Newtons' Lutions Issue 1

NewtonS' Lutions: Answers and practical Advice on Apple's Newton Vol. 1 # 1 August 1, 1993

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NewtonS' Lutions
Answers and practical Advice on Apple's Newton
Vol. 1 # 1 August 1, 1993

Ode To Techno-Lust
By ThomasA28

With all of this is in mind, I propose the following "poem."

I am an American
I am a child.
I want it.
I need it.
I deserve it.
Buy it for me.
Now!

By the way, I hope to be first in line next week. See you there.

A Quote from John Sculley

We are on the threshold of one of those very exciting moments in history. Just as the personal computer shaped our world in ways that we couldn't have imagined 16 years ago, the PDA has the potential to shape in ways that we can't yet imagine.

I believe that PDAs, not as isolated devices, but incorporated into pervasive, intelligent networks -- will eventually be not only nation-wide but even global. They are going to have a huge impact upon health-care delivery, in both the quality and the cost; a huge impact on education reform; a huge impact on re-engineering the work place. I think potentially that the high-speed networks will eventually be enabled by devices like PDAs for the average person.

Those networks can have as much impact on population distribution as the interstate highways did back in the late 1950s, as they moved people from the cities to the suburbs. I think you're going to see people now be able to move from the suburbs to anywhere they want to live and be and work. The PDA can be one of the most important enabling devices because it fits into both ends of those networks. And you can take them wherever you are. More and more of these devices will be wireless-based devices. They will get smaller and smaller as all electronics products do, and they'll obviously get less and less expensive as time goes on. And they'll be able to do more and more things as people apply their inventiveness to create this industry.

Welcome to Newtons' Lutions

Welcome to the premier issue of Newtons' Lutions. This newsletter is dedicated to providing answers and solutions to using Newton in practical every day situations. This premier issue primarily answers questions about Newton and gives details about this amazing new machine.

Newtons' Lutions was designed using Syntax by Dialectic Systems. We certainly appreciated their participation in making this exciting new presentation media available. This excellent product is distributed as shareware. For more information on Syntax, Choose File - Open - SynHelp.Syn.

Newton and the light bulb logo are trademarks of Apple Computers. We are in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Computers. All information contained in this newsletter is believed to be correct and accurate, but we accept no responsibility for it.

Some of the information contained in this newsletter comes from messages posted on America On Line 's Hardware - Palmtop forum and is copyrighted material of AOL. Used by permssion.

We appreciate your input. Email JohnR238@AOL.COM with your questions and comments.

ComputerLand of Augusta

1824 A-2 Wylds Rd.
Augusta, GA 30909
(706) 738-7980
(706) 738-7991

Contact - John Rigdon
Senior Account Manager

For an update on Newton from Apple, call 1-800-7NEWTON.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Table of Contents
• Ode To Techno-Lust
• A Quote from John Sculley
• Excerpts From John Sculley's Talks
• Newton Press Release
• Product Specifications for Newton
• First Newton Titles From PIE's Starcore Publishing Group
• A Comparison With The Sharp OZ-9600
• How Did the Idea for PDA's First Originate?
• How is the Newton different?
• When will Newton impact the consumer market?
• What are some of the variations of PDAs we can expect to see?
• What price point is critical for PDA's?
• Won't Sharp be Competing with Apple?
• Why do People Need PDA's?
• Does Newton Always Recognize Handwriting?
• What Applications come with Newton?
• How do you Store Information in Newton?
• What features make Newton's hardware architecture unique?
• What does Newton sell for?
• What comes in the box for the $700 range?
• What About Add-On Cards
• What are the Standard Configurations?
• Dave's Wish List
• A Hands'On Review of the Newton

John Sculley

Excerpts From John Sculley's Talks

What the Heck is a PDA

Newton is a very good example of what we mean by transitioning Apple into a systems and solutions company that personalizes products for professionals. And Newton will be a family of products, just as the project with Toshiba is a family of products.

Newton products will incorporate interactive intelligence. So those of you who have read about Newton, or have seen it, know that it has a new concept for user interface design which is all about intelligent assistance. It has a very rich telecommunications architecture, because we believe that information in visual form, is important in all communications, especially telecommunications. Newton will initially use pen and gesture, but the big deal is not the pen input, even though it's pretty useful for taking notes. In the future we expect to add other input technologies, including speech.

Personal Interactive Electronics is about personalizing electronics for professionals in the context of systems and solutions. This is true whether we're looking at the Newton family of products or the new product family that we're developing with Toshiba. We really think that there's a chance to build entirely new kinds of solutions that are different from what people are familiar with today. And it goes beyond introducing devices in consumer channels. We want to jump start what we call PDAs, or Personal Digital Assistants, and a good way to do that is to go out and sell to the people who already know us. In that case, we have an installed base of 7 million Macintosh users, and these people tend to be interested in technology. They believe technology will take stress out of their lives, they love innovation, and they love neat stuff. A good example is the PowerBook. We went from standing still, when we introduced the PowerBook back in November, to an expected $1 billion in worldwide sales during the product's first year.

We've gone from not even being in the notebook business to a number one spot in many of the major markets around the world for notebook computers. We like to build neat products, and the kind of people who know us like neat products. So we think we can jump start PDAs by going to these constituent markets and bringing them new products like Newton, or the multimedia player products we're developing with Toshiba. We also want to build systems and solution franchises. And the example might be paperless publishing. Earlier this morning, I referred to the three-part plan that Apple laid out a year ago when we entered into our agreements with IBM. And I said we had a strategy that focused on gaining market share, developing our business in large enterprises, and innovating technologies for the future. These are really additive with each other. We're asking, "How do we put these together to create customizable systems and solutions that, particularly, will focus on professional markets?" We will sell media servers in 1993. We can connect Macintoshes to those servers or to other personal computers. We can also connect a PowerBook with a modem as we can today, but we'll also have PDAs such as Newton that will use wireless technology to access that same information. Or we'll have PDAs such as the media players that can use CD-ROM technology, or electronic books that are PDAs that can use PCMCIA flash memory storage. So there'll be many different ways in which we can take our PDA devices and connect them into servers and into Macintosh systems. Let me give you a couple of examples. First, this example looks at a mobile assistance system, and in this case the solution is sales automation. A sales representative out in the field working with a customer will be able to take an order entry and then send it back to a server or a database using wireless communication. Information can then be verified back to the PDA, or it can go on through a LAN out to a Macintosh; and then it can go from a Macintosh to a PDA over a wireless system for verification. A lot of the technology we've created is designed to be highly customizable so that we can personalize systems and solutions. We think that there's an opportunity to build sustainable franchises, much like we were able to do with desktop publishing.

Another example is in the area of color imaging systems. I think color imaging is one of the next frontiers. There will be a tremendous amount of innovation going on with color imaging. Here's an example of a paperless publishing solution built around the color imaging system. In this case, you would have an image capture; you'd be able to bring the image back through a network to a media server and a database, then be able to move images. We're doing a lot of work with very sophisticated high-resolution images that can move over long distances using telecommunications, or it can go into small local area networks, over Ethernet, let's say, to a Macintosh. Then again, those images can be moved back over electronic transmission to a display. The display might well be the kind of product that Toshiba and Apple are developing together. Those are a few examples of how we can start to look at Personal Digital Assistants in the context of solutions, and what we're really trying to do is to focus on personalizing visual information. The two key themes that you'll see reoccurring at Apple in the 1990s are mobile assistants and color imaging. What we hope to contribute is great user interface technology and the ability to integrate systems. Because we are a software-driven systems company, we will look at ways in which we can use our software know-how to make the integration of these systems particularly effective from the user standpoint. We are heavily involved in pervasive communications. Almost everything we do at Apple in research and development is in some way tied to communications, networking, or telecommunications. And we're very interested in moving into an era where solutions can be customized. More and more the differentiation between vendors will be at the solutions level. Therefore the ability to customize solutions and personalize them is one of the big opportunities in the 1990s. So as we look out to this mega-industry, we see many transition points occurring. The first ones are already happening. The world is rapidly accepting that there will be an entirely different set of opportunities in a digitized world, one where telecommunication becomes extremely important. It's happening in cable, in satellite, over copper wire, over fiber optics, in wireless, and it's happening around the world. We believe that the opportunity to create entirely new kinds of solutions and systems won't be designed by any one, single industry by telecommunications, computing, consumer electronics, or media and publishing alone. All of these industries will have to find ways to work together. One of those examples is clearly what we're trying to do with Kaleida. Other examples include the alliances that we're forming with Toshiba and with IBM. So as you look at Apple in the 1990s, think of us not just as a PC hardware company. Think of us as a company that drives innovation into systems and solutions.

Five years ago, I wrote a book about a product vision that I thought could change the world. Earlier, I had learned that it takes about 15 years for technology to incubate: from the time of the invention until it has a chance of becoming a commercial success. So I began visiting and observing many technologies that were incubating in research laboratories around the world in hopes of identifying what kinds of truly revolutionary products we might see out in the 21st century. I called this product vision the Knowledge Navigator. I remembered a conversation many years ago that Steve Jobs, Dr. Land the inventor of the Polaroid camera, and I had about new products. Dr. Land said that, "We really don't invent new products, but the best ones are there already, only invisible, just waiting to be discovered". If we had conducted market research 10 years ago and asked what would the ideal personal computer be like, most people probably would not have been able to describe a Macintosh. There was little in the past that would have given them any context to think about it. But when we showed people the first Macintosh they immediately understood it and wanted one. Later, I asked George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, if it would be possible to simulate the experience of a product even before it technically existed by using special effects. This way people could see the product concept and judge it long before we could actually build it.

There has been some criticism in the past of a video that Apple created about a futuristic product called the Knowledge Navigator. It was a small portable computer that acted as a personal assistant, going so far as to show a human face on its screen which responded to spoken commands. That video spurred criticism that Apple was hyping a product that wasn't yet invented. Again, some people are skeptical that Apple is up to that same hype with its PDAs. Can you respond to that skepticism? Mr. Sculley: That video, called the Knowledge Navigator, which was put together based on a concept I wrote about back in 1987, has probably done more to set the technical direction of Apple for the last five years than any other single event. When we showed that video of what we thought personal computing could be like in the early 21st century, many people thought it was marketing hype. That was only five years ago. We have now demonstrated almost all of the technologies that were key to creating the Knowledge Navigator. {The Knowledge Navigator} gave our technical people a focus and it set some very ambitious goals. The basic concepts of the Knowledge Navigator were not built around the traditional idea of the personal computer as a tool, but around the idea of an assistant. It was very communications-dependent, capable of handling very media-rich data. Those are exactly the under pinnings of the PDA. As I mentioned earlier, as recently as a year ago before we announced the PDAs, most people were thinking that the next generation products beyond PCs were going to be a tablet with a pen input. That has not been a concept that turned out to be as rewarding as people thought. And it's actually the ideas from the Knowledge Navigator, five years ago, that are shaping the PDA industry perhaps as much as anything. When we show the Knowledge Navigator tape today, it doesn't seem outrageous to people anymore. Because when we first showed the Knowledge Navigator, the concept of displaying multimedia on a computer screen was unknown. The concept of having a communications-intensive device that was very mobile was unknown at that time. And these ideas are so familiar to us today that they don't even seem innovative anymore. Which just shows you how quickly technology changes, and how quickly our context of the world changes. So, if you look at the Knowledge Navigator in 1992, it's taken very seriously. And technologists now look at it as a pretty good indicator in terms of the direction of where Apple is going, as we do internally. As regards the melding of the telecommunications, media and computer industries; Here's what I've said and here's what sometimes has been misinterpreted. What I've said is that the computer and the consumer-electronics industries, we estimate, will be about a $1 trillion industry, combined, 10 years from now. And that will all be based upon digital technology. Consumer electronics today is almost entirely analog technology. Computers are digital. The media and publishing industry, which includes everything from films to videos, music to magazines, books and newspapers, we expect world-wide, will be about a $1.3 trillion industry. Almost everything that is created 10 years from now will be in digital form. The telecommunications industry, we estimate world-wide, will be about a $1.2 trillion industry 10 years from now. Over the next decade, we will see that industry make the transition from analog to digital technology. That will expand the capabilities of both wire-based, including fiber optics and copper networks, and wireless communications to have, not 100 times or 1,000 times the capacity we have today, but at least 10,000 times more capacity. That's because digital technology allows you to use compression. This means that the combination of those industries going digital and the convergence of what is happening in digital technology -- with miniaturization, the tremendous expansion of capacity over networks and the tremendous availability of media-rich content -- is going to create the opportunities for new kinds of industries like personal digital assistants to be a very large business.

I've never suggested that PDAs are going to be a $3.5 trillion business. What I've said is that there's going to be a $3.5 trillion digital-based-technology mega-industry that combines all of these industries, and that new industries are going to emerge out of it, like the PDAs, which are going to be very large industries. I don't know the size of what the PDA industry will specifically be in that period of time. The story of Apple Computer -- the way it was founded, the way it grew, the computers it made -- is the quintessential Silicon Valley computer company story. Does this new technology you're talking about signify the end of Apple Computer as we know it today?

Mr. Sculley: No, not at all. In fact, the way Apple's PDAs had been invented is almost identical to the model in which the Macintosh was created, or the way the Apple II was created -- all by highly motivated and extremely talented teams who are passionate about what they are trying to create. And they're looking for real breakthroughs. We have several PDA teams working on several different PDAs. And they are staffed by some of the most imaginative, talented people in the entire Silicon Valley. And I might add that there are an increasing number of start-up companies in Silicon Valley that are also working on PDAs or products or businesses related to PDAs -- which is, again, very much in the Silicon Valley model. If anything, the PDA is a great shot in the arm for Silicon Valley. Because we're watching Silicon Valley go through a transformation, where the traditional businesses of silicon foundries have essentially moved out of Silicon Valley. And a new generation of entrepreneurs is emerging. We are also seeing that the largest computing companies are at least beginning to take part of their research and development and marketing budgets and put it against PDAs. Intel Corp. said they are working on technologies for PDAs. You can see that Apple is obviously putting a high priority against it. Hewlett-Packard is also putting a high priority on these kinds of devices. So I think it's a tremendous shot in the arm for Silicon Valley. And its a chance for us to build on our greatest strengths, which are innovation, entrepreneurship and the things that are deeply rooted in this valley.

Here is what a Knowledge Navigator in the early 21st century might look like. The Knowledge Navigator as a vision gives a good idea what future technology will be capable of, and while 4 years ago when I first showed this concept video many technologists thought this was science fiction, today we have actually solved many of the most important technological challenges. My dream is to bring the first generation Knowledge Navigators to the consumer market in the 1990's. First of all, don't think of the Knowledge Navigator as a personal computer. The Knowledge Navigator is a very sophisticated Personal Digital Assistant or PDA. Ease-of-use is greatly advanced with the use of speech, simple gestures and what we call intelligent agents who run around inside the system finding things, reminding you of something or answering questions. In this concept video we made the agent look like a real human being so the metaphor is a conversational one. But our first agents will probably be invisible intelligence implemented in software. There are some other very important technological concepts shown in the Knowledge Navigator which will be extremely interesting for possible future consumer products.

For example:

• Multimedia - interactive picture phone, animated maps and the anthropomorphic intelligent agents, like the fellow in the red bow tie...

• Networked information services - Dial-up electronic service, dramatically improved bandwidth sufficient to move television quality images and information content packaged into transportable files.

• Miniaturization - Form factors become very small as flat panels replace CRT's and rotational storage is transformed into IC cards. I talked earlier about the convergence of personal computing and consumer electronics. Personal computers are general purpose products which require some level of skill to operate and they can do intelligent things like build models, find and display interesting stuff and give the user feedback . On the other hand, most consumer electronic products have a particular defined usefulness. They are not so generalized as personal computers and they are relatively inexpensive. Personal Digital Assistants or PDA's can be the meeting ground for the convergence of these two industries. The Knowledge Navigator is a very sophisticated PDA.

But let's think of some simpler examples:

1. Executive Organizers that fit in the palm of your hand and keep track of telephone numbers, calendars, things to do lists.
2. Wireless communicators with other useful built-in functions. Remember, digital technology let's us do things we couldn't even dream of with analog technology.
3. Electronic Books: In fact, Apple's PowerBook 100 is the first generation of this new kind of product. Voyager is publishing several best selling titles for Apple's PowerBook.
4. MultiMedia Players: We are going to see an incredible expansion of CD-ROM multimedia titles for personal computers over the next year and this should stimulate the market for consumer interactive multimedia players. Marvin Minsky, the MIT professor and father of Artificial Intelligence once said, "You don't really understand something unless you understand it more than one way." So let's look at what we can expect to see in the future in this country with digital networks. President Bush signed into law in December of 1991 the High Performance Computing and Communications Act. Essentially what this will do is appropriate about $6 billion over the next 4 years to be spent by federal laboratories to develop the key technologies for a nationwide high speed digital network. The original intent was to connect research laboratories and technical universities so they can do experiments with massively parallel computers to study: violent weather systems, sub-atomic simulations, genetic engineering and other grand science projects. As Chairman of the CSPP "or the Computer Systems Policy Project" an organization composed of 12 CEO's of the U.S. computer industry, I believe that this effort can have even far more benefit for the nation if it is expanded to deliver: Health services, long distance learning for education, work at home and intelligent manufacturing to name a few ideas. Think of this high speed digital network as one of the most important underpinnings that will give our Nation s industries and workers competitive advantage in a global, dynamic, information intensive economy.

Think of this network as a way to use technology to help us close the education gap between our students and those of other leading industrialized countries like Germany and Japan. Think back to the end of the World War II when America created new institutions that became the underpinning of our industrial economy, our interstate highway system. The Atomic energy Commission. NASA. Network television to name a few. Think of a high speed nationwide digital network able to connect every school, every library, every business, every government agency, every home, every person where ever they are. And the issues at hand are probably more regulatory than technical to create this new infrastructure.

The Digitals are coming! So is pervasive networking that will dramatically increase the range of home-delivered services. And Apple intends to be there as a leader in this segment of the consumer electronics industry through constant innovation and the best possible ease-of-use technology. We are choosing a path which builds on our strengths and at the same time shares some of our best technologies with some of the world's best consumer electronic companies. We hope to become one of the great innovators and agents of growth in digital consumer information products in the 1990's. Thank you and we look forward to being a part of your industry.

Newton Press Release

First Newton--The MessagePad--Hits The Market
Contact: Christopher Escher Apple Computer, Inc. (408)
974-2202 First Newton--The MessagePad--Hits The Market
CUPERTINO, California
--July 30,1993--

Apple Computer, Inc. today announced that the first product based on its innovative Newton technology--the Newton MessagePad--will ship on Aug. 2, 1993. The Newton MessagePad is a handheld communications assistant that allows people to gather, manage, and share information with tremendous ease and spontaneity. By combining rich communications capabilities with technology that actively assists people in getting work done, Apple has created a new class of personal digital assistant (PDA) devices-- one that lets people communicate ideas with greater speed, clarity, and effectiveness. The Newton MessagePad is also a rich platform for a wide variety of new applications and software titles that take advantage of its unique technology, convenience, and usability.

The Newton MessagePad is the first in a family of products based on Newton technology: others will be introduced in the future by both Apple and its licensees. "We believe that Newton will be seen as the defining technology of the digital age," said John Sculley, Apple chairman. "It will be a focal point for the coming convergence of industry sectors such as computers, communications and consumer electronics. Communications is a key component of this new emerging industry and the Newton MessagePad demonstrates how this capability can be powerfully yet intuitively built into a handheld device. I look forward to a full lineup of products and services based on Newton Intelligence, not just from Apple but from innovative, creative companies around the globe." The Newton MessagePad is based on the concept of Newton Intelligence, which is a combination of software and silicon. Newton Intelligence is what makes Newton understandable, friendly, intuitive and useful. It is the "soul" of the Newton MessagePad that allows the product to "learn" the user's preferences and requirements. For example, the user could receive a wireless message from a colleague to attend a meeting and Newton could automatically place the appointment in its calendar. More importantly, Newton Intelligence actively assists users in completing their tasks. It "learns" users work habits and patterns--and then implements them on cue. Whether it's printing a letter in an accustomed format, or faxing a message to a client's office, the MessagePad learns over time to adapt to the user's preferences.

--Communication Capabilities. Because of Newton technology's robust communications architecture, the MessagePad comes with a wide variety of powerful communications capabilities. The Newton Communications Architecture is highly modular. This means that when new applications and services become available, they can easily be added and supported in an integrated, plug-and-play manner. The communications capabilities in the MessagePad allow users to send, receive, and share information through virtually every communication method in the workplace today-- through telephone lines, wireless networks, and computer networks.

--Faxing. The MessagePad can act as a handheld facsimile (fax) machine--allowing users, with the optional modem, to send facsimiles to virtually any fax machine in the world. Additionally, Newton Intelligence makes the process of sending a facsimile simple: With the press of one button, the MessagePad automatically formats the output, adds a cover page, and places the facsimile in the system's Out Box, awaiting connection to a telephone line. It is anticipated that future products in the family will additionally offer the capability to receive fax messages.

--Wireless Messaging. Users of Newton MessagePad are expected to have access to a wireless messaging service with both national (U.S.) and local access. This service will deliver alpha-numeric paging and messaging capabilities to users of the Newton MessagePad. This service is expected to give the users a fully-featured method of keeping in touch that is totally integrated with the MessagePad. (Full details of this service will be available in the near future.)

--Electronic Mail. MessagePad users will be able to send and receive electronic mail messages to and from other MessagePad users who are NewtonMail subscribers--or just about any computer, by using the NewtonMail service and the optional modem. NewtonMail is a subscriber-based service to be offered by Apple that is an extremely cost effective way of communicating across the United States and the rest of the world. Availability of the NewtonMail service will be announced at a later date. Over time, it is anticipated that NewtonMail will be expanded to offer a wide range of information such as news, weather and financial information as well as the potential for online transactions.

--Beaming. Making use of its built-in infrared function, the MessagePad can send--or "beam" in Apple engineer parlance -- quick messages to other Newton devices across a one meter distance, without any wiring or cabling. This capability is ideal for the quick exchange of items such as business cards, meeting notes, maps, or appointments.

--Printing. The MessagePad can print any document it creates--notes, drawings, addresses, maps, letters--on most popular dot matrix, portable inkjet, thermal and laser printers. These printers can be either connected directly, or accessed through a local area network.

--Desktop Connections. The Newton MessagePad can share information--quickly and easily--with millions of personal computers. Using the optional Newton Connection package, users can transfer, synchronize, back up, and update information between a Newton MessagePad and a Macintosh personal computer or a personal computer running the Windows operating system. Newton Connection is based upon a technology Apple calls "Smart Synchronization," which automatically updates information between a MessagePad and a personal computer. Any changes made to the information on the Newton--or on the personal computer--will be automatically synchronized and updated between the two when they are connected. Newton Connection also includes a set of complementary Newton applications intended to let users create, view, and edit Newton information on a personal computer, even when the computer is not connected to a Newton. Newton Connection is planned to be available in the following versions for either Macintosh or PCs running Windows: The Newton Connection Kit, which backs up and restores information; and The Newton Connection Pro Kit, which gives complete file to file synchronization. The product allows creation of a "virtual Newton" on the desktop. Availability for Newton Connection products will be announced at a later date.

Keeping in Control

The Newton MessagePad also includes a collection of capabilities that help people capture and organize an array of information in the way that suits them best. The system can capture and file notes, sketches and other details on file, ready for almost instant access. Built-in calendars, alarms, and reminders help people keep track of busy lifestyles. Its built-in address book holds hundreds of names and addresses. The MessagePad's advanced recognition architecture not only understands printed and cursive script, but also cleans up drawings and diagrams, making them easier to understand and communicate. Applications, Titles, Developer Support More than 20 developers are announcing products for Newton MessagePad, including CE Software, Claris Corp., Fingertip, Great Plains, Integrated Systems, On Technology, Pastel and Pastel, Slate and Strategic Mapping. These products range from specialized realtor systems to titles for sports enthusiasts. Many more developers are in the process of creating innovative new applications for the system. In addition, Apple's PIE Publishing group, Starcore, announced six titles ranging from financial assistance to interactive city maps. (see associated releases).

--Licensing. From the beginning, Apple had signaled its intention to broadly license Newton technology. This activity has resulted in agreements with leading corporations around the world, including Sharp and Kyushu Matsushita Electric in Japan and Motorola in the United States. Siemens/ROLM will also be incorporating Newton technology in its forthcoming NotePhone product. For customers, it is anticipated that this licensing effort will mean that software, titles and accessories can be used across a variety of products from these and other corporations.

--Distribution and Availability. Initially the Newton MessagePad will be available in limited volume at Apple Computer resellers in Boston and New York. During the week of August 2 Newton MessagePad will also be sold at MacWorld Expo in Boston. By mid to late August, it is anticipated that the product will roll out across the United States, and will be available in more than 2,000 computer retailers and consumer electronic stores. Availability in some international markets will follow in September, with localized versions following through 1994. Pricing There is no suggested retail pricing for the Newton MessagePad. Individual retailers will price the products according to their specific solutions offerings. However Apple expects the Newton MessagePad to be priced from $699 to $949, depending on configuration:

• Newton MessagePad with AC Adaptor
• Newton MessagePad Communications System (Newton MessagePad with AC Adaptor and External Modem)
• Newton MessagePad Professional Communications System (Newton MessagePad with AC Adaptor, External Modem and Newton Connection Pro)
• Apple Messaging Service: Formal pricing to be announced upon availability.
• Newton Messaging Card: pricing to be announced
• NewtonMail: pricing to be announced
• Newton Connection Kit: pricing to be announced
• Newton Connection Pro: pricing to be announced

Product Specifications for Newton MessagePad and Accessories

Newton MessagePad Hardware Architecture

• ARM 610 processor at 20 MHz
• Apple custom system ASIC
• Low-power, reflective LCD display (336 x 240 pixels)
• Transparent tablet with passive pen
• 4MB of ROM
• 640K of RAM
• One PCMCIA type 2 card slot
• LocalTalk compatible serial port
• Low-power, half-duplex, infrared transceiver (9600 baud at 1 meter)

Size and weight

• Height: 7.25 in. (184.75 mm)
• Width: 4.50 in. (114.3 mm)
• Depth: 0.75 in. (19.05 mm)
• Weight: 0.9 lb. (0.4 kg)

First Newton Titles From PIE's Starcore Publishing Group CUPERTINO, California

--July 30, 1993--

The recently introduced Starcore publishing group within the Personal Interactive Electronics (PIE) division at Apple Computer has announced six new titles for the Newton MessagePad. Some of these titles are delivered on PCMCIA cards that fit into the card slot at the top of the MessagePad; others are on a diskette, which can be downloaded as required from a personal computer. All titles are expected to ship early in the fall.

" This announcement underlines the fact that the Newton business is not just about hardware, " said Ken Wirt, director of publishing, PIE Division. " We have been working closely with developers in this venture, and we are extremely pleased with this first portfolio of titles. I believe that Starcore is now well positioned to contribute significantly to the acceptance of the Newton family as the principal standard for the PDA market. "

The first titles from Starcore Publishing include the following:

-- Fodors 94 Travel Manager: Top U.S. Cities. Includes 500 locations per city, including restaurants-- detailing the type of cuisine, the credit cards they accept, and other travel information and business services--hotels, sights of interest, airport information. Covers eight cities, with detailed interactive maps highlighting destinations and routes. Suggested retail price: $119.95.

-- Fortune 500 Guide to American Business is an enriched electronic version of the Fortune 500 and Service 500, giving a rich source of information on all aspects of America's largest companies. Compares information on topics including sales per employee, five-year financial performance histories for sales, profits and earnings per share. Users can take advantage of sophisticated search and sort options, compare performance of companies and prepare graphs (using five years of data on two companies) and custom calculations. Suggested retail price: $99.95.

-- Dell Crossword Puzzles & Other Games contains hundreds of puzzles, as well as Cryptograms and Word Searches. Suggested retail price: $79.95. An abbreviated version of this product also comes in a diskette-based version, with suggested retail price: $49.95.

-- Money Magazine Financial Assistant includes calculation templates to evaluate a number of the most common financial decisions. Categories include investments, loans, budgets, property transactions and so on. Suggested retail price: $99.95.

-- Money Magazine Business Forms makes it easy to fill out the most used financial forms, including expense reports, project plans and loan calculations. It has 12 templates. This product is delivered on diskette. Using the optional Newton Connection, just the form required can be downloaded from the personal computer. Suggested retail price: $39.95.

-- Columbo's Mystery Capers - - more than 40 brain teasers complete with graphics and text-based clues. Each humorous mystery opens with a text introduction and an illustration of the scene of the crime. Players use the stylus to uncover the potential clues which reveal important details. Suggested retail price: $79.95.

Apple has been working actively with information providers and publishers to develop titles for the Starcore portfolio, which is intended to include products in the categories of general reference, business/professional, education and entertainment. The opportunity for publishers is considerable, according to Kenzi Sugihara, of Random House, who cooperated with Apple to publish the Fodors Guide title. Sugihara, who is vice president and publisher at Random House Reference and Electronic Publishing, commented, "What we are seeing is the opportunity for publishers to reach a very broad section of the population: We are giving a whole new group of people the information and entertainment they want in a new, accessible format." As well as Random House, other developer partners for the Starcore titles include: GeoSystems (a subsidiary of RR Donnelley & Sons), Pensee, PenMagic Software Inc., and Blank, Berlyn & Co.

A Comparison With The Sharp OZ-9600

While You're waiting for Newton... Well, Apple has announced the Newton. It has shown a nonworking mockup. It has touted its many futuristic features. It has been called the Communicator of the future. I believe it! The problem with the future, however, is that it is always in the, ahh, "Future." I mean, if it wasn't, it would be the "Past" or the "Now." I don't want to wait for the "Future!" That's why I've ordered my Personal Communicator, "Now." Sharp Electronics, the company that is going to build the Apple Newton, is already selling a personal digital assistant (PDA) that "is almost the same machine except that it lacks the handwriting recognition capability found in the Newton." The Sharp PDA is being marketed as an extension of the highly popular Wizard Organizer series and is designated the OZ-9600. The OZ-9600 claims many of the same features as the Newton. Wireless communication between units, pen/touch screen capability, etc. The ability to write on the screen is limited, however, to "ink capture." This means that you can write or draw on the screen and the Wizard will capture the image, which can then be saved or attached to another file. Unlike the Newton, the Wizard has a small QWERTY keyboard. I personally consider this an advantage. Others may disagree. The Sharp Wizard OZ-9600's other features include:

• Graphic icons and menus
• Word processor functions such as formatting, tabs, bold, italics, underline, page preview and direct transfer to printers.
• Integrated filing system - categorizes and groups related info into folders for touch-access.
• An optional infrared receiver plugs into your printer's parallel port to allow remote printing.
• IC card port accepts existing Wizard applications (such as spreadsheets and language translators) and RAM cards.
• Time and database management. These functions include "To Do" lists, calendars, schedule mode with unlimited alarms, business card directory, calculator, outline function, 3 telephone/user files (which are actually databases with 16 user definable fields each.
• A screen size of 53 characters by 30 lines.
• VT-100 and TTY terminal emulation. (Which I intend to use to check my email.)

The OZ-9600 will connect directly to a Mac with Sharp's MacLink software and cable, just like my "old" OZ-8000. However, until the MacLink software is upgraded (in the "Future") I'll be limited to transferring those functions which the '9600 has in common with the '8000.

Don't misunderstand me. I intend to buy a Newton. It'll be a second generation Newton, though. With the pressure that Apple has put on themselves with all the hype, I believe that, like the Quadras and PowerBooks, there'll be a revised version about six to eight months after release, with many new features. Then I'll probably put the Wizard on the shelf right next to my Psion Organizer, Atari Portfolio, and the rest of my techno-toys.

From America On Line
Message posted in January, 1993 by KevinR

How Did the Idea for PDA's First Originate?

The Newton project first began about four years ago. It was a realization that Apple helped define personal computing with the beginning of the Apple II {computer}. "We helped define graphics-based computing for the popular Macintosh {computer} platform, and we wanted to be in on the ground floor of what came after that. So we set up a project team to investigate new kinds of technology that could be far more intimate than what personal computers were. At that time, we really didn't know where it was going to lead us, other than we thought miniaturization was going to be important. We felt that devices were going to get more mobile and there would be new input technologies. From that, we have come up with, what we think, is a new industry more than a new product. And we see that as really being a personal digital assistant. We think it {PDA} is even more personal than a personal computer. We think that it's going to take advantage of the revolution in digital technology. {Electronic} networks are going from analog to digital. Content {information} is going from analog to digital. Computing devices are becoming not only smaller but much less expensive. The convergence of these events, we think, is giving us the conditions for this entirely new industry to be created. The assistant side of it is perhaps the most interesting side, because you get to content-rich devices. The problem is not getting access to information, it's finding an easy way to deal with a tremendous amount of possible information that you might want to use. So the idea is to have a product that's smart enough to go off and find the things that you're interested in, letting you work in shorthand in terms of communicating with it. By understanding those shorthand commands and gestures, it can actually do useful things. It is something that is very different than the personal-computer architecture. So out of all this, we started to see that this wasn't the personal computer any more. The personal computer was driven by the basic idea of creating a general-purpose product that would essentially fit on the desktop and that would run applications that were not dissimilar from what people had already been doing, such as word processors, spreadsheets and even data-base applications. The personal digital assistants were something that had to become more focused on communications in its architecture. It had to become better able to handle media-rich content, which meant the assistance side of it. And it had to be more focused-purpose as opposed to general-purpose than the personal computer was. This was really something that wasn't immediately obvious to us when we started the project. It's something in which we gained more and more experience. While working with these new technologies, we started going through an evolution. This thing was taking a very different shape compared to a personal computer. Which shouldn't be surprising because the personal computer wasn't about making mini-computers smaller. It was a very different vision. It shouldn't be surprising that the PDA is a very different vision than a personal computer.

Why Introduce the Newton now?

Timing is everything in this industry. You really have to have the technology at a point where it will do the things that people expect it to be able to do. The technology is being pushed by the success of notebook computers. We're seeing a natural evolution toward miniaturization with the success of the notebook- computer market, which is now several billion dollars in size. It's also going to get a push with the consumer-electronics industry, which is really at the moment stuck in the mud. Most consumer-electronics companies are having a very tough time right now, as they start to look to digital technology as a potential avenue for growth in consumer products. It will drive the cost of components down, along with more emphasis on miniaturization. That's going to be very beneficial toward PDA devices, because PDA devices will leverage as much off of what happens in the consumer-electronics industry as it will off of what happens in the computer industry. Even though I don't see the market as initially one of consumer-electronics products, there's no question that we can benefit from what the consumer-electronics industry will do with this technology. They, in turn, will be looking at PDA-type technology that they can convert into consumer products. You will see digital consumer products over the next several years even though they aren't exactly what we and other companies are building for commercial markets. Which is why you see us in an alliance, working with companies out of Japan, with Japanese consumer-electronics companies. They're taking it more to the consumer field. We're taking it more to the commercial field.

How is the Newton different?

PDAs are not something that are exclusive to Apple. PDAs can embrace a large number of new kinds of products that many companies are planning to offer. But what I think {the idea of PDAs} does is that it gives a context for understanding new products. They aren't just making calculators more powerful. It's not just taking a Sharp Wizard and putting it on steroids. It really is an entirely different paradigm for what computing technology can be used for. I think that we may well see some of these products like Sharp Wizards and palm-top computers evolve more toward what I've been describing as PDAs for very simple reasons. Digital networks will become pervasive, and we are going to see intelligence on those networks that will enable PDAs to become far more useful than calculators on steroids or organizers on steroids are today. We're clearly going to see more and more content being created in digital form. It's quite clear that content owners are very interested in finding ways to electronically publish their contents. Another characteristic of the PDA is that we will see an entirely new class of ISVs -- independent software vendors. The ones that write applications for personal computers aren't necessarily going to be the same ones who will be writing the mainstream content-rich applications and solutions for PDAs. It may well be people coming out of the publishing industry, out of the entertainment industry, out of the information-services industry. They may well be the ones writing the most valuable applications and solutions for the PDA market. In fact, some people have criticized Apple because we are not out evangelizing the traditional ISVs in the industry for personal computers. The reason is that we are focusing most of our efforts on people who own content or people who are interested in communications. Not people who do traditional spreadsheets and word processors.

When will Newton impact the consumer market?

I think the big misconception about PDAs is that they are going to start out as consumer products. I believe that if you look at the adoption curve for new technology -- everything from color TVs to VCRs, camcorders, fax machines and cellular telephones -- that the adoption curves take years before you start to get large critical-mass volumes. In the case of the fax machine and cellular telephone, these technologies began with commercial users. And now they are starting to move out into the consumer marketplace because they are finally reaching price points and a broad enough acceptance that people know what they are and what they are used for. And the price points are more in the range of what people expect consumer products to cost. PDAs, I believe, are going to have their first success in commercial markets. It would be a number of years, probably in the late 1990s, before we start to see real consumer markets emerging for PDAs. Even cellular telephones today are just starting to break into consumer markets for the most part. Most of their sales are still from {business} users, not from consumers. I think we'll also see PDAs playing an important role in education because it is such an important user of personal computers. The type of tasks that PDAs are well suited to are ones that are going to be very appropriate to education. So you'll see Apple marketing PDAs in education, as well as to commercial users. But that's not to say there aren't early adopters out there, those who will want to have PDAs for themselves. But what we see as the big market opportunity is connecting PDAs into systems for commercial users. Our focus at Apple is we integrate a PDA with a Macintosh {computer}, with a server {computer} and over a network -- to be able to solve some particular useful task for commercial customers. That's where our first attention is. And I think it will be in that area for several years. We think that is a very attractive, high-growth and potentially powerful market.

What are some of the variations of PDAs we can expect to see?

I think that from the commercial-market standpoint, we have with large corporations a tremendous need to deal with mergers, reorganization, downsizing and things that require organizations to rethink the process of work flow through the organization. To do more with less, to deal with training and to deal with documentation. Take, for example, companies that require huge amounts of documentation. The ability for a maintenance worker in the field to carry that {documentation} around on a small device using optical media storage can be very appealing. There are field forces who are very interested in being able to compress the time between the presentation and the order entry with the customer, and delivering the order back to the factory. It has implications for things like sales forecasting, parts retrieval from inventory and inventory turns. As the world gets more focused on time-to-market as a competitive advantage, we think that what the PDA has to offer for work flow assistance can be very valuable, particularly as organizations become more customer-focused and customer satisfaction becomes a higher criterion. If you combine the flexibility of an organization, time-to-market, customer satisfaction and the PDA as a front-end device connected over a network and back into information systems, we think {PDAs} are going to be an extremely important market opportunity over the next several years -- just as the personal computer developed into a very big market, particularly during the 1980s. That was all done in the space of a decade. I think in the space of a decade, you're going to see an equally big market for PDAs.

What price point is critical for PDA's?

For the commercial market, the issue is less price and more mobility and customization to do the kinds of tasks that particular commercial customer is most interested in. My guess is that these devices are going to cost under a $1,000 for the most part. Not to say that there won't be some that will be more fully functional and will cost more. But for commercial customers, a product in that price range seems quite reasonable. The interesting thing is that if you go back just a year ago, most of the personal-computer industry was focused on building tablet-form factors -- personal computers with pen inputs. And there were predictions being made that by the fall of 1992, there would be hundreds of thousands of these machines sold by many different vendors and that they would be used by commercial customers. There is very little evidence that ever occurred. We have also seen in that period of time a really major shift in terms of the vision and strategy of a large number of world-class manufacturers, and what they were saying a year ago and what they're saying today. A year ago, they were talking about putting pen input in computers, and the focus was on {Microsoft Corp.'s} Windows for their pen input and on Go Corp.'s pen-input technology. We don't hear as much about that today. Now the focus is on hand-held devices -- more communications, more intelligent assistants. Basically the idea is what we started talking about with PDAs in the early part of 1992. And I think the industry is on the right track this time. I expect that there will be a large number of manufacturers -- Japanese, American and European -- that are going to get into the PDA market. There are some that are going to focus on the network side of it. We'll look at value-added networks, intelligent networks. There are some that are going to focus on the device itself. There are some that are going to look at it as the logical extension of the telephone -- that is, a mobile cellular telephone. There are others that will look at it as the logical extension beyond computers. There are some who are going to come at it from the stand point of content and provide new services. It's becoming clearer and clearer that there is a new industry that is emerging with very significant world-class competitors in it. This is all good because it means the industry has a real likelihood of being created in a relatively short period of time.

Won't Sharp be Competing with Apple?

Absolutely, I think it will be competition for Apple. The first thing we had to do when we seriously looked at licensing out some of our technology was that we had to significantly improve our own time-to-market. We had to significantly improve our own expenses in our system, our own sales and marketing system, because we had to be able to compete with other companies who are going to be our competitors. The reason we're optimistic that we can compete is that we are a systems company. We can leverage strengths in the education market, small-business market, in a growing success with our PowerBook {notebook computers}, and in a large corporate market. As a systems company, we had an advantage in that we think we understand how to connect PDAs with personal computers, with server computers, and to deal with user-interface issues over a network as well as anyone in the world. Japanese companies have a greater competence than we do with device technology, but probably not as much experience as we do with systems.

Why do People Need PDA's?

The way you convince people is that you go out and take a problem that is real and you solve it in a compelling way. And that's why I think that the opportunities for PDAs will begin in commercial markets and education, where there are real problems and real tasks that can be solved in a compelling way with a PDA. Only after you reach critical mass and only after you start to see costs come down and capabilities expand in successive generations, will we then start to see consumer-like products emerge. That's why I see that the consumer opportunity is real. But it's really several years out in the future. It's not something that's going to happen any time soon.

Does Newton Always Recognize Handwriting?

That's one of the neat things about Newton. It adapts to you.
It gets better at working the way you work. It actually learns your handwriting.

What Applications come with Newton?

Several come with Newton. Just tap the appropriate icon.

1. Personal information manager.
2. A daily planner / calendar
3. A TO DO list manager
4. A four function calculator with tape
5. An in and out box for sharing information with others.
6. A formulas table for loan payment calculations, metric conversions, monetary exchange rates, etc.

How do you Store Information in Newton?

Newton automatically stores information that is entered in its underlying data base. This relational data base is organized around date, name, location, and graphics. This allows any Newton application to access data regardless of where it was created. It also allows developers a great deal of flexibility in designing third party applications.

What features make Newton's hardware architecture unique?

1. A built in RISC processor. This is roughly analogous to an 80486-20 DX or a 68040.
2. Very low powered. Able to run for days on 4 AA alkaline batteries.
3. There is also a lithium battery which maintains the static RAM should the standard batteries become fully discharged.
4. A built-in local talk network connector.
5. An infra-red window - like a TV remote control for exchanging information with other Newtons.
6. A built-in PCMCIA (pim-see - don't forget you saw it's pronunciation here first) slot.
7. Reflective super-twist screen. High resolution - 85 DPI, 240 x 336 pixels
8. Stylus input. - Can use any kind of pointed device to touch the screen

What does Newton sell for?

Based on the options you buy, the base Newton system should come in for under $700 to under $1000 with several peripherals.

What comes in the box for the $700 range?

• The Newton message pad
• 2 stylus's. You get a third when you send in your registration.
• a protective slip case / cover
• AC adapter
• PCMCIA card that introduce the Newton and give you a guided tour
• PCMCIA card for handwriting training
• Owner's manual
• Warranty / registration card (1 year warranty is standard)
• a video tape that walks you through features, benefits, capabilities of Newton

What About Add-On Cards

One of your best bets for card information is to phone Tim McClosky at Active Data (mention you heard about him here on AOL). His number is 800-223-0503 (or 714-997-7718). Tim really knows a lot about cards.

The SRAM cards are fast, require a battery, but don't drain your palmtop unit. At this point they MAY be a little more stable technology. Obviously, they and their data rely on the battery. Let that die, and there goes your info!

Prices for new SRAM cards will run from $190 for a 1 meg to as much as $500 for a 2 meg card. When I bought mine from Active Data, I paid a little under $300 for the 2 meg. He had a sale going on then, and prices have gone up recently for some cards. EduCalc shows 2 meg cards from $320 - $500!

For general purpose, the sram is a little faster if that is important to you. If you mainly want something to store lots of data, and slight speed loss (may not even be noticeable) and increased palmtop battery drain won't trouble you, consider the For general purpose, the sram is a little faster if that is important to you. If you mainly want something to store lots of data, and slight speed loss (may not even be noticeable) and increased palmtop battery drain won't trouble you, consider the For general purpose, the sram is a little faster if that is important to you. If you mainly want some for general purpose, the sram is a little faster if that is important to you. If you mainly want something to store lots of data, and slight speed loss (may not even be noticeable) and increased palmtop battery drain won't trouble you, consider the Folash unit.

What are the Standard Configurations?

The initial Newtons will be offered in 2 connection kits, a pro and a regular. The regular connection kit allows you to transfer data between a Windows or a Macintosh system. It includes the same synchronization technology that apple has used for its PowerBook Newton Neile synch utility.

• MessagePad unit with modem and connection kit - Order Number is H0006LL/A (Mac) and H0030LL/A (windows)

The pro connection kit allows you to import/export data directly from your windows or Macintosh applications. This is only a software difference, the hardware is still the same.

• Order H0004LL/A (Mac) OR H0029LL/A (Windows)

A messaging PCMCIA card will be offered by apple. Essentially it is a wireless alphanumeric pager that integrates with your newton apps.

The Fax Modem which comes with the MessagePad transmits at 2400 data and 9600 fax. It has V.42bis compression and the standard assortment of protocol support.

The print Pack allows the MessagePad to print on non-AppleTalk printers (that feature is included). It works with dot-matrix, portable, parallel printers.

Dave's Wish List

The following is a compilation of posts from America On Line.
Your additional wishes and dreams are appreciated.

I had a long drive over the weekend and thought about the practical applications that I had for a NEWTON-like device. While I'm sure that the even the first generation of the NOTEPAD will be very cool (and practical), the following is my guess of things that will be left out of the first generation NEWTONS;

things that could be added to make my NEWTON NOTEPAD more useful to me.

Dave's "Top 10" Things Apple left out of the Newton NotePad

1. On-board DSP for built-in modem/FAX functionality, for speech synthesis, and well, why not voice recognition.
2. Built-in printer (similar to those calculators with printers built-in), even for just "print screens" from the NotePad while on-the-go.
3. Real "buttons" on the NotePad's case so that I can play Tetris and other games.
4. Add'l circuitry to allow the NotePad's screen to double as a miniature LCD TV so I can watch the BULLS while at work.
5. A COLOR LCD so that my NotePad applications (and TV) can be in color.
6. A suite of common application software, scaled down appropriately for the Newton, including: WordPerfect, Lotus w/Graphing, a Dbase that I can program, and scripting language.
7. Built-in Almanac, MAPS (US, etc) with the lexicon that's supposed to be already built-in.
8. CD-ROM reader, so that the NotePad can also be a CD ROM "book reader"
9. A second PCMCIA slot, because the first one's always full.
10. LONGER, longer, longer, battery life. (Because you_know_this will be an issue from Day 1.)

Boy, I can't wait for the second generation of NEWTON devices...

Subj: I'd still like more
Date: 93-06-29 20:12:33 EDT
From: Blackwdp

YOU obviously don't understand the potential of such a device.

If you'll read my note, I reference that I want a suite of common applications scaled appropriately for the NEWTON.

WORDPERFECTish: I don't expect the full functionality of WPC 6.0/DOS. I would like to see something with a little more power than TEACH TEXT. I want a "word processor" appropriate for note-taking (maybe I should say "outlining plus notes") at meetings, conferences, etc as well as writing _simple_ business letters to be faxed out would be nice. And, oh yeah, since the NEWTON is intuitive and has my rolodex, I'd like it to be able to "merge" the appropriate name, address, fax number, etc into the document. Is that too much to ask? I don't want to produce a technical manual in word processing on the NEWTON.

Spreadsheeting: Lotus is installed on every PC (90+ on my floor) in my office. HP even thought it essential to include on their PalmTop device. While, again, I don't need the full functionality Spreadsheeting: You obviously don't work in a business environment. Lotus is installed on every PC (90+ on my floor) in my office. HP even thought it essential to include on their PalmTop device. While, again, I don't need the full functionality Spreadsheeting: You obviously don't work in a business environment. Lotus is installed on every PC (90+ on my floor) in my office. HP even thought it essential to include on their PalmTop device. While, again, well you get the idea - Lotus 3.4a, being able to do some fairly complex calculations (future value, amortization) would be handy. And merely being able to graph these numbers to an exec or VP at a meeting would be handy. Sure, I could go out and get a PowerBook to do that too, but again it seems a little over-kill when all I really want Lotus for is a glorified programmable calculator with simple graphing of number sets.

I realize a lot of the market for such PDAs are for "electronic organizing", but if you've got the CPU horsepower there, you might as well exploit it for additional applications. Other folks may not have the same needs that I do, nor realize the potential at hand. With notebook computers getting smaller, cheaper, and more powerful, there's going to have to be some reason to sway buyers to go the PDA route. Otherwise, why not get the PDA software to run on a notebook pc under PenPoint OS??? If it's just fancy electronic organizing you want, go out and get a glorified Casio/Boss- type unit. I, however, have my sights set on a next generation, powerful PDA. (Remember, Motorola is targeting its PowerPC chip toward portable computing devices, not to exclude PDA-like devices.). Don't narrow the Newton technology to just the NOTEPAD; haven't you read that the NEWTON technology will be migrated to other hardware platforms, including "PCs"? My guess is that we'll find a vast range of NEWTON devices in the next few years. (Didn't someone already state that there will be at least (3) "Newton" devices released by Apple in August?)

I don't know, maybe I'll change my mind once I have a Newton in my hands for some time, but IMHO, there's more that can be exploited from such devices. Guess I'll just have to wait till August...

PS - I really think the lack of a DSP is a big mistake. Knowing the potential advantages, I'd pay the difference in cost. I bet we see them in the near future.

It will be interesting to see if you can have graphics migrate from Mac scrapbooks to newton faxes etc. And what about 8 bit picture images (in color even if they only display in black and white). Will wide spread Newtons make Duos less desirable? How long before grey scale newtons. And really does 192k of user ram remind you of any familiar underpowered computers.

I swear anything less then 4 meg on any platform is not enough!
But then I do graphics.

awaiting the release.

Free Willy!
Free Newton!

Lou

(Actually $899 Newton)

A Hands'On Review of the Newton

Chu, Apple's Director of Product Planning and Scott Petry, Product Manager in the Personal Interactive Electronics (PIE) division gave additional information and a demonstration of the Newton Message Pad. The pad has one PCMCIA II slot for an Alpple-labeled 2 MB flash card or pager card. A third party fax/data modem card and several other cards will be ready when the Message Pad is released.

Apple has done a great deal of work to make it easy for the user to manage and exchange information needed on both, office systems and Message Pads. Newton Connection Kits for Macintosh and Windows will automatically synchronize data and backup everything on the Message Pad to a home system. Translation capabilities will be provided for converting Newton data to popular desktop applications. The Newton Connection Kit Pro will work directly with popular PIM (Personal Information Manager) applications on the desktop platform.

While a Message Pad owner is on travel, a secretary may enter new appointments into the Newton Connection Kit or the user*s PIM application, and this new data will automatically be downloaded to the Message Pad the next time the user calls in or lines the Pad to the Mac's serial port. And the desktop systems will be updated with additions, changes, or deletions made on the Message Pad.

The Mac application has Synchronize, Restore, and Install Package menu selections and Datebook, Name file, and Notepad options. For those who are not using a compatible Macintosh application, simple dialogue forms allow entering data for all of the Newton 'Rolodex' fields. Many users will find it easier to use the Mac keyboard to add a bunch of addresses than to hand-write them all on the Newton.

I was not overly impressed with the Newton hand-writing recognizer, and they did not even attempt to demonstrate the cursive-hand-writing recognizer! Recognition seemed to be somewhat slow, and during the demo it converted the word Mactivity to 'elasticity', even though Scott said he had entered the word into the dictionary beforehand. There are two text recognition modes: word recognition and character-for-character recognition. If everything fails, a tiny image of a keyboard can be displayed and the *keys* can be tapped with the Newton stylus.

MacWeek reported on other recent demonstrations that were marred by recognition difficulties. It seemed to me that the recognition technology still is not as good as one would expect and probably needs another year or so of work. In my opinion, Apple should stop putting so much emphasis on the recognition technologies in its product descriptions. Customers may be oversold and disappointed with the product. The Newton Message Pad is a very impressive product with many other useful features, which in their own right will justify the cost to many potential users.

More disturbing than the hand-writing recognition problem, the demonstration model also had difficulties with gesture recognition. In two or three cases Scott had trouble marking the end of a note by moving the stylus horizontally across the entire width of the pad. Instead of getting a note terminator including date-and-time stamp and scroll controls, his gestures was simply interpreted as a horizontal line, a graphic element being part of the current note.

When the Newton Message Pad is turned on, the note pad screen becomes visible and is ready for hand-writing recognition. Graphics do not require a mode change. Individual notes can take up as much space as necessary on the *endless* Newton *paper roll.* Hand-written words and sketched graphic elements get converted to text fonts and smooth geometric elements after a one to two second delay as the user continues with input.

If a note includes the phrase, *Dear Bob,* for example, the user can highlight *Bob* and select the routing slip icon. If there is more than one Bob in Newton*s name list, all of them will be displayed for user selection. Routing options include printing, faxing, sending via e-mail, and beaming to other Newton(s). Beaming is done over an infrared light beam.

When the user selects the fax transmission option, the Message Pad offers to automatically reformat the note as a 8 x 10 letter, generating recipient and sender addresses, and punt. If the user selects the fax transmission option, the Message Pad offers to automatically reformat the note as a 8 x 10 letter, generating recipient and sender addresses, and putting the result into the outbox. As soon as the Newton gets connected to the phone line, the fax will be dispatched.

The object oriented database of Newton tags each piece of data to find it independently of the application. Mail merging and linking of address book entries with the appointment calendar is transparent and in many cases completely automatic.

Any developer can write applications that use the underlying DB*s capabilities. Newton always is communications aware and has a universal in-box.

Address book 16
Beaming 15
Calendars 16
CE Software 16
Christopher Escher 14
Claris Corp 16
Color imaging 8
Dial-up electronic service 12
Distribution and Availability 17
Electronic Books 12
Electronic Mail 15
Ethernet 8
Executive Organizer 12
Fax 15
Fingertip 16
George Lucas 9
Great Plains 16
Integrated Systems 16
Interactive intelligence 7
John Sculley 14
Kaleida 9
Knowledge Navigator 9, 11, 12
Licensing 16
Marvin Minsky 12
MessagePad 14
Miniaturization 12
Multimedia 7, 12
Network 12
Newton Connection Kit 16
Newton Connection Pro Kit 16
Newton Intelligence 14
Newton Titles From PIE's Starcore Publishing Group 18
NewtonMail 15
On Technology 16
Pastel and Pastel 16
PCMCIA 8, 18
PDA 8, 11, 12, 14
Personal Digital Assistant 11, 12, 14
Personal Digital Assistants 7
Personal Interactive Electronics 7
Picture phone 12
Print 15
Sales automation 8
Sharp OZ-9600 20
Slate 16
Star Wars 9
Starcore 16, 18
Steve Jobs 9
Strategic Mapping 16
Voyager 12
Wireless communicator 12
Wireless technology 8