Posts tagged “blog”.

Going full time on TouchArcade

February 1st, 2011

Blake Patterson at Byte Cellar:

Once the App Store went live, TouchArcade quickly became a large and active community for iOS gamers, and it’s done nothing but grow ever since. It’s wonderful to finally have the opportunity to make TouchArcade my entire professional focus and do the work that I so enjoy, having been an avid gamer my entire life.

Congratulations to Blake for heading up TouchArcade full time. It’s the best iOS gaming site out there, with reviews on everything, and Blake has a passion for this stuff.

I got to interview Blake back in the early days, as TouchArcade was getting off the ground. I give a lot of credit to him for helping me out in the early days of Newton Poetry; Blake gave me a lot of pointers to get things started, and I appreciate it very much.

Earthquake-proof: Tony Kan’s Newton

September 9th, 2010

Tony Kan from My Apple Newton:

The initial quake carried on for nearly a minute.

But it’s the aftershocks that have caused more stress. Occasionally one bumps through and the “here we go again…” thought comes to mind…

Schools are closed until Wednesday. All water needs to be boiled. Power, communications and water are restored to 90% of the city. Airports open. Railways closed. Reports of pools of quicksand appearing in one part of the city immediately after the earthquake. One woman fell into it and was up to her ears in it before her husband heard her cries for help and dragged her out.

Tony describes the scene from Christchurch, New Zealand’s recent earthquake. But if you know Tony, you know he’s got his Newton MessagePad ready.

Tony’s My Apple Newton is the premier Newton blog out there. Unlike Newton Poetry, which strays into Mac geekdom and random bits of culture, My Apple Newton is all business when it comes to the MessagePad. And here lately, Tony is on a much more prolific posting schedule than I can ever be. If you want to know more about how to use your MessagePad or eMate, and what makes it tick, Tony’s blog is the place to go. He’s the Newton user’s Newton user.

And in the middle of this natural disaster, Tony’s still rocking the Newton in posts like “Surviving the Christchurch Earthquake“:

Guess what was an indispensable tool in the aftermath? My Apple Newton. During the odd quiet moment I could relax by journalling what had happened and then email the updates to friends and family when power and communications were restored.

Even his updates are posted with his Newton, thanks to (I imagine) nBlog.

Pretty remarkable that something as “obsolete” as the Newton can come in handy during a crisis. It’s a tough little beast, and when the right kind of person wields it, the Newton remains a go-to tool.

All the best to Tony and everyone in Christchurch.

[Via Riccardo Mori at System Folder.]

Classic Mac setups

March 16th, 2010

Riccardo Mori over at System Folder had a neat idea: post Mac users’ classic setups using low-end hardware.

His first profile comes from Stories of Apple author Nicola D’Agostino, who uses two PowerBook G3s – one running OS 8.6 for scanning and the other sporting both OS 9 and OS X 10.4 for music.

It’s great to see recent-era classic Macs still in everyday use, and I look forward to see who else shares their classic setup with Mori.

Newton art contest

January 13th, 2010

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.

[Via Newtontalk.]

Other Newton bloggers out there

December 16th, 2009

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.

Apple’s tablet will not be a ‘Newton’

August 25th, 2009

Not a Newton

It may have only been in jest, but Larry Dignan’s suggestion that the rumored Apple tablet be called a Newton seems a bit far-fetched.

But ZDNet’s editor isn’t the only one mentioning both devices, one true and one maybe true, in the run-up to some Apple product that has more possible release dates than Smile.

I haven’t dipped in to the Apple Tablet pool because, just like the iPhone before it, we have little way of knowing what it will include, how much it will cost, when it will be unleashed, and what groundbreaking new whiz-bang feature it will release upon the world. There’s just no way.

And frankly, Apple isn’t going to release another “Newton”-named product in this lifetime. This is not a company who relishes in the past, and certainly not one who would want to revive a questionably-successful product’s name when another would do just dandy.

[Via NewtonTalk.]

Photo blogger posts Newton impressions

August 17th, 2009

Newton MessagePad 2100

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.

Summer 2009 updates and goals

July 16th, 2009

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.

Newton quote of the week – status bars

May 20th, 2009

“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?

Looking for more Newton-related web sites

April 23rd, 2009

Just a head’s-up: I’m looking for more web sites to add to my Newton Sites page.

Last October, I posted the page after collecting Newton-related web pages over the year. It was a lot of work, but way worth it. My fear was that a lot of these sites would be lost or forgotten, meaning we’d lose a lot of the history and how-to of the Newton platform.

Since then, however, I’ve been collecting more sites to add to the page – including a few more blogs, instruction sites, and old MessagePad and eMate reviews.

That’s where you come in. Browse through the page, and let me know if I’m missing something.