Wow! Magic Cap! that brings back memories!
You can download a working beta for windows I have at:
http://newton.tek-ed.com/magic_cap.zip
This allows you to enjoy the full experience of the
General Magic OS on your Windows machine!
Essentially, this OS eschewed all aspects of computing
and instead offered an interface most people were
familiar with...an office. In much the same way your
desk, chair, clock, rolodex, file cabinet all reside
in your office, and your office resides in a hall and
that hall resides in a building and that building
resides on a street and that street resides in a
city...this same idea was applied to an OS. Your
opening screen greeted you with a graphic of your
office. You saw your desk (in a POP first person "duke
nukem/doom/quake" kinda way) with a pad of papers and
a calander and other desk clutter. It has drawers you
can open and store stuff in. Against the wall was a
filing cabinet and on the wall was a clock. You exit
your "office" by clicking on your door. Now you can
"walk" down the hallway and check out other
"rooms/offices" including a library (click on the
artwork hanging on the walls to change them). Exit the
building to walk down the street...watch the airplanes
fly by! Enter the AOL building and sign up for an
account and enter AOL!
Quite a slick idea. The main venues for this OS were
the Motorola Envoy (two models...the later one having
a holographic reflective background) and the Sony
PIC-1000 and 2000 (the 2000 had a backlit screen). The
Envoy was particularly nice because like the Motorola
Marco (the newton 110 in Motorola clothing) it
utilized a wireless modem that connected on the then
ARDIS network.
My wife, who has absolutly no technical bent (she
couldn't understand my obsession...IBM Simon, HP
Omnigo, AT&T EO, HP200...HP320) had absolutly no
trouble using the Magic Link interface and even said
that if she were to be a geek, this would be the
"tool" she would use...quite a glowing endorsement
from someone who thinks a computer is something you
use for work!
Alas, my Magic Cap machines (Motorola Envoy 100 and
Sony PIC2000) disappeared...I kinda think they found
their way to the curb one day while cleaning out the
garage! (I lost a lot of stuff that day...it must have
all been in one box that was mis-marked) Now I throw
NOTHING away (my wife feels more than a little guilty
for talking me into cleaning out the garage)
Alas...
Well, hey! At least I still have my newtons! The only
reason though is that they have never resided inside a
box except to sit on a store shelf waiting for me to
buy them!
Ed
web/gadget guru
--- Tony Kan <tony.kan_at_clear.net.nz> wrote:
>
> What was MagicCap? What could it do/not do? Where
> did it end up?
> Cheers
> Tony.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net
> [mailto:newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net]On Behalf
> Of Alexander
> Oberdorster
> Sent: Saturday, 13 April 2002 12:52 p.m.
> To: newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net
> Subject: Re: [NTLK] Newton Cadillac
>
>
>
>
> > No, its a DataRover 840, a MagicCap device.
>
> Forgot to add a link with a picture of the thing:
>
> http://multipart-mixed.com/magiccap/datarover.html
>
>
> Alexander
=====
Just because you're a genius, doesn't make you a smart guy!
- The Powerpuff Girls -
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