Bill
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YOU obviously don't understand the potential of such a device.
If you'll read my note, I reference that I want a suite of common
applications scaled appropriately for the NEWTON.
WORDPERFECTish: I don't expect the full funtionality of WPC 6.0/DOS. I
would like to see something with a little more power than TEACH TEXT. I want
a "word processor" appropriate for note-taking (maybe I should say "outlining
plus notes") at meetings, conferences, etc as well as writing _simple_
business letters to be faxed out would be nice. And, oh yeah, since the
NEWTON is intuitive and has my rolodex, I'd like it to be able to "merge" the
appropriate name, address, fax number, etc into the document. Is that too
much to ask? I don't want to produce a technical manual in word processing
on the NEWTON.
dBASEish: Well, I don't know what your job description is, but as a LAN
administrator, I have to keep track of a lot of PCs, MACs, Printers, Servers,
Patch Panels, etc. Since none of these items are located at my desktop, it
hardly does me any good to keep this information in dBASE on my desktop PC.
It would be more helpful to me in my portable computing device while I'm out
roaming the office fixing these devices. Yes, I could go out and get a
PowerBook, but that seems a little over-kill to me. I mean, hey, if the
NEWTON's built-in Rolodex can obviously handle a database of names,
addresses, etc, my PC inventory should be a piece of cake. (Assuming I can
define a database structure, fields, views.) Is that too much to ask?
Spreadsheeting: You obviously don't work in a business environment. Lotus
is installed on every PC (90+ on my floor) in my office. HP even thought it
essential to include on their PalmTop device. While, again, I don't need the
full functionality of Lotus 3.4a, being able to do some fairly complex
calculations (future value, amortization) would be handy. And merely being
able to graph these numbers to an exec or VP at a meeting would be handy.
Sure, I could go out and get a PowerBook to do that too, but again it seems a
little over-kill when all I really want Lotus for is a glorified programmable
calculator with simple graphing of number sets.
I realize a lot of the marking for such PDAs are for "electronic organizing",
but if you've got the CPU horsepower there, you might as well exploit it for
additional applications. Other folks may not have the same needs that I do,
nor realize the potential at hand. With notebook computers getting smaller,
cheaper, and more powerful, there's going to have to be some reason to sway
buyers to go the PDA route. Otherwise, why not get the PDA software to run
on a notebook pc under PenPoint OS??? If it's just fancy electronic
organizing you want, go out and get a glorified Casio/Boss- type unit. I,
however, have my sights set on a next generation, powerful PDA. (Remember,
Motorola is targeting its PowerPC chip toward portable computing devices, not
to exclude PDA-like devices.) Don't narrow the Netwon technology to just the
NOTEPAD; haven't you read that the NEWTON technology will be migrated to
other hardware platforms, including "PCs"? My guess is that we'll find a
vast range of NEWTON devices in the next few years. (Didn't someone already
state that there will be at least (3) "Netwon" devices released by Apple in
August?)
I don't know, maybe I'll change my mind once I have a Newton in my hands for
some time, but IMHO, there's more that can be exploited from such devices.
Guess I'll just have to wait till August...
PS - I really think the lack of a DSP
is a big mistake. Knowing the
potential advantages, I'd pay the
difference in cost. I bet we see
them in the near future.