[NTLK] The Incredible Shrinking Newt

[Gene Beaird]

Hey, the Tab 4 is not quite so dusty!!  :-)

Not to me, at least.  After a couple of failed attempts at using other devices to datalog our autocross runs, we settled (currently) on a Tab 4 with Kestrel Solo Storm. I can also pull down course maps to review between runs.  Couldn’t do that with the Newt, but then, again, I couldn’t easily record the stuff we recorded with our Newton, like weather, setup, times, etc.  

Not sure if a stylus would work well with a Tab 4, for writing, but with Nebu on the iPad, I’m contemplating taking it with us to events for ’newton-like’ work.  

And to the OP:  Please keep up the awesome work!  It will be cool to see the ‘what if’ of a Newton in the 21st. century!!  

Regards,

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas



> On Apr 11, 2019, at 4:04 PM, newtontalk-request at newtontalk.net wrote:
> 
> Message: 5
> Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2019 15:09:13 -0500
> From: Jeff Sheldon <jeffsheldon at gmail.com>
> To: newtontalk at newtontalk.net
> Subject: Re: [NTLK] The Incredible Shrinking Newt
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAJudumeHqWxL0RUSjVoyZsaEB1k8Wp9hRX6C-sEmPJfoXup4ZQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> 
> I'm a big proponent of e-ink as well as it maintains the general feel of
> the Newton experience and substantially cuts down on power draw.  The Boox
> device made me immediately think of the Newton, but Android running on it
> feels silly.  The hardware hurdles of marrying the technologies is
> substantial.  It took me about 15 years to come to the conclusion that
> Einstein is the only real answer to move forward with and to accept that
> the Newton hardware will see a slow decline despite best (and appropriate)
> efforts to keep it going.
> 
> Despite my personal distaste for Android, I think the following model is
> the 100% absolute correct way to proceed: That we need an Einstein
> DISTRIBUTION which can adapt to many different tablet and phone hardware
> platforms.
> 
> t would be interesting to take a similar approach that others have
> (Ubports, postmarketOs, etc.) to containerize Android for oddball hardware
> support, run a Linux kernel on with minimal GNU installation, and position
> Einstein as the front-facing app.  Cyanogenmod has traditionally been the
> go-to instead of straight Android in these sorts of situations, but now
> LineageOS has picked up what was left of the remains following operational
> people problems.  It's great that we can install Einstein on various
> operating systems, but it's not great that we don't have it as a
> distributable operating environment that can run on cheap, dedicated,
> hardware.  As long as this problem exists, we'll keep seeing struggles and
> energy put into facets of the Newton that are residual symptoms of this
> missing answer.  In other words, there shouldn't be any reason why we can't
> buy a Boox product, jailbreak it, and have a downloadable firmware
> replacement in order to enjoy e-ink and good battery life.  This style of
> approach is being done every day with such devices in other communities.
> 
> In the meantime, maybe this is a good time for me to fish out the dusty
> Galaxy Tab 4 a friend gave me. :-)
> 
> -Jeff