From: Ed Kummel (tech_ed_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Mar 21 2004 - 22:08:28 PST
I had the oportunity to play with the OS on several
machines...The morotola Envoy (and the later version
of the Envoy...I can't remember...was that the Envoy
1000?) and the Sony PIC (personal inteligent
communicator) Both the 1000 and 2000 series.
There was a rudimentary recognition using a Graffitti
like address...it worked OK, but paled in comparison
to the AT&T EO's recognition, or the HP OmniGO which
DID use Grafitti. What made the device so nice is the
way it related a PDA to realworld euphanisms. In my
opinion, the thing that damned it was it's bulk! While
slightly larger than a MP2000, it had weird curves and
bulges...It didn't "fit" anywhere. I had a PIC1000. It
has "snaps" on a "bulge" that holds the battery. I had
a 3-ring binder plastic insert that these snaps would
connect to so that the PIC1000 would fit in a school
notebook...Why? I guess that there was nowhere else
they could think of putting it!
You have to remember....this device came out when
everybody was trying to "get in" on the PDA market.
Everyone wanted their device to "win". Heck...HP had 5
handheld devices out at the same time! With 3
different OS's! (HP200LX, Omnigo 100 and the 110, HP
320, HP300 <these last two were early entries in the
WinCE market>)
What's important to understand here, is the innovation
that was going on! There was no "Standard" so it was
"anything goes" and believe me, anything went! (I
remember when a technical Rep from HP came to our
office to show off the HP320...I had my MP2000 at the
time and the rep proudly proclaimed all the things
that the 320 could do! As a point, he played a WAV
song through it's built in speaker...I quickly wrote
on my Newt and hit "speak" and my Newt triumphantly
bellowed "big deal...I can sing" then went into
singing a song I had stored...I cant remember what it
was, but it was a show-stopper for the big-wig HP
personell that were there...and I got an evil eye from
my boss who was trying to make an impression to get
HP's business....)
wow...stories from the beginning...
I was lucky to be there in the beginning...my job was
to play with every thing portable and determine it's
ability to fit a rental market...You name it, I played
with it, as long as it could be used for
communications!
Ed
web/gadget guru
--- Vaguely Radio <vradio_at_maine.rr.com> wrote:
> Thanks Peter. I foolishly did not search the NTLK
> archives before
> posting my questions - though a few of them still
> appear unanswered
> even after I did so. Some of the other questions do
> seem to be
> answered, and Ed also had a beta version of Magic
> Cap 3.x for Windows
> that I downloaded and played with for a little while
> in Virtual PC.
> It's got a very novel UI but does seem kind of
> limited. The price is
> right, so I'll probably end up getting one
> regardless just as a toy,
> but I doubt that I'll be using it for anything
> "practical" as I can
> with my Newton. Looks like it also doesn't have
> HWR, though it does
> support "ink text" if you will in a notepad
> application - basically
> just a glorified paint program it seems. Perhaps
> someone will correct
> me if I'm wrong on that, but seems like most text
> would be entered
> using the onscreen keyboard. Still, pretty fun and
> a truly
> new-and-novel concept (as someone mentioned in an
> earlier post on this
> list that I found in the archives, it is reminiscent
> of Microsoft's
> "Bob" project...).
>
> Certainly on the surface it looks like the ultimate
> in easy-to-learn
> interfaces, so kudos to General Magic's designers on
> that score. Again
> I must wonder how useful it is in the modern world
> considering, for
> example, the absence of serial ports on modern
> computers... SMTP
> password authentication apparently does not work for
> Magic Cap
> devices... syncing doesn't appear as robust as the
> solutions for
> NewtonOS... Maybe Ed or someone else will chime in
> on this one and
> answer some of those questions. Certainly before I
> bought my Newton I
> had the same reservations about using a device from
> 1996 in the year
> 2004... and look how that turned out!
=====
"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."
- Charles De Gaulle, former French President
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