First impressions.
Jason Simpson <cybele@mead.u.washington.edu>
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Date: Tue, 25 Jan 94 14:19 PST
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From: Jason Simpson <cybele@mead.u.washington.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <zoomer-list@grot.starconn.com>
Subject: First impressions.
Status: OR
I went out and bought a Casio Z-7000 last night at OfficeMax in Lynnwood
(just north of Seattle). It was $599.99, and came to $649.xx with local tax.
I took it out and started playing. :)
The speed is a bit on the slow side, especially when swapping applications,
and when recognizing handwritten text. I assume this is mostly due to the
V20 processor. Are there plans for a Z-7100 or anything with a speedier
processor (V30? Low power 386?).
Other things that bug me: No way to convert ink to text after it's been
entered. None of the applications support 'Undo'ing actions (other than
text entry). The handwriting recognition is completely untrainable. (I draw
my 'e's in the reverse direction, starting from the bottom. The Zoomer
always iterprets this as a 'p' or a 'g' or an 'o'. Annoying.) The applications
don't look like they were meant to be run from the pen in some respects, they
aren't intuitive with the pen as your input device. (For instance, in the
To Do list, to mark an item as done, it makes a lot more sense to just check
or cross out the priority number next to it than to call up another dialog
box and punch a button.) It needs more gestures to make editing easier.
Overall, I think I'm probably going to play with it a bit more this week
and take it back. I do like all the bells and whistles of the system, but I
just wish they were more friendly, intuitive, and quick.
I might test drive a Newton as well.