Newton Poetry

He may not even remember, but in August 2002, Leander Kahney of Cult of Mac posted a piece called “Newton’s Return: A hit and a myth” on Newton resurgence rumors after a New York Times piece hinted at something called…

The iPhone.

The Times claimed “…Steve Jobs was pushing development of a new PDA-cum-cell-phone. Dubbed the iPhone, the device would lead Apple back into the dangerous ‘land of handhelds,’ the Times opined,” Kahney writes.

Flash forward a little under five years later, and everything comes to fruition. Amazing.

A pair of researchers studying the Cult of Newton found that such “brand communities” predicted or spread rumors that the MessagePad would return five times between its death in 1998 to 2002. “Through detailed analysis of news groups and websites,” Kahney writes, “the researchers conclude that the rebirth rumor is central to the ethos of the Newton community.”

Jesus Phone, anyone?

Any return of the Newton would simply validate “the platform’s technical superiority. If it’s good enough to be reintroduced, it’s good enough to keep using, fans reason.” Amen, brother. And the Newton idea did stick around: calendars, notes, third-party apps, unique input mechanism, e-mail on a handheld – they’re all there on the iPhone today.

I couldn’t believe I saw the word “iPhone” pop up in an article from 2002. We all know that Apple started working on the iPhone years ago. But sometimes those crazy rumors have a way of surfacing – and resurfacing – time and time again.

Whatever the platform, whatever the year, you can always count on a Tetris clone to help you waste time.

The same is true for the Newton MessagePad. Here, we have Newtris, the falling-block (or “tetromino“) puzzle game, but with a Newton twist. Since there is no d-pad or buttons, you use the stylus and the Newton’s touch-sensitive screen to guide the falling blocks.

Along the left and right of the game screen (above) are arrows that, when you point at them with the stylus, nudge the blocks that way. Want to rotate the blocks clockwise or counterclockwise? Use your stylus and select the twisted arrows. And if you want the blocks to fall faster, simply press the bottom of the screen. Pretty simple.

I found that Newtris was a bit slow on my MessagePad 110. There are newer versions available (something called “Super Newtris” can be had for $15, which seems like madness), but my Newton OS 1.3 can only handle the older games. With the decrease in speed, it’s hard to play Tetris/Newtris: the excitement of rapidly falling blocks is gone. But Newtris is still a handy time-waster, and a good example of how – no matter how old or new the system – the classic games are still fun.

You can download a free version of Newtris at UNNA.org.

How-to:

• Fax with your Newton
• Sync with OS X
• Survive in a post-iPhone world
• Write a Newton Poem
• Reset your Newton
• Install an Airport card in a clamshell iBook
• Read eBooks

Interviews:

• Matt Howe, D&D dice developer
• Brian Floe, creator of MyAppleSpace.com

Newton Poems:

• Death of a Soldier [the most popular by far]
• Armistice Day
• Blaze of Glory
• iGoogle haikus
• From Montauk Point
• Psalms 35:12-15

Newton misc.:

• Newton User Groups
• Newton 2.0 rumors
• Newton on the iPhone?
• Einstein emulator

iPocalypse:

• The beginning
• The breakdown
• Success
• Epilogue
• iPocalypse roundup

How does the Newton MessagePad stack up against former Apple CEO John Sculley’s original Knowledge Navigator idea?

I’ve been doing some thinking, but in the meantime, check out this thorough post by Daniel over at Roughly Drafted on how the Newton came to be, how it failed to fully realize Sculley’s vision, and how Apple may, indeed, come up with the next big platform that could set all our devices free.

“The original intent of the Newton project was not to design a PDA, but to deliver a new tablet-based computer that would leap over the existing Mac user interface,” he says.

Everyone says how the Newton was a great idea, maybe ahead of its time, not really marketable, too darned big, and so on. It seems to me the Newton, along with the iPhone, iPod, and software like iChat, the idea behind an all-encompassing device that does everything from schedule meetings to video conference has already come to pass. The MessagePad may have just been the first match to light the fuse.

Says Daniel:

The Newton actually suffered from a number of fatal flaws; some of its issues relate to Apple’s new platform, which promises to solve many of the same issues that Newton was intended to cover. The main problem with the Newton was in its hardware execution: turning the concepts behind it into a product that could sell.

There have been shorter posts on why the Newton failed here before, but this in-depth article goes about and beyond any explanation I’ve ever read.

Here we go again.

After Apple’s third quarter 2008 conference call, Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer hinted at “product transitions” – and BOOM, everyone goes nuts over What That Means.

It could mean something as simple as Macbooks being $200 cheaper (imagine that!), but that wouldn’t be as exciting. Oh dear, no. Instead, the Newton 2.0 engines – also known by Macbook Touch, now – have fired on all cylinders and are charging ahead.

Which is cool. This thing has been around as long as…well, as long as this blog, actually, and probably before.

It’s not enough that everyone loses their friggin’ minds after the financial results and AAPL shares fall like a stroke victim. No, we have to dig up this dry-bone skeleton.

Drop Mac prices, drop iPod prices – hell, start giving MobileMe away (you sure as hell can’t sell it). But don’t drop Mac tablet rumors again.

Although those new patent pictures…

It’s typical of an Apple product to delight and amaze the more you use it. The iPhone 3G is no different. It’s been a ton of fun to use and explore in the week I’ve had it.

First, I discovered this blog looks good on the iPhone’s screen, both in vertical (above) and landscape mode.

Other blogs out there are helping me discover new things.

Lifehacker shows how, by holding down the “.” and “.com” buttons in Safari and Mail, you get more options:

First, in Mobile Safari, just hold down the .com button for a second to see other domain options (namely .net, .edu, and .org). Second, when the keyboard has the @ symbol but no .com key, you can hold the ‘.’ (period) key to get the same domain shortcuts – something that comes in especially handy when you’re manually entering email addresses or filling in login credentials in new apps.

Just the “.com” in Safari was enough to make me smile. But this? That’s handy.

Wired’s How-To Wiki taught me how to avoid SMS charges (I opted for no text plan): plug your contact into AOL’s free iPhone AIM client and text to your heart’s content for free.

I’ve tested it, and it works great.

To Do apps, however, were another story. I struggled with the multitude of options out there: free apps, pay apps, voice note apps. I hate to sound cheap, but I was mostly looking at free solutions, and the reviews were of little help because they went either way. Finally, a new app popped up in the App Store – Dobot’s To Do app – so I downloaded it on a whim. And so far, it suits my needs pretty well.

I was never a big fan of the Newton’s solution to to-do lists. The easiest way was to sync the Newton with Newton Connection Kit and type up the list on my iMac. The keyboard made the whole process more comfortable and quicker. But on the road, you have to scribble a note, highlight it, have Assist interpret it, and the it appears in your to-do list. Way too complicated, and awkward when all you want to do is have a list of check-off items. In fact, it’s one of the key gripes that I have against the Newton. I’m sure there’s another to-do app out there, but I’m limited with my Newton OS 1.0.

If Dobot’s To Do app fails me, I can always spring for app that costs actual money. What I’m hoping, however, is that somehow Apple includes some sort of iCal to-do list sync.

My experiment is to try and use only the iPhone for lists, to-dos, and calendars for the next few weeks. By forcing myself to one platform, I can get to know its ins and outs, and find out what it lacks.

From Paul Potts, back in 1993:

Lewis Carroll’s famous poem, Jabberwocky, begins as follows:

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

This is fun nonsense, but interestingly, nonsense can teach us a bit about how the very first MessagePad’s handwriting recognition software works, by bringing about some “worst-case scenario” behavior. Handwriting recognition was one of the features of the original MessagePad that was perhaps too strongly hyped with respect to what it delivered, while the improved recognizers in later models never received the public credit they deserved.

Potts explains in this Folklore.org story how word lists and dictionaries can affect how the Newton translates handwriting. Interesting reading. And while you’re at it, check out the rest of Folklore – Andy Hertzfeld’s compendium of early Macintosh stories.

I couldn’t help but scour the iPhone’s new App Store for applications that mimicked what the Newton MessagePad offered at its height. Here’s what I came up with so far.

Good ol’ PocketMoney. This is a Newton classic, and they even brag about it on the description page. The Newton version is still available, and the new one will set you back $10. I was actually going to review the old school PocketMoney. Instead, it may call for a comparison.

Starmap here is a take on the Newton’s StarChart: basically a star-finder and map that helps you look for planets and such when you’re in your backyard with a telescope. Darned handy if you are an astronomy fan.

Squiggles is pure fun. You can take iPhone photos and doodle all over them in different colors. Your finger becomes the brush. I picked this one because it’s the first one I saw that, in whatever way, translates the MessagePad’s handwriting recognition into a creative app.

Sketches looks like it has the most potential to be Newton-ish. Basically you draw notes, diagrams, or whatever with your finger, and save the file for later. Notepad, anyone?

Have you tried out any of these, or another iPhone app that copies the Newton’s capabilities? Let me know in the comments. I’m going to try some of these myself, and offer a review later.

That’s probably the best news I’ve received all day: my iPhone is synced and ready to go.

At 10 p.m., I finally got up the nerve to plug the sucker in and give it a whirl. And everything went great.

MobileMe is offering a free 60 day trial for us suckers, so I thought, why not? My System Prefs are still showing .Mac syncing, however, and I imagine it’s because I’m still a OS X 10.4 user. MobileMe is giving me error messages, so I’m not going to get my hopes up. But a free trial is a free trial. What’s the harm.

Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at see, I hope you’re having the same luck I’m having right now – which is good luck. Now I’ve got all weekend to play with the beast.

[UPDATE: read my total coverage here.]

Today’s the big day, and this morning I’m heading to Ann Arbor to scope out the scene, hopefully do some live blogging, and grab an iPhone 3G while I’m there.

You can help but wonder what other phone companies think when they see lines like the ones that form for Apple. I imagine some nervous, nail-biting CEO stands up in his meeting and screams, “Why do I pay you people? Why isn’t our demand like that? What are those…those…hippies doing that we can’t do?” It’s easy to feel sorry for them. What else besides rock concerts (before Ticketmaster started taking their brick-and-mortar outlets away) and Black Friday inspires people to get up at the crack of dawn for a phone?

My preparations actually began last night, when I made a list of items needed in case of a long line:

• camera, with USB connector
• iBook and power adapter
• notepad, for documentation
• My current wireless cellphone bill (I’m not an AT&T customer)
• A full iPod
• A book to read
• Snacks and a drink

No Newton, however. One less thing to lug.

The tricky part was wondering whether there would even be a line this morning. Our Ann Arbor Apple Store at Briarwood Mall opened after the iPhone came out, so us Michiganders had to drive to Grand Rapids or Novi to see the spectacle.

The MacRumors forum had a few bees buzzing about being in line, but my search yielded no firm clues. It was a sure-fire risk, and I had to come prepared.

To get a firm date on the time the phone would be available, I called the Briarwood Apple Store, who lists the opening hour as 10 a.m. (probably when the mall itself opens). My call, however, yielded no concrete answers. The message lady said the store was opening at 8 a.m. So would the mall open early? Would just the Apple Store open early? Or would us schmoes have to wait until 10 a.m., at which point our bladders would explode from all the coffee.

Who’s in charge here?

Either way, I planned on leaving my place at about 6:30 or 7 a.m. and drive the 40 minutes to Ann Arbor and see what happens. What could I lose? A spot in line? The human body can only endure so much.

Other questions that plagued me: should I bring a chair? What would happen if some line-stander got sick? Would he or she give up his or her place in line? Would there be wifi available? How about power outlets in case my iBook gets a case of hypoglycemia? What about my own hypoglycemia?

Enough’s enough, I told myself. Watch me just walk up to the mall, open the door, and walk right into the Apple Store at 8 a.m., complete my transaction, and walk out – all within 20 minutes.

If I had done this last year, my mind would have known what to expect. Planning would have been easier. But I chose to wait.

But the wait is over. A quick breakfast, get cleaned up, and off I go. The weather looks decent. It’s going to be a great day.

Check back for updates as the morning goes on!