Here's a third post in a series of reposts of interests from the NewtonTalk list. My commends are in Code format

Joe Riley Wrote:
This is a continuation of the iPod touch talk from the "[NTLK] [ADMIN] This is only a test" thread.

I just got a 1st Gen refurb iPod Touch from apple (looked brand new!) and I've been very amazed with it. I'm not a newton power user in terms of the calendar/contacts and the info linking the newt can do so I could see me using the touch as its replacement for those functions. I also can do without the HWR since I usually end up using the onscreen keyboard on my newt because most of my data to enter doesn't like the HWR (gear charts for race cars, web addresses, etc.). If you use blackberry, treo, winmo, etc, getting the hang of the touch's keyboard shouldn't be too hard. The first data entry might be a pain if you do it manually but the touch can sync with address book and ical.

I synced everything with my MobileMe account and al info was there. I found the only problem to be the iPod's auto-correct. I write in Greeklish (Greek in latin characters) on twitter and it keeps wanting to correct everything. English typing was no problem, even from the get-go.

Someone also mentioned the small screen, which I do agree is a little annoying but scrolling is easy with the touch screen and it keeps the device small. The multimedia and web on the touch is awesome compared to the newt. Some of the interface touches even remind me of the newt, like how the keyboard and some other boxes glide on/off the display and the clicky sounds it makes when you type (although it doesn't have the overall interface sounds the newt has).

It does have some serious flaws though. First and most important to me is the lack of a good notes app. The built-in notes app looks similar to the newts but lacks folders. I'm going to try some 3rd party apps but reviews I've read so far don't give me hope.

This is a serious problem (as is note sync). I've written about this in a previous post.
Second is battery life. The battery life of the touch really sucks if your punishing it with lots of web surfing, app downloading, or worse online gaming. It seems to do ok if you've got the wifi off but its still no where near the newt, you need to charge it atleast every night if not sooner. Maybe if they made it as thick as the iphone 3g we'd be set.

You know, I don't think that battery life is a problem. Yes if you keep using the web and playing games it's going to drain your battery fast. It's a cost balancing situation. I use my iPod mostly for media playback, and I keep it charged while at work. I never run out of battery. I also don't hop on the net with all the time. I check my email, check my twitter and facebook, and turn the WiFi off. You can't compare the newton battery life-span to that of the iPod. The Newton does not go online, and it doesn't do media playback. I know people have created apps to let you do just that, but if you do this, your battery will drain equally fast as the iPod Touch.


Third is the lack of copy and paste. This one really bugs me because I use C&P on my blackberry and newt all the time. And last it lacks the Agent and overall search funtions of the newt although it does have in-app searches for some apps. Lack of HWR may be a deal breaker depending on if you are really fond of it.


If the notes and copy & paste problems are solved this may be a decent 'new newt' for some. It does the web, multimedia, mail, contacts and calendar, its not a brick, it syncs easily with modern apps and its easy to use IMHO. I do wish it had a green backlight and could be put into greyscale mode, maybe an app could be made to give all the white on screen a green tint and switch the rest of the colors to greyscale? I guess I'm saying it needs theme support too

LOL, a green backlight and a Newton theme would be awesome (maybe the jailbreak community can help out). The fact that the iPod is not a brick and can accomplish so much (despite its limitations) is why I choose it over the newton for my needs. Lets not forget that the newton is 14 years old and it's been more than 10 years without official support!

Do you have an IPod Touch/iPhone? What do you think?

Tags: technology, Newton, NewtonOS, Nokia, N800, ipod, touch

Continuing my series of reposts of mailings that I find interesting about the future of the newton from the NewtonTalk list, here's one from Carlos Santiago. I've added some comments and personal views in code format

Carlo's Post:
I was prompted by the 2010 timeframe barrier I'd heard about but I made the switch after v2.0 of the system software which had abilities much better in regards to email than the earlier version; at 1.x it most mostly an ipod but the 2.0 software brought it close to a pda but 100% and no where, anywhere close near a Newton.But I then sold off my iPAQ and BT GPS unit as we also gotten a Garmin GPS which made the switchover possible.

It took a while for me to make the switch, mentally, everything important I had on my 2100 and PDA. Key apps there I vitally needed and used.

• cut-n-paste! poor man's inter-app messaging
• Newton notes; still no clear replacement
• Newton calendar; Pocket Informant on the PDA made that platform a good transition but the Newton was the gold standard so it'll be tough to replace
• Newton inter-app slip messaging; but things are slowly improving within key apps
• PDA Pocket Informant; a PIM that's coming this month!

I'm not a twenty something wanting a gaming only device (but not that there's anything wrong with that! - these folks in part fueled Apple in recent months and this platform after all) but needed a PDA which approched Newton status. My iPod isn't a Newton but I'm finding less is more in some areas.

What I like:

• speed; I now juggle 6 email accounts; evan google and yahoo along with work, etc.
• apps availability; I often buy apps I like hoping support will spur further advances; most feature 'free' subset versions which is vital since all sales are final - and tied to you; you can't resell.
• web browsing - full screen and fast; however in recent months some sites take to dumming down their site when then see an iPOD; wrong approach; some offer a choice of classic or iPod site view; much better
• GREAT - f-n-GREAT (so far) app s/w provider support; I think they see the future ahead of most users and are running in droves to the unit; I can only hope some exNewton titles make it here.

I have all of my email accounts (except for my Hotmail account) on my iPod Touch and it's great! On my N800 I don't have everything. The again, I purchased the device for web browsing, not email handling. I only have my mobile me account on the N800 since I can't use the browser to check the mail. Hotmail, yahoo and gmail are all easily accessible on the maemo browser.

What I dis-like

• small sceen resolution with BIG UI interface controls means display real estate is an absolute premium; most apps either waste space or feature too much whitespace. There are some PDA style apps which try to cram too much info but I think within the next year the UI and developers will come to terms and deliver great apps - my hope anyway.
• poor apps sometimes crash the unit; recent I took to emailing one developer on their latest update and was totally floored at the response; *GREAT* had a new, fixed, app in a few days. Oh, and this app was *FREE*

I really would like to see some category for gag apps. I don't care that people are making fart or bouncing boob apps, but it really makes it hard to look for good apps when the gag apps are taking up so much space.

And neutral items...

• it's not a PDA let alone Newton. In the 2.1 s/w release Apple heard first hand that some folks actualy rely on their units for something other than on demand music purchase and play. Given the wider, non-game app availability, I suggested they spend a bit more time in QA; they appear to be.
• yes there's no stylus; it's up to the app the make the UI transition to gesture based input. it's funny to see HWR attempts etc. on this unit. IMHO those apps just don't get it (aka those don't dogs won't hunt It's hard but you do need to rethink things from scratch.

Would like to see items

• Newton notes; folders, outlines, todo, style sheets, etc. partridge in a pear tree...
• universal platform issues; cut-n-paste, messaging, 'back' ability. Each app execution replaces rather than pushes current apps. You can return to the former app after pressing the home button and navigating to it but I'd like to see a 'go back' button or gesture to do this. That would go a long way to addressing inter-app slip passing as app design all feature a fast save state ability you pick up just where you left off.
• built-in camera
• speaker (2nd gen unit already has this)
• dump AT&T in favor of generic provider support; this is part of larger soap box to have all cell phone carriers compete by using a U.S. then world-wide cell phone network topology and technology; we'd then see real competition vs. the fiefdoms we have now.
• overall h/w improvements; 3rd party storage & batter upgrades - don't try this yourself

Overall I'm happy I made the switch; but miss my 2100.

I agree. I still have my 2100, I don't use it and I miss it. But I am happy to be using an iPod Touch and N800 instead

Tags: technology, Newton, NewtonOS, N800, Nokia, ipod, touch

Well, decided to take some of that birthday money and get myself a new iPod, so I went and bought a new iPod Touch. This device is amazing. I like to call it "PDA 2.0" because it does a lot of stuff that PDAs did way back when, but also is a great media player (which is what I use it for, mostly).

So what would I change about the iPod touch? Some things are software based, and others hardware based. Here's a quick rundown.

1. Need a built-in iSight and Camera, and give us iChat
The form factor is great, and the ubiquity of WiFi means that you can use your iPod touch as both a text-chat communicator for various services like AIM, Yahoo and MSN, and as a voice/video chat communicator for the aforementioned services. In addition, if a microphone is included we can finally use Skype on our iPods

2. Bluetooth with A2DP
Bluetooth is a great technology. You can transfer files back and forth between many different devices, you can attach devices to your iPod and build around those additional services. A2DP is also great for wireless headphones (which I would really love to get)

3. GPS
OK, GPS is not a *must* but it is definitely a want. The Nokia Internet Tablet has it, and it has preloaded maps with the possibility of turn by turn directions. A built-in GPS and collaboration with Garmin and TomTom would make the iPod not only more useful, but also compete with GPS-only units. With Apple's DRM what this means is that TomTom and Co. can work on better versions of their product for PDAs but still get paid for their effort (apparently S60 and WinMo versions are highly pirated)

4. Camera
Now this would be cool. Apple isn't into the digital camera business, but think of all the uses that such a device could see if there were a camera in it.

5. FM receiver + Transmitter
I listen to FM radio - I do! I think that the FM receiver, with RDS, would be a good addition to the iPod Touch. In addition, an FM transmitter would be nice to be able to listen to our audio through FM (no need to shell out another $50 for an iTrip)

6. HWR!
I know that the current software has handwriting recognition for asian languages (Chinese and Japanese if I am not mistaken). I would love to see HWR for English (and other languages). The HWR on the Newton was legendary. It's time to get this on the iPod/iPhone software!

7. Copy/Paste
This is a sore point with some users. I think it's important to include this functionality so you can copy some info from a browser, let's say an address, and paste it into another program...let's say the addressbook!

8. Flash & Java
I know that Flash isn't really optimized for the mac, and even less so on the iPod/iPhone, but this is something that is necessary. A lot of streaming sites exist, other than YouTube, and there is no access to that content unless you've got Flash and/or Java. My blackboard (Learning Management System) is almost useless on the iPod because I don't have java, so I can't check my class discussions on the iPhone (which is OK because I do that on my N800 when I am on the go...but it would be nice to have it on the iPod)

9. iPod-wide search & the assistant
This is something from the Newton world. This would be a search that searches all the local content (and the internet if you are connected) for particular info. So if I want to search for Bob Jones, it will go through the addressbook, calendar, to-dos (oh yeah, I want a good todo list too), podcasts, songs, videos, etc. and give me all the info about Bob Jones that I have. The assistant would be something like the newton assistant where you would be able to write "appointment with John Johnson at 2" and this would create a new appointment for you, with John as the participant and it would ask you for additional info if it needs it (like day, end time, etc). Linked data is a good idea!

10. iOffice
Just because I like decimals, this will be the last one. Any good PDA 2.0 needs office support. Something to open and edit word, excel, powerpoint and PDF documents (as well as common open office formats and other formats). This could be a paid app, but we need to have it

PS: Yes, I would love themes, but sadly I think those were buried along with MacOS 9

Tags: ipod, touch, apple, improvement

I gotta say, this is pretty cool (although possibly useless).

The first MacOS that I used, on an iPhone is pretty cool.
On the the desktop I can play games of yesteryear.
On the iPhone...I don't know...

This feat is compliments of vMac Mini

Tags: iPhone, ipod, classic, emulator, cool

All I have to say is LOL!

I recently watched this episode of the Simpsons on Hulu (I no longer watch FOX's sunday night programming live). If you haven't seen it, head over to Hulu and have a look. The Apple parody is simply awesome!

Here's an excerpt:

Tags: television, entertainment, simpsons, apple, parody, ipod

This is an oldie, but a goodie.
What would Microsoft do if they were in charge of designing the iPod packaging?



Of course, we can see from their Zune boxing that they have gotten rid of some of the extraneous information


Now if only they got rid of all those crazy versions of Windows Vista and just sold the 'ultimate' version as the standard version...

Tags: technology, ipod, microsoft, advertizing, design, zune

My second attempt to use what I have as an iPod replacement is my Nokia N800. On the surface it kind of looks like an iPod touch, so it should work, no? Well, yes and no. Compared to my N80 and the PSP the N800 requires the least amount of investment. It came with 4GB worth of SD memory, and I had 2GB from my now defunct HTC Blue Angel, so I have a total of 6GB to play with. It has been a bumpy road, but I am working with it.

So what are the tools of the trade? I use the built-in media player to play back my music and podcasts, I use gpodder to subscribe and download podcasts and the USB cable to connect the N800 to my PowerBook whenever I want to load more music on it. Just like most things, it's got its good, its bad and its ugly.

The good: I can play my MP3s, I can listen to my podcasts. The volume is acceptable - it compares equally to my 4.5 year old iPod but when I am on the train I sometimes have trouble hearing. I like that I can download podcasts directly to my N800, so if I run out of podcasts during the day, I can hop on to a hotspot and download a few more for my commute home.

The bad: gppodder lags a bit. There are times that the application is simply non-responsive and you need to just let it do its thing. This can be *very* frustrating. Another frustrating thing is that you can't do a partial keylock. You can either lock the touchscreen and all keys, or you can leave it unlocked. This is frustrating because there are times that I simply want to increase or decrease the volume and I have to remove the unit from my bad, unlock all keys, adjust the volume, re-lock, and put it back in my bag. The device is not very media friendly in this way.

The ugly: Well, there aren't many ugly things about it. The one thing that I would shoehorn in this category is the lack of adequate video support. I was looking forward to downloading video podcasts again and viewing them during my commute. Unfortunately the video lags A LOT, it's badly out of sync when it does start working and it's choppy. So much for video podcasts...

Now I know that it is an Internet Tablet, and not a media player, but the N800 is a great device! I really wish that Nokia had pumped up the video processing on this unit device and that they had created a media profile where the screen locks automatically after X time, the wifi/BT are turned off automatically and certain keys are mapped for media functions (next song/previous song/volume up/volume down)

All things considered, the N800 is a great media player IF you don't watch video podcasts AND you don't have the urge to keep skipping to the next track.

Tags: apple, ipod, Nokia, internet, tablet, N800, technology

When my iPod bit the dust, I immediately wanted to get another one (more on that in a later post), but for the time being I wanted to use what I had in order to get on my day to day business. There are three options: My PSP, my N80 or my N800 Internet Tablet (NIT).

I don't have that much external memory for my PSP, so unless I wanted to invest in memory stick DUOs, I am a bit out of luck. Also, the PSP is a bit bulky, and in order to carry it around I would need some sort of case, which I don't have, so I decided to give up on that idea.

The N80 was the next contender. My usual listening habits include podcasts. Lots and lots of podcasts. I exported my podcast subscriptions in the form of an OPML file from iTunes. I installed the podcasting client on my N80, and sent the OPML file via bluetooth. Seamless. I can connect my headphones to my N80, I can download podcasts over the air, and listen to them.

Well, I hit a snag. My removable memory is only 128MB, so I would need to invest in a miniSD card (or more if I wanted music). Considering that my N80 is 2 years old and newer phones take microSD (damned formats!), it seems idiotic to waste money on miniSD cards, thus I can only download one or two podcasts. I am OK with that. I am usually within a WiFi hotspot near work, and at home so I can always keep my podlist fresh.

I tried downloading a podcast (1 podcast), and I could not! My connection (at home) kept stalling! I finally gave up. Granted I haven't tried since to see if I can get podcasts on my N80, but I've sort of written it off for now.

N80 as an iPod replacement, I give you a C+

Tags: ipod, PSP, Nokia, N80

While coming back from work a few days ago my iPod froze. It just stopped playing music! It was also quite an inopportune moment because my train had just come and I was trying to squeeze in. I reset the unit, and I got the folder icon. Darn!

I reset the unit again! Got the folder icon again. Darn! I reset it a third time and I got it working! Yay! I started listening merrily to my songs again.

Three songs later, freeze – no sounds coming out of my earbuds. Couldn’t fast forward or change song. I reset the unit again! Got the folder icon again. I waited until I got home.

I looked at the knowledge base, since the battery was full, and I was still getting the folder icon, I decided to do a restore. Plugged it into my mac, started a restore and went to get some food. When I came back there was an error, the restoration failed. Tried resetting the unit – sad pod, and that sound, that horrible, horrible sound – click, click, click. It’s dead Jim!

Tags: ipod, click, death, technology

A few weeks ago I saw Apple’s new promotion. Get a new Mac, get a free 8GB iPod Touch! The offer is for college students, but since I am a graduate student, the offer still stands for me.

OK, I thought to myself, an iPod touch is a nice little web browsing device, I can put on it my most listened to music and podcasts, and use my older, four year old, iPod for more heavy duty tasks (such as outdoor entertainment while doing yard work). I also thought, OK, maybe this is an opportunity to get a MacBook. We’ll leave the MacBook rant for another time, this one is solely for the free iPod Touch.

The iPod is indeed free, but the caveat is that you need to buy it ($300), and then submit rebate forms in order to get that $300 back. Seriously, WTF? Just give me a free iPod touch, with the purchase of MacBook, and let’s forego the filling out of forms, getting receipt copies, mailing them to a rebate center, waiting six to eight weeks to get a check, and then deposit that check. My purchase is going to be electronic anyway, so why not let those internet electrons do all the work and save me from paying $300 that is just going to come back to me anyway!

I know that there are people out there that neglect to fill out their forms, so that is profit for Apple, but let’s get serious now!

Tags: ipod, touch, macintosh, apple, deals, opinion