How one Newton owner uses his device every day

Hi Genghis7777 here:

Thanks for writing about my Newton musings and escapades.

Equally interesting to read everyone's comments. I get the impression that some don't quite understand the attraction. Here's a quick summary:

1. Handwriting recognition (HWR): Its an aesthetic that transcends typewriting. There's something sensuous and intimate about it that typing can never replace. Now HWR has been implemented on iOS but its not the same. iOS isn't modeless nor is HWR available system wide. Both these features takes away user fatigue. An HWR system isn't just its ability to translate handwriting into text. Its also how it implements editing gestures. The Newton's system is second to none.

2. Form factor: Its the right size to take into meetings. Its big enough to write a decent amount of notes, yet the Newton is unobtrusive and allows the meeting to flow without distraction. Everything else, people wonder if the user is actually focused on the discussion at hand or are they surfing on the web somewhere....

3. On doing so much more: If there's anything Apple users should appreciate is the idea that "less is more." Its ingrained in Steve Jobs' thinking and you can see it in their hardware designs. Minimalism is the key to Apple's success. My Newton does what I need it to without distraction and with much aplomb. It emails, it tweets, it blogs, it shows eBooks. Its not meant to be a desk/laptop replacement. Working on the Newton helps to create that psychological distance from my desk/laptop and the noisy internet. It feels a bit like driving over the causeway on the home from work with the bay on one side and the lagoon on the other. You can leave the clutter of the day behind you and focus.

4. The future: I've been very proud of my Newton. Its taken years for other mobile devices to implement many of the features it had right out of the box. There are still some Newton features that haven't been implemented yet. One day, I will have to transition to another mobile system, even if only because the hardware has finally given up the ghost. Mine is coming up to 15 years old and shows no damage. Why add to landfill if I don't have to? My Newton is like a dear grandfather who keeps faithfully serving the family without complaint. Its always a pleasure to meet him, the children climb all over him and once free, he always starts looking around for something helpful to do as soon as he arrives. Its a pleasure mixed with poignancy because he is elderly now and he won't be around forever, but then nor are we. It makes the time that we still have with him all the more treasured.

I just paid $22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $675 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, BidsGet.com

If anything, this goes to show/prove how well built Apple products are when folks like him keep using them and see no "killer" reason to update. He's certainly got his money's worth!

Perhaps he could do more with an iPhone or iPad or perhaps he would be wasting a lot of valuable work time
with all the frivilous game apps and social networking = group nose-picking.

I still use my old Mac G3, for the AppleWorks word processor. No internet, no games, no nothing but concentrating on my writing. It's been running for a dozen years and I expect to get at least another decade
of productive work out of my original investment. I can relax and comfortably endulge my literay ego.

For everything else I have a recent Mac Pro, that is so beautifull and fast, with impresive WiFi connectivity.
But I could not concentrate on writing on it. It's capability at graphic arts just blows my mind. But it is no where
as comfortable to do lots of typing.

"Do not confuse the tribal customs of your little village with the Laws of the Universe!"

If iPhone hadn't come out, I'd still be using my MessagePad 2100 too.

I used to love my Newton, but I also loved my dog and buried it when it was dead.

There WAS an Y2010 patch (that was the year with a date bug) although the Newton emulator works well (patch installs through iTunes!) on an iPhone

http://www.flickr.com/photos/opusmark/sets/72157626011015177

This is really, really inefficient. And dumb. To each his own, but seriously, weird and lame.

This is really, really dumb

If it does the job at hand, that's great. I still use a pencil and paper some times, and that is sooo out of date, but is fit for purpose- - still reading this on my iPad though. He even may have a iPad/iPhone for other things, it doesn't say he doesn't, he just likes the Newton platform.

Is he living (literally) in 1997, or is that just a very old product screenshot?