Re: [NTLK] How do you use your Newton?

From: <abruch_at_deakin.edu.au>
Date: Mon Aug 18 2008 - 20:34:15 EDT

I havent been using them for about 12 months. I have been too
preoccupied with laptops, iPods and other things.

I miss not using them.

My history.
I am a 53 year old Australian, working in IT and design and now education.

In 1994, I was working on a project designing interactive TV that used
Oracle Media Objects (like Hypercard) for controlling the data. The
programmer from the US had a MP100 and showed off how cool it was. I
wanted one. I had a Sharp (equivalent to the Zaurus) but this had so
much more.

A few years later in another company they bought me a MP2100, I had
wanted an eMate but my Apple friends said it was too slow and that if
I had to go down that pathway it better be the 2100. It was expensive
~$1200 AUD. I think it was later the next year Apple discontinued them.

I mainly used it for reading eBooks on the public transport commute,
note taking with stylus though I have a keyboard as well but never for
internet or email, as my internet access was way too fast for anything
else to compete. My kids would take it for reading at night after the
lights were out and make lots of lists, played games like Maze etc.

Early 1999 I worked on a project that delivered content to stadiums
and other environments, via the HP iPaq wireless and while it was a
PocketPC OS (and I have been a Mac man since 1985) it was a colour
screen and easy to use. It synced and charged via a cradle to my SOE.
It beame my travel companion.
My Newton got shelved. That project dissolved in 2001 and I started
using the 2100 again, but not as often.

The year before last I bought an eMate on eBay, after lusting after
the form factor for so long and then my friends at the Apple dealers
gave me another one complete with documentation and in the box because
I thought my battery had died. Wow was I flabbergasted.

Now i have 2 eMates and the 2100, cables, dongles, old Macs that run
OS8 and NCU, a PICO BT card (thanks Adriano), a 4MB CF card as well as
several new Macs running OSX Leopard and so I have bought USB/ADB
cables and plan to run NCX and get back to the notetaking and reading
but I have a research project with iPod touches and dotMe accounts, so
I suspect it will be just a dalliance to show the students and other
academics that the old and the green is still out there.

I rarely bump into other Newtonians so if it wasnt for the NTLK I
would think I was the last one standing...
cheers Ade

-- 
Adrian Bruch
Lecturer: The Digital Studio
Bachelor of Interactive Media,
School of Communication and Creative Arts
Deakin University [Burwood] Australia.
Phone: 03 924 46083 / Mobile 0419 359 261
--
Please consider the environment before printing this email
--
Important Notice: The contents of this email are intended solely for the named
addressee and are confidential; any unauthorised use, reproduction or  
storage of
the contents is expressly prohibited. If you have received this email  
in error,
please delete it and any attachments immediately and advise the sender  
by return
email or telephone.
Deakin University does not warrant that this email and any attachments  
are error
or virus free.
==================================================================== 
The NewtonTalk Mailing List - http://www.newtontalk.net/
The Official Newton FAQ     - http://www.splorp.com/newton/faq/
The Newton Glossary         - http://www.splorp.com/newton/glossary/
WikiWikiNewt                - http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
====================================================================
Received on Mon Aug 18 20:34:20 2008

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Tue Aug 19 2008 - 08:30:00 EDT