Re: [NTLK] Redefining the Newton

This is very interesting because this is exactly what I have been thinking for a while.I have long thought, the future of the Newton was in becoming a series of enhancements and applications to assist a chosen platform to provide those features which the Newton had ( and differentiated it ) which no longer seem to exist. ( Keep in mind that different users will see this as a different mix of items )In my case, I have recently purchased an iPod Touch to use as my basis for this. My reasoning for this is pretty simple:1. The iPhone / iPod Touch SDK is FREE!2. The Developer community is alive and kicking and considering the size of the user base I have a good chance that something will be developed which may deliver what I am after or that something I develop will be useful for other users and therefore make the development effort pay off.3. It's from Apple and syncs well with my iTunes Library on my Mac ( and the Address book and iCal and MobileMe).4. It already had FMTouch which is a 3rd party Filemaker Datab
ase Engine so I can take my existing Databases and Sync them to "MyTouch" ( yes I was lame enough to call it that and you can guess my iMac is called) and carry them with me. Something I always wanted for my Newton but never quite had.Now, I am far from 100% satisfied with the platform.I have some minor annoyances with the following:1. Address book: It doesn't support Custom Fields ( which I'm not sure was a Newton feature out of the box or an extension ) so all my Custom Fields from the Newton were lost2. Calendar: Seems to be missing a few things as well. I'm not sure I actually need them but I guess time will tell.3. Notes: This has to be the most useless Notes App ever made! You cannot set the title of the Note it is simply the first line of your Note so I am forever having to put the title there. There is no Landscape Mode. It doesn't support Checklists or allow you to put them in Folders ( or at least Groups like in Address book ) and I cannot seem to Sync them only Email them!There are of course fea
tures missing:1. HWR - There is a program called WritePad which gives you HWR via finger which works really well and I would love to work out if they are using Inkwell or a Home-spun HWR Engine; they are producing apps for this as well and their Notes App looks interesting but it is missing Checklists which I feel is a must.2. Find - There is no Search feature so I can't simply search on a Clients Name and get a list of all my Visits from the Calendar and the Address book entry which I used quite a lot on the Newton.3. Copy and Paste - Such a simply feature which could be implemented just like the Newton is missing. But I have yet to have missed it.There is probably a lot more that could be said. At this point I have gotten the touch to the point that for the first time since I owned a Newton it is actually sitting on my desk at home and not being carried to and from work each day. I think the potential is there but it will need some Apps built to provide the "missing" bits. For me, the first step will be th
e Notes App. I hope to start working on building such an App in the next few months.Regards,Michael

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Received on Mon Jan 5 16:25:21 2009