[spike]

When can we finally expect an Apple PDA? I really want a PDA that I can synchronize via airport to a OS X Ti book
This would be very neat

A happy mac addict

[TimmyDee51]

Your guess is a good as anyone elses. If you really want an Apple PDA, get a Newton. They are the best thing out there. It won't sync with Airport but it will sync with OS X (via classic and maybe even natively soon thanks to some developers). They really are great.

[ussfolsom]

Xircom is making an Airport compatible SpringBoard module for the Handsping Visor- http://www.xircom.com/cda/shop/1,188..._152-1,00.html . That's probably the closest thing you're going to get to what you want. Doesn't look like Apple has any intention of making PDA's. On the plus side the new Visor Edge would look pretty darn good next to a Ti Powerbook!

[TimmyDee51]

I have to admit the Visor Edge looks pretty nice. Too bad it runs the Palm OS. . .

[Paul Guyot]

Stop dreaming folks. Steve killed the Newton Technology. He will never resurrect it. And who can replace him as the CEO of Apple?

In fact, the Newton shouldn't have happened. Imagine a way to conceive computers so that they become useful. No, it's impossible. It's better we get back (well, you, as I stay with NewtonOS) to poor/useless technologies, say X or PalmOS.

Paul

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Newton Evangelist and developer:
http://www.kallisys.com/newton/

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Wow. Harsh words....

I think I detect some well-deserved bitterness.....

greg

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Though the day's been
really long
I still feel I'm close to
nowhere....

RE:Apple PDA
Everytime I bring this very subject up at Apple Demos, the presenters respond with scorn. Interesting scorn. The rumor mill says that with OSX running on a Unix shell has Apple R&D working on a new PDA. I got this info from an "Angel Investor" with excellent insider credentials. It makes sense for Apple to now re-enter the handheld and wireless market. All the right pieces are in place. Apple employees have been coached to skirt the subject in public and (quote )say that "PDA's would not be profitable for Apple" as a rebuttal to questions. The really big question is not whether, but rather, when will Apple join the fray.And what would they name it ? Not Newton 2 I pray!

[TimmyDee51]

Why run UNIX on a handheld when Apple already has the best handheld OS out there -- the Newton. I don't really care what they name it (although I do like Newton but the public doesn't) so long as they update it. I take it that you haven't ever used a Newton. My recommendation would be to try out a 2000 or a 2100 and see what a handheld can really be. You don't need *NIX to make it, just the right ideas. Apple had that with the Newton.

[Paul Guyot]

What? You don't know the advantages of Unix? You have never been to Apple's website?
We need a Unix-based OS for PDAs because with Unix, we will have preemptive multithreading and protected memory, and this is great.

Er, well, NewtonOS already has these features.

BTW, NewtonOS isn't the best handled OS ever. It is the best OS ever.

Paul

------------------
Newton Evangelist and developer:
http://www.kallisys.com/newton/

[TimmyDee51]

Thank you, Paul. That is exactly what I meant.

[mephastopholes]

thought that i might direct your attention here http://www.macworld.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000359.html
and allow you to come up w/ some conclusions....

[RoofusPennymore]

I really think we are going to see a cross between a handheld and a PC. A tablet PC with this new inkwell technology.

I hope it doesn't suck.

[eep!]

With microsoft working on the tabletpc (larger format hpc) NOW would be the time for Apple to release a large form Newton, colour screen, airport, NewtonOS (what version would it be? 3? 3.5? USB and a firewire port.

[rambo47]

Last year at Disney World in Orland the folks were taking demographic info from people as they entered the MGM park. I was heartened to see the beloved Newton 2100 being used as the data collection device. But as cool as that was, the appearance of an Apple-branded device like in the link above is truely exciting. Imagine some kind of fusion of Mac OS X and the Newton OS, ala WinCE. OH-MY-GOD.

------------------
iDisk: rseijas
Homepage: homepage.mac.com/rseijas

[Paul Guyot]

X on a PDA?

Hey, did Motorola build a low consumption version of their G4 1 GHz?
How long will the battery last with two of them?

Paul



------------------
Newton Evangelist and developer:
http://www.kallisys.com/newton/

[TimmyDee51]

I whole-heartedly agree with Paul. It can't be emphasized enough that downsizing a desktop OS is not the way to go for handhelds. You don't require half the services that a desktop or laptop does and even if you strip them from the OS, there is still a lot of excess fat. Processing that fat requires sheer power, something that isn't going to happen in a handheld.

Besides, you guys should listen to Paul. He is the man when it comes to this stuff.

[theUpsetter]

hey Paul, do you know anything anybody about porting a newton connection utlity to OS X?

Brandon

[Paul Guyot]

Thoma Tempelmann is working on this: http://www.tempel.org/newton/

The problem is that Apple's DILs aren't carbonized and they use technologies which haven't been ported to OpenSTEP such as the Communication ToolBox. This is something we knew a long time ago. That's why I created a project called the Desktop Connection Library which goal is to replace the DILs with another multiplatform library (and while I'm on it, I planned to add features unavailable in the DILs but used in NCU).

Another problem is that OpenSTEP doesn't support LocalTalk, and for more fun, Carbon on OpenSTEP doesn't support Serial over OpenTransport.

So what can be done is a software communicating via Serial, IRDA, EtherTalk and TCP/IP. But, except TCP/IP which can be done with OpenTransport, all this must be written specifically for OpenSTEP. Don't count me in, I won't use OpenSTEP, it's too slow on this G3.

Once I solved the DES problem, I think that Thomas is going to work on an OpenSTEP port of the DCL. Actually, his REALBasic plug-in currently use Apple's DILs, but he planned to use the DCL so the software will run on OpenSTEP as well. FYI, Newtourage, the Newton <-> Entourage synchronization software uses Thomas' REALBasic plug-ins.

Paul

------------------
Newton Evangelist and developer:
http://www.kallisys.com/newton/

[ThinkInsane]

I want an apple PDA. Mr. Jobs, please start producing them asap. Thank you.

------------------
-Carpe Jugulum

[WL2100]

------------------
!ooW ÷)

[dilleet]

Originally posted by ThinkInsane:
I want an apple PDA. Mr. Jobs, please start producing them asap. Thank you.

Wait, you will all be astounded and pleasantly surprised !!!
The Newt will always be a Newt and the most advanced and ahead of its time PDA, but nonetheless dead and gone, its child will be the next quantum leap.
My Newt 2100 is so rich I laugh at it, I mean wireless web access, ethernet,GPS, recorder and today it buttered my English Muffins...
a missing link in the digital hub will be Son of Newt, Behold a child is born, follow the star to the North

------------------
Man is only mud that sat up
"Vonnegut"

[raz303]

I want one too!!
Has any one of u fanatics seen this one. www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/18779.html

[eep!]

wow, scroll down the page to where it talks about an apple chip in the '80s: Aquarius, looks like steve has a fascination with water.

------------------
"Sometimes it's when everything seems to suck that we become motivated to find solutions to [our] problems." - MikeM32

[raz303]

About my link above, either nobody cares, takes the hint or it's really old news for ya'll! Thought I'd have u drooling already by now. Sorry

Take a current ibook:

- Replace screen/keyboard/CD with 4 x 5 input screen.
- Add updated Newton handwriting recognition
- Add updated plaintalk speech recognition
- keep 1 USB port/ 1 Firewire port
- keep built in Airport chipset

- Accessories include stylized dock for

....result .... an iPad.

Not a PDA, but a new breed of devices.