Kagi Frequently Asked Question

Question:

Tell me about Register for the Newton.

Answer:

For Newton software there is an application called Newton Register. It relies upon a variety of Newton attributes to have as small a footprint as possible and to be useable for many different pieces of Newton software. Authors include some variables into their software and Register for the Newton locates those variables and creates a payment form accordingly. It also slurps any user information such as name, email and postal address into the form from the payer's Newton to reduce the amount of data entry that is required. The payer then sends a payment via email or fax. The Newton registration application munges any credit card information so that it is not sent cleartext over the internet. We don't claim that the credit card data is encrypted because we do not guarantee that it is secure.

The Newton registration application has an interesting way of combining email and postal mail to allow for a variety of payment methods other than credit card without requiring a printer.

Because some Newton payers will want to send cash or checks, but not all Newton owners have printers, the Newton registration software has a mechanism called Query. By sending a Query, the paybot at our end generates a payment form and sends it back to the payer via email. The payment form includes an Invoice number and a postal address to send the payment to. They can then include the Invoice number with their payment and send it to the address. Using the invoice number we connect the electronic information together with the payment and complete the registration.

For more information about Register for Newton please contact Flash Sheridan at FlaSheridn@kagi.com.

Modification Date: Sunday, September 10, 1995