Re: [NTLK] Is iPod Touch the Newtons future?

~~~ On 2009/01/18 11:19, G. Isten at gisela@tariffenet.it wrote ~~~

>>> And no possibility to use the iPhone in cold winters while you're wearing
>>> your gloves, as I found out the hard way about a week ago.
>
>> Unfortunately Gisela, it won't work with gloves on. The iPhone/iTouch
>> screens use capacitance so it needs to get it from your skin.
>
> Yeah, Dennis, and I even *knew* that. But one thing is knowing things in your
> head, another shedding ingrained habits. ;-)
>
> Gisela
>

I've been trying hard to keep out of this discussion since: [a] my iPod
isn't a Touch, [b] I've already posted my reasons why I'd rather hold out
for a *real* successor to the Newton, rather than settling for any old bone
Apple throws us Newt-users, and [c] so far I've refused to own an iPhone,
and will continue to do so until they bring it up to scratch in the things I
actually want in my phone, rather than just offering me feel-good gizmos and
toys while holding back on giving me what I really want. Although I've
played with both the Touch and the iPhone I can't say I'm experienced with
either. So I felt like I should leave this thread alone -- till now.

I want to come back to the original subject line before that question gets
lost: "Is iPod Touch the Newton's future?" My answer after reading what
everyone else has said is still, "No". And here's why.

Data entry, data entry, data entry. Yes, I know that *if* you're
touch-typing on a reasonably sized keyboard, it's faster than handwriting.
But once we include an iPod or iPhone in the comparison, we're definitely
talking about portable usage. A plug-in keyboard is such a faff (technical
term; British) unless you define "portable" to mean "I carry it to this
place and set it up like a desktop there, then I carry it to another place
and set it up like a desktop there, then I ..." So now we're talking about
the on-screen keyboard. I notice one of the sub-themes of this thread is
that to type on that screen, if you're wearing gloves you either have to
take them off, buy special gloves, or use a specially made stylus (despite
Steve Jobs apparent dislike of styli) which doesn't have a home in the
iPod/iPhone so has to be carried separately. The Newton's stylus is siloed
with it, and can be used with all but the thickest Arctic mittens (by which
time the screen might be struggling anyway). I've written notes in the cold
without removing my gloves and without appreciable loss of legibility so I
know it works.

After that I'd add other points including those mentioned by others in this
thread: a decent notes app (to me this is a really big deal, but it's
already been discussed at length), folders storage, copy-and-paste (for
crying out loud, even Sony Ericsson phones have had that feature for
years!), the search function, the Assist function, superior battery life,
the capacity for a reasonable amount of user servicing, superior screen
real-estate, the capacity to fax (yes, this is still useful to some of us),
the ability to make drawings (geometric shapes or free-hand, even in the
address book!), and I'm sure I'm forgetting some things but those are
enough.

Of course, the one place the Newton really suffers is that development was
stopped 10 years ago when it was killed off, so its communications
technology is out-dated except for the things that members of our community
have added/enabled, like wifi and bluetooth. For some of us the antiquity
of its connectivity has made the Newton expendable in favour of some other
device.

I would love the Newton to have modern connectivity as much as anyone. But
for me the crucial question isn't what clever things can I do to data, but
to what data can I do it? After all, if the device I'm using doesn't allow
me to produce *easily* the material I'll be wanting to e-mail or bluetooth
out, then it doesn't matter whether or not the device has those abilities,
does it?

By contrast, although the iPod Touch and the iPhone allow us to send stuff
off, what stuff are they letting us send? The pages and pages of reports,
notes, essays, and other work we can produce on them? No; it seems to be
conceded by everyone that they aren't really going to be producing any large
volume of material by tippy-tapping on their on-screen mini-keyboards. For
me personally, and with regard to Newton-like abilities to produce and edit
the written word, mind my appointments, store contact info, and so on, the
iPod Touch and iPhone represent the triumph of style over substance.

I also largely agree with Gisela's earlier post of criticisms of the iPhone.
The iPhone's camera quality, ability to do MMS and take quick videos, and
even the ability to Bluetooth data files on and off my phone -- for when I
forget to carry a USB drive -- all represent backward steps from my Sony
Ericsson K850.

Also, a locked phone is real nuisance when the natural and cheap solution to
travelling and working in different countries is to swap in a SIM card for a
local provider. I do this regularly on my phone, and it's saved me a fair
amount of money over the years.

So the question was, "Is iPod Touch the Newton's future?". A Newton is a
device that lets people produce a lot of material quickly and easily. Any
device that's supposed to be "the future of the Newton" has to retain such
ability for creating material. Since Steve Jobs and Apple apparently have
put their weight behind the iPod, the Touch certainly is *a* future. But
it's not the *Newton's* future, is it?

 
Shalom.
Christian

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

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

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ZzpdPJ7Zr4
(With thanks to Chod Lang)
http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/3942

~~~ ~~~ ~~~
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Received on Sun Jan 18 13:55:34 2009