NewtonTalk.net June 2009 archive: Re: [NTLK] [OT] New iPhones/iP

From: Ryan Vetter <physicalconstants_at_yahoo.ca>
Date: Sat Jun 13 2009 - 11:29:53 EDT

Wow the list is touchy this past week!

There were PDAs before the Newton, just without much of the functionality of the Newton.

In fact, in ~1978, a patent was filed for a very primitive PDA. It was basically a calculator with the ability to log in some dates. Anyway, the concept was already in place long before the Newton. And then there were some devices already on the market as well like the EO 440 (very functional, but slow...), but that was only just a few months earlier to market than the Newton. Before this there was the Psion Organiser I (1984), and in 1991 the HP Jaguar (95LX)... to mention a few.

"The Jaguar had superior specs with a massive 1mb ROM, 512kb RAM, PCMCIA II expansion slot, 4,8″ screen and a resolution of 240 x 128 against the Psion’s 1mb ROM, 256kb RAM, 4,3″ screen with 240×80, both on monochrome and with QWERTY keyboards. In 1992 HP launched a new Jaguar with double the RAM."

These products had "small keyboards, small displays, and basic features such as an alarm clock, calendar, telephone pad and calculator"

Regardless, the Newton took from these concepts, and then sprung out from others with lots of new features not previously predicated on earlier PDAs. So in reality, the Newton was not the first PDA, just the first modern PDA.

All the best,

Ryan

----- Original Message ----
From: James Fraser <wheresthatistanbul-newtontalk@yahoo.com>
To: newtontalk@newtontalk.net
Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2009 3:52:11 AM
Subject: Re: [NTLK] [OT] New iPhones/iPhone OS 3.0

Hello,

--- On Sat, 6/13/09, Steven Scotten <splicer@paroxysm.com> wrote:

> You wrote that the Newton was "groundbreaking" and almost
> in the same breath claimed that Apple doesn't get "honor" for that.

This is what I said:

>Again, I'm not arguing that what Apple did with the PDA was not >groundbreaking. Merely that they were not first to market with a PDA >device and that honor lies with another company.

Can you kindly not put words into my mouth? I would appreciate that.

I said the above because, as near as I can make out, the Newton was not, in fact, the first PDA to market. Of course, if you have evidence to the contrary, I'm perfectly willing to listen to it.

But if you'll pardon my saying so, I don't appreciate someone taking two words out of two complete sentences of a total of thirty-three words, quoting those two words out of context, and attempting to make me appear to say something that I never actually said.

> I'm playing Devils Advocate to some degree here,

Yes, I rather noticed that. ¬ _¬

I think we might be able to agree that the Newton was the first *practical* PDA to be made available. The same could be argued for the iPod: it was the first MP3 player that caught the imagination of the public at large.

But the iPod's runaway success doesn't change the fact that Apple did not invent the MP3 player. And the historical record seems to indicate that Apple was not the first to market a PDA, either, but that they are very closely associated with the PDA concept (and rightly so).

Best,

James Fraser

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