Re: Fanboi's lament - falling out of love with the iPad

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Sun, 30 May 2010 14:50:02 -0700, John Navas
<jnspam1@navasgroup.com> wrote:

>On Mon, 31 May 2010 09:02:27 +1200, "Your Name" <your.name@isp.com>
>wrote in <htuke8$2e9$1@lust.ihug.co.nz>:
>
>>Apple rarely gets it completely wrong, and when they (supposedly) do it's
>>really a matter of mis-timing, e.g. the Newton was cancelled just as
>>everybody else started jumping on the PDA bandwagon.
>
>Newton was canceled because Apple got it completely wrong.

There was more wrong than the product. Newton was originally an
internal research product, which produced quite a bit of Apple
technology in its 8 years of operation. Only when the board decided
to turn it into a marketable product, did the problems surface.

Apple had to chose between two completely different designs (Junior
and Senior) for the Newton. They picked the wrong one. I don't
recall the exact details but the story is in several books I've
read[1].
<http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?keyword=Apple%3A+The+Inside+Story+of+Intrigue>
As I recall, it was pissing match between various headstrong Apple
department heads and fiefdoms, resulting in a political rather than a
technical or marketing decision. The development took about 10 years,
which should offer a clue as to the problem. More detail:
<http://lowendmac.com/orchard/06/john-sculley-newton-origin.html>

Apple tried to bury the product by spinning off the company as Newton
Inc. When Steve Jobs returned, the company was immediately purchased
by Apple. Some of the original developers left to form Pixo, which
became the basis of the first iPod operating system. After pillaging
Pixo for everything useful, Apple sold the company to Sun Micro.

When you use an Apple iPhone or the handwriting recognition in OS/X,
please remember that it's roots are in the Apple Newton.

The Wikipedia article on the Newton is also worth reading.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_%28platform%29>

The Newton is not quite dead:
<http://code.google.com/p/einstein/>

I have two mostly working Newtons (Messagepad 110 and 120).


[1] The book is 12 years old but covers Apple before Steve Jobs quite
well. The author, Jim Carlton, was the Wall Street Journal technology
reporter assigned to cover Apple. I've now bought and loaned out 3
copies of this book and NONE of them have been returned, even when
asked. Argh.



--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

[nospam]

In article <9kp506te8ttcicf2kn68t2imio55r4noe3@4ax.com>, Jeff
Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:

> Apple tried to bury the product by spinning off the company as Newton
> Inc.

that wasn't to bury it that was to spin it off so that apple could
concentrate on computers.

> When Steve Jobs returned, the company was immediately purchased
> by Apple.

actually it was purchased before steve returned. once purchased, he
basically took over and booted out amelio, er, i mean, amelio resigned
to 'pursue personal interests' or whatever the phrase is for firing
upper management.

> Some of the original developers left to form Pixo, which
> became the basis of the first iPod operating system. After pillaging
> Pixo for everything useful, Apple sold the company to Sun Micro.

apple didn't own pixo. apple decided to change parts and pixo didn't
really have any other major customers. that was the end of pixo.

> When you use an Apple iPhone or the handwriting recognition in OS/X,
> please remember that it's roots are in the Apple Newton.

the iphone has very little to do with the newton other than one sound.

[nospam]

In article <20660613mqemb2vsa6ugq0qk9hukeq174o@4ax.com>, John Navas
<jnspam1@navasgroup.com> wrote:

> >Apple had to chose between two completely different designs (Junior
> >and Senior) for the Newton. They picked the wrong one.
>
> With all due respect, there was no right one.

nonsense. the newton was ahead of its time.

> >When you use an Apple iPhone or the handwriting recognition in OS/X,
> >please remember that it's roots are in the Apple Newton.
>
> When you use any Apple product, please remember that its roots are in
> the Xerox Alto. Or shall we go back to Turing? ;)

and when you use a microsoft product, remember that its roots are in
apple. :)

[Your Name]

In article <20660613mqemb2vsa6ugq0qk9hukeq174o@4ax.com>, John Navas
<jnspam1@navasgroup.com> wrote:

> On Sun, 30 May 2010 16:12:15 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>
> wrote in <9kp506te8ttcicf2kn68t2imio55r4noe3@4ax.com>:
>
> >On Sun, 30 May 2010 14:50:02 -0700, John Navas
> ><jnspam1@navasgroup.com> wrote:
>
> >>Newton was canceled because Apple got it completely wrong.
> >
> >There was more wrong than the product. Newton was originally an
> >internal research product, which produced quite a bit of Apple
> >technology in its 8 years of operation. Only when the board decided
> >to turn it into a marketable product, did the problems surface.
> >
> >Apple had to chose between two completely different designs (Junior
> >and Senior) for the Newton. They picked the wrong one.
>
> With all due respect, there was no right one.

In the end they sort-of released both - the Newton and the eMate.



> >When you use an Apple iPhone or the handwriting recognition in OS/X,
> >please remember that it's roots are in the Apple Newton.
>
> When you use any Apple product, please remember that its roots are in
> the Xerox Alto. Or shall we go back to Turing? ;)

Nope. You have to go back to the wheel and fire, or even further back to
climbing down from the trees, walking on two legs and using a brain ... at
least some of us do. ;-)