Have any of you ever owned an Apple Newton?

[[McD] James]

Were you happy with your purchase? Did you get a refund because none of its features properly worked, and its entire marketing campaign was based on lies? Do you still own your Newton? Any interesting stories to share? 

 

 

[fraggle]

Never owned one, but ashens has a pretty good review here:

 

 

I think it was ahead of its time; too far ahead. And what I mean by that was that it was a great concept but the technology (handwriting recognition plus all the rest) was too primitive for it to be done well at the time. But only a few years later the Palm Pilot came out and did the same thing with much more success. Interestingly though they took a different approach and made users learn Graffiti instead of trying to do handwriting recognition well.

[[McD] James]

I watched that earlier. I love Ashens. I contributed to his first book.

[wildweasel]

On 1/15/2018 at 7:56 PM, fraggle said:

But only a few years later the Palm Pilot came out and did the same thing with much more success. Interestingly though they took a different approach and made users learn Graffiti instead of trying to do handwriting recognition well.

I think it says a lot about Palm's approach that almost 15 years later, I still know how to write Graffiti. Like, I literally bought a used Sony Clie from a junk store a few months back, charged it up, and immediately started writing on it without having to consult the guide, just out of muscle memory.

[chungy]

I knew someone with a Newton and I thought it was super-cool at the time.

 

Palm was cheaper and more reliable though. More common too. :p