Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 11:53:56 +0200 (MET DST) From: Marco Molteni <molter@logic.it> To: chat@freebsd.org Cc: Nik Clayton <nik@iii.co.uk>, Andrew ? <andrew@ugh.net.au>, Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com>, Sean Kelly <kelly@fsl.noaa.gov>, E Lakin <pharaoh@u.washington.edu>, "Mike O'Brien" <obrien@rush.aero.org> Subject: SUMMARY: Apple Newton MessagePad Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.970816104840.611A-100000@dumbwinter.ecomotor.it>
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Well, I really like -chat ! ;-) Thanks to everybody who replied. I wrote: [..] > I found the Apple Newton MessagePad, which seems pretty cool: > > 1. LCD display sufficiently wide > 2. interfaceable to a PC > 3. handwritten recognition > 4. real keyboard > > Any comment about this toy or suggestions about similar ones ? There are two fronts here on -chat: - those who suggested the USRobotics Palm Pilot - those who suggested the Apple Newton MessagePad 2000 I choosed the Newton, because for what _I_ am going to do, the Palm Pilot is too small. Anyway, I think the Palm Pilot is a very good toy too, especially for the price. If someone is interested in PDAs or Windows CEs and similar, the august issue of Byte Magazine has a (biased :-( ) report: "Hand-Helds get serious", in which they compare 10 hand-helds, from the MessagePad to the HP 320LX to the Philips Velo 1 to the Palm Pilot. I think you can find the article also online (www.byte.com). Here I'm reporting some of the replies (edited to save space) to my original posting, including comments, comparisons between the MessagePad and the Palm Pilot and useful pointers to free software (also for UNIX platforms!) to develop programs for both the MessagePad and the Palm Pilot. Thanks again to the wonderfully "not normal" people on -chat. -------- Regarding the Newton MessagePad: -------- > From: andrew@ugh.net.au > Subject: Re: Apple Newton MessagePad > > > Any comment about this toy or suggestions about similar ones ? > > http://www.newton.apple.com/product_info/product_info.html has links > to all the Newton based products (not just Apples) > Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 11:03:14 -0700 > From: Mike O'Brien <obrien@rush.aero.org> > Subject: Re: Apple Newton MessagePad > > I have a MessagePad 2000 and I love it. I think that the > high-end Newtons and the PalmPilot have mildly overlapping markets, > but both have large areas where the other doesn't compete. The 2K > is really a full-fledged computer with a weird operational style. > It's not a notebook and it doesn't do what a Notebook would do, but > it can compute with the best of them. It serves me well as a > general engine that I can carry around easily, and it also does me > as a nice-sized notepad. It does everything for me that a PalmPilot > would, though it does it mildly less gracefully and with a much > larger form factor. But, for instance, it also has all sorts of > other packages available for it, including one special-purpose > number for datacollection on geysers, a favorite subject of mine. > > The PalmPilot's job is to do a few portable things well, and > be really really portable. Period. It does this brilliantly, and > this is what most people prefer, so PalmPilot outsells Newton at > least 10-to-1, maybe 100-to-1. I have no complaints. > > Well, one. Apple and their (^(*&^*(& closed architecture. > They publish (binary) libraries to allow people to write applications > for Windows and the Mac that interface to a Newton. However, if you're > on a UNIX box, forget it. Someone's managed to reverse-engineer > enough to get a package installer working under Linux but that's > about it. > From: E Lakin <pharaoh@u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: Apple Newton MessagePad > > There is also a unix interface for the Newton - although i haven't > got it compiled yet. It's at http://www.tcel.com/~aehall/newtl/ > From: nik@iii.co.uk > Subject: Re: Apple Newton MessagePad > > > Any comment about this toy or suggestions about similar ones ? > > When I (finally) get my own FreeBSD home box I'm going to spend some > time working on a Newton DB for typically 'Unixy' information. I > envisage being able to wander around the office inspecting the > various bits of hardware on the network and scrawling (literally) > the information into a DB on the Newt. I should then be able to come > back to my desk, hook it up to my Unix box and run some scripts to > produce things like named maps and other host tables, web pages that > outline what's where, /etc/aliases and so on and so forth. > From: E Lakin <pharaoh@u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: Apple Newton MessagePad > > On Mon, 11 Aug 1997 nik@iii.co.uk wrote: > ? The only problems I have with it are > ? > ? a) You have to shell out cash to get the programming > ? environment. I'd prefer Apple to offer a bare bones > ? environment for the hobbyist for free > > actually, NTK (the newton toolkit) was just recently made free. you > can download it at http://www.newton.apple.com/dev/. Both a windows > & macOS version are available (no freebsd tho ;). -------- Regarding the US Robotics Palm Pilot: -------- > Date: Sat, 09 Aug 1997 10:39:42 -0700 > From: Sean Kelly <kelly@fsl.noaa.gov> > > > Any comment about this toy or suggestions about similar ones ? > > I'm partial to the PalmPilot, from US Robotics. It lacks a lot of > features compared to the latest Newtons or Windows CE (whatever the > heck that means) palm computers, but it's cheap, does what I need, > and fits in my shirt pocket, which no other palm computer can boast. > So far. > From: Sean Kelly <kelly@fsl.noaa.gov> > Subject: Re: Apple Newton MessagePad > > Amancio Hasty wrote: > > > Same here plus I like the PalmPilot. I think that there is a unix > > interface for it. > > Aye. At ftp://ryeham.ee.rverson.ca/pub/PalmOS is a collection of > FreeBSD-compatible utlities that I use both at home and at work to > talk to my PalmPilot. Marco Molteni Computer Science student at the Universita' di Milano, Italy. "This snakeskin jacket symbolizes my individuality and belief in personal freedom".
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