I totally undeniably, very, very extremely much hated the excessively clunky, big time consuming Newton and its very easy to break or loose horrific and expensive pens.
It was infinitely better to have icons on iPhone’s beautiful and larger screen, and pens were not an issue. Beautiful four color displays were a tremendous advantage as well. And it was super easy with iPhone’s touchscreen to quickly and easily move around the screen to type and edit. Typing and editing on screen was so much faster and better than the awful, horrible pens.
Finding a safe place for Newton and the pen in a crowded handbag or briefcase was always difficult and exceptionally annoying. Especially horrific was the teensy tiny black and white screen that couldn’t host a variety of apps. iPhone debuted a beautiful four color screen and initiated and encouraged the development of apps.
It was total, truly instantly and love at first sight when I saw the Debut of the iPhone. I couldn’t wait to dump the Newton in the trash. Steve Jobs totally changed the world once again.
My Newton was truly clunky. My Palm Pilot was less clunky and more usable. My iPod Touch was a huge leap forward in my PDA journey, which sat alongside my flip phone. And of course with iPhone, the term PDA became instantly obsolete.
As I review how we’ve veered off topic, it’s worth refreshing that NameDrop is really a “PDA” function. I can’t wait to have a legit reason to use it!
I don’t think it sold awfully well, but the NewtonOS-based e-Mate was something I rather liked. It had a good keyboard and one could type away for 24 hours before needing to recharge. Internet access required, if I remember rightly, either a PCMCIA modem or ethernet card, and allowed e-mail or newsgroups (no web browser). I preferred it for travel over the even heavier but more capable Powerbook 520c.
I still have my Newton 2100. I really liked it – yes it was big, but I used it at work, had the keyboard, modem card and many programs. It recognized my handwriting well. I was sad when Steve pulled the plug on it.
I’m with the reply on PalmOS and its handwriting recognition…best I’ve ever seen and for its time it was much better than other options. Newton was decent…but the Palm was better, smaller, and much more battery friendly as well as useful.
I loved my Palm. In fact, I was a volunteer on whatever site it was (can’t remember the name but it was the big one back when - ah age}. It was great but I have to say I loved my Newtons, and still have them.
Using the Newton back when if first came out allowed me to do documents and prepare agendas in the midst of a very busy schedule - so like during lunch or even dinner I could type away. Then I would transfer it to my computer and make minimal adjustments and print away. I could also take notes during meetings long before it was convenient to use my Apple computer. Miss my Newton sob weep sniff…
I think the Newton was a very early begining. I never owned one but did buy an early version of the Ipod (with actual hard drive). They obviously learned from the Newton…
??? All of the iPods with hard drives had wheel-based UIs. The devices with touch screens (iPod Touch and some late model Nanos and Shuffles) all had flash memory storage.
