> Talking about graffiti versus HWR, I was yakking to a local Mac
> dealer a few days ago, and pulled out my 2100 to show him. He
> asked me wouldn't using Graffiti be quicker to input text?
My experience of Newton's HWR is that it is pretty darned quick. I used
my MP120 for around 7 years before its screen was broken. I started
using the cursive recogniser and after a short while was getting pretty
good results. For example I might have to correct one error in every
paragraph or so that I wrote, instead of one error every other word. :)
But even that modest error rate irritates after a while, so I decided
to try the printed character recogniser (Rosetta). What a difference!
After a short while training myself to print separate letters when
writing I was able to easily achieve a 100% recognition rate for entire
notes. I was getting pretty quick at it too. :)
As for Graffiti, I have tried it on several occasions at the Dick
Smiths stores. It seems to work reliably, but I personally can't get my
mind around writing in a new alphabet with all letters on top of each
other. Especially after having been exposed to Newton's "tap where you
want it to go, then write normally anywhere blank" system. I liked the
high contrast of the various Palm screens I saw, compared to my 120
(whose contrast pot seriously needs replacing - anyone know what with?)
but with admittedly not much time to experiment I was unable to get the
feel of the system, and find all the facilities I would be wanting to
use if I were to switch over.
At the moment I am writing this message on a Sharp Mobilon 4500A WinCE
handheld PC, while I wait the delivery of my new MP2000u. This device
has a really nice colour screen which can be hardly read outside,
making it less than completely useful to me. As a driving instructor
I tend to spend quite a lot of time outdoors. :) It probably also
doesn't help that this particular device has a fault on the motherboard
which would cost me NZ$1200 (~US$600) to have fixed, preventing the
backlight from coming on when the unit is running under battery power.
From browsing the Mobilon forums I gather this particular line of HPCs
is known for motherboard faults and ultra short battery lives. Oh well.
Anyway my experience with it has really reminded me why I like Newton
better. It has no HWR, instead providing a mini keyboard, and yet I
still have to tap on the screen with the stylus to perform some
functions. It has no "notepad" to speak of, instead it provides Pocket
Word. Nice for basic word processing but not nearly as convenient as
having Notes on the backdrop.
Oh, yeah, and there is NO universal Find function on this device. Each
application provides its own internal find, if you're lucky, and it
obviously can't find data in other applications. Also the GUI
requires many more double-taps with the stylus than Newton's GUI.
I just hope the MP2100 doesn't take too long to arrive in the mail, at
this time of the year. :)
Julian
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries List FAQ/Etiquette/Terms: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Wed Jan 01 2003 - 10:01:54 EST