[arn]

With the recent hype surrounding the iWalk videos... it's become apparent that a large number of Mac users have no idea what the Newton was really like. Many comments included describing the UI of the iWalk as a scaled down OS X... while it was clearly an updated Newton OS (with some aqua features).

The final straw, however, was this comment by a Go2Mac user which made it to the main Go2Mac page. This was part of his "evidence" that the iWalk is a fraud:

Lastly, the unit would not handle cursive handwriting (rather than printing) that well, especially having no time to 'learn' the handwriting of the user in the video. The dot written over the 'i' is also unlikely, as is the prototype's ability to recognize the end of each word (and written anywhere on the screen).

Sadly - this person is completely ignorant of the technology that existed about 9 years ago - which peaked around 5 years ago. The handwriting of the Newton worked exactly like that (could do cursive, didn't have to be trained). And to try to educate the Mac faithful, I generated a few of movies depicting an actual 1997 Newton in action. You can dissect these videos if you like - but I assure you - they are a real (5 year old) product (Newton 2000).

Say Hello to Newton
Newton Assistant
The Newton Clipboard
Newton Trashcan

(note: I 'printed' in this video - mostly because I stopped writing cursive in middle-school... but the Newton is very capable of recognizing cursive)

Originally printed on http://www.macrumors.com

[ 01-04-2002: Message edited by: arn ]

[FERRO]

OMG... I havent ever actually seen one in action... or actaully seen one in real life...

I want one... that things awesome...

E PLURIBUS UNIX
-----------------------------

[OwlBoy]

Holy cow. thats cool how you can erase stuff!

-Owl

[BigMark]

yeah, the WOW factor was what compelled me to buy a Newton 2100 at the end of 1997. Once I had it though, it was so awkward, user un-friendly and so far from what I had become accustomed to from Apple that I sold it in mid 98. It was a beautiful device but unwieldy and a bit of a pink elephant.

[DaveGee]

Oh my gosh those videos are a TOTAL HOAX!!! Geez give me five minutes in Photoshop LE and *I* could do a better job that that!!! I mean even a child could tell those are fakes!!!

Oh sorry I just wanted to know how it felt to act like SOME people I'd rather not name...

Thanks for the vids!

Dave

P.S. I still wanna believe.. I still wanna believe...

[Proxi]

I bought my Newton about 6 or 7 years ago and as I see it ,its handwriting recognition is still far superior to all palm and vigor PDAs of today. The Newton was way ahead of its time.

What I would like to see:
A Newton-like device with a color display a faster cpu and firewire to connect to a Mac.
You should be able to run scaled down versions of MS-Office, display pictures and videos and listen to mp3 music.

Well, almost like the FAKED iWalk or even better the iJerk.

[geran]

I really miss my newton, I want a smaller, faster newton with airport. It would be so nice. My university got airport network in the MIT section. I want to have a newton with a 5gb hardrive. I want to be able to watch mpeg/divx movies on it, quit cool when you travel... I want my newton now.

[Group51]

Originally posted by Proxi:
<STRONG>I bought my Newton about 6 or 7 years ago and as I see it ,its handwriting recognition is still far superior to all palm and vigor PDAs of today. The Newton was way ahead of its time.

What I would like to see:
A Newton-like device with a color display a faster cpu and firewire to connect to a Mac.
You should be able to run scaled down versions of MS-Office, display pictures and videos and listen to mp3 music.

Well, almost like the FAKED iWalk or even better the iJerk.</STRONG>

I hate to say it, but that sounds a lot like the current PocketPC devices. They include the cursive recogniser from the Newton.

[pkatt]

Thanks a lot. As you may know, I'm getting my 1st Newton soon. I've never seen one in action though, heck, I've NEVER seen one! I feel much better with my decision now.

[Proxi]

Originally posted by Group51:
<STRONG>

I hate to say it, but that sounds a lot like the current PocketPC devices. They include the cursive recogniser from the Newton.</STRONG>

Maybe, but the Newton included that kind of recogniser back in 1995.

The Graffitti handwriting reconiser which is installed on all current PDAs was originally developed for the first Newton. The First Newton OS had some problems with the cursive handwriting recognition but the cursive recogniser in Newton OS 2 was great !

[Group51]

Originally posted by Proxi:
<STRONG>Maybe, but the Newton included that kind of recogniser back in 1995.

The Graffitti handwriting reconiser which is installed on all current PDAs was originally developed for the first Newton. The First Newton OS had some problems with the cursive handwriting recognition but the cursive recogniser in Newton OS 2 was great !</STRONG>

Yeah, I'm not knocking the Newton, I'm just saying that today, in 2002, the PocketPCs have the (was it called Calligrapher or Transciber?) handwriting software that was used in the Newton.

As I understood, the major change in Newton OS 2 was the replacement of the printed recogniser with Apple's Rosetta - which is now the rumoured InkWell in OS X. Once I discovered Rosetta, I never went back to cursive.

[MacGorilla]

Wow! I had never seen a Newton in action. That's neat! sigh....

[akebono]

Can someone post an objective comparison of HWR between Newton 2100 and iPaq? I know that Apple still holds some patents on the Newton tech, so I doubt that the iPaq has the "same" HWR software that the newton had. Anyway, as a disgruntled palm and ex-newton user, I'm curious how they stack up.

[Hi I'm Ben]

i think Newton fans are just a little to obsessed with Mac products, there is obviously better PDAs and Smaller PDAs out there now. If this were something other then an apple product all we'd be hearing here is rips on how crappy it is, how incompatible it is, how slow, how much it brakes. Newton was cool for it's time, it's time has passed get over it.

Anyway wanna play with my cool iPaq?