🚀 go-pugleaf

< warning: long post >

I think you've been rather UNFAIR in your post...on the whole.  There're
some points
which are your personal experiences with certain organisations (how to
comment?)
but I thought you were overstretching.  Let's begin with your summary, then
work
up to each point.

richar88@upenn.wharton.edu wrote in article
<841977070.4807@dejanews.com>...
> I purchased a Message Pad 120 a couple of months ago and have not been
happy with it at all.  There are multiple reasons for this.  Please weigh
my experiences into your purchase decision:

> IN SHORT -- THE MESSAGE PAD IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY IF YOUR
NEEDS ARE DAILY ORGANIZATION IN A TRANSIENT PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT
REQUIRING PC COORDINATION.

If the Newt doesn't fit your needs, your tastes, that's your opinion.  But
there're
many ways to use a Newt.  But you're making a lashing condemnation of the
present generation of Newts which are clearly unjustified as it seems to me
that not all the homework has been done.

Even people who are in a PC organisation may not need to sync their newt
with
their PC.  The newt could be used to hold tech notes appts, contacts.  Sure
you
could put the same thing on a pc.  But your office pc may not be with you
all the
time.  Want to carry a notebook for contacts?
How many seconds does it take to call up a notebook in sleep, find and
launch
the contact app?  Of course w95 does make things a lot easier.

Complete means complete.  But I think the message pad is far from being so
totally a waste of time and money.  However, it would be a waste (and so
would anything else) it you didn't know how to use it or what it was good
for.
Based on your other subsequent posts, I thought your verdict was too
premature.

On another post, I think your definition of mature would be if 75% of all
people
one met in a typical office carried a message pad.  Like PCs and networks
are considered mature now that most organisations, most people use one now.
Funny...dont you already know that newt users are in the minority?

Oh another thing...if you need a notebook, why bash the newton as a waste
of time and money?  Did someone try to tell you that the message pad is the
be-all and end-all of computing devices?  You could even take notes with
a micro tape-recorder, and it's very simple to use.  Why not bash that coz
it
doesn't meet your other needs?

Your other points:
1.  Tsk, tsk Apple.  I sympathise with you.  I suppose everyone would leave
the room if you turned it on.  Or your boss will smash it like a mosquito.
But seriously, I recommend buying from a Apple Dealer (not retailer).
And test it there.  If the buzz becomes that much louder later, take it
back to
the store and DEMAND a swap.  And I did do that (backlight problem in my
case).  If you don't like the first sample, ask for another, or don't buy
it!

2&4.  Since the newt is not used by so many people, retail stores would
not be carrying so many newt stuff right?  I hope you're not comparing
with notebooks and PCs...are you?
Btw, have you tried www.landware.com?

3.  There's a setting for hwr speed.  If you set it as immediate, you'll
get a
bitmap storage most of the time but this would enable you to keep up with
the conversation.  Another suggestion is to use the keyboard: if you can
touch type, it's a very fast input method.  I'm hoping that come end of the
year, there'll be a voice input Newt that could serve as a short duration
voice recorder.

5.  The latest Apple organiser is way too big for me too.  So don't buy the
Apple one!  There's lots of others.  The orginal Apple leather case is very
good (my opinion), and I wonder why they stopped making it?  *sigh*
There're websites that have a pretty good spread of opinions on cases for
the newt, among other things.  Sorry, don't have the url.

6.  Sounds like some kinda soup corruption.  Did you try any beta s/w?
One trashed the data on my newt and taught me a lesson.  I did a restore
and the Newt has been stable ever since.

Sometimes, on my PC a Word file will not even open and recently, an error
with a hpLJ driver and a customer's PC, which didn't make any sense turned
out to be a corrupt REG.DAT (registry) file on w311.
Heck, it's very easy to corrupt the registry file (corrupted fat, lost
clusters) and
in w95 this is require a reinstall of w95 and all the apps.
Does this make w311 or w95 immature in any way?

You're not reaaly trying to gun the newt are you?

-- 
Eugene Tan
INSIGHTS Innovatively Integrated
insights@pobox.org.sg


> 
> 1.  The screen emits a high pitched whine.  I called Apple about this. 
They said it was a known but unrepairable problem.  According to customer
service at Apple, the whine is caused by transistors in the display.  The
severity of the whine varies from unit to unit.  In some it is very severe
and people can't stand to use the machine and in others it is nearly quiet.
 Mine is pretty bad, but Apple will not REPAIR their product.
> 
> 2.  Connection software is nearly impossible to acquire.  It is my
understanding that Newton Connections for Windows 95 which would allow me
to dump my Notes pages into Microsoft Word is not yet ready.  Additionally,
the Spreadsheet software from Holosoft (Equate) was slipped again. 
> 
> In short:  If you want a PDA as a portable computing device:  Do not buy
the Newton if you expect to be able to link the PDA to your Windows-based
spreadsheet programs or your Windows-based word processors.
> 
> 3.  The handwriting recognition is faster than the old version but still
too slow to use in business meetings or for taking notes in an educational
environment.
> 
> 4.  While software is supposed to be readily available, I have had very
little luck at companies such as CompUSA, MicroAge, etc.  Most of the
"Computer Superstores" do not carry much if anything.
> 
> 5.  The Newton Executive Organizer I bought from an Apple Reseller in
Dallas is worthless.  It was obviously was designed by a bunch of technical
engineers with no regard for usability.  It holds my Newton and Cellular
phone quite well, but has insufficient pockets for credit cards, business
cards, airline tickets, paper, or pens.  (Despite having the Newton, one
needs traditional pen and paper once and a while -- e.g. giving a colleague
contact numbers.)  The system is not able to replace my Franklin Planner.
> 
> 6.  Every now and again, certain "To Do"s will start returning errors if
I try to edit them.  
> 
> SUMMARY
> 
> Apple has a nice concept, but they have failed to implement.  They tried
to produce an open system and to license software development to several
small companies.  In my experience I have been only frustrated by the
inability to execute by Apple and its licensees.  Lastly, Apple will not
stand behind its product (see #2).
>