Re: [NTLK] Letter from Steve Jobs

~~~ On 2009/01/08 08:38, Frank Gruendel at newtontalk@pda-soft.de wrote ~~~

>> But the collective failure of the company as it is now has blinded them to
>> the fact that the main thing "wrong" with the Newton was timing: they came
>> up with the idea before all the technology was in plac to carry out the
>> underlying idea,
>>
> I disagree with all due respect. Front and foremost the main thing "wrong"
> with Apple back at the time the Newton was conceived was the fact that Apple
> had no marketing worth mentioning. My own impression with ALL Apple hardware
> at that time was that Apple much preferred keeping it, having spent so much
> work, money and effort on making it.
>
> If I hadn't been given an OMP at an Apple developer conference (details in the
> "Stories" section of the site in the signature), I wouldn't be writing this
> and nobody on this list would have ever heard of me.
>
> ...
<snip>

Thanks for that background, Frank. I wasn't aware of what it was like to
deal with Apple back in the day; I was still on the Dark Side then. Even
though I knew (and loved) Macs from about 1987, because my need was for a
road-worthy laptop I couldn't indulge myself until they came out with their
champion of laptops, the Pismo (and now I have 4). So the closest I got to
the kind of customer non-relations you describe was the time I told someone
at the Apple stand in a computer show my specific needs, what I'd managed so
far with my peecee laptop, and how much I'd rather have an Apple laptop that
could do something like that for me. His response was a look of blank
incomprehension. Then he said, have you tried our new track-ball? I walked
away wondering if I should tell someone at Apple that they were being
represented to the public by someone who didn't even listen to prospective
customers or care about what they were looking for. After what you've
written, I'm glad I didn't waste the printer ink.

I'm tempted to say that a company that is so inflexible in meeting the needs
of its customers as you describe, especially with the theft of the ROM
modules, doesn't really deserve to exist. But of course that would've
deprived me of my Pismos wouldn't it? And maybe even my Newtons. So I dare
not go quite that far.

And now that I see your information about the Apple of the 1990s, I will
concede to you that they couldn't have sold water on a desert trade-route,
even if they could have been persuaded that it made good sense. And that
problem does outstrip the technical mis-timing of the Newton.

I still think that now is the time for them to bring it back in an improved
version, but that's plainly another matter.

> Another thing wrong with the Newton, at least in my opinion, is the fact that
> it does not fit in my trouser pockets. ...
>
<snip>

I understand your feelings about this. It's the closest thing to an abiding
complaint against the Newton that I have. I've managed to work around it
for the last 3 years because [a] I'm used to wearing a rucksack (I hate to
have things in my hands so they go on my back), so my Newt often rode in
there in a special compartment, and [b] I've recently acquired, thanks to a
heads-up from Paul Zenk on this list, a *RipOff* holster, allowing my Newt
to hang safely from my belt all the time (except when I have to wear a
suit). I always have at least my main Newton in easy reach, day and night,
and I can't imagine how I lived any other way.

But I sure would like to have a "Newton: TNG" -- slim and trim enough for
easy carrying in any pocket I'm likely to wear, and all the rest. If
only...

> ...
> Strangely, HWR has never been an issue for me. I am amazed that it is so good,
> and I love amazing people by demonstrating it, but being used to the speed of
> touch-typing I have always found it inacceptably slow. I am much faster with
> the Newtons on-screen keyboard, but even this drives me often crazy because
> text entry is, compared to that made with the help of a decent keyboard, so
> bloody slow.
>

I can see what you're saying here too. I know I'm apparently very fortunate
that HWR works as if it had been designed especially for me. Also, I know
that if one is sitting at a desk or somewhere else where the keyboard can be
flat on a desk or laid across one's lap, any decent typist will be faster
than handwriting. And that fits how you use your Newton. But I'm mobile.
Very mobile. I write in my Newt while standing waiting in a queue, sitting
under a tree, near (though never on) a beach, sitting in my car, out in a
forest, late at night when I wake up with something I have to write down so
I don't forget it, on a bus or train, in meetings and lectures and
presentations, and occasionally even while I'm walking. The keyboard (I do
have one, and use it with one of my secondary Newtons) would be impossible
in many of these situations. In the others, a keyboard would be
ridiculously slow and cumbersome. As for that on-screen keyboard...!

And I have to confess there's a strong emotional bond between me and the
Newton on the basis of all this. I feel a completely irrational "loyalty"
(what else can I call it?) to a machine that reads my scribble in order to
remind me of my meetings, appointments and activities, receive my notes and
thoughts, and generally help me to work more efficiently than I can do
without it. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, I'm a thumb-movement
away from that friendly screen waiting to record whatever I write on it.
The rest of the time, I can count on it to remind me of where I should be
going or what I should be doing, where someone lives, and all the other
things that otherwise would fall through the cracks of my ageing memory.

> I see no reason why I shouldn't be using my Newton like today for the rest of
> my life. But I will positively never use it for what I'm using my good ol'
> Palm Pilot for.
>

I really like the form-factor of the Palm Pilot. I even have one --
somewhere. And if only it worked as well as my Newton, I'd know where!

Anyway, thanks for your comments Frank. As usual, you've make me think
about the Newton more clearly.

 
Shalom.
Christian

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
            -- what Arthur C. Clarke meant

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Received on Thu Jan 8 08:16:36 2009