Khaled & Others -
I must be brief I have to take a shower and dash to work...
I used to sell the heck out of Palms and swictehd for about 3 months. After
killing one on day to day and then buying another I decided to go back to my
Newton. By far, it is superior. Everyone with a Palm complains about hither
and yander and this and that, and CE users gripe about it alll....My Newton
is more versitile and flexable and the same size as the old Claim shell CEs
and weigh LESS than some of the Older PocketPCs... Quite frankly, I REFUSE
to buy a New PDA with sub-standard settings... no printing, no faxing, no
beaming, etc.
The Newton is still a far better device, and I will use it until the day I
die if the world keeps it's Hands on Palms and CE.
-- - Chris B.A supporter of... \\ /, `( Newton Technology \ =
--------> AOL/AIM Name: JB1463 <-------- --------> ICQ#: 50117402 <-------- --------> Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~jb1463 <-------- >>>>>>>>>T H I N K D I F F E R E N T <<<<<<<<<
> From: Khaled Tewfik <khaledt@earthlink.net> > Reply-To: newtontalk@planetnewton.com > Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2000 21:05:59 +0300 > To: <newtontalk@planetnewton.com> > Subject: Pocket PC, the true story (was NTLK Pocket PC Anyone) > > on 8/3/2000 3:07 AM, markr13 at markr13@voicenet.com wrote: > >> There is absolutely no doubt that the roster >> of applications that comes with Pocket PC is amazingly, stunningly >> powerful. They are far, far, far ahead of anything available on a Palm >> OS device." Sound familiar? He goes on: "What truly clinches the deal >> for me, however, is the inclusion of the best handwriting recognition >> engine since the late Newton MP 2100. Which is not amazing since it >> includes the same version of ParaGraph's CaliGrapher that came with the >> Newton. ...I can now finally retire my Newton because the Pocket PC >> offers the same excellent handwriting in a smaller, lighter package..." > > Do not fall for magazine reviews, they have a steak in polishing things up. > They will never tell you "well, the new WinCE is great for a lack of other > choices but it still lacks the finness and power the years loder Newton > Technology," else they are shooting themelves in the foot; if people were > not made to buy and LOVE PDAs, they in turn would have less customers to buy > there magazine. Else, how do you explain having Psions and the Early key > board centric WinCE devices in a "PEN COMPUTING" magazine; IMHO the only > PEN computers are the Windows Slates, Palms Pilots and Newtons. > > I had lengthy e mail exchanges with the editors of the article cited above. > The WinCE editor was very friendly and approachable and we agreed that the > Newton is still quite unique in many major areas, but they will never > glorify a dead platform that has no potential revenue for them. Fair enough. > > Now let me tell you some of my first hands experiences with a Casio 105 I > got for my wife and a Casio 115 my brother in law has: > > You get the device out of the box eager to play with it only to realize that > you have to first charge it for a full 6 hours during which time you are not > allowed to turn it on, bummer (you can operate while charging later). And > rechargeable batteries are the only option and you have to insert a backup > battery too. I almost forgot about backup batteris since my MP2000; I really > felt at that point that I took a step backwards. Advantage Newton. > > Recharging time are always 5-6 hours long, wewh. and the charge lasts > another 5-6 hours :( you have to carry the charger with you on daily basis. > When the low battery warning come on you have no clue how much more time you > still have, the thing can go dark any moment it is suspensful, and the > backup battery is not that forgiving. Data losses is a true life scenario > here. And do not forget to save, save, save your work. Advantage Newton. > > Backups on the serial port takes for ever, talk about more than 4 hours to > back up, and such long time to move MP3 music, you have no choice but to > invest in a CF card to do faster backups or file transfers or invest in USB. > The Newton serial connection is not a speed demon, but I can back my 24MB PC > card with all packages in under an hour over serial. > > Applications footprint is HUGE, 500k apps are normal and 1MEG apps are not a > surprise, no wonder a a std 32MB memory is a must not luxry. And WinCE take > half of it for itself. Applications can only be installed from a PC, no > beeming or internet download of apps here. Same goes for removing apps, the > auto remove function in WinCE is a hit or miss depending on the carefulness > of the programs author. > > And setting an internet connection was an excersise in patientce. Boy did we > spend hours to get an internet connection. My brother in law pulled an > allnighter, no kidding. Yeh, others may look down at us and think we are not > geeky wnough to figure it out, but trust me, the process is not that > forgiving, you mess up one dialog box and you will go in circles forever. > > Then there are the traditional limitations, no universal in/out box, no fax, > no printing, no close application (selective I might add), and no > application intigration (you have to attache notes manually to mail them), > and you have to enter area codes manually (no built in inteligence), > > Last but not least, NO NEWTON LIKE HWR; not even close. I had a quite an > exchange with the PEN Computing author of the above articel about his daring > to compare WinCE HWR to the Newton. IMO, for a great HWR you need to > abilities: 1- to write naturally, fast, at your own pace and accurately; 2- > quick and easy access to editing tools to correct mistakes on the fly with > the least effort. On the first count, a side by side test proved the Newton > to be more accurate than the WinCE. The newton is more flexible when it > comes to taking WR notes, you simply open the Note app, set the text > insrtion point and start writing. On the WinCE, you have to be in PoketWord, > you have to set the Zoom large enough to see the page lines and have the > inter page line distance wide enough since you will have to limit your self > to writting between these lines without crossing over them, make sure that > the input mode is set to write, then start writing; as you write you will > notice that your writing is treated like ink text on the Newton, no instant > gratification is possible here. When all is done, you select the text and > tap recognise, If you did not follow the rule of writing between the lines > you effort is lost. > > 2- Editing: now that your HW have been recognized, you have to go over it to > correct mistakes, holding the pen over a word produces a sub menue prety > much like the Newton with your original writing at the botom and a list of > alternative words, but the alternative words list is not at all that > inteligent, 99% of the time the word you intended to write is not there, The > NEwton is much much more clever about the alternative word list it provides. > Now come the difficult part, correcting the word; since the correct word is > not in the list of alternatives, you have to highlight the wrong word, pull > the key board, and typ it your self (the key board is not at the botom of > the list of alternatives like the sensible newton GUI). No direct writing > over the wrong letter to correct the word here. Editing mistakes on the > NEwton is way too easyier and faster. > > All in all, people who never worked on the Newton will never know what they > are missing, they will adapt to the limitations and will be very proud of > the technology they have, even though in reality it falls short of the feats > of the 3 years older Newton Technology. > > The only serious technical shortcoming on the Newton in comparison is the > lack of ATA CF card support (please Paul), and the lack of IRcomm (all bets > are on SmartDogSW). > > Sorry for being that long, beleive me, I could have gone much further on > this topic. > > > Khaled Tewfik > Saudi Arabia > > *************************************** > NewtonTalk brought to you by: > > EVOTE.COM -- the ESPN of politics on the Internet! All the players, all the > news, and the hottest analysis and features (plus 'toons!) anywhere.... visit > http://www.evote.com today! > > *************************************** > Need Subscribe/Unsubscribe info? > > Visit the NewtonTalk section at http://www.planetnewton.com >
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Sep 01 2000 - 00:00:11 CDT