Re: [NTLK] How do you use your Newton?

NAME: Sonny Hung
AGE: 42
OCCUPATION: Assistant
LOCATION: Queens, NY
NEWTON COLLECTION:
- NotePad, MP110 Clear Case (Grid & Clear Flip Cover), M2000 DVT, eMate 300
Clear Case
- OMP (DE/EN), MP100, MP110,MP120, MP130, MP2000, MP2000u, MP2100, eMate 300
- ExpertPad PI-7000 by Sharp, NotePhone by Siemens, Seahorse by0, SuperTech
2000 by Harris Draconian
- Grey Dongle for MP2000 DVT
- Cheetah Universal Smart Charger by Alexander Technologies (with [4x]
MP2000 Cups Adapter)
- FreeDock by OmniSys
- Along with various other things :)
MY NEWTON STORY:

It goes back to probably back to 1994 when I first saw the OMP introduced.
It was way out of my price range so I just dreamed and read up on it. By
1996 they had already moved onto the MP120 and the pending release of the
MP130. This is when I purchase an MP100 by mail order when they were being
cleared out finally for like $169 IIRC. I also purchased the starter kit
which included the Newton Bag with some software and cigarette modem.

Awhile I bailed on the Newton and went to Palm when the Palm III finally
came out and even upgraded it to 8MB with the TRG upgrade board but I lost
it when I left it in a rental van when I return it. The MP2000/2100 later
came out and I was just admiring them from afar because I was unable to
afford them. I did not want to go with an MP110, 120 or 130 even though it
had the backlight.

Then Apple canceled the Newton line :( Back then there was a website which
hosted a For Sale listing of Newtons. I was able to track down eventually
two MP2000 with a lot of accessories. The second one was purchased here in
NYC from Owen Lock a VP back then at *Ballantine Publishing; *Group a
subsidiary of Random House Publishing. I was able to upgrade both units
within the deadline to MP2100 at the special price Apple offered.

One of the neat things I did was travel with it. I went to Italy with my
wife and two girl friends. While there at one of the Murano Glass Factories
I was approached by an employee indicating that the son of the owner wanted
to purchase the Newton. I believe he offered to trade any piece of Murano
Glass valued up to $2000-$3000 IIRC. At the time I considered it but we had
a cat back home and I was afraid he would knock it over so I didn't trade my
MP2000u. My last international trip was to Hong Kong and Taiwan to see our
grandmothers. I brought it along and wrote my journal logging what we did
while there and even purchased a nice padded camera back which I used as my
Newton Bag till I purchase my Nikon D40X DSLR recently.

Back in 1998 there was a call for a company to purchase Newtons. It seems
the remaining stock of MP2000/2100 that should have lasted awhile dried up
(I think there was supposedly 20-50k units reported but I may be wrong).
They offered $1000 for a clean MP2100. I know it was terrible of me but I
had just gotten married and it was needed to be done. I got an offer of
$1900 for just both MP2000u's alone.These Newtons I only recently found out
went to become part of the science museum in the Petronas Towers in Kuala
Lumpur. They are officially known as ARIF, a Malay word for "wise man" or
"seer" and it was also an acronym for A Resourceful Informative Friend. Some
400 ARIFS were installed and over 300 are still in use today.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonnyhung/sets/72157594495244546/

Well that was the end of my Newton daily use for awhile though I still had
my MP100 with me. I sold off much of the accessories back then but still has
a slew of them still in a box.

A few years passed and I was using dial up when I came across eBay.
Damn, I got hooked and started watching auctions for Newtons.
I started by purchasing 7 MP2000s from GEM and that's all she wrote because
I became a Newton Addict and Collector after that. I recovered my
information from my MP100 and started to use it as my Address Book and
Calendar. I came across NewtonTalk, subscribed and met all the Newton Users
here :)

Of course my crazy dreamer side still wants a Clear Case MP2000/2000u/2100
but in reality the cost of such a project now is way beyond the means of me
or my planning though there is still always a glimmer of hope.

Though I don't use them as much now due to the slowness compared to my Treo
680, or the size factor since I carry a diaper bag still for my son. I do
still keep my contacts in them for use at the home. I enjoyed using LookOut
to sync with Outlook but wish that there will be one day a better solution
for sync'ng on any platform. It would be my hope that the iPhone could
possibly serve as a platform for Einstein to run on but that's still far off
into the future as least for now.

One project I started a few years back was to have one MP2000 used as a book
cataloger for our departments library of literature books. The only issue
was the inputing of the books. I tried incorporate an InPath Pen Scanner but
the quality or the bar codes on the books did not read well so I had to
abandon that idea.

-- 
God bless,
Sonny Hung
the Hung Family
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