[NTLK] Einstein running on iPhone

[James Fraser]

Hello,

--- On Wed, 9/15/10, M. Horvat <redjazz_slo at yahoo.com> wrote:

> "Irreplacable proprietary battery" and "limited expansion"
> does not define Newton for me.

Concur.  Apple's 21st Century closed-box philosophy, as reflected in products like the iPhone/iPad, is distinctly unappealing when you're aware of flexible 20th Century Apple hardware like the Newton. 

That said, frankly, there are times I wish I had never played around with the Newton.  Once you've made that terrible mistake, and become intimately familiar with what the Newton is and what it does, (and how it does it) Apple's current offerings don't seem quite so amazing, not compared to where they *could* be by now if they had continued Newton development all the way through to the present day.  :/

However, to be fair, Apple would appear able to make far more money selling stuff like the iPad, which has been accurately (IMHO) described on the list as "a very conventional machine, albeit with a much nicer interface," as opposed to something truly mind-blowing like the Newton.  The iPad is something that people can understand and appreciate fairly quickly because, well, it does what computers have been doing for the past couple of decades: it just does it in a slightly different form factor.

The Newton, on the other hand, is so radically different from other computing devices (even today, a decade after Apple abandoned it) that it has to be experienced to be believed.  Even with all the emotional turmoil that Newton ownership engenders, I still feel bad for people who only know the Newton as a JPEG their eyeballs have rolled over for a few seconds somewhere online.

Anyway, from my own bitter and jaded perspective, it seems fairly obvious that the new, jumbo-sized Apple of the 21st Century is damned unlikely ever to build anything truly outstanding like the Newton again, not when they've proven that it's possible to make a metric diaperload of cash by cleverly packaging mediocrity.  If that's the case, (I'll let you decide if it actually is or not) any toys the Newton community would like to have will likely come into existence only through Matthias and people like him.  People who are actually demented enough to put in the enormous time and effort necessary to bring such toys to life.

So, yes, porting the Newton platform to devices like the iPhone is less than ideal.  The iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch are, after all, devices with a completely different design philosophy behind them than the one our little green friend has.  However, when the only toys you have to play with are ones you have to sit down and make by hand, the kind of compromises you're faced with under such conditions become, if not more tolerable, at least more understandable.  Or so I would hope.

I guess what I'm trying to say here in my usual ranty bollocks way is: people like Matthias are doing the best they can.  Sure, the results may be less than perfect, but does that -really- make them any less amazing?

For my own part, I wish I could think of some way to make a meaningful contribution to such efforts.  Sitting with my mouth agape in utter amazement at the kind of innovation that's become near-commonplace on NewtonTalk is a *sort* of a contribution, I suppose, but not a very meaningful one.  Of course, it's always much more fun to do amazing things when you have an appreciative audience standing by, ready to be amazed, so there's always that. ¬_¬


Best,

James Fraser