Posts by GENGHIS7777 19 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jul 2010
Microsoft is going through a rejuvenation. It's trying to mature it's new Windows 10 and while it is still under development, MS will be vulnerable. Having said that it's cloud platform, Azure seems to scoring well, and so is Office 365.
The MSFT v AAPL wars can easily get tribal. But that's too simplistic.
In 1996, Apple's Mac OS was reaching the end of its technological life. It needed another OS and was casting around on how to make this happen. It's Mac product range was getting confused and people were moving over to PCs. Ironically the Newton took 5 years to mature but by then it was due for a rewrite too.
Apple was in Triage. It needed a loan from Microsoft, the partial sale of its stake in ARM and the iMac G3, which helped rejuvenate the Mac OS product line in 1998 until OS X could come through in 2001, to survive.
You can put the boot into Microsoft, but actually the challenges Apple and other tech companies face, at a certain level, are remarkably similar. Sooner or later your base technologies get long in the tooth and then you've got to cast around for a replacement. Hopefully you can do it while cash flow is good.
Further irony: the tech platform closest to the Newton in usability (HWR, stylus support, portability) is Windows 10 and the Asus Vivotab or Lenovo 8" ThinkPad tablets.
People want them to be modern and ridicule them for letting Apple get away on them in smartphones. When they try to change people criticise them for changing too fast. Fortunately the silent majority have more sense and vote with their pockets. Microsoft is doing fine. You build a company that has billions in annual sales. I'm a happy customer.
Glad you're getting a positive result on your 520. I didn't. I kept getting error messages on my email accounts. I need email so went back to WP 8.1. Hoping that all will be fixed by the time it hits general release. Also noticed a little more Iag and some apps like Skype had trouble launching reliably.
@Anonymous Coward
He isn't the only one that has a Lumia that works. I have one. So does my in-laws, and my wife. They all use it as a smartphone and thoroughly enjoy the experience. No overheating, no reboots, battery life that lasts for days. You must be very unlucky.
"Mind you, Redmond hasn't done browser makers any favors with the way Windows 8 is designed. Only one browser at a time is allowed to launch in Metro mode; when you register one, all of the others revert to being regular desktop apps. It's an inexplicable design choice, other than that it makes Windows 8 users less likely to try new browsers."
I think you are being too cynical. They probably did this in order to reduce the resources required to run Win 8 on lower spec'd tablets.
Personally I like using the Metro apps. They do get a bit of getting used to but they are fresh and after using them for a while, the Desktop equivalents feel old and dated.
@ David W: [quote]Given that you could do the same thing with a cnc milling machine, I don't see how this is much more than hysteria. There's no novel capability I can see via using 3D printing rather than any other method for shaping material.[/quote]
The danger is its accessibility and the proliferation of such weapons in the hands of potential radicals who wouldn't otherwise have the means to smuggle arms into public areas where they can cause mayhem. A CNC milling machine is rather difficult to hide. A 3D printer is much more conceal-able.
Take the batteries out leave it overnight. Try doing a hard reset or a brainwipe. This has happened to me a couple of times but my trusty Newt has always returned to life. Your data should also be preserved. You might try taking your battery out and just have it plugged into the AC adapter.
Also search the http://www.NewtonTalk.net archive for more tips.
You wrote: "Note, by the way, that the date on my MessagePad 120 is July 2001. The poor old thing can't handle 2010, and pops back to 1976 when you try to bring its time and date settings into the present. Sigh..."
You have the Y2010 bug which can be fixed by applying Avi's Fix2010 patch. You can get it from here: http://www.4shared.com/dir/UNjvQhf6/Avis_Fix2010_for_NOS_20.html
You can read up on this bug here: http://myapplenewton.blogspot.com/2008/12/2010-bug.html. The bug only effects NOS 2.x devices. Avi's Fix works for NOS 2.0 and Eckhart Koppen's patch works for NOS 2.1 devices.
See http://myapplenewton.blogspot.com for more how-to guides..
You wrote: "it was never really fast enough to keep up with a useful writing speed "
All this was solved with the MP2000 and MP2100 models. You're right bulky but then I carried around a Franklin Day Planner for work, which was of similar size: so no marginal cost there.
[2] Handwriting recognition - Newton's system was a great idea, but neither the software nor the processing power were up to the job. Effective handwriting recognition remains a significant challenge for today's PCs. Palm selected Graffiti, which isn't true handwriting recognition since it requires the use of stylised forms for letters, but minimised the processor requirements.
DID YOU KNOW THAT PALM PORTED GRAFFITI OVER TO THE NEWTON? IT MAY WELL HAVE GIVEN APPLE ADDITIONAL TIME TO DEVELOP THE MP2X00 MODELS, SEE: http://myapplenewton.blogspot.com/2010/01/jeff-hawkins-newtons-saviour.html
[3] Simple, out-of-the-box synchronisation with Windows - so that losing your PDA was no longer a world-ending event like losing your Filofax, and content changes made on your Pilot were reflected on your PC (and vice versa).
YEAH, IT WASN'T UNTIL THE MP2X00 MODELS WERE RELEASED THAT IT CAME WITH NEWTON CONNECTION UTILITIES WHICH COULD SYNCH WITH MS SCHEDULE+ AND LOTUS ORGANIZER. SOME PEOPLE WROTE 3RD PARTY APPS LIKE LOOKOUT. NOW OTHERS HAVE WRITTEN MODERN SYNCH APPS FOR MS OUTLOOK FOR WIN 2K, XP, VISTA AND 7: SEE http://usuarios.arnet.com.ar/mtu16/ OTHERS HAVE WRITTEN FOR THE MAC: http://newtonpoetry.com/2009/11/05/newton-connects-with-snow-leopard/
You wrote: "the only commonality is the marketing people who always give people ridiculous expectations."
You're right there. Larry Tesler who headed the Newton group when it released the original Newton was disappointed when the marketing people ignored his recommendation not to focus on handwriting recognition in their promotional material: See http://myapplenewton.blogspot.com/2009/03/defying-gravity-where-is-larry-tesler.html where some of the results of the original Newton market research can be found.
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