[NTLK] Err, not really [WAS: "Re: iPod Touch or iPhone IS the next Newton!!"]

~~~ On 2007/10/30 10:52, dotline7 at dotline7@gmail.com wrote ~~~

> As you say.
> 1. No word processing
> 2. Very limited notes taking
> 3. No HWR
> 4. No external keyboard
> 5. No... This , no that
>
> ...
>
> On 10/30/07 2:29 AM, "Cwashiidcvrmtrs@aol.com" <Cwashiidcvrmtrs@aol.com>
> wrote:
>
>> In a message dated 10/11/2007 1:04:07 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>> joel@inventors-emporium.co.uk writes:
>> I had a decent play with an iPod Touch belonging to my Nephew
>> yesterday and I can understand why some of us are thinking that it
>> could be the new Newt.
>>
>>
>> I had a opportunity recently to mass around with a co-worker's iPhone, and I
>> am CONVINCED that it will be MY next Newton...! And, I wanted to ask the
>> list if anyone felt the same way...
>>

I've now had the chance to handle both. It's given me a new perspective on
this whole thing. Maybe our urge to see the iPod Touch or the iPhone as the
next Newton is a confusion of a desire for *a* new Newton and -- well, just
desire. Both those new gizmos are worthy candidates for that exalted
status, "New Objects Of Desire" (OOD). Now that I've handled both I can
easily wish I owned the iPod Touch (IMIO iPhone still isn't yet a good
enough object though it will be eventually when they fix it's shortcomings).
And I'm really eager for the day when Apple (read: Steve Jobs) wakes up to
how good the Newton still is and decides to bring all its tech into the 21st
century while still keeping all its great features and that knockout OS, and
of course, HWR.

It's really easy for me to wish that the solutions to these two cravings --
for the new OOD and for the old OOD updated -- could be the same solution.
If only! But if I'm honest I know in my heart that at least for the
foreseeable future the solutions are different. I love the form factor of
the iPod touch and iPhone and what they're becoming and all that, but the
only way I could ever make an iPod Touch (or an iPhone) my "next Newton" is
to give up too many of the things that make a Newton a Newton for me at all.
It would be like cutting a cat's legs off so it could fit into a sweater
made for a dachshund.

The compromise of that much of the function and pleasure of a Newton just
isn't worth it. Is it?

 
Shalom.
Christian

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
            -- What Arthur C. Clarke meant to say

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ZzpdPJ7Zr4
(With thanks to Chod Lang)
http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl

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Received on Tue Oct 30 10:48:35 2007