Re: NTLK Wireless?

From: Ed Kummel (tech_ed@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Mar 17 2000 - 01:40:17 EST


--- rothesay@sprynet.com wrote:
> There has been a great deal of talk about a Palm
> emulator for the Newton
> lately. While I admit, I would probably buy such a
> curiosity myself -
> that's all it would be: a curiosity. I would be far
> more interested in a
> Newton emulator for the Palm. Then we would be
> talking about something.

The Palm is too wimpy in the processor category to
even begin to undertake any kind of serious computing.
Especially being somekind of emulator. In my eyes, the
Palm is just a digital day-timer.

<snip>

> Which brings me around to my point (albeit somewhat
> obliquely). Our Newtons
> are in danger of becoming little islands of
> productivity in the coming
> wireless world. I already use a Palm Vx as a PIM
> because I can carry it
> anywhere, but wireless access to the Palm will let
> me do e-mail and simple
> web-browsing. The Newton is a far more capable
> platform, and with wireless
> connectivity my MP2000 becomes a networked laptop
> wherever I am at a
> fraction of the weight. I would pay a lot for that.

The Newton already has wireless AND network
capabilities in it. There are some awsome links on
ethernet cards for the Newt in this community, and
even wireless network cards.
Plus, if you want, you can even use CDMA, ARDIS and
BellSouth Wireless (RAM) on your Newt through any of
the carriers selling those services.
I don't see anything that the Palm can do that the
Newt CAN'T at least in the hardware arena. One thing I
would like to see come to the Newt would be an Oracle
client...but otherwise, the Newt is a far more
complete computing platform than any of the available
systems out today, including the various CEs
(although, I sure would like to play with one of those
Philips Nino's for a week!)

> The Newton doesn't need to emulate the Palm, it
> needs to communicate with it
> and the networks that are being built right now.

The Palm is built on a proprietary platform. The Newts
is more open what with the newfound "grass-roots"
effort of the Newt programming community! I don't see
the Palm being able to read standard HTML (it's
browser can only read websites that have been filtered
to be seen on the Palm) I don't see the Palm with an
IP stack, I don't see the Palm using industry standard
PC cards...And I carry my Newt with me everywhere I
go. It's at my side when I go to bed at night, it
wakes me up in the morning, downloads my email while I
get ready for work, I can browse websites wirelessly
while driving to work, and respond back to email at
stoplights. It maintains my schedule, with no
intervention from my desktop...and when I place the
speaker close enough to the Mic on my work phone, it
will even dial the numbers for me (autodial). I don't
need a keyboard, or to learn some archaic cuniform
writing structure to be understood by my own PDA. and
it takes notes and even records audio as fast as I can
write or open a new note. In my opinion, the world
still hasn't even caught up with the Newt...In fact,
only NOW are the CE devices using processors that are
equal to the power of a Newton that has been
discontinued for over a year! (has it really been two
years now?)
The only viable reason to own a Palm is because every
one else has one...but with that new beaming package
that allows you to beam to Palms, that's no longer a
viable excuse!
Ed
web/gadget guru

=====
this is a temporary sig file until I can figure out a more clever one to use

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