Mac Mania 2/MacMania 2.toast/Demo's/Tools&Utilities/Newton/About Newton 1/newt-q&a-list-11-part-2.txt

Text File | 1993-10-07 | 17.5 KB | 398 lines | [TEXT/MSWD]

Newton Part 2: Impressions
==========================
  This section combines opinions, comments, and speculation.


I tried a Newton for ten minutes at a store. It was awful!
----------------------------------------------------------

David Sternlight ([e-mail]) said it better than I could:

"Apple's problem is that that's the way the Newton works. It needs
2-3 weeks to train itself properly (and, to some extent to subtly
train you) so that its perfomance is tailored to the way you write
and operate, and you learn its little quirks... In-store demos,
particularly of recognizing a potential buyer's handwriting, are
doomed to be disappointing or worse (if the machine is set up so
that the last twelve Charlies have thoroughly confued the Newton
as to what writing style it's expected to recognize... Thus, Apple
needs to find a way to sell the Newton almost 'on faith.' That's
not an easy trick, but if anyone can pull it off Apple can. Remember
that he they started John Q. Public hadn't the least idea if GUI
was just a gadget or something that would make a profound difference
to the usability of his Lisa or Mac."

A user who gave the Newton a chance (Eric Celeste, [e-mail])
writes: "I've been using a MessagePad for a few weeks now and it is
great. I've had very little trouble... I have lost no data, ever, even
on the rare occasions when I've had to reset the pad (I still can't say
that about other computers I use). I have found my ability to think
about my time greatly enhanced by the calendar (especially the ability
to glance quickly at weeks or months). I have been calling my friends
more because their names and numbers are o easily accessible... And,
finally, it is doing a great job with my handwriting. I can almost
take notes in meetings! In short, I love it."


Isn't the Newton excessively buggy?
-----------------------------------

  I feel the Newton as firt released was excessively buggy.
  I was surprised, for example, that it was released with system
  1.02, which had such an obvious problem with handwriting
  recognition that a day's worth of use almost guaranteed that
  you would need to reset several times.

  Fortunately, almost all of the outstanding bugs seem relatively
  minor; I haven't seem very many problems that could cause
  data loss. Apple seems to be responding to bug reports with
  system updates in a very timely fashion, addressing the bugs
  in order of priority. Versions 1.04 is a vast improvement,
  and I imagine that Apple engineers aren't sitting around.


Can I use the Newton to take notes in my meeting/class/lecture?
---------------------------------------------------------------

  Trying to use the Newton to keep up with a live speaker may
  prove quite frustrating, especially if you are trying to capture
  every idea. You will find several factors to be limiting:

  The speed of the handwriting recognizer

  The maximum size of a note

  The limited dictionary

  However, it works great to jot down short reminders and notes. The
  name of the first product is the MessagePad - that's really the size
  of document it was designed to work with: messages. If you want to
  just get things down as fast as you can, you can turn off both
  recognizers and just leave digital ink in your note, but that fills
  up notes pretty fast, and (at least in this version) you can't go
  back and recognize the ink later. (From a suggestion by Robert Sadowski).


How come I can't go back and recognize ink later?
-------------------------------------------------

  The Newton *does* appear to keep ink as individual strokes,  not
  bit-maps. This means that when you fax or print ink, it looks
  smoother than it does on the screen. The latest messages I've
  received on the subject tell me that Newton only
  stores *timing* information for the last few words you've written,
  and then drops this information to save space.


How good is the handwriting recognition?
----------------------------------------

  I find it to be excellent. Everything I have read in the trade
  press leads me to believe that the Newton's recognition is better
  than that of other products that do handwriting recognition.
  It works well with cursive and print out of the box, and seems
  to get better with training. Jonathan Bauer ([e-mail])
  reported "dramatic improvement after two or three days of use."

  Kent Borg ([e-mail]) pointed out  that the handwriting
  recognition on the Newton works best if you are willing to
  compromise a little. It will learn the way you make letters and
  which words you commonly write, if you place them in the
  dictionary, but you also have to write fairly clearly. You can't
  teach it an arbitrary style of writing from scratch. If it
  misinterprets something I wrote, I first double-tap on the word to
  see if it lists a correct alternate interpretation. If that doesn't
  work, I try going back and writing it more carefully. As a last
  resort, I pop up the on-screen keyboard and tap out the word. I am
  constantly startled, though, by how often the Newton gets it right.

  The Newton does seem to "bond" with its user over time. So,
  to get the best recognition:

  Teach your Newton well
  Write it words
  That it can learn from
  Don't you ever ask it why
  If it told you, you would cry
  So just look at it and sigh
  and know it loves you...     : )

  Keep in mind that Newton does best with limited notes and common
  words. It can be very frustrating at times. You will
  get a lot of practice using the little keyboard. You will also
  find that you need to mess around with the different recognizer
  options in order to get the best results. You may want to change
  settings when writing different kinds of text; for
  example, if you are writing prose, you may want to turn off number
  recognition so that Newton doesn't misrecognize words as numbers.

  A good deal depends on the text you are writing. When I tried
  writing out a part of Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" on an
  untrained Newton, I got a lot of recognizer errors, especially
  on words that it did not know, like "faerie," "wast," and "thou."
  It helps to teach the Newton words that you will commonly use
  in your writing.


How long is the battery life?
-----------------------------

  This varies greatly from user to user, and depends on how you use
  your Newton. I'll give my impressions.

  Alkaline cells do best, and have lasted me about three days of
  on-and-off use. I have been using rechargeables, plugging the device
  in when possible, and I seem to get a good day of on-and-off use out
  of a recharge. Batteries charge much slower in the Newton than they do
  in the separate charger. The charger has a little light that comes
  on when you plug it in and seems to go off about five hours later.
  This is a nice feature intended to prevent you from "cooking" your
  batteries too long in the charger, which can shorten their life.

  There are a number of things you can do to lengthen battery life:
  plug in the Newton when you can; when using rechargeables, they
  will be trickle-charged. Turn the sound volume down. Don't leave the
  "automatically receive beams" option on. Set the Newton to go to
  sleep after a few minutes of inactivity. Battery life varies
  greatly depending on how you use your Newton.


How can you get by with only 192K of user memory?
-------------------------------------------------

  So far it appears that Newton uses memory remarkably
  efficiently. Data in user memory is transparently
  compressed and decompressed by the Newton operating system, giving
  compaction of up to 6:1 on text. So, 192K of Newton memory seems
  to hold a lot more than 192K of RAM as used by a typical desktop PC.

  The MessagePad has 640K of SRAM, of which 448K is used for the
  system heap, handwriting recognition prefs, and other information.
  Newton memory apparently consists of a bank of 512K and
  an additional 128K chip. One reason why more RAM wasn't included
  is because Newton uses SRAM (static memory), not DRAM (dynamic
  RAM). SRAM is considerably more expensive than DRAM, and margins
  on the Newton are pretty slim. With memory cards, you can use more
  memory on a "pay per K" basis.


How tough is the MessagePad?
----------------------------

  I did an impromptu and accidental "flying Newton" test by tripping
  over the power cord. It seemed to hold up fine (landing on a carpeted
  surface). I don't recommend trying this yourself though - the screen
  has glass in it and could be cracked pretty easily.

  I took my Newton camping in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for a
  week. How did it fare? Well, I was careful to keep it away from
  wetness and grit (it is NOT waterproof); I found it useful to put the
  newton in a zip-loc bag and write on the outside of the bag. The
  biggest enemy of the Newton was cold. It got down to below 40 at night,
  and when I woke the Newton up in the morning it would usually reset
  and tell me that there had been a power fault. Alkaline batteries
  seemed to do worse in the cold than the recharegeable batteries. So,
  keep your Newton at a reasonable temperature if you expect to use
  batteries, and don't allow it to get cold enough that moisture will
  condense when you take it back into warmer, moister air. (It occurs
  to me that if you pack your Newton in the luggage compartment of a
  commercial jet, you might have the same problem).


Won't the screen become scratched from writing on it all the time?
------------------------------------------------------------------

  The top layer of the screen on the Newton is made out of Mylar
  (according to MacUser), which is a pretty tough plastic. However,
  it does appear that it picks up slight scratches and may eventually
  become a little hazy. Users may want to get in the habit of
  dusting off any visible grit from the screen before writing on it,
  since the pen will drag it around. I'm hoping that Apple has a
  simple method for replacing the top layer of the screen when it
  becomes very scratched.


Can you use your finger to write on the Newton?
-----------------------------------------------

  It would be difficult to write accurately with your finger. It
  is too blunt an instrument. It is easy to do simple user-interface
  actions like close windows, check the battery, and turn off sound
  with a fingernail, if you don't want to pull out the pen.


Are there any ergonomic problems with using the Newton MessagePad?
------------------------------------------------------------------

  If you are prone to eyestrain like I am, you may find the Newton
  difficult to use for a long period of time. People unused to writing
  may start to suffer from writer's cramp. In some lighting, the reflected
  glare from the screen makes it very hard to read. These are some factors
  you may want to consider before buying a Newton. If you have a large
  amount of data to enter into the Newton, I recommend typing it into a
  Mac or PC and using the Connection Kit to download it.


Will Apple release a ROM upgrade to Newton MessagePad owners?
-------------------------------------------------------------

  I don't work for Apple and I'm not an Apple spokesperson, so this
  answer is really only my (moderately) informed opinion.

  If Apple treats Newton software updates the way it has traditionally
  treated software updates for the Macintosh, the answer is probably
  "no." By the time the system is revised enough to take up  a significant
  percentage of memory in the user address space, there will probably be a
  new model of Newton out with a new ROM and more user RAM.


Can I use my Newton as an alarm clock?
--------------------------------------

  Yes! You can set alarms for items scheduled in your
  appointment calendar. The Newton can even wake up from the
  "off" (actually, asleep) state, play sounds, and put up
  a notice.


PART 3: Newton MessagePad Easter Eggs
=====================================

  Here are a few cute Newton tricks:

  Go into Preferences, select the Personal item, cross out your
  country name, and type in Graceland as your country. (You will have
  to type it, since it isn't in the country dictionary). When you turn
  your Newton on and off or reset it, instead of the lightbulb logo,
  you'll see a Newt. Is this the mascot of the Newton development
  team? If you have a password set, you can see it longer.
  (contributed by [e-mail]).

  Note: this will have some side effects; the Newton will now think
  you are dialing from the Graceland area code of the United States,
  which will give strange results if you're not actually there, so
  you might want to set it back if you're going to do phone dialing
  or faxing.

  Write "Find Elvis" on the note pad, hilite it, and click Assist.

  Write "About Newton" and do the same thing.

  Click on the clock icon and hold it down. You'll see the date,
  time, and battery gauge pop up. After a couple of seconds you will
  see the temperature! it is actually the temperature in the battery
  compartment, which doesn't make it tremendously useful, except to
  the Newton. To see the thermistor, take out the battery and look
  for a small white-tipped blue component poking into the battery case.
  The Newton uses this to know when it should turn off battery
  charging (information from Nigel Ballard, [e-mail]).

  If you get a Newton error message, you can click on the up-
  and down- arrows to see the last four error messages. (suggested
  by Robert Sadowski, [e-mail]).

  Reset the Newton. After the Newton reboots, tap the Undo button.
  You will see an error message that says there is nothing to Undo.
  Tap the overview dot between the two arrows at the bottom of the screen.
  You should see two errors listed, both as "Newton." Tap on the topmost
  one - it will say "Welcome to Newton." Hold the stylus down on the
  little information symbol (i) for more information. The date will be
  shown as July 20, 1969, with the time that a human first landed on
  the moon.

  Open the Extras drawer, then tap on the very upper-left corner of the
  rectangle that bounds it, then in the upper right. You'll see a dialog
  box asking you to select a connection for a built-in serial debugger.
  (To see what is going on, connect your Newton to a terminal program).
  I have no idea what this is good for to an end-user; it isn't documented
  for developers, either (at least, not yet).


Paul, what is *your* all-time favorite Newton feature?
------------------------------------------------------

  I like the color of the case. If you look at it in bright light,
  you will notice that it is not actually black, but a very dark green,
  designed to complement the LCD screen's color. My very favorite
  feature is the squeak. When I hold down the pen to select some
  text or graphics, the Newton emits a chirp that sounds rather
  like the sound of a small, furry animal being squeezed.


Part 4: Newton Resources
========================

Is Apple listening to feedback about the Newton?
------------------------------------------------

According to Andy Stadler ([e-mail]), Apple is following
all the problem reports that get posted on the internet and on many
commercial services. So, it may seem like I'm posting an awful lot
of gripes and problems to the net, but I'm hoping in some small
way to contribute to the Newton's eventual widespread success.
Even though Apple employees may not directly respond to everything
(I don't answer all my mail either), I sense that they are out there
somewhere... lurking... watching... waiting...
(hi Kent, Hi Andy, Hi Bob, Hi Dan... : )


Where can I get more information from Apple?
--------------------------------------------

  Call 1-800-365-3690 extension 100 for MessagePad availability
  info. Call 800-7-NEWTON for a recording advertising Newton to
  non-technical customers. For technical questions you can try
  Apple Customer Assistance Center at 800-SOS-APPL. You can get
  the Newton Toolkit from APDA at 800-282-2732.
  (from Anthony J. Stieber, [e-mail]).


Where can I get Newton accessories?
-----------------------------------

  The Apple Catalog (1-800-795-1000) is one source.


Other Newton Resources
----------------------

  ftp to csd4.csd.uwm.edu and read /pub/Portables/newton.news. Also
  available via gopher from the same host using the path
  "UWM Information/ Computing Services Division/ Csd4 Public FTP
  Archive/ Portables/"

  If you have a CompuServe account, type GO NEWTON

  There is an anonymous ftp site for all kinds of Newton files -
  bnnrc-srv.med.jhu.edu (the IP number for this site is 128.220.81.221).

  Try the Boston Computer Society's BBS: [phone]. They
  support 14.4 Kbps connections; look in Other groups: Newton PDA.

  ftp to archive.umich.edu and look in the /newton directory;
  via gopher, look for gopher.archive.merit.net 70; afs access is
  available at /afs/umich.edu/group/itd/archive/newton.

  The Apple Higher Education gopher server has Newton information
  at info.hed.apple.com.

  FTP to sumex-aim.stanford.edu and look in info-mac/newton.

  A World Wide Web server is going up at
  http://www/uth.tmc.edu/newton_info

  The Tidbits electronic magazine has been printing Newton information;
  available on the usenet group comp.sys.mac.digests, via ftp or gopher
  on sumex-aim.stanford.edu, and searchable via WAIS as
  "macintosh-tidbit.src" on cmns.think.com.

  This list is posted most frequently on the comp.sys.newton.misc
  newsgroup, and also distributed to CompuServe and whoever else I
  can think of.

...