Feeling creative with your Newton stylus?
Head to the Newton Art blog and enter their contest by creating an exact replica of this image on your Newton:
There are some stipulations, but the winner gets an 8MB flash card and an eMate/MP2x00 stylus.
It’s rough writing about the Newton. There are only a few things that pop up, here and there, that are considered “news” in the MessagePad community. Like fans of the Amiga or Commodore, Newton users try to relive the glory days and make their devices applicable to modern times.
Though with the Newton, it’s fun. It’s such a sweet platform.
As far as I knew, there was only me and Tony Kan out there blogging at least semi-regularly about the Newton. But sometimes other sites pop up on the radar.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog often posts news and updates on happenings in the Newton community – more than the regular, echo-chamber type posts that appear every where else.
Every once in a while, something random will pop up. Like High Caffeine Content, a blog from Irish iPhone developer Steven Troughton-Smith, creator of Lights Off and Chalk, an upcoming Twitter client.
There’s also Johs Burker and his Blog of Musings. Burker works in education and uses his MP2100 and eMate for real life stuff, like calculating gas mileage and computing on the road. His post on getting RemoteCam working on his eMate is amazing.
As for blogs that look like Newtons, you can’t beat Thomas Brand’s excellent Egg Freckles blog. It really speaks for itself.
The Newton platform attracts die-hards, hobbyists, and everyone in between. It’s nice to see some of those folks writing about their experiences. As more new technologies are released, leave it to the MessagePad user to figure out a way to make it work with Apple’s PDA.
If you’re a Newton blogger, or you know of someone who is, let me know.
Tai Shimizu, a photo blogger, got his hands on a Newton MessagePad 2100 and posted his initial thoughts – along with some gorgeous isolated pictures of his new gadget.
Shimizu seems most impressed with the handwriting recognition capabilities and the user interface:
The UI of the Newton feels saturated with innovation, even when compared to new devices. The idea of the notepad being the centerpiece of the device is not only vastly different than current UI paradigms, but extremely useful due to the addition of the assist functionality.
The pictures, like the one above, are great.
Perhaps you’ve noticed, but things have been a little slow here at Newton Poetry. Lately I’ve relied on quotes and other bloggers’ posts to fill my quota of three posts or so a week.
I will say that I’ve had a few large, ongoing projects that have filled my time. It’s also worth noting that Newton news, such as it is, has been sparse these past few months – with the exception of the 2010 Patch.
Writing about the Newton has a built-in challenge: there’s not much new to report.
But Newton Poetry has always been as much about Mac projects as Newton ones. In that case, I’ll mention that I’ve been pinching my project pennies to save for a new Macintosh when OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is released. My goal is to buy a pretty, shiny new iMac. As a result, I’ve cut back on my eBay spending. This hobby ain’t cheap.
Many readers have asked me about some sort of post on getting a Newton hooked up to a wireless Network. That has always been a goal of mine, and as soon as it becomes a reality, I’ll post it to this site. Going wifi with a Newton is right up there with connecting it to OS X. If you’re going to use the Newton in the modern world, the thinking goes, it just makes sense to get a wireless connection.
Also on my to-do list is to do more Newton projects in a Windows-based environment. Windows users outnumber Mac users by degrees upon degrees, and certainly there’s an audience out there that would benefit from a few Microsoft-based posts. Just know that I’ll be doing it holding my nose.
Stories on handwriting recognition and the unification of the smartphone/PDA are of interest to the Newton user, if only for history’s sake, so you’ll see that kind of stuff as usual. And I’m always finding Mac tidbits to share and comment on. One subject I find fascinating is the world of backups and archiving, both on the Mac and on the Newton. Look for more posts on those, and other subjects, as time goes on.
When I look at my goals for Newton Poetry, many have been checked off the big to-do list: buying an eMate, connecting with OS X, giving this site a self-hosted domain, and archiving long-lost Newton web sites. I’m proud of each one.
It’s always good to have a few more goals, however, just to keep things fresh. If you have any suggestions or requests other than the ones I have listed, please let me know in the comments.
“I spend too much time on my MacBook Air—for work and for play—and it’s high time I spent more of it with my girlfriend, dog, a camera, and Newton MessagePad. Exploring. Documenting. Overland.
Join me.”
– Morgan Aldridge, on his new travel/adventure blog rikuwoiku (or “to travel overland”).
Matt Howe, part-time Newton developer and full-time Santa look-alike, uses a combination of Google Maps, U.S. Geological Survey topographical maps, MS MapPoint, a dash of Google Earth, and Paint Shop Pro to make hiking and driving maps for his Newton.
Howe gives the nitty-gritty on his Santa Matt’s Ramblings blog, including how to use GPSMap Lite and the Newton Toolkit to make his maps digestible to his MessagePad.
Howe even developed his own app that translates latitude and longitude into decimal degrees.
The instructions are great if you’re a hard-core Newton user with a knack for tinkering and creating your own maps. Howe’s instructions lend a bit of DIY cred to the whole process. These days I’ve become spoiled with the iPhone 3G in my pocket.
Read the my profile on Matt Howe on other Newton project he’s worked on.
Yesterday, the Unofficial Apple Weblog announced that 2010 would be a dire year for Newton users. Some strange Year 2010 bug was bound to make MessagePad fans drown in tears of obsolete sorrow.
It’s too bad TUAW’s Steven Sande jumped the gun, because – as of a few weeks ago – Eckhart Köppen released a patch fixing the Y2010 bug. A quick browse through the Newtontalk list or, shucks, even this modest blog, would’ve brought Köppen’s patch to light.
Sande later fixed his oversight, but attempted to cover his tracks by making fun of Newton users.
“Frankly, considering the caveats listed on the update page, I think it would be a much better idea just to get an iPhone, guys!” he wrote.
Frankly, Steve, we’re doing just fine, thankyouverymuch – even if we don’t qualify as “mainstream consumers.”
What’s weird is that TUAW, at least twice in the last year or so, has reported on this exact same story, offering incremental updates on the situation. Both articles (along with the other Newton articles TUAW has posted, which help to keep the Newton in the public’s eye) are easily found using the blog’s Newton tag.
Do they not discuss Newton matters at the TUAW office before posting on them?
I appreciate that Sande gave an update on his error, but the little dig at the end is what got me.
Also, I can’t help but feel “Newtapocalypse” – as TUAW’s headline reads – sounds clunky. The “a” stuck in the middle adds an unnecessary syllable to the phrase. I much prefer “Newtpocalypse,” if only because it sounds more like the original “apocalypse.”
Four syllables. Rolls off the tongue nicely.
[Thanks to Newtontalk for the heads-up.]
“I am discovering my job is less about helping people with their computer problems, and more about watching an endless parade of status bars.”
– Thomas Brand, from his amazingly-cool My Newton Blog (and Twitter).
Update: Brand has changed his blog name to, ahem, Egg Freckles. How Newton-riffic is that?
“The Newton’s gone, but it looks like, at present, Apple has the most compelling PDA on the market. Go figure.”
– Blake Patterson at Byte Cellar. Blake is co-founder of the excellent iPhone gaming blog, Touch Arcade. Check out my interview with Blake, too.
Seth Godin on price in a recession:
Of course, people actually care more about value. They care about value more than they used to because they can’t afford to overpay, they don’t want to make a mistake with their money.
…The thing is, there’s another way to make the value go up. Increase what you give. Increase quality and quantity and the unmeasurable pieces that bring confidence and joy to an interaction.
When all of your competitors are busy increasing value by cutting prices, you can actually increase market share by increasing value and raising benefits.
I’d call iLife, superior build quality, and innovation values, wouldn’t you? And those “unmeasurable pieces” are what Apple specialize in.
In PC makers race to the bottom price-wise, they lose a lot of what makes owning a computer so special: the “confidence and joy” Godin mentions.