On 01/11/02 14:40, "Brian Braunschweiger" <brianbraun_at_earthlink.net> wrote:
> Here are some questions covering a variety of areas:
>
> (1) HAND WRITING RECOGNITION
> I have been using a Palm IIIxe for about 2 years now and am fairly
> proficient in Grafitti. I am not impressed with the Newton's
> recognition thus far but recognize the problem may be mine. I have
> set it to recognize my hand writing and did a quick run through the
> settings where I can tell it which shapes I often make, which seldom
> and which never. What should I be doing to help the process along?
> Does the word practice train the Newton or just me?
Probably just you ;-) If you were proficient in Graffiti, you might want to
give a try to printing handwriting, as it is more accurate than the cursive
recognition. If you want to stick with cursive, you'll have to "train" the
Newton in recognizing your own personal handwriting. You already did about
half the job by going to the prefs to tell the Newton what shapes you were
using and those that you were not. Now, you have to stick with it but
everytime that the Newton doesn't recognize properly, double-tap the wrongly
recognized word and see if the right one appears in the popup menu. If it's
not there, use the letter-by-letter correction and write over the letters
that the Newton missed. By doing that for some time, the Newton will become
better at recognizing your handwriting. If you ever reset your handwriting
preferences, you'll have to start again because the Newton modifies those
settings based on your input. Make sure that you also set the other
handwriting settings correctly, like the options in "Handwriting Settings",
specially make sure that "Learn my handwriting" is enabled. Check also the
"Fine Tuning" settings, specially the "Recognize my handwriting", where you
should try to make it slower, but more accurate.
>
> (2) APPLICATIONS
> I can't yet install any packages due to the not having a dongle. (See
> my other post). Again, having used a Palm that synchs with Now
> contact and Up to Date and has some other apps on it, I am not very
> impressed with the default apps on the Newton. Again, I realize I may
> need to install stuff. In the mean time, what can I actually do with
> my Newton. Note taking is the only thing I can think of and I am not
> sure how much I have a need for that.
The synchronization is probably the weakest side of the Newton. For me,
that's not a problem because I don't see the point in synchronizing with a
desktop. Even if the synchronization was a snap, I don't see myself wasting
any time to do it as I don't see the advantage of having my appointments and
to-dos on my computer screen as opposed to have them on my Newton screen. If
my work was requiring calendar sharing, then that might be a different
story, but I'm not required to, so I only use the Newton to keep my
schedule.
>
> (3) CHANGING BATTERY CAGES
> Will I lose everything not in ROM if I swap out battery cages? If
> not, is there a time limit like the Palm?
Hey, the Newton isn't a Palm! You could remove the battery for a year and
you would still find your data!
>
> (4) SCREEN CONDITION
> The screen seems to be good quality and the backlight works fine. The
> only downside is that there seems to be some slight "etching" on the
> screen where it was wrote on often. If oriented vertically, it is
> about 1/3 of the way down from the top. Any idea why that area would
> have been written on more often?
Might have been caused by the previous owner using a specific app with lot
of entries in the same area, or something he did use very often, some kind
of a game, perhaps.
-Laurent.
-- =========================================================================== Laurent Daudelin Developer, Multifamily, ESO, Fannie Mae mailto:Laurent_Daudelin_at_fanniemae.com Washington, DC, USA ************************* Usual disclaimers apply ************************* bozotic /boh-zoh'tik/ or /boh-zo'tik/ adj.: [from the name of a TV clown even more losing than Ronald McDonald] Resembling or having the quality of a bozo; that is, clownish, ludicrously wrong, unintentionally humorous. Compare wonky, demented. Note that the noun `bozo' occurs in slang, but the mainstream adjectival form would be `bozo-like' or (in New England) `bozoish'.-- 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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