The only two other functions I could add to your list are the ability to use
a portable as a photo album. Take pictures, connect the camera and download,
edit the good ones, discard the bad ones and show them off like an old
fashioned photo album. I see the new palms are making a poor attempt at
this. Second (and most recent) is the home movie studio. Take movies with a
digital movie camera now smaller than the power supply of my old Apple 2c,
download into the computer and edit with imovie and even burn to a CD (yes
CD not DVD) for distribution. I'm sure the people I work with are as bored
of seeing movies of my kids as I used to be watching the old carosel slide
shows years ago. A device which could act as scheduler, photo album, MP3 and
movie player with a color flat screen (an be smaller than my current
powerbook) that would be cool. What happened to that device from spymac. If
it was a beta version of something coming, I'd like to hear more. Or have we
decided it was a hoax?
Chet Johns
On 10/24/01 2:17 PM, "Michael C. Wittmann" <wittmannmichael_at_mac.com> wrote:
>
> Greetings, folks,
>
> I've been reading the various iPod comments with interest, since I had hoped
> that (well, you know) there'd be something more Newton-like coming out. As
> is, the iPod looks interesting, and about $320 too expensive for my cheap
> ass (sorry about the language, but that's the only way to describe how I am
> on things like this).
>
> But, to bring this back to a Newton topic, what IS the digital hub? It's
> what we always wish for with the connectivity and synchronization between
> Newton and desktop. It's the ability to share info seamlessly, carry around
> the elements in ways that are useful and helpful WHEN WE NEED THEM and WANT
> THEM. Admittedly, being Newton users, many of us have gotten used to
> machinery that doesn't really TALK to anything else too well and has to be
> treated mostly as data master (with downloads to desktops to keep things
> "synched"), but still, there's a point to a hub.
>
> Seriously, there are five phases of my computing life that are worth
> pointing out:
>
> 1. 1981 or so, I've forgotten when, BASIC programming on (ahem) DOS 1.0,
> writing a "Donkey Kong" thing with my brother when I was 10 or so... The
> code is laughably bad, but we were 10 and 12, so leave me alone!
>
> 2. late 80's/early 90's, finding email, starting to write with my friends at
> other colleges, a moment that coincided with finding the NeXT, which was SO
> MUCH better than a Mac or DOS that I couldn't figure out why it didn't
> succeed...
>
> 3. January, 1994, when I used Mosaic and was given a floppy with Netscape
> 0.72 on it. Holy cow, the web was astounding, and I recall my first
> confusion about hyperlinks - you mean that information is located on
> DIFFERENT drives? How?!?!
>
> 4. In 1998, when I started using the Tandy Model 102, shortly to be replaced
> by my Newton MP2000, as an instant-on, always with me, always available
> machine. It was a piece of digital paper, a writing block where the contents
> changed "underneath" the screen depending on what I tapped. Who cares about
> OS? It just worked, made sense instantly, wow...
>
> Note that throughout this sequence, I used IBMs, Macs, NeXTs, UNIX, Windows
> 3.0, 3.1, 95, and so on... But the newest moment of "oh, so you can do THIS
> with a computer" comes from ...
>
> 5. ...using MP3s on my machine. I walk around with my music on my laptop, I
> carry it from my radio station to my work to my house to review it (then
> delete it, thank you very much, legal hounds), plug it into my stereo, never
> see the spinning media again... A computer is no longer words to me, it's
> media. The web is media, music is media, I want to carry around my
> newspapers, my music, my information at all times.
>
> In other words, with #5, the Newton has become "nice," but less powerful.
> That did NOT stop me from upgrading it with Dr. Newton, though!
>
> But, I want more, I want an iPod that has a Newton UI and usability, I want
> to have all that talk seamlessly to my desktop, to use THAT to walk my
> information between home and office, change my calendar along the way and
> have my laptop seamlessly integrate the information, and so on.
>
> Digital hub? Isn't that what we all wanted with the Newton, already? I don't
> doubt that some company will do this for me at some point, but not
> yesterday. I'm not crying, but I am waiting.
>
> Michael
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