dies every time the dipstick neighbor yaks on his cordless phone. And security? Even the latest and greatest WPA security has been shown to have weaknesses (okay, granted, the weakness is if the user doesn't use a good enough passphrase, but still...)
What if the plane hit some sort of weird air turbulence (or lots of EM activity in the air caused by, I dunno, sunspots or lightning or something); surely that would play havoc with the wireless link. And of course you also have to worry about those Morons who insist on leaving their cell phones on, or forgetting to shut off their laptop's WiFi (or even deliberately leaving it turned on, maybe playing Deathmatches with the guy three seats down).
And if you think that's bad, well then think of how this could be used in terrorism, for example. Want to crash a plane into something? No problem! Forget box-cutters and shoe bombs. Just whip open your laptop in-flight and run nmap or other such hacking tools. (Don't forget the "Boss Key" that puts up a harmless looking spreadsheet or DVD movie if someone happens to pass by!)
Ok, so maybe your country didn't train you properly in 1337 h4x0r techniques. Or maybe you accidentally left your laptop in your camel this morning. No sweat! Just whip out your handy dandy broad-spectrum frequency jammer (don't have one? You can probably MacGuyver one from a FRS/GMRS radio or some other piece of radio gadgetry!); interrupt the signals between cockpit and controls/instrumentation. Can't fly the plane very well without those. Sure, you can't guarantee hitting a specific target that way, but you can still be guaranteed of causing lots of general pandemonium, mayhem, and fear. Do it near enough to a population center (e.g. while taking off or landing) and you're bound to hit something, perhaps something big and/or vital/symbolic.
Between you and me, this gets my vote for World's Worst Idea.
Somebody, whether it be PepsiCo themselves, some distributors, or something, really messed up on the iCap rollout. Everyone I know did NOT see them anywhere near the launch date. I myself didn't see any iCaps until **late March**. The only people I heard of who had iCaps even remotely close to release day were the people working at Apple, and I believe that even THEY had to wait a week or so before the campus vending machines were stocked up. (and had to suffer with frequent out-of-stock)
G4 TiBook 800 MHz, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB 4200rpm internal drive, 40 GB 4200rpm external FireWire drive used for captures/editing, Sony DCR-TRV120 Digital8 camcorder.
Not a single problem here. I can capture DV to either my internal or FireWire drive with NO lost frames or other jerkiness. I can even do this while switching between multiple apps, playing MP3's, etc.
The new features are awesome! Importing music/sfx tracks in iMovie 1/2 was a pain, and if you wanted to do any sort of custom fading (fading out to catch a line of spoken dialogue or whatever), then forget it! MUCH nicer in iMovie 3, where you can edit volume levels in music clips at will,.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of my installed iMovie plugins still worked perfectly with 3...
Also the integration with the other iApps is great. I spoke earlier about the iTunes integration. And the iPhoto stuff with the Ken Burns effect is great as well. I was able to enhance some of my older video footage of family birthdays, Christmas, etc. by adding Ken Burns-ized pictures from my iPhoto library with some music and/or narration. I can't really comment on the iDVD integration, since I don't have a SuperDrive, but it looks pretty neat.
Rendering (transitions/titles/etc.) seems *slightly* slower, but not really a big deal to me. That's about the only downside I noticed.
That wouuld be the Abit AX5, a Socket 7-based ATX mobo based on the Intel 430TX chipset. I used to have one of these - in fact it was my first server and has performed faithfully until only very recently (may it rest in peace...). The first time I read the manual I nearly fell out of my chair laughing so hard, and my then-roommate literally jumped 10 feet in the air at my sudden outburst.
Here's the deal. iPhoto, iTunes, and iMovie will still be available for FREE DOWNLOAD. *BUT*, if you want iDVD, you will have to buy the new 'ILife" boxed set, which includes ALL of the iApps. The iLife set is $50. BUT YOU CAN STILL DOWNLOAD IPHOTO, ITUNES, AND IMOVIE FOR FREE. The reason why iDVD is not available for free download is that it is simply a HUGE program (mostly due to the Themes that are included with it), and with this new version of iDVD, which includes LOTS MORE themes, that would represent a simply HUGE download.
Check out a great little app called Newpen - http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm? sid=25184320030113205329&prodID=42632
It's a great little app that lets you use any part of the screen to write your Graffiti strokes. It even draws the strokes as you write them, so you can actually see what you're writing, to gauge your accuracy or make corrections or whatever.
Apple has quietly posted an update to Safari. 1.0 Beta v51 is available from the Safari download page at http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
There were no specific release notes included, other than the curt phrase "This Safari update is recommended for all Safari users" (nor could I get any info from any of the Apple staffers I spoke to at MacWorld Expo), but I suspect that, coming so soon after the release of Safari (and after the Slashdot article) that this address was put out to address the problems mentioned in the Slashdot article.
So far I've not had any trouble with the thing, and it's just as fast as ever. The speed of this sucker is seriously impressive. And the fact that Apple is complying with the GPL and sending all source code modifications back to the KDE people gives me that warm fuzzy feeling all over. Now I'm looking forward to KDE 3.2 -- I have a feeling that we'll get a leaner, meaner, beefier Konqui out of this! More power to the people.
I am the webmaster for the Santa Barbara Linux Users Group. We have recently gotten a domain name for our site, so the official address is now http://www.sblug.com/.
The server can get slow sometimes because it is being run on my personal (home) DSL connection -- only 128K outgoing -- and I was probably uploading a file at the time, or something like that. Recently I had a cable modem connection installed (in addition to the DSL) to use for my own personal use, leaving the DSL to run my websites and e-mail (since it has a static IP), so this shouldn't happen in the future.
A PVR without the subscription service is no better than a fancy VCR. The whole *point* of the PVR is the subscription service, IMHO. Because it gives a lot of power to you, the viewer. I'm a busy guy, and I'm sure a lot of us here are busy guys/gals too. I don't always have time to scour through the TV Guide or newspaper or whatever to find the shows I want, then hit a bunch of buttons to program them. With my RTV, I can say "Record 'Iron Chef'" and it will dutifully record it... EVEN IF THE PROGRAM MOVES, CHANGES TIME SLOTS, SWITCHES TO A DIFFERENT CHANNEL, ETC. Try that with your VCR.
Also, with the "Replay Zones" feature, you can oftentimes find cool/interesting shows that you would otherwise not know anything about. For example, I'm really into sci-fi type stuff, so I added the SciFi Zones channel. My RTV unit dutifully records anything with a sci-fi theme, be it a movie, TV series, whatever. True, I pick up some crap along the way, but I also discover many neat shows that I've never heard of that are interesting and fun to watch. It really _is_ revolutionizing the way we watch TV. Since I got my RTV unit (Panasonic Showstopper, $400 minus $100 rebate minus $100 open box discount, immediately upgraded to double the capacity) my TV viewing habits have totally changed. I can now watch what I want, when I want, on my own terms. And with a couple presses of a button, I can skip commercials.
In regards to the "phone home" feature, where it tells the networks what you watch, there's something to think about here: Nielsen ratings. TV programs' popularity are gauged by so-called "Nielsen families." Basically, there are many handpicked groups of people, all over the country, that are given a little book, and told to record what they watch and when they watch it. This data is collected by the networks, and it literally determines what programs live or die. In effect, the TV programming was being controlled by a small, hand-picked elite class. But with RTV units sending their data back to home base, _all of us_ essentially become Nielsen families. Maybe, just maybe this will help keep the "cool" shows on TV and drive out the crap. Anyway, enough ranting for one day. We now return you to the regularly scheduled Slashdot article.
The Tandy 100... it lives...
on
Tandys Never Die
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I know several people who still use their Tandy 100's on a daily basis. Those things are amazingly tough, and amazingly long-lasting in the battery department. (Imagine running one of those on a set of 1800 mAh NiMHs!:) ) I've found Tandy 100's in all sorts of places in my travels (garage sales, flea markets, thrift stores) and all of them were still functional. And they're amazingly light as well. When all you need is a note-taking machine or maybe a simple text terminal, you can't beat the Tandy 100. Sure beats lugging around a laptop.
The only problem I see is in getting the files out to yoru regular computer. But if memory serves me correctly, there were ports on the thing (I'm pretty sure it had a parallel port, and I seem to recall it having a serial as well). I think there was even an internal modem option available(? - correct me if I'm wrong please). And since the thing had BASIC on it, I suppose you could hack together a crude file transfer program of sorts.
Back in my C=64 days, I remember finding this program that played a song ("sailing, sailing,..." if my memory serves me correctly) using the motors on the C=1541 disk drive. Pity that just a few runs of the program would trash the drive. Ah, nostalgia!
OK, so Square's gonna release FFXI on the PS2, and it's gonna be MMP. How is this gonna work? An MMORPG obviously needs some kind of connection to the Internet, and unless I'm mistaken, the PS2 currently has NO broadband/narrowband connectivity options at this time. (If I _am_ mistaken, PLEASE let me know... being a new PS2 owner, I'd love to hear about all the goodies that I can hook up to my monolith.)
Hopefully, if connectivity doesn't exist for the PS2 right now, Square will, with FFXI, provide an impetus for Sony or other third party to create connection options. *crosses fingers*
Re:I'm buying one purely for the tiny firewire hd
on
Apple releases iPod
·
· Score: 1
If it's a firewire device, it would undoubtedly use some variation of the SBP2 protocol. This would make the device appear to the OS as just another hard drive. With that kind of access, you could store *anything* on the device. Now, whether the iPod firmware can make sense of it, is another issue entirely. But even the rival Nomad Jukebox can be used to store any type of file, not just MP3's. The player firmware knows enough to ignore non-MP3-like files.
That's an interesting point, yes. Back when the Newton was invented, the tools to fully realize it weren't there yet. It would have been kind of like trying to build an Athlon with vacuum tubes.
If Newton were to re-emerge now, in the era of Lithium-Polymer batteries, better handwriting recognition software, lower power CPU's, etc. I think it would do rather well. The Newton was truly a device before its time.
Here's the thing about Newton. When Newton came out, electronic PDA's *DID NOT EXIST YET*. People were still using Rolodexes and Day-Runners. This was just TOO new fangled for them. Combied with crappy marketing, it was no wonder that Newton bit the dust.
I have a feeling that if Newton came out after Palm did, that it would have run circles around Palm.
Now, with the iPod, MP3 players ALREADY EXIST. And when people start seeing this baby pop up in stores, I betcha alot of people will look at their Nomad/eXpanium/Rio/d'Music/whatever and say "Why the hell did I buy THIS??!"
Slashdot Mirror
Shiver me timbers! I betcha Captain Bluetooth will be wantin' one of these to replace his peg leg!
Many people were afraid of the Intel switch because of the potential of adding far-reaching DRM. And indeed, the first Intel Macs had TPM (Trusted Computing) chips built into the motherboards. However, while there is a TPM driver in OS X, it is not actually being used by anything (not even iTunes DRM). And, in fact, starting with the MacPro, it appears that Apple is no longer including the TPM chip in their systems.
For the curious, you can actually use the TPM chip from user space. A great article about TPM and how Apple uses it (and how you can use it yourself) can be found at:
http://www.osxbook.com/book/bonus/chapter10/tpm/
:(
I'm gonna be gassy for a week!!!
Guess that using a laptop in this bed is kinda out of the question. Damn!
Umm, hello? McFly? Perhaps you missed the part where The Steve explained that they are still keeping the best stuff under wraps, ostensibly to thwart Microsoft's effort to copy yet another Mac-first feature (but probably more likely because they aren't ready for prime time yet). Remember, Tiger is still in development, with a release date still way in the future (I believe spring '07 was mentioned in the keynote.
:)
Besides, I for one found what they did show pretty damn compelling, especially Time Machine and Core Animation. Time Machine alone is worth the price of admission - I have long been wanting a system-wide sort of "undo" (they call it backup, but in many ways, it s really more like a system-wide "undo") for many years, and if the Time Machine demo is any indication, it looks like my wait is over. Apple implemented it in the usual elegant, beautiful way that we've come to expect from them.
And, I don't know about you, but personally I think it's refreshing that Steve decided to invite others to the party. It makes more sense for the hardware and software heads to present the new MacPro's and OS X, respectively. Besides, we finally get to see Phil, Bertrand, and co. live and in person, rather than by iChat AV
Great, just what we need. Underpaid, incompetent people defending the world. Game over man. Guess I better go find a copy of the Book of Origin and start studying.
Of course, maybe that has already happened, only with the Ori taking the forms of the current US government and Religious Right leaders as disguises...
Okay, so who thinks that this is a VERY BAD IDEA? I mean, wireless networks have gotten a lot better, but mine still falls down and dies every time the dipstick neighbor yaks on his cordless phone. And security? Even the latest and greatest WPA security has been shown to have weaknesses (okay, granted, the weakness is if the user doesn't use a good enough passphrase, but still...)
What if the plane hit some sort of weird air turbulence (or lots of EM activity in the air caused by, I dunno, sunspots or lightning or something); surely that would play havoc with the wireless link. And of course you also have to worry about those Morons who insist on leaving their cell phones on, or forgetting to shut off their laptop's WiFi (or even deliberately leaving it turned on, maybe playing Deathmatches with the guy three seats down).
And if you think that's bad, well then think of how this could be used in terrorism, for example. Want to crash a plane into something? No problem! Forget box-cutters and shoe bombs. Just whip open your laptop in-flight and run nmap or other such hacking tools. (Don't forget the "Boss Key" that puts up a harmless looking spreadsheet or DVD movie if someone happens to pass by!)
Ok, so maybe your country didn't train you properly in 1337 h4x0r techniques. Or maybe you accidentally left your laptop in your camel this morning. No sweat! Just whip out your handy dandy broad-spectrum frequency jammer (don't have one? You can probably MacGuyver one from a FRS/GMRS radio or some other piece of radio gadgetry!); interrupt the signals between cockpit and controls/instrumentation. Can't fly the plane very well without those. Sure, you can't guarantee hitting a specific target that way, but you can still be guaranteed of causing lots of general pandemonium, mayhem, and fear. Do it near enough to a population center (e.g. while taking off or landing) and you're bound to hit something, perhaps something big and/or vital/symbolic.
Between you and me, this gets my vote for World's Worst Idea.
No apple product has ever had a CD Key or anything similar.
...
iWork, Final Cut, Soundtrack, DVD Studio Pro,
Darn sody pop! How can anybody breathe this stuff?! *BURP* Excuse me. Oh great; now I'm gonna be gassy for a month!!!
You obviously haven't been to the office where I work...
Somebody, whether it be PepsiCo themselves, some distributors, or something, really messed up on the iCap rollout. Everyone I know did NOT see them anywhere near the launch date. I myself didn't see any iCaps until **late March**. The only people I heard of who had iCaps even remotely close to release day were the people working at Apple, and I believe that even THEY had to wait a week or so before the campus vending machines were stocked up. (and had to suffer with frequent out-of-stock)
G4 TiBook 800 MHz, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB 4200rpm internal drive, 40 GB 4200rpm external FireWire drive used for captures/editing, Sony DCR-TRV120 Digital8 camcorder.
Not a single problem here. I can capture DV to either my internal or FireWire drive with NO lost frames or other jerkiness. I can even do this while switching between multiple apps, playing MP3's, etc.
The new features are awesome! Importing music/sfx tracks in iMovie 1/2 was a pain, and if you wanted to do any sort of custom fading (fading out to catch a line of spoken dialogue or whatever), then forget it! MUCH nicer in iMovie 3, where you can edit volume levels in music clips at will,.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of my installed iMovie plugins still worked perfectly with 3...
Also the integration with the other iApps is great. I spoke earlier about the iTunes integration. And the iPhoto stuff with the Ken Burns effect is great as well. I was able to enhance some of my older video footage of family birthdays, Christmas, etc. by adding Ken Burns-ized pictures from my iPhoto library with some music and/or narration. I can't really comment on the iDVD integration, since I don't have a SuperDrive, but it looks pretty neat.
Rendering (transitions/titles/etc.) seems *slightly* slower, but not really a big deal to me. That's about the only downside I noticed.
That wouuld be the Abit AX5, a Socket 7-based ATX mobo based on the Intel 430TX chipset. I used to have one of these - in fact it was my first server and has performed faithfully until only very recently (may it rest in peace...). The first time I read the manual I nearly fell out of my chair laughing so hard, and my then-roommate literally jumped 10 feet in the air at my sudden outburst.
The manual can be found here, for your viewing pleasure: http://fae.abit.com.tw/eng/download/dlmanual.php?n ame=APTX5&file=aptx5e.pdf.
Oh, and the exact quote is: "You just need to insert the modules, without the help of God. Isn't it great?"
Here's the deal. iPhoto, iTunes, and iMovie will still be available for FREE DOWNLOAD. *BUT*, if you want iDVD, you will have to buy the new 'ILife" boxed set, which includes ALL of the iApps. The iLife set is $50. BUT YOU CAN STILL DOWNLOAD IPHOTO, ITUNES, AND IMOVIE FOR FREE. The reason why iDVD is not available for free download is that it is simply a HUGE program (mostly due to the Themes that are included with it), and with this new version of iDVD, which includes LOTS MORE themes, that would represent a simply HUGE download.
Check out a great little app called Newpen - http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm? sid=25184320030113205329&prodID=42632
It's a great little app that lets you use any part of the screen to write your Graffiti strokes. It even draws the strokes as you write them, so you can actually see what you're writing, to gauge your accuracy or make corrections or whatever.
Apple has quietly posted an update to Safari. 1.0 Beta v51 is available from the Safari download page at http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
There were no specific release notes included, other than the curt phrase "This Safari update is recommended for all Safari users" (nor could I get any info from any of the Apple staffers I spoke to at MacWorld Expo), but I suspect that, coming so soon after the release of Safari (and after the Slashdot article) that this address was put out to address the problems mentioned in the Slashdot article.
So far I've not had any trouble with the thing, and it's just as fast as ever. The speed of this sucker is seriously impressive. And the fact that Apple is complying with the GPL and sending all source code modifications back to the KDE people gives me that warm fuzzy feeling all over. Now I'm looking forward to KDE 3.2 -- I have a feeling that we'll get a leaner, meaner, beefier Konqui out of this! More power to the people.
I am the webmaster for the Santa Barbara Linux Users Group. We have recently gotten a domain name for our site, so the official address is now http://www.sblug.com/.
The server can get slow sometimes because it is being run on my personal (home) DSL connection -- only 128K outgoing -- and I was probably uploading a file at the time, or something like that. Recently I had a cable modem connection installed (in addition to the DSL) to use for my own personal use, leaving the DSL to run my websites and e-mail (since it has a static IP), so this shouldn't happen in the future.
A PVR without the subscription service is no better than a fancy VCR. The whole *point* of the PVR is the subscription service, IMHO. Because it gives a lot of power to you, the viewer. I'm a busy guy, and I'm sure a lot of us here are busy guys/gals too. I don't always have time to scour through the TV Guide or newspaper or whatever to find the shows I want, then hit a bunch of buttons to program them. With my RTV, I can say "Record 'Iron Chef'" and it will dutifully record it... EVEN IF THE PROGRAM MOVES, CHANGES TIME SLOTS, SWITCHES TO A DIFFERENT CHANNEL, ETC. Try that with your VCR.
Also, with the "Replay Zones" feature, you can oftentimes find cool/interesting shows that you would otherwise not know anything about. For example, I'm really into sci-fi type stuff, so I added the SciFi Zones channel. My RTV unit dutifully records anything with a sci-fi theme, be it a movie, TV series, whatever. True, I pick up some crap along the way, but I also discover many neat shows that I've never heard of that are interesting and fun to watch. It really _is_ revolutionizing the way we watch TV. Since I got my RTV unit (Panasonic Showstopper, $400 minus $100 rebate minus $100 open box discount, immediately upgraded to double the capacity) my TV viewing habits have totally changed. I can now watch what I want, when I want, on my own terms. And with a couple presses of a button, I can skip commercials.
In regards to the "phone home" feature, where it tells the networks what you watch, there's something to think about here: Nielsen ratings. TV programs' popularity are gauged by so-called "Nielsen families." Basically, there are many handpicked groups of people, all over the country, that are given a little book, and told to record what they watch and when they watch it. This data is collected by the networks, and it literally determines what programs live or die. In effect, the TV programming was being controlled by a small, hand-picked elite class. But with RTV units sending their data back to home base, _all of us_ essentially become Nielsen families. Maybe, just maybe this will help keep the "cool" shows on TV and drive out the crap.
Anyway, enough ranting for one day. We now return you to the regularly scheduled Slashdot article.
I know several people who still use their Tandy 100's on a daily basis. Those things are amazingly tough, and amazingly long-lasting in the battery department. (Imagine running one of those on a set of 1800 mAh NiMHs! :) ) I've found Tandy 100's in all sorts of places in my travels (garage sales, flea markets, thrift stores) and all of them were still functional. And they're amazingly light as well. When all you need is a note-taking machine or maybe a simple text terminal, you can't beat the Tandy 100. Sure beats lugging around a laptop.
The only problem I see is in getting the files out to yoru regular computer. But if memory serves me correctly, there were ports on the thing (I'm pretty sure it had a parallel port, and I seem to recall it having a serial as well). I think there was even an internal modem option available(? - correct me if I'm wrong please). And since the thing had BASIC on it, I suppose you could hack together a crude file transfer program of sorts.
Back in my C=64 days, I remember finding this program that played a song ("sailing, sailing, ..." if my memory serves me correctly) using the motors on the C=1541 disk drive. Pity that just a few runs of the program would trash the drive. Ah, nostalgia!
OK, so Square's gonna release FFXI on the PS2, and it's gonna be MMP. How is this gonna work? An MMORPG obviously needs some kind of connection to the Internet, and unless I'm mistaken, the PS2 currently has NO broadband/narrowband connectivity options at this time. (If I _am_ mistaken, PLEASE let me know... being a new PS2 owner, I'd love to hear about all the goodies that I can hook up to my monolith.)
Hopefully, if connectivity doesn't exist for the PS2 right now, Square will, with FFXI, provide an impetus for Sony or other third party to create connection options. *crosses fingers*
If it's a firewire device, it would undoubtedly use some variation of the SBP2 protocol. This would make the device appear to the OS as just another hard drive. With that kind of access, you could store *anything* on the device. Now, whether the iPod firmware can make sense of it, is another issue entirely. But even the rival Nomad Jukebox can be used to store any type of file, not just MP3's. The player firmware knows enough to ignore non-MP3-like files.
That's an interesting point, yes. Back when the Newton was invented, the tools to fully realize it weren't there yet. It would have been kind of like trying to build an Athlon with vacuum tubes.
If Newton were to re-emerge now, in the era of Lithium-Polymer batteries, better handwriting recognition software, lower power CPU's, etc. I think it would do rather well. The Newton was truly a device before its time.
Here's the thing about Newton. When Newton came out, electronic PDA's *DID NOT EXIST YET*. People were still using Rolodexes and Day-Runners. This was just TOO new fangled for them. Combied with crappy marketing, it was no wonder that Newton bit the dust.
I have a feeling that if Newton came out after Palm did, that it would have run circles around Palm.
Now, with the iPod, MP3 players ALREADY EXIST. And when people start seeing this baby pop up in stores, I betcha alot of people will look at their Nomad/eXpanium/Rio/d'Music/whatever and say "Why the hell did I buy THIS??!"