From: DJ Vollkasko (DJ_Vollkasko_at_gmx.net)
Date: Fri Jun 25 2004 - 07:49:51 PDT
Grant said Mike said:
>>What is this about? Not familiar with it.
>
><http://www.newtenlightment.de/frozen.html>http://www.newtenlightment.de/frozen.html
Hmh, and there I find this statement:
"Ferdi Ozguner has been looking into creating Frozen Newton's for users in
North America. There are several places in Alberta, Canada that have the
capabilities to manufacture clear casings for the Newton. The only catch is
that up front costs to create a working mould are quite steep."
Ah, I beg forgive my being complicated regarding the last sentence. I don't
understand where these costs are supposed to come from -- somebody already
DID this. Maybe it would be possible to ask them to do another production
run for the interested public if NTLK manages to place a bulk order or
maybe they would be willing to sell the moulds or loan them for a fee. Then
the price that page quotes (300 x US $ 175,-- = US $ 52.500,--) might melt
down to considerably lower regions. -- And even if they'd NOT be available
for comment, maybe some plastics casting- and moulding-student from an
Applied Sciences University might like help out with this, maybe for an
internship credit and a free MP 2100 ;=} or for writing a paper about
reverse engineering industrially manufactured cases, how to deal with
shrinkage of the mould, etc.
I'd suggest anybody who's trying to do this (which I'd consider a
commendable effort) to investigate this first; it might improve the pricing
vastly and get us in better contact with our Japanese Newtonians (are any
on this list at all?).
Sonny said:
"I have already disassembled the entire MP2x00 for shipment to the company I
have inquired about doing the case - they too think it will be cheapest
doing a mold from an original."
Huh, how about shrinkage? And do you have the original case blueprints that
were discussed here a while ago (where can a copy of those be obtained?)?
Might help much with verifying specs...
That said, I'd probably sell my trousers (what most of you call pants) at
Ebay to get hold of the money required to be a part of this... I'd wash
them first, though, promised. So, Sonny, yeah, pls. keep me posted. And I
guess once you come back with more precise pricing and demo a prototype,
this will go through a lot of mailing lists and blogs and get you quite a
couple more orders from outside NTLK.
Marcus said:
"please, please, please, if you're gonna go ahead with the production, do
_not_ include the Apple logo."
Hmh, shouldn't be a prob, though, if the enduser transfers the logo on her
own from the old to the new case, should it? Or maybe glue on one of the
nice rainbow Apples from a broken 1x0 into the empty circle.
On the other hand - this is NOT a commercial operation. No profits are to
be gained, from what I understand. Any private, non-commercial person or
group may do about whatever they want regarding patents or trademarks, as
long as they don't exploit it commercially in any way.
But then, maybe the case would merit a better logo than the Apple or the
plain Newton bulb, something like e.g. the Jolly Roger-bulb logo, or
crossbones & apple. Maybe Sonny should host a logo competition. I'm curious
what people would come up with (Anil, you copying this?).
Excitedly yours,
DJ Vollkasko
P.S.: Hmh, while we're at it... How about figuring a spot for a Bluetooth
antenna? Anybody doing new cases might want to talk to Eckhart and PCBMan
on where what might be put so there's no crying over spillt milk later.
Also some cases seem to fit SER001 too tight, mine bulges a bit. That's
something to keep an eye on, too. Yeah, pls. talk to PCBMan and ask him
what obstacles inside the case might be removable. Maybe more space for
internal upgrades would make him happy.
Talking about spillt milk... Weren't there some people (in Germany?) who
were looking into a reduced form factor for 2x00? Maybe that's also worth
looking at, perhaps there could be a complete case redesign... Something a
bit flatter and slimmer would be wonderful (5 mm off every dimension), esp.
with a frozen case.
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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