From: Ed Kummel (tech_ed_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Mar 03 2005 - 15:35:26 PST
The short answer is "No"
<Long Answer>
The Marco used a wireless service that is currently
defunct. Back in the day, it was called ARDIS. I
forget what it stands for, but I think "Advanced
Radio" is the first two letters.
The service was spotty and horribly expensive to use.
But where it did exist, it was flawless. It worked on
a multipath idea to guarantee delivery of service.
Ardis created wireless devices for all manner of
devices...HP200lx, Laptops, and, of course, the
Newton. Wynd was the big supporter of this service and
contracted the development of the software that
eventually made it's way to the MP120.
There was a competing service called ZapIt that was
distributed by DTS and ran on the RAM system. ARDIS
was eventually purchased by American Mobile Satelite
and DTS was purchased by Go America (and BellSouth
wireless purchased RAM). Both services have since
discontinued support for these services.
What caused issues with these services was mainly the
price. You paid by the kb for data send and received.
Also, it was really nothing more than a glorified
wireless email service. You couldn't receive
applications and you couldn't browse websites. There
was a text service which you sent an email to a
particular address that contained the URL to a website
and it would return the text of that page back to
you...very clunky and a royal pain!
I used the service on DTS with my Newton for years and
was my main email address. Being in the "business" I
got my service "compt'ed", otherwise I would have used
something else. The Marco was my First Newton and I
was loath to give up the wireless features. Only when
I was able to adapt an ARDIS model to a MP210os1.3 did
I switch! But I found that lack of heap caused undue
problems...15-20 email pending email messages would
cause the Newton to crash. I became very adept at
creating a minimal system just to use the wireless
service. When the MP2000 came out, I jumped at the
extra heap and switched to DTS using the AllPoints
wireless card. Unfortunatly, DTS didn't support the
Newton, but since I had the Wynd software and knew the
developer, he gave me instructions on how to make the
software work on the DTS service. I kept this service
until DTS went away to Go America. Talking to Aaron
Dobrinsky, GoAmerica's president at the time, he told
me that the Newton was no longer a viable platform and
that he couldn't spare the programming to retrofit the
software to fit their billing model. Seems that they
billed by an arbitrary "packet" instead of the kb and
didn't want to develop for a platform that at that
time was considered a Niche product (The Newton had
not yet been "steve'ed") I tried Socket and even
attemped CDPD...but other platforms were coming out
ahead in the handheld commmunications arena...so, that
meant that the Newton would no longer be a wireless
connected handheld anymore.
That, more than anything else disappoints me. All the
technology that the Newton started and even created a
market for, was squandered...left to rot like fruit on
the tree...by Jobs just because of his supposed "not
invented by me" disposition...it truely saddens me.
Ed
web/gadget guru
(I told you this was the longer version!)
--- Alex Santos 100MB Neostrada Mail
<izabella.misiewiczsantos_at_neostrada.pl> wrote:
> I just picked up a Motorola Marco, does anyone know
> anything about it?
>
> Can it be used as a mobile?
>
> It was too cool to resist so I got while I could.
>
> Alex
>
> --
> This is the NewtonTalk list -
> http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries
> Official Newton FAQ:
> http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
> WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles:
> http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
>
>
=====
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