[NTLK] Videos on Einstein

[Igor Bertolucci]

Hello Everyone,

Here are a few videos on Einstein I shot quickly this evening. Sorry for
the poor quality and the lengthiness, especially of the first one, but I
thought the community members would be more interested in the content and
seeing how Einstein preforms on the three different platforms I have it
running one (an ebook reader running Android, an iPad, and a Mac OSX Mojave
with a Wacom tablet) more than the production quality of the videos.

I must say that after finding the right setting (screen resolution and
refresh rate - which interestingly is the opposite of what one would think
- see video), I am most impressed on how Einstein runs on the Onyx Boox
Nova Pro. I like the size of this device (although the size of the
Shrinking Newt is my favorite) and the e-ink screen is really spectacular
in both direct light and, with it's front light, in dim/no light
situations. It sometimes has some weird slow downs (it happened when
launching NewtPaint 2 beta), but I think the e-ink screen really makes up
for its shortcomings. My only real problem in using Einstein on the Onyx on
a regular basis is that I have no idea how to sync the data created on
Einstein with a computer... I wish there was a way to connect it to NCX
just like my real Newton so that I can sync the calendar and address book
and download/upload notepad pages, NewtPaint drawings, etc. Einstein on the
Mac can connect to NCX (see video), so I am hoping there is a way to do so,
either wired via the USB port or wirelessly via Wifi or Bluetooth, even on
the Android version. If someone knows how to connect Einstein on Android
with NCX please let us all know.

Here are descriptions and links to the videos:

https://youtu.be/HAoRVV7WS-g

In the first video you see my Shrinking Newt project, then a stock
MessagePad 2100, followed by Einstein running on the Onyx Boox Nova Pro
Android e-ink device and finally Einstein running on iOS on an iPad Pro.
The iPad is running Einstein at 1080 x 1920, which is the only setting that
works in full screen, however the aspect ration is wrong - I think this is
the reason why it has such a hard time recognizing my handwriting since
from the emulator's point of view my handwriting is stretched. In a later
video (see below) I change the resolution so that the aspect ration is
correct and the iPad does just a good a job at recognizing my handwriting
as all the other devices, although it seems to me to be the slowest of the
bunch at transforming my handwriting to text.

The Onyx seems to have a decent speed at recognizing my handwriting, maybe
even just as fast as the real hardware, and overall operation is quite good
(except for some random slow downs here and there). Being e-ink the screen
is rather choppy at displaying animations, however, as you can see in the
video, when writing in the stock note application that comes with the
device, the pen can perform ink in realtime. I would love to try to build
an Android version of Einstein with realtime Wacom stylus input, which is
what the Onyx uses. Onyx has a free Onyx Pen SDK (
https://github.com/onyx-intl/OnyxAndroidSample/blob/master/doc/Onyx-Pen-SDK.md),
however I have no idea how to implement something like this in the Einstein
emulator (I am not a developer/programer at all).

https://youtu.be/SB_2DnLVFYI

In this second video I focus on the iPad sporting the latest Einstein build
(as of April 2019) running on an iPad Pro 12.9" first generation.

https://youtu.be/WUkchE7GwmI

In this video you see when I try to launch Einstein on the Mac at full
screen I get serious screen issues. It is unusable.

https://youtu.be/F2Ise42jkJk

In this final video you can see the Einstein emulator on the Mac connecting
to NCX on the same machine through the "serial port" interface. Einstein
runs really fast on the Mac, although it had issues with the inked writing
disappearing before being converted and that double tapping with the pen on
the converted text does not bring up the list of suggestions or correction
option for some reason (when I tried with the mouse it worked)...weird and
frustrating.

Well that's all for now. Hope everyone finds this information interesting
and usefull.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheer,
Igor