Hey everyone! I just got my MP2100 yesterday; after endless struggling
with a Visor Prism (yes, a color screen is nice, but Graffiti is
useless!) I found a decent deal on one, and eBayed off my Visor to go
"backwards"--my friends haven't approved, lol, but we all know how
wrong they are!
Just wanted to check in and say hi and ask a few questions, you know,
typical newbie stuff. I LOVE the Newton OS and the 2.1 Handwriting
Recognition is superb, to say the least. Everything's going great, and
I'm proud to own the grandaddy of them all.
I'm extremely happy with this model and with what I've seen of the
Newton community. I do have some simple questions, though.
1) I know the Newton uses an Indiglo backlighting system. About how
long do these things really last? I have to say that the only
disappointment with the Newton is its passive-matrix LCD, which means
that I find myself using the backlight frequently (or readjusting
ambient light). Is it bad to use it a lot? I really don't know what the
ticking time bomb is on one of them and I'd appreciate it if someone
could help out (have any of you gotten a dead backlight at all? If not,
I'm probably in good shape :) )
2) The fact that it's an active-matrix display does have some
advantages, like great power consumption. Having the Newt turned on and
not doing anything--is this going to drain my battery? I realized it's
kind of nice to just keep it open and on during my History class or
something, but I'm wondering what kind of real juice that uses (just to
stay idle for around 45 minutes)?
3) I need the infamous keyboard dongle. Anyone know a good place to get
them? I'll resort to eBay if I have to, but I'd really rather not (I'm
fine with selling stuff on eBay but buying is... ahh, I've never really
liked it...)
4) Any nontechnical way to make that keyboard ANY quieter? :) It really
is pretty loud! Not a biggie, but figured I'd ask it.
5) I have an LCD iMac with OS X (Jaguar). All I want to do is transfer
downloaded packages and occasionally back things up. I know I need a
serial adapter--what else? (Particularly software)...
6) (Stupid OS question) I'd like to be able to add assignments to my
ToDo list that are long (sometimes maybe a paragraph of information)
but the built-in Dates app (which I love btw) doesn't seem to have any
way to do this (it cuts off after two or three little lines in that
popup window where you write in the description). Am I missing
something?
7) My 2100 didn't come with NewtonWorks, and I know I can download
it... what all can I do with it that I can't do with the normal
notepad? And of course this relates back to the core question: what's
everything I need to transfer packages to the Newton?
Thanks for taking the time to answer these! I'll definitely be enjoying
my new toy tremendously this weekend, and particularly if I can get
some of these questions answered!
D.M.
-- 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/
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