Re: [NTLK] The day the Newton died it's final death...

~~~ On 2007/01/10 22:24, Riccardo Mori at rick@poc.it wrote ~~~

> Don't think I've been amazed by _that_. I know well how useless a
> wallpaper on a mobile phone is. I was just making an example of what,
> in my opinion, is a well-studied, phone-wide interface. The
> interconnection of features, the fact that some data can be
> manipulated throughout various "locations" in the iPhone. This bit of
> information that's here can be easily adjusted, merged, moved, sent
> there. The keyword is _easily_. And what makes things easy in such a
> device? The interface.
...etc.
>
> About the iPhone: I do think that considering it a cure-all for
> whatever needs the man of the street may have is overly enthusiastic
> or just foolish. Of course, despite my utter amazement, I think that
> this device can't possibly be good at _everything_, nor I expect it
> to be. On the other hand, it's myopic to consider it just a silly
> toy, eye-candy, and full of useless gadgets. For example, I'd like to
> use it also as a very portable hard drive where I can store a copy of
> my works in progress when I move from one site to another to continue
> my work. The data are easily exchanged with my PowerBooks and I don't
> have to move around with a phone, an external hard drive, my iPod, an
> USB pendrive, etc. I just put some music on the iPhone to listen on
> the go, I backup the data I need and save them into it, and I don't
> really need anything else to carry around. Obviously I take my
> MessagePad with me if I need to do things that the iPhone doesn't do,
> like scribbling away some notes on the nicely huge Newton screen. But
> in the end my "digital life" is made a lot easier (and lighter for my
> pockets and backpack).

OK Riccardo, to start with, I apologize if I made your interest sound
trivial. And reading what you've said, I'm inclined to say I agree with
pretty much everything you said. And I accept that I may have overstated
slightly the extent of the iPhone's perceived inadequacies. I suppose my
problem is that I really do feel keenly that an opportunity was lost. In
the end, your apparent aim of not having to carry half-a-dozen devices to
carry everything you need/want is something we all can appreciate.

Thinking about the different Newton enhancements developed by the people
here in NewtonTalk, what have many of them been but ways to add
functionality and the latest techology to our trusty Newts? --to add much
of the technology now in the iPhone, as I see it. So, my beef isn't that
they've put all this other great stuff together, it's that they've left out
the Newton. (Well alright, so they also left out some vital phone functions
and stuff, but you know what I mean.)

The iPhone could have been that *one* thing you carry with you when you go
out of the house and you don't need a full-blown laptop: when you need to
carry and handle and create data, communicate in a variety of ways by both
voice and data transmission, and you want some music, pictures, and other
personal stuff with you as well.

How cool would it have been if you could have something the size of the
iPhone or maybe just a smidgeon larger that does the Newton stuff as well as
a Newton does it, plus all the iPhone stuff and iPod stuff, and that doesn't
have the odd oversights in connectivity and so on? If I could have such a
"super-Newt", all I'd need is external HDs with large-screen displays at
home and/or office. I could choose between using a keyboard and pointing
device or a larger version of the super-Newt interface in tablet-and-stylus
form, or just carrying on with my super-Newt, for controlling everything.
Then I could carry in this ridiculously small thing of beauty and power
wherever I go. It could contain as much of my data as I want with me, and
could synch with the HDs to pick up data for carrying and to store the stuff
I don't want to take along.

The Newton *design*, fully upgraded with the most modern technology and made
slightly smaller, and with the new phone and iPod capabilities, could have
been a big step on the way to creating that super-Newt. And if they rethink
the future iterations of the iPhone, it still could be. That's "all" I
wanted. :)

So again, sorry if I misrepresented you. I think that in our own ways, we
may be thinking along similar lines. Unlike Mr. Jobs.

 
Shalom.
Christian

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

NewtonPad: the computer of tomorrow ‹ yesterday.

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(With thanks to Chod Lang)

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

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