Re: [NTLK] What is the difference...NBU, NCU, NCK?

From: Jon Glass (jonglass_at_mac.com)
Date: Fri Mar 29 2002 - 03:15:43 EST


on 3/29/02 8:20 AM, Philip Lord at nama_chari_at_yahoo.com wrote:

> NewtonBackupUtility
> NewtonConnectionKit
> NewtonConnectionUtility

Newton Connection Kit was first. It works only with Newton 1.x devices
(Original MP, 100, 110, 120 w/ OS 1.3) It backed up your Newton to your hard
drive, and allowed you to browse the data on the backup, not on the Newton.
You could view your built-in soups, and it really worked like a weak address
book and calendar (PIM).

When OS 2 came out, Apple needed a way to transfer information from those
older, 1.x devices to OS 2. The tool they created was Newton Backup Utility.
It could backup a 1.x Newton, but not restore to it. When you upgraded your
Newton, you were to back it up via NBU before you sent in your unit. When
you got it back with 2.o, you restored your old Newton data to it via NBU.
NBU also served for backing up your 2.0 Newton, restoring and installing
packages. In all, it was pretty lame, and nowhere near as nice as NCK was.

It was, of course, a temporary solution until Apple could finish Newton
Connection Utility, which was the replacement for NCK for Newton 2.x
devices. It backs up, restores, installs, and also imports and exports. It
also has a nifty keyboard function, allowing you to enter data into your
Newton via the computer's keyboard. Where it differed from NCK was in that,
instead of providing its own PIM functions, and allowing you to browse your
backup data, it provided conduits to various, popular desktop PIM
applications. On the Mac, you can sync your data file with Claris Organizer
2 (Now Palm Desktop 2.x) and Now Contact/Up to Date 3.5. On the PC side, I
think it was Schedule+ and Lotus Organizer 2. Ostensibly, using Apple's
"Desktop Integration Libraries" you could write synchronizing software for
any application, but I don't recall many other companies doing this. :-)
Worse, it seems that the syncing side of things never really worked well
with NCU. I know that my attempts have been woefully inadequate. I bought
Now Contact's Now Sync, which worked consistently, albeit slowly, and not
completely (It doesn't sync notes and email addresses, for instance).

Those are the big differences between the three products.

-- 
-Jon Glass
Krakow, Poland
<mailto:jonglass_at_usa.net>
<mailto:glasshaus5_at_aol.com>
"[T]he law . . . dictated by God Himself is, of course, superior in
obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries,
and at all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this."
--Alexander Hamilton, signer of the Constitution

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