Newton Poetry

John Sculley’s original idea, the Knowledge Navigator – a hyper PDA of sorts, with stellar artificial intelligence and a bit of personality.

The Newton could be said to be the realization of Sculley’s concept. Watch the video, and let me know what you think. You can also download Apple’s video from UNNA.

Seems like the iPhone and our always-networked Macs are bringing some of the ideas of the Knowledge Navigator to life, but we still have a long way to go in the AI department.

Since my eMate 300 arrived at the end of last summer, I’ve struggled with ideas on how to use it. I bought mine mainly as a testing machine; my MessagePad 110 could only run Newton OS 1.x applications, and I wanted to experiment with more recent Newton apps. Also, eMates don’t have the portability and flexibility of their MP2x00 cousins.

So, what to do? It’s only recently, as I think back to the eMate’s original use (education, writing, word processing), that I’ve thought of a practical use for the little green machine: a journal writer.

I’ve been a writer as long as I can remember. As a kid, I used a typewriter to hammer out short stories. When I discovered the computer, it opened up a whole new world for me. I grew up to be editor of my high school and college newspaper, earned my degree in journalism, and went on to be a professional public relations writer. I live and breathe the written word.

A few years ago, I picked up journaling after a long hiatus. A plain notepad and pen have been the victims of random thoughts since I graduated college in 2003. After using a keyboard for so long, though, I notice my hand fatigues after only a few paragraphs. It’s no laughing matter.

I thought about using one of my Mac SEs as a journaling machine, just as an excuse to turn on of the little guys, but the SEs lack the true portability I was looking for. Laptops are fine – I have two iBooks – but finding excuses to use my classic Apple hardware was the goal. The eMate was just what I was looking for in a writing machine.

At home, the eMate works fine. But the rechargable battery is dead, and it’s not like a standard MessagePad with replaceable batteries. The eMate’s battery is wired in. So my next project is to find a usable eMate battery and replace my dead one.

When that happens, the eMate’s portability will be good enough to carry with me on vacations, trips to the coffeeshop, and even local performances or exhibits, where I can type down my thoughts. The smaller eMate keyboard will take some getting used to, but I’ve used it a few times already, and it’s not that big of a change.

In the meantime, I’m going to use Newton Works (with, perhaps, a few add-ons) to keep an electronic journal. I may search for other word processor apps, just to test the options, and implement a folder structure by year for organization. Now that I have Newton-to-OS X syncing down pat, I can even export my entries as text files – just in case any of them work as a blog post.

It’s hard to justify owning an eMate just for testing and projects alone. Over time, I can think about other uses for it other than journaling – like recipe-keeping (that old cliché) or even Twittering. Who knows?

All this will give me an excuse to poke around the Newton 2.0 interface a bit more, try out some apps, and goof around with my newest Newton. Stay tuned – the next Newton Poetry post could be typed out on an eMate keyboard.

Head to The Gadgeteer to read an interview with Newton MessagePad user Marisa Giancarla, who is working on another eBook reader for the Newton.

Just a heads up: Eckhart Köppen posted a wiki on his site, 40hz, that describes the 2010 Newton problem and some possible solutions. He also posted a wiki on patching the Newton.

Köppen is a Newton developer as well, and has posted some thoughts on how to do GTD on the Newton.

The good news is there are really smart people working on the Year 2010 issue, and Köppen seems to think getting a patch up and running will require “less black magic than anticipated,” as he told the Newtontalk list.

“One way to think about the NewtonOS is as a particular way of working with words, ideas, and so forth–kind of a particular way of imagining the world. If there’s no way to interact with a Newton after the coming year, this way of imagining / interacting with the world is more or less lost to us, and that’s a very sad (cultural / ideational) loss.”

– Jonathan Dueck, on the Newtontalk list, regarding the fight to get the 2010 bug resolved.

Looking for Newton-using Facebookers? The social networking site has two Newton fan groups: the Apple Newton group (with 137 members) and the Apple Newton Users Group (with 57 members).

Discussions are slow-going, and there are some big gaps in responses, but members are sharing a few good links and software titles, and pictures.

I’m a member of both groups – maybe I’ll see you there.

It’s right about now that people start to forget about that New Year’s Resolution they made in the weeks leading up to January 1. Exercise, diets, less boozing and puking in back alleys – these are the kinds of behaviors Americans swear to uphold with the coming of the new year.

I usually don’t make any resolutions except general ones, like trying to make this year better than the last. But I have changed one part of my daily routine: I joined a local gym. It was hard to resist. A $10-a-month postcard promotion was all it took to get me to become a member of my local Planet Fitness.

Fitness professionals and die-hards usually tell you to keep track of your progress. Weight, reps, body mass – all these things should be cataloged, the experts say, leaving nothing to chance. And since you don’t want to be seen as a Quitter by your friends and family, sticking with a fitness routine will ensure you’re carrying out your New Year’s Resolution until 2010.

The best part? You can use your Newton.

More… »

As if I wasn’t excited enough, this photo from the Big Picture helps me to look forward to the Worldwide Newton Developers Conference, taking place July 31-August 2 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

I plan on driving across Canada from Michigan to get there. It’s a trip I wanted to take in 2007, when I drove across the northern U.S. to Seattle (I planned to cross Canada on my way back, but flew instead). Now I have an excuse to see it all.

The Pacific Northwest is the most beautiful area I’ve been to yet, and images like the Big Picture’s make me look forward to seeing another part of this beautiful territory.

Apple’s HyperCard stack-based programming tool continues to astound me. This time, it’s the Poor Man’s Newton – a HyperCard stack that lets you muck around with Newton-like features on your Classic Mac desktop.

Download a copy off UNNA, open up the stack, and bam – a fun Newton OS emulator that uses HyperCard buttons, input fields, and drawing tools.

While it lacks the handwriting recognition of the real Newton OS, Poor Man’s Newton does let you store contacts and scribbles, and search your PMN database. Says the creator, Joseph Guy Cicinelli:

Poor Man’s Newton is a HyperCard stack that contains address and telephone information and generally behaves like Apple’s new Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), the Newton MessagePad. If you are like me and you can’t afford to buy one of these high tech tools, here is your chance to own a virtual one that can used on your Macintosh.

At the time, cost was a real issue. These days you can find a quality working Newton for $30-$100 on eBay. But Poor Man’s Newton? That’s free.

You don’t get the full MessagePad experience. PMN’s “Dates” functionality only shows a calendar – you can’t save appointments or reminders. If it did, Poor Man’s Newton could serve as a stripped-down version of Claris Organizer (also available at UNNA, for Mac OS 9 and older).

Poor Man’s Newton offers a few other functionality items: unit conversions, a telephone number dialer, and plenty of printing and sorting options to keep a well-organized contacts list.

The HyperCard stack itself dates to a few years after the OMP was release (above), but it holds up remarkably well after all these years. It sweeps away everything else on your Mac desktop, acting as a distraction-free, Einstein-like app for those without a Newton ROM or a bunch of free time.

Super fun to play with if you have access to a Classic environment, Poor Man’s Newton is very small (at 1 MB) and very affordable (free!) – and you don’t need a version of HyperCard to run it.

[Update 3.8.09: Reader Ivan found an archived page with the correct links. Also check in the comments section for more links.]

Thanks to a reader, the almost-original Keyspan drivers page has been found.

Torner left a comment on my post about Tripp-Lite purchasing Keyspan. Keyspan makes (err, made) serial-to-USB adapters that us Newton fans use the heck out of, but after they were purchased their drivers download page disappeared.

The new Keyspan drivers page looks just like the old one, but with a new URL, and is much easier to use than Tripp-Lite’s version.

Good sleuthing, torner!