Ermin:
Like fellow Newtonian, Sushi, I strayed from the pack a few years ago,
and am now back. In my humble opinion, I
would suggest that you stick with the Newton/eMate combo if you like it.
I went over first to the PocketPC when the original HP Jornada came out.
I gave up my MP130 to do this.
Part of the reason for the move was the very thing you are worried
about. What would happen if something went wrong with my Newton? It has
all of my addresses, dates, meetings, and a variety of notes. I was
concerned that it would be damaged beyond repair and that I couldn't, or
wouldn't, be able to move material to another platform.
When I moved to the Jornada, I was originally very happy with the color
display, the size, and the ease of synchronizing with my desktop PC.
However, I couldn't synchronize to the desktop Mac that I had at home. I
felt safe, however, since the data was on my desktop unit. Within the
year, I moved to the Palm IIIc because HP had a recall of the units and
offered me the full price as a refund. I made the move so that I could
be connected to my Mac as well as to the PC at work.
The problem that I had was that I like to write, and write on the
computer. By this, I mean using the stylus and actually writing. I found
this very cumbersome on both the HP Jornada and the Palm. Basically, I
was using them as extensions of my computer ... I would type things on
the computer in Outlook (addresses, to-dos, etc.) and then sync it with
the Palm so that I could keep a copy with me. But I didn't write as much
on the Palm or Jornada. In fact, I bought a Day-Timer case which allowed
me to carry paper notes with me, along with the data on the Palm.
When I finally saw a MP2000u for under $200 last fall, I got it. And,
although I had some trouble moving my data over to the Newton again, it
was well worth the work. Now I have something that works like I do. And
that's what's most important --- how do you work and organize your life,
and what device helps do that better.
I will let folks, like my son, talk about the eMate and note-taking. But
I have the impression from him that the eMate is an indispensable part
of his life at college, not just for note-taking, but also for
scheduling and everything else. I just took a trip down to Atlanta to
help my father-in-law, and my son and I brought our eMate and Newton
(respectively) to get our emails. They worked flawlessly. It was amazing
that I could keep in touch with work so easily (about 35 emails per day)
with a device twilighted by Apple so many years ago.
Good luck making a decision. Like someone else said, you might want to
think about getting a spare somewhere, either for the eMate or the
MP2100.
Oh, by the way, back to the reason why I got rid of the MP130 .... I was
worried it wouldn't last. Well, my son used it for about two years and
now it is my wife's Newton. Still kicking after all these years .... now
I realize that your mileage may vary, but I think that they are really
well-built little computers!
Patrick
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Indecision is the key to flexibility.
A Message from Patrick Jendraszak
On Sunday, May 12, 2002, at 01:28 AM, Ermin Mistica wrote:
> My dear fellow Newtonians,
>
> For the longest time I have considered switching over to a different
> platform, either Palm or Pocket PC. Oh wait those are the only two
> platforms
> left!!! I forget myself. I use my eMate for notetaking in classes, my MP
> 2100 for everything else. What has made me start thinking of the Dark
> Side?
> I just need full compatibility with my PC or Mac. I love the fact that
> my MP
> 2100 can stand along but am just scared that one day it’ll conk. When
> Apple
> finally comes out with something, I’ll be first in line but until
> then, I
> can’t chance losing the over 300 notes, 1400 names, and months of
> appointments on the Newton which does not readily transfer over in its
> entirety to my computer for backup. What shall I do? I defer to the
> Newtonian Council for guidance.
>
> Ermin
>
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